DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(8)

But she wasn’t done.

“Is this really what you call an operative, Ash?” she asked, her voice low and dangerous as she looked past me—or through me—at Ash. “Do you know what he did? Do you know how he left my brother at the mercy of a group of thugs he knew were looking for trouble? Do you know how those thugs left my brother bloody, his skull smashed in with a rock, on the beach? How they left him—?”

“Enough!”

The room fell deadly silent. And I felt like the weight of it was square on my shoulders.

I’ve seen a lot in my life, in my service. Bodies torn apart by IEDs. Friends lying on the ground, bleeding from so many wounds I couldn’t figure out which one was the worst, which one I should be applying pressure to. Enemies torn apart through the eye of my scope. Whole families destroyed by explosives I set. I’ve seen a lot. But that night, the night we found Joshua there on the beach…that was the worst.

She had no idea how heavy the guilt of that night rested on me.

Ash was silent as Daniel, his face reddened with emotion, approached his daughter.

“Enough, Katie,” he said a little softer.

“Daddy, I can’t do this. I can’t have him be the one.”

“You can and you will,” Daniel said, steel in his voice, reminding me of the man I knew as a teenager. “You were found feet from a man who was murdered. Your life could be in danger. You need protection.”

“But not from him!”

“I want someone I know, someone I trust. And since I’m paying for this, it will be Donovan, like it or not.”

Kate’s eyes jumped from her father to me to Ash and back to her father. She opened her mouth to protest again, but she must have seen something in her father’s eyes that warned her not to. Then, at that moment, the door burst open and a woman I could only describe as eccentric sailed in the room.

She was maybe five feet tall with dark hair that had streaks of purple in it. She was as round as she was tall with prominent breasts that were clearly her favorite attribute because they were overly accentuated in the skintight, purple t-shirt she was wearing. And her hips were barely contained in a pair of black slacks that looked to be made out of leather, or suede maybe. Her feet were shoved into a dainty pair of purple pumps that appeared to give her no added height despite their three-inch heels. Her heavily painted face was animated as she began to talk, totally ignoring the tension that could be cut with a knife in the small room.

“I brought you some magazines and candy,” she was saying, “though I couldn’t find Vogue. Can you believe they wouldn’t have Vogue? Do they think the women in this hospital don’t have a fashion sense, or something? I mean, really, with the prices they charge…”

“Veronica,” Daniel said, a new strain in his voice.

Kate rolled her eyes and threw herself back against the thin pillow on her hospital bed as though this was the last straw and she couldn’t handle anything else.

It was almost comical.

The woman stopped, apparently noticing Ash and myself for the first time. There was an immediate transformation that came over her as she studied Ash. I’d seen it before, but usually in younger women who might actually have a chance of getting into his bed. This was almost pathetic.

“This is my wife,” Daniel said, almost stuttering over the word wife. “Veronica, this is Ashford Grayson and Donovan Pritchard from Gray Wolf Security.”

I have to admit, I was a little shocked that Daniel had remarried. I suppose it was always within the realm of possibility, but it was difficult to wrap my mind around it. Daniel and his wife had been like surrogate parents to me. I felt like a child whose divorced father remarried some complete stranger, someone as opposite from Mom as a person could possibly get.

I’d ask what Daniel had been thinking, but one look at Veronica and I could guess. Poor man must have been terribly lonely. I could almost relate.

Almost.

“Ashford,” she said, approaching Ash as she adjusted the handful of magazines she was carrying so that she could offer him her hand, “an unusual name.”

“It’s a family name,” he said, taking her fingers and sort of squeezing them before letting go.

Her smile faltered for a second, but then she turned to me, her eyes moving slowly over my t-shirt and jeans, making me wish I’d worn something a little more…layered? It was unnerving the way she seemed to be trying to see through my clothes. Was this the way a woman felt when a man imagined her undressed?

“And Donovan. Daniel’s talked about you, but he never mentioned how good looking you were.”

Kate snorted.

Veronica moved close, placing her hand on the center of my chest. “It’s always a joy to meet people my Daniel thinks highly of. He talks about you as though you were a surrogate son.”

I inclined my head, not quite sure how to take that. Thank God Kate’s doctor chose that moment to come into the room.

“Having a party, are we?” He smiled as he made his way to Kate’s side, people shifting to give him room. “How’s the headache?”

“The same.”

He nodded. “You’ll probably have a heck of a headache for several days. If it gets unbearable or you have vision changes, come back. Otherwise, follow up with your regular physician in three days.”