DONOVAN: A Standalone Romance (Gray Wolf Security) Read online

  “There’s not enough time to bring her back. The target gets released from the hospital in an hour.”

  Ash pushed me back a little, out of the center of the corridor, laying both hands heavily on my shoulders. “If you tell me you honestly cannot take this case, I will handle it myself.”

  And I knew he would. Ash would do whatever it took to protect his people. It was that military mentality, that inability to leave a single man behind. A part of me was willing to let him do it, but the idea of going back to the office—like a child afraid of the dark—didn’t sit well with me.

  “No, sir. I can do it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  Ash studied my face a moment longer, then he slapped my shoulder and nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s do this.”

  He pushed past me and led the way down the corridor again. I hesitated only a second before I rushed to catch up.

  Daniel was waiting out in the corridor when we turned the corner. He stepped forward immediately and held out his hand to Ash.

  “Mr. Grayson,” he said.

  “Mr. Thompson.”

  And then he turned his eyes on me, and I saw nothing but pleasure in them.

  “Donny,” he said with something like a sigh. “It’s so great to see you again.”

  He offered me a hug, and I accepted it, closing my eyes briefly as I remembered the last time I saw him. He’d hugged me then, too, but then he was sobbing like a child on my shoulder.

  He pushed me back and looked at me, assessing the entire length of me. Then he shook his head with something like disbelief.

  “You’re so grown up. The last time I saw you…” And then he choked a little, swallowing tears he didn’t want to shed. “I often wonder what Joshua would look like now.”

  “If we could focus on the case,” Ash broke in, much to my relief.

  Daniel stepped back, clearing his throat as he did.

  “We’re not real clear on what’s going on. All I know is that Kate was at the bank late. She does that a lot on Monday nights, clearing out the loan applications that come in on their website over the weekends. And then we get this call that there had been a shooting, and she was found unconscious at the site.”

  He glanced at me, and I could see what he was thinking. It was too much like the phone call he’d gotten ten years ago—on graduation night. The night Joshua was killed. The phone call I made.

  “Everyone assumed she’d been shot, but the doctors could only find a lump on the back of her head. They think someone hit her, or she fell. She has a concussion, but it’s fairly minor. Physically, they say she’ll be alright.”

  “But…?” Ash asked.

  “She has no memory of the last twenty-four hours. The doctors think it could either be a temporary side effect of the bump on her head, or it could be from the trauma of watching the security guard get shot.”

  “She doesn’t remember what happened?” I asked.

  “Not a thing. Her last memory is of getting out of the car at the bank yesterday morning.”

  “What about security cameras?”

  Daniel shrugged. “There are a couple at the front of the bank and a few along the side, but whatever happened, it happened down the block, in front of a closed storefront.” He shook his head. “The cops are confused, too. They really would like for her to remember what happened.”

  I glanced at Ash, but he already had his cell phone out.

  I touched Daniel’s arm. “I’m sure Rose or Ash has already explained to you what we do. We don’t investigate, we simply protect the client.”

  Daniel nodded. “I know.”

  “But we do have a relationship with a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. And she has close contact with the Santa Monica Police Department, so we can be kept appraised of the investigation and let you know when a suspect has been identified and arrested.” Relief filled Daniel’s eyes. “I’m sure you can imagine how concerned I am. After losing my Louise and then Joshua…if anything happened to Kate…”

  “I know.”

  “That’s why I asked for you specifically. I remember how close you and Joshua were. And you and Kate.”

  I nodded again as Ash joined us. He held up his phone so that I could see the screen.

  No surveillance footage. But working on several leads.

  It was from Detective Emily Warren.

  “If you gentlemen will excuse me,” Ash said, “I’ll go in and explain the process to Kate. And I have some paperwork I’ll need her to sign.”

  “Of course,” Daniel said. “Thank you, Mr. Grayson.”

  Ash glanced at me even as he was nodding to Daniel. His concern was typical. And appreciated.

  I nodded to assure him I was okay.

  I pulled Daniel across the corridor to a bench that was conveniently sitting there. Once we were settled, I found myself filled with more questions that I should not have had. It was none of my business to know how Kate was, how she’d been since the death of her brother. Her twin brother. I left because I didn’t want to know. I joined the Army the day they buried my best friend. I had no right to even be here.

  But there were things I needed to know.

  “You said this happened at her place of business?”

  “Kate is a loan officer at First Premiere Bank downtown.”

  “In order to protect her, I need to know her normal routine, the people she often spends time with, where she lives…that sort of thing.”

  Daniel nodded. “I made a list of her friends,” he said, reaching into his pants pocket for a slip of paper he handed me. “The cops wanted to know as well.”

  I glanced at it, recognizing a few of the names on a list that was about fifteen long. And experience told me that the target would par the list down and add a few names Mom and Dad didn’t know about. I even had one who struck every name off the list her father gave me and added a half dozen her father knew nothing about.

  “And her daily routine?”

  “Monday through Friday, she’s usually at the bank until five or six. Later sometimes, especially Mondays. And her evenings are either spent at home, at the house with me, or out with friends.”

  “The weekends?”

  Daniel shrugged. “Usually out with friends, I think.” He glanced at the closed door of Kate’s hospital room. “We go to the cemetery together some Sundays.”

  I nodded, looking down at the list again so I didn’t have to look this man in the eye.

  “She doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Daniel said. “They told me you would need to know that, too.”

  “Okay. That makes things simpler.”

  “Oh? How?”

  “A boyfriend would want to be involved. He’d want to have a role in protecting her.”

  Daniel snorted. “Her last boyfriend wouldn’t have. Guy was such a loser; he probably wouldn’t even be here now even if she called and begged him to come.”

  “Yeah?”

  “He was some hotshot with the bank. Didn’t like to pay for meals out, didn’t like to hang out at her place. Always wanted the opposite of what she wanted.” Daniel leaned close to me as if Kate could hear us. “Tell you the truth? I was glad to see the bastard go.”

  I smiled because I couldn’t help myself. But I also wondered how much of the ex-boyfriend’s behavior was based on Kate’s behavior. At eighteen, the girl had been a handful. Tortured the boys who liked her and pined after the ones who didn’t. Treated everyone like they were her subordinates and she their queen. Drove Joshua crazy. But again, I’d never seen a brother who gets along with his sister as well as Joshua did with Kate. I always put it down to the whole twin thing. He would laugh when I said that though. He thought I didn’t see the real Kate, the person she kept locked down deep inside. The one he adored unconditionally.

  If he only knew how hard I’d tried to find that Kate.

  “So I think that’s all I need,” I said, slapping my hands against my denim-covered legs. “As
h said they’re going to release her soon?”

  “Yeah, pretty soon.”

  Daniel grabbed my arm as I tried to stand.

  “Sit and talk a minute, Donovan,” he said with a sad smile. “It’s been so long.”

  I nodded, suddenly unable to look him in the eye.

  Daniel put his hand on my shoulder. “It was hard on everyone. But you especially, I think.”

  “He was your son.”

  “But he was your best friend. Had been since preschool.” Daniel laughed softly. “I think you spent more time at our place than you ever did your own.”

  And that was for good reason. My parents…let’s just say, they were more interested in their careers than they’d ever been in having a child. I often thought I was just an experiment that had gone horribly wrong. I think they were relieved when I went to school and found other things to fill my time rather than making demands on theirs.

  “I was sad when I heard you’d joined the Army. But I was also quite proud. And I think Joshua would have been, too.”

  That was the first time anyone had said they were proud of me for my choices. I stared at my hands where they were still resting on the tops of my thighs. My fingers were spread, and they looked so powerful. So capable. But it was these hands that weren’t able to stop what happened to Joshua that night. And it was these hands that stood in the corridor of this same hospital and waited to find out just how badly I’d let my friend down.

  I’d never expected the worst. Never thought I’d stand at the edge of his grave and watch as the funeral director pushed the button that would lower his coffin slowly into that hole they’d dug just for that purpose.

  We were eighteen. It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. We were supposed to have our whole lives ahead of us. But we didn’t.

  And I often thought it was the wrong boy whose life was spared that night.

  Chapter 3

  Kate

  My head was throbbing. I lay there, staring out the window at another clear, winter day, wondering who was taking over my loan applications and if they were throwing out the borderline credit risks instead of reading that person’s story the way I always did. It was all in the stories. But the other loan officers didn’t always agree.

  I’ve missed an entire day. The doctors say that I hit my head—which explains the headache—but that my memory of Monday will eventually return. They also tell me that I was involved in an attack on the bank, and that Joe, the security guard, was killed. That upset me. I liked Joe. He often offered to walk me to my car even though it was just on the other side of the building in the employee parking lot. And he always had a smile for me that often cheered me up when I was having a bad day.

  The police think I saw something. I told them that if I saw something, I would surely remember. But, just to be safe, my dad hired some security firm to watch over me—even after the police said it was likely unnecessary. The police were convinced it was simply a robbery attempt and that the perpetrators were long gone. But my dad tends to be a little overprotective.

  When the door opened, I just assumed it was my dad or one of the nurses who kept taking my temperature, as if I wouldn’t notice if I suddenly started running a fever. I didn’t look to see which it was. The traffic rushing by on the street outside the windows was a hell of a lot more fascinating. But then there was the sound of a very masculine creature clearing his throat.

  I turned, wincing a little as pain shot through my head, and beheld absolute perfection.

  He was tall, his shoulders as wide as his hips were narrow. He was wearing a pair of slacks that hugged thighs that were at least as wide as a tree trunk, and an oxford shirt that was untucked and open at the collar, exposing tan skin that was not terribly uncommon in this part of the country, but still a lovely contrast to the starched whiteness of that shirt. His hair was dark and cut short—not quite a crew cut but cut fairly close. And he had the most intense green eyes I thought I’d ever seen.

  “Please tell me you’re my bodyguard.”

  He smiled and a subtle dimple appeared in one cheek.

  Hell, if I could swoon…

  “I’m Ashford Grayson. I own Gray Wolf Security.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, waving for him to come a little closer. “If bodyguards all look like you, then it might be worth it to get in trouble.”

  Again that smile. But he didn’t come closer. He stood by the door, his eyes moving around the room in a slow, almost subtle, way that I almost missed. It took me a second to realize he was looking for any danger and identifying all the entrances and exits. I’d dated a Marine once who’d spent time over in Afghanistan. He did the same thing every time we entered a new building. However, I supposed the habit was actually useful to this guy, considering his line of work.

  “I just wanted to speak to you for a few minutes about the service my company provides.”

  “Okay,” I said, adjusting my body on the bed so that I could watch him a little more comfortably. I loved his voice, this deep, chocolatey tone that vibrated through my body. Only one other guy’s voice had ever done that to me, and he was long gone. One of those good riddance sort of things. But this guy…I wouldn’t mind spending a little time alone with him.

  “My operative will have to spend twenty-four seven with you until this case is resolved and we have confirmation that the threat has been neutralized. Therefore, when they release you from the hospital today, he will drive you home and remain at your home.”

  “Like move into my spare bedroom?”

  “Yes.”

  He watched me as he said that single word, waiting for me to object, I think. But I couldn’t think of a good reason to object if his operative looked anything like him.

  “We currently have a team at your house installing surveillance equipment so that we can keep tabs on the house and the area around it.”

  “Like cameras?”

  “Yes. But rest assured that none will be placed in sensitive areas.”

  “Such as my bedroom and bathroom?”

  “Such as your bathroom.”

  I sat up a little straighter, ignoring the pain in my skull. “You’re putting cameras in my bedroom? Where am I supposed to dress? Where am I supposed to go for some alone time?”

  “You’ll have to dress in the bathroom. And your ‘alone time’ will have to wait until this is resolved, which will, hopefully, be in a few days.”

  I shook my head. “It’s my house.”

  “Yes, ma’am. But it’s very likely you witnessed a man being murdered last night. And the perpetrator will more than likely not be aware that you’ve lost all memory of the event.” He looked me full in the eye, an intense stare that frightened me despite my determination not to let any of this scare me. “It is very probable that he will not want you to identify him to police.”

  “So that means you get to invade my house and watch my every move?”

  “We’ll be watching for intruders, Miss Thompson. The rest of the footage will be disregarded and destroyed when the case is over.”

  I didn’t like that idea. Didn’t like any of it. It was an invasion of my privacy. And privacy was what I liked most about owning my own house.

  He waited, watching the emotion rush over my face. There was something about his gaze that left me feeling invaded already. As though he could see right through me to what I was thinking. It was a little unnerving.

  I waved at him, encouraging him to continue.

  “Our operative, and occasionally other members of our team, will accompany you to work each day, to any meetings you must attend, and any social gatherings you cannot get out of. However, while we are protecting you, it would make the process simpler if you could restrict your comings and goings to home and work.”

  “I have to give up my social life for this?”

  “It would be easier to protect you that way, yes.”

  “No.”

  “Excuse me?”

  He seemed shocked, like
no one had ever said no to him before. Well, he was about to get a shock, wasn’t he?

  “I won’t cancel my plans just because my dad hired a bunch of ex-military goons to follow me around.”

  “Miss Thompson—”

  “My name is Kate. If you’re going to be watching my every movement over the next few days, we should be on a first name basis.” Again something danced in his eyes that suggested he was a man who was used to getting his way. “Your name is Ashford?”

  He hesitated, but then he inclined his head. “Ash.”

  “Ash?” I let my eyes move down the length of him. I think he actually blushed as my eyes lingered here and there—those guns were definitely impressive!—especially when I went back for a second look. “Well, Ash,” I said, dragging out the single syllable of his name, “there is a party on Friday night to celebrate my bank manager’s retirement. I helped set everything up, so I’m not missing it, even for this.”

  “I’m sure the bank will cancel the event.”

  “I doubt it.”

  I almost laughed when his eyebrows rose so high that he looked a little like Phyllis Diller.

  “Bankers are ruthless people, Ash. I doubt they’d care enough about a security guard that they’d cancel one of the biggest parties they’ve thrown in six months. These events are a great way to woo new customers, especially those types of customers who have six figure balances all year long, if you know what I mean. They’ll still have the event.”

  He studied me for a minute, as if he was struggling to decide what to do. Then he inclined his head again.

  “Then we’ll need to know where the event will take place, see a guest list—”

  “I can do that.”

  “And you’ll have to take my operative as your date.”

  I wanted to protest, but the truth was, I didn’t have a date to the party. And it would be a real coup to walk in with a strange man that all the other women in the bank haven’t already gotten their claws into. I could just imagine their faces when I walked through the doors with a good-looking man none of them could touch. And if Ash’s operative looked anything like him…

  “Okay,” I said, making a gesture like I was giving him a huge advantage, “I’ll concede that much.”