Safe from Harm (Protect & Serve #2)(23)
Elle now understood perfectly. Of all the Dawson brothers, Tom was the most humble—almost to a fault. Isabel was absolutely correct that he didn’t give himself enough credit. But that still didn’t quite explain Tom’s reaction to the woman. Elle couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the story.
Fortunately for Tom, Isabel’s cell phone beeped, distracting her. She took the phone from the clip at her waist and checked the screen. “Sorry, have to get to surgery. It was great seeing you both again!”
Tom mumbled something indistinguishable, then turned and headed for the nearest exit.
“What was that all about?” Elle asked, glad to turn the conversation away from Tom’s inquisitiveness and distract him from asking her any additional questions.
“I told you, it’s not important,” Tom said. “She’s exaggerating.”
Elle laughed. “Liar. What happened?”
He sent an irritated look her way. “A few years ago, a woman and her daughter were brought in with severe injuries. They’d been beaten by the woman’s boyfriend. The girl was in a coma and wasn’t expected to make it. The woman had internal bleeding and required emergency surgery. I was called in to investigate and get a statement from Isa, who’d been the surgeon working on the wife, when the guy burst in and went apeshit. He shot two security guards and took Isa hostage, demanding access to his wife or he’d kill the doctor. I managed to negotiate her release and apprehend the suspect.”
“I remember that story!” Elle said, now understanding why the doctor’s name had sounded familiar. They lived in a largely rural county comprised of several small towns and cities, but violence and crime weren’t just problems for the big city. If they were, Elle wouldn’t have had a job. Meth houses were popping up in suburbia all over the country; drugs were a growing problem, regardless of socioeconomics. And domestic violence certainly knew no boundaries. Elle had counseled women from all walks of life who’d been the victims of violence. “He received the maximum sentence, if I’m not mistaken.”
Tom fished his keys from his pocket as they stepped out into the summer sunshine and headed toward his Tahoe. “Unfortunately, that won’t bring back his victims. The girl died two days later and her mother only hung in there for a while longer.”
“And that’s it with Dr. Morales?” Elle prompted, studying Tom’s closed-off expression. “Or is there more to the story?”
He shrugged. “We had coffee a couple of times.”
“When?” Elle asked.
He cleared his throat. “In the months after the incident.”
Elle’s stomach sank. “You cheated on your wife?”
“God no!” he practically shouted. “I’d never do that. We just chatted over coffee a couple of times during the investigation. That’s all it was. But I could talk to Isa about things I couldn’t talk to Carly about. That was a wake-up call about my marriage, so I decided to really focus on what was important and fix what was broken between Carly and me. She was everything to me, Elle. It was killing me that we were falling apart.”
“I’m sorry, Tom,” Elle said, suddenly feeling like an insensitive bitch for pressing him. “It’s none of my business.”
He shook his head as he opened her door for her. “It’s okay. I just wish Carly and I had been able to work things out before…”
Elle grasped the edge of the door. “Before she was killed.”
He sighed and briefly massaged the back of his neck. “Apparently, she’d been planning to leave me, Elle. I was served with divorce papers two days after her death. Losing her was devastating enough, but finding out she hadn’t been in love with me anymore when I’d been trying so hard to fix things…”
Elle gave Tom a sympathetic look. “Then what’s the harm in spending a little time with a certain doctor who clearly has a crush on you? It’s been three years, Tom.”
He looked down, avoiding her gaze, waiting for her to get in so he could close her door. Obviously, he had said all he was going to on the matter. Taking the hint, Elle climbed inside and turned her thoughts back to what had nearly happened in the hospital room with Gabe—and began to feel like a complete hypocrite. Here she was, urging Tom to take advantage of a little companionship to stave off the loneliness, and yet she was fighting the sexual tension between her and Gabe at every turn.
But she shook her head, pushing away that kind of rationalizing. No, it was better if she and Gabe kept things completely professional, completely platonic. Any other possibility, as enticing as it might be—as enticing as she knew from experience it would be—wasn’t an option.
Chapter 7
“You okay?”
Gabe hobbled toward his living room on his crutches, taking a moment to navigate between the brown leather recliner and end table to get to his comfy-as-hell overstuffed couch before answering his brother. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Joe followed him into the room, hovering and fussing like a goddamned mother hen, plumping pillows, lining up all the remotes on the coffee table so they’d be within easy reach. It was driving Gabe fucking crazy. All he wanted to do was just stretch out on the couch and doze off while watching ESPN, but his younger brother had insisted on hanging out with him on his first day back home.