Close To Danger (Westen #4)(55)

Janowski leaned back against the wall. “Army Rangers Special Forces. Wes was First Sergeant of our squad. I was the medic.”

“How long did you serve together?”

“In the Rangers? ’Til our first tour was through, so four years.”

Something in the way he asked the question in his answer set off her curiosity bell. “Where else did you serve together?”

Janowski grinned at her. “Told the Chief you were one smart surgeon, Doc. After that tour was done in Afghanistan, we joined a team with Homeland. Dark Ops.”

Now he really had her curiosity going. “Homeland? As in Homeland Security? Dark Ops as in…?”

“Yes. Homeland Security. Dark Ops as in extractions.” His face had gone serious. Deadly serious. “No more questions on either subject, Doc. I can’t answer them.”

Okay. Off limits, she got it. Time to change the subject.

“So, Bulldog, huh?”

He gave a little shrug. “What can I say? I’m as tenacious as a bulldog.”

Silence filled the space between them. Dylan could feel the adrenaline seeping from her body. She curled into the corner of the sofa and pulled the afghan she and Chloe found at a craft fair a few years ago over her. The police better hurry or she’d be snoring soundly when they arrived.

“So, do you think they’re sleeping together?” she asked between yawns.

“Depends,” Bulldog—that was now how she’d always think of him—said.

“On what?”

Slumped down to the floor in front of the door, his legs extended in front of him, Bulldog looked relaxed, but Dylan wasn’t fooled. Anyone coming through that door that wasn’t law enforcement, would find themselves in a heap of trouble.

“Does your sister look like you?” he asked.

“We’re about the same height, same build, but she’s got short spikey brown hair. So dark it’s almost black.”

He whistled. “She’s a lawyer, so I assume she’s smart and sassy?”

Dylan grinned. “Told you, she argues for a living.”

“Beautiful, smart and sassy. That’s a combination hard for a straight man to ignore. Chief is no fool, so yeah, I’d say they’re sleeping together.”

“He’d better not break my sister’s heart.” She murmured, letting her eyes close. “My sister and brother-in-law won’t like him putting her in danger.”

Bulldog watched the sexy surgeon drift off to sleep. Too damn bad he wasn’t in to women. He envied the Chief. If the sister was anything like the doc, she’d be worth getting caught up in something dangerous.



*



Wes hit the off button on his phone with one hand and pulled Chloe tight into his body with the other. He tossed the phone onto the counter and wrapped both arms around her shaking body. Moisture touched his neck and collarbone where she snuggled against him.

Tears.

For the first time since all this started, Chloe was crying. All that had already happened to her, the stress, the frustration, the anger, none of it had brought her to tears. It took someone trashing her home to do that.

Carefully, he maneuvered her back to the couch and eased her down beside him, never losing his hold on her. A dark need to find and destroy the person tormenting her filled his chest. Like a warrior of old, he protected what was his.

His.

Whoa. Where the hell had that thought come from? Chloe wasn’t the woman for him. She was too tightly wound. Too sophisticated. Too smart. Too sassy. Too sexy.

And he’d never been more comfortable with or entertained by a woman. Holding her this close, his cock tightened with the idea of taking her back to bed. Quickly, he put a kibosh on that idea. The woman had a right to grieve, she had a need to grieve and he intended to let her do just that, no matter how much he ached to go all caveman and claim her as his. When this was all over, there would be time for that.

As her trembling slowed, he rubbed his hand up and down her back. The first hiccup-gulp hit her and he couldn’t help pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“I know…it’s silly.” She hiccup-gulped again. “They’re just…things. They can be replaced.”

He smiled against her head. “I’ll be happy to help you replace all your lingerie.”

This time she giggled. “I bet you would.”

“Although, I confess I have a fondness for that red bra and panty set you wore under the bridesmaid dress.”

She laughed and laid her hand on his chest, then pulled back to look at him, her beautiful eyes red and a little redness filled her cheeks and covered her nose. “I’ve soaked your shirt.”

“It will dry,” he said, reaching up to wipe a stray tear from her cheek.

“I can’t believe I broke down like that. I never cry.”

“I know.”

“No. Really. I think the last time I really cried was at my parent’s funeral. And it’s not really the things in my apartment being destroyed. It’s just…” she let the words drift off, biting her lip in an effort to stop the tears from starting again. Her courage impressed him and broke his heart for her at the same time.

“The invasion of your privacy and the threat to your freedom,” he finished for her.

“Yes.” She pulled back and the color had returned to her cheeks. No longer feeling sorry for herself, he could see the sparks of anger in her dark eyes. “How dare someone think they can just come into my home? My home. It was the first place I ever bought by myself. Bobby and Dylan helped me pick out the furniture and decorate it as a graduation from law school present. Now some asshole has destroyed it.”