could at least form a complete sentence. “Look, I arrived here still reeling from what I’d been through over in Afghanistan. I saw all of this happening in front of my eyes, and I was concerned. Drug runners don’t mess around.”
She still wasn’t happy with him. With a dark frown, she stopped the squad car near the curb and motioned to the Desert Rose. “Go in and get yourself a room. I might need to question you again when I go back over my report, but right now I have to go.”
She glanced to Hunter behind a wired screen in the backseat, habitually checking on her partner. “At least we got a good look at their faces.” Giving him another serious stare, she added, “I’ll be in touch. Take care.”
“You take care, too.” David saw a flicker of concern pass through her eyes. “Look, if you’re worried about those guys—”
“I’m not.” Another blue-eyed glare. “I’d like to haul them in, but to do that, I have to go back over everything, including your part in this.”
Did she think he was part of this? Surely not.
Her next words confirmed that she didn’t. “If they see you hanging around, you’ll be on their radar. So be careful.”
“Same to you. They saw you. Up close.” He couldn’t stop thinking about that. “What if they come after you?”
“Hunter lives with me. He’ll alert.”
“And you feel comfortable with that?”
“Yes, I do.” She sighed and brushed at the hair escaping her ponytail. “Look, I appreciate your warnings, but...this is my job. I’ve trained for this, and I worked hard to become a K9 officer. I’ll be okay. You watch your back, all right?”
“Always.” He got out but turned and leaned back into the vehicle. She obviously wasn’t ready to listen to reason. And in spite of his misgivings, he wasn’t quite ready to blurt out the truth to her. “Thanks for your help today. I’m sorry I overstepped my bounds.”
“Relax,” she said. “You just got back from what had to be a lot of trauma. It’s natural you’d overreact.” Then her expression softened. “You remind me of my brother. He was always protective of me.”
David’s heart did a little lurch. He wanted to tell her that he’d known her brother. But not yet. Not after such a bad start.
He swallowed and looked over at her while he tried to hold it all together. “He sounds like a good brother.”
“He was.” She looked up and right into David’s eyes. “He was army—in Afghanistan. He died over there last year.”
“I’m sorry.” David stood there, wanting to comfort her, understanding her brother’s need to take care of her. She was strong and tough, but David saw that essence of vulnerability in her pretty eyes and let go of his courage yet again. “We lost a lot of good soldiers. I’m sorry I couldn’t save all of them.”
I’m sorry I couldn’t save your brother.
Compassion filled her eyes. “I’m sure you tried. You’re one of the heroes, David. But you’re home now, so take care of yourself.”
David decided he had to tell her the truth soon. She’d be angry at him all over again, but he thought she was the kind of woman who’d respect the truth.
He took a deep breath. “Hey, listen, I—”
Whitney gave him a distracted, impatient stare. Then she blinked and stared at the clock on the console. “I’m sorry, but it’s late and I’ve gotta go.”
David shut the door and watched as she sped off along Desert Valley Drive. She couldn’t get away from him fast enough. Or maybe she couldn’t get away from the emotions he evoked in her. Too many bad memories. That was what he carried around, too.
How would she react when she found out he’d promised her brother he’d come here to see her? How could he keep her safe when she was so bent on taking care of herself?
It had to be done. He needed to let Whitney know that he’d tried to save Lucas. And that he’d promised Lucas he’d do this. Tomorrow, once he was settled and acclimated to his surroundings, he’d find her and talk to her.
He wasn’t going anywhere for a few weeks at least. She’d get used to having him around. And he’d find a way to tell her exactly why he was here.
David went inside the quaint inn, the chill of the dusk chasing him and the memory of Whitney cornered with a dangerous criminal still front and center in his mind.
“Well, you look plumb whipped,” the petite gray-haired woman behind the counter said with a smile, her plump hands splayed across the old wood. “I’m Rosa. How can I help you?”
David explained that he needed a room for an indefinite time. “And where can I rent a car?”
The woman laughed at that, her pink bifocals slipping down on her nose. “Not around here, dear. But...I have a loaner you can use. All I ask is that you gas her up and keep her running smoothly.”
David couldn’t argue with that. “Deal.”
* * *
Whitney pulled up to the small stucco house she rented from the Carters next door. When she’d first signed up for training last year, she’d stayed in the dorm-like condos next to the K9 Training Center. She’d met Shelby’s father there, Brian Miller. Whitney had been a rookie in every way, naive and eager to fit in. When the handsome, charming fellow rookie had started flirting with her in spite of the no-fraternizing policy, she’d fallen hard.
Brian hadn’t lived in the dorms, but he’d hung out there a lot. He’d had his own house between Desert Valley and another small town, about ten miles from the training center. He’d told her he preferred to live in his own place since he had a part-time job as a night watchman at a strip mall.
But she understood now, Brian had a house because he liked to take women there, where it was private and secluded. And apparently, he’d taken a lot of women there.
Brian had lied to her and cheated on her, even on the night before the police dance when she’d planned to tell him she was carrying his child. But then Brian had never made it to the dance. He’d died in a fire at his house about an hour before the dance started. Then, about two weeks later, her brother, Lucas, had been killed in Afghanistan.
Now Shelby would never know her daddy or her uncle. Whitney often wondered if Brian would have been happy to hear about the baby. Or would he have turned away from her?
She had no doubt Lucas would have loved Shelby, but he also would have made it his mission to come home and help Whitney out. She’d withheld telling him, and she’d paid dearly for that, too.
What did it matter now? Brian and her brother had both died too young. She knew how her brother had died. But she still didn’t understand why or how Brian had died. Until lately, no one in the department had wanted to listen to the one theory that she couldn’t shake. Had Brian been murdered?
Whitney glanced around, blinking. Night had settled in and with it, a desert chill. Every time she remembered Brian, the tug of a bittersweet struggle warred inside her soul. She’d loved him immediately. And he’d taken advantage of her completely. Now she had a beautiful baby girl and...because of Shelby, Whitney had turned her life around. She wanted to be worthy in her daughter’s eyes, so she’d dedicated her life to Christ and made a pledge to be very careful regarding men. But even after all the pain of Brian’s betrayal, Whitney still had concerns about how Brian had died.
In a house fire, supposedly from a burning candle.
His entire family had died in a horrible fire caused by a lit candle when he was a teenager. He’d been the only survivor. So Brian never lit candles in his house.