Natural-Born Protector / Saved by the Monarch (14 page)

He moved to the next window and cursed inwardly as the tightly drawn blind prevented him from seeing in. Where was she? Another rumble of thunder boomed overhead, but it sounded no louder than his beating heart.

When he looked into the next window his heart stopped. She was there—and as he watched, a man he’d never seen before rushed her with a knife.

He heard her scream as he launched himself at the window. He didn’t feel the slashing glass as he broke through. He landed on the floor inside, pulled his gun and stood at the same time.

Melody was on the ground, her eyes closed as blood oozed from a wound in her chest to darken her yellow T-shirt. Hank faced the man with the knife, rage cascading red before his eyes. His fingers itched to pull the trigger. God, he wanted the man dead.

Emotions ripped through him. Was Melody dead? “Put the knife down before I put a bullet through your heart,” he said.

“It wasn’t my deal,” the man said quickly, his eyes frantically searching for an escape route. “It was Fred. He made me do it.”

Hank kept the gun trained on him while he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “Zack, I need you out at the Morrison place. Melody has been stabbed and I just shot a man.” He clicked off the phone as the man’s eyes widened.

“Hey, wait!” he said just before Hank pulled the trigger.

The bullet struck him mid-thigh, and with a squeal of
pain he fell to the ground and writhed in pain. Hank rushed to Melody’s side while keeping an eye out for Fred.

“Melody? Melody, open your eyes, honey.” He used one hand to check her pulse. It was there, but reedy and thin. And the blood on her chest had spread in a frightening pattern on her blouse.

He put pressure on her wound, trying to stop the bleeding, gun still held in one hand. As the man on the floor screamed in pain, Hank prayed for Zack to get here in time to save Melody’s life.

“
Y
ou have to wake up,” Lainie said, her voice a sweet familiar sound. “Melody, you have to wake up now.”

“But I don’t want to leave you,” Melody said.

Lainie smiled, that loving gesture that put a sparkle in her eyes and warmed Melody’s heart. “I don’t need you anymore, Melody. I’m not afraid. But more important, you don’t need me anymore.”

Melody stared at the sister who had been such an integral part of her life since the day she’d been born. “I don’t?” she asked softly.

Lainie nodded. “You’re strong, Melody. So much stronger than you think. You’re going to be just fine without me. All you need to do is let me go.”

“But I’ll miss you,” Melody protested.

Again Lainie smiled and touched her sister’s cheek
with a soft, feathery hand. “And you’ll remember me often, with laughter and joy. Kiss Maddie for me. And now, take a deep breath and open your eyes, Melody. Open your eyes.”

Her eyes opened and she realized she was in a hospital bed. She frowned in confusion, for a moment her mind pulling a blank as she tried to remember what had brought her here. It was night. She could tell by the hush in the hallway although the lights in her room were on.

She turned her head slightly toward the window and saw Hank. He was asleep in the chair, his handsome features lined with strain and marred by tiny cuts.

Fred. Memory slammed into her and she drew a deep breath, instantly moaning as a sharp pain pierced through her center.

Hank was instantly at her side and took one of her hands in his. “Don’t try to sit up,” he said. “You have stitches in your side.”

“Mike?” she asked.

Hank’s eyes transformed from warm and caring to something cold and hard. “If that’s the man who stabbed you, then he’s in a hospital room down the hall. I had the distinct pleasure of shooting him in the leg.”

“What about Fred? He killed her, Hank. He killed Lainie and then he lured me to his house so he could kill me, too.”

He squeezed her hand. “Fred is now in Zack’s custody and he’ll never be a free man again.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to process everything that had happened. She opened her eyes and
looked at him once again. “What were you doing at Fred’s? How did you know I was in trouble?”

“Maddie. Fred’s picture was in the morning paper for some grand opening of a mall. Maddie told me she’d seen him going into Lainie’s one night, and I knew you’d told me that Fred had told you he’d never been to Lainie’s. The inconsistency made me nervous.”

“Thank goodness. If you hadn’t gotten nervous, I wouldn’t be here right now.” She shifted positions on the bed and winced with pain. “Am I going to live?”

He smiled and, in the warmth of that smile, she knew she was going to be fine. “You lost a lot of blood and you have ten stitches where Mike stabbed you, but he managed to miss anything vital.”

She nodded. She must have fallen asleep, for when she opened her eyes again, morning sunshine poured through the windows and her mother was in a chair next to her bed.

“Mom.” Tears sprang to Melody’s eyes as she thought of how devastated her mother must be.

Rita leaned forward and gripped her hand tightly, tears in her eyes as well. “Oh, Melody, thank God you’re okay.” Rita’s tears splashed onto her cheeks. “I thought I’d lost you, too.”

“I’m fine, Mom. Please don’t cry.” Melody knew her mother had plenty to cry about. A daughter who’d been murdered, another daughter nearly suffering the same fate and the man she loved responsible for the ugly betrayal. “I know you feel like you’ve lost everything,” Melody began. “I know you’d planned to live out the rest of your life with Fred.”

Rita’s eyes flashed and the tears vanished instantly. “I hope he rots in prison,” she said with a venom Melody had never heard before. “If they decide to electrocute him, I’ll volunteer to throw the switch.”

“Mom!”

Rita sat back in her chair and drew a deep breath. “Fred had been pressuring me to marry him for years but something always held me back.” She frowned thoughtfully. “It wasn’t just Lainie or you or anything I can put my finger on. It was just something inside me that refused to agree to have him as my husband. I knew he was ruthless in his business practices, and that bothered me, but he was kind to me. Now when I think about it, my skin tries to crawl right off my body.”

Melody knew that feeling well as she thought of the way James O’Donnell had looked at her. “But you’re alone now,” Melody said softly.

“Nonsense, I’ve never been alone. I have you and I have my friends. I have my memories. I have me. I’ll be fine.” She smiled and patted Melody’s hand. “All I want right now is for you to heal and have a wonderful life…for me…for Lainie.”

Melody realized that she’d underestimated her mother’s strength. It had been Fred who had always told her that her mother was too upset to deal with Lainie. It had been Fred who had perpetrated the myth that Rita was weak and needed him to take care of her.

“She’s at peace now, Mom. And so am I,” Melody said softly.

“I’m glad.” Rita stood and leaned over to kiss Melody on the forehead, the gesture evoking a hundred memories
of similar kisses from Melody’s childhood. “Zack has been waiting for some time to question you. Do you feel up to seeing him now?”

Melody nodded and within minutes her mother was gone and she was reliving the nightmare for Zack. It was still hard to believe that Fred had been so afraid that Lainie would get pregnant, he’d killed her. That wasn’t love; that was sickness. James O’Donnell was a gardenvariety creep, but Fred had been something much worse, something evil.

Zack finally had all the information he needed and left.

She was alive. The bad guys were where they belonged and she’d only told a little white lie to her mother when she’d said she was at peace. Her stab wound would heal, but it would take much longer for her heart to scar over.

She was the one who had set the rules, a simple summer fling. But in a matter of weeks, her feelings for Hank had spiraled out of her control.

“I brought you flowers.” Maddie danced into the hospital room clutching a vase with an arrangement of colorful blossoms. Hank followed just behind her, and at the sight of the two of them Melody’s love welled up inside her, making speech impossible.

Maddie set the vase on the table next to the bed, then leaned over and placed a hand on Melody’s cheek, her gaze mournful. “Daddy told me a bad man hurt you. Sometimes when I have a tummy ache, Daddy kisses me and it makes me feel better.” She leaned forward and planted a slightly sloppy kiss on Melody’s cheek. “There, does that feel better?”

“Definitely,” Melody replied.

“Daddy says I can only stay a minute because you’re supposed to be twelve to be on this floor. We sneaked me in. Grandma’s waiting to take me home.”

“I’m so glad you came because I was lying here right before you came in and thinking that what I needed more than anything else in the world was a kiss from Maddie,” Melody exclaimed.

Maddie smiled. “I don’t think that’s really what you were thinking but I love you for telling me that.”

“You’d better go with Grandma now,” Hank said. “I need to have a grown-up talk with Melody.”

Melody blew the little girl a kiss as Susan stuck her head in the door. She waved, and then the two of them disappeared. Hank moved to sit in the chair Rita had vacated earlier.

“How are you really doing?” he asked.

“I’m sore, but I’m feeling better, stronger today. Has anyone told you when I can get out of here?”

Hank shook his head. “I imagine the doctor will be in to speak to you sometime this afternoon.”

“I’d like to leave as soon as possible.” This was the first time they’d talked since their argument, when hurtful words had been flung back and forth. “Hank, I owe you an apology,” she said.

He frowned in confusion. “For what?”

“The last time we spoke I was way out of line. I said things that I had no business saying to you.”

“And thank God you did,” he said. “Oh, I’ll admit, at first I was puffed up with self-righteous anger.” He smiled. “As I’m sure you were by the things I said to
you. But a crazy thing happened in the last couple of days. I started doing a lot of thinking, something I haven’t done much of over the last couple of years.”

He stood and walked to the window, where he peered outside. With her gaze, she caressed the broad strength of his back, the long leanness of his legs.

He and his daughter had crashed into her life with a force that had been impossible to resist. Just looking at him standing there she felt the magic, that tingle of pleasure in the pit of her stomach, that wave of sweet possibility that soared in her heart.

“You were right, you know.” He turned back to look at her but didn’t come any closer. “I’m a rancher at heart. When Rebecca died I turned my back on everything good. It felt obscene for me to be happy in any way with her gone. So, I sold the ranch, distanced myself from my daughter and swore that I’d never really be happy again. I took the job as bodyguard because I didn’t care about my life, because deep down inside I was on a road to self-destruction.” He laughed and shook his head. “I can see it all so clearly now, and I couldn’t see it at all before you yelled at me.”

He walked back across the room and sat once again in the chair at her side. “I called Dalton this morning, told him I’m out of the bodyguard business.”

“Hank, I’m so glad,” she said. If her only role in his life was that of a wake-up call that would bring happiness to both him and Maddie, then she supposed she could live with that.

“I’m going to buy another ranch, become the cowboy my daughter has missed. You gave me my life back,
Melody, and I’ll never be able to thank you enough for it.” His eyes glowed and she forced a smile to her lips while her heart cried out with her love for him.

“I’m glad, Hank. You and Maddie deserve all the happiness in the world.”

“You know, I thought I was a bodyguard in training, but in truth I was a man in training and I think with your help, I’ve graduated.”

At that moment Dr. Fedor walked in. “Ah, you look much better today than you did the last time I checked on you,” he said to Melody. “Hank, if you’ll just step outside, I need to check my handiwork.”

“I’ll talk to you later,” Hank said and disappeared out the door.

Dr. Fedor pulled back the sheet and kept up a running stream of friendly chatter as he gently removed the bandage across her wound.

“Things look good,” he said. “You’re going to have a scar, but it shouldn’t be too bad and will certainly fade with time.”

“That’s good,” Melody said and burst into tears.

“Did I hurt you?” Dr. Fedor asked worriedly.

She shook her head as the sobs continued. “I’m fine,” she managed to say. “I’m just overly emotional.”

Dr. Fedor hurriedly covered her back up again. “It’s no wonder you’re feeling weepy. You’ve been through quite an ordeal. Do you need a tranquilizer? Something to calm you down?”

“No, no, I’ll be fine,” she replied. There was no point in correcting him. There was no reason to tell him that having a man almost kill her wasn’t why she was crying.
She was crying because Hank and Maddie were going to have a wonderful life. She was crying because that wonderful life didn’t include her.

Hank stood at the window of his unit, watching as Melody got out of her mother’s car. He hadn’t been back to the hospital since the day before when they’d been interrupted by the doctor. He’d hoped that she’d call him if she was released from the hospital and needed a ride home, but obviously she’d called her mother.

It was finally over. Lainie’s murder had been solved and now Melody would be making plans to get back to her life in Chicago. He would always be grateful to her. She’d given him back his life, but the emptiness that ached in him as he thought of her being gone had nothing to do with gratefulness.

Within minutes Rita reappeared, got into her car and took off. Hank frowned. Surely she hadn’t left her daughter, fresh out of the hospital, alone in a town house that had few amenities? But it looked like that’s exactly what she’d done.

Dammit, why hadn’t she gone home with her mother? She needed care and attention. She could be so stubborn! Even though he told himself it was none of his business, that
she
was none of his business anymore, he found himself stalking down the hallway to Lainie’s front door.

He didn’t knock, nor was the door locked. He walked inside and called her name. “Back here,” she called from the bedroom.

She sat on the side of the twin bed in the guest room
and she smiled as he appeared in the doorway. He didn’t return the gesture. “What in the hell are you doing back here?” he asked. He didn’t give her an opportunity to answer. “You need to be someplace where somebody can take care of you.”

“I’ve taken care of myself just fine all my life,” she replied.

“You have stitches, and you still have bruised ribs. You shouldn’t be here alone. What was your mother thinking, just dropping you off and driving away?” He stared at her in frustration, knowing she was probably going to fire back at him with both barrels. Instead she laughed, then winced, then laughed again.

“I think what Mom was thinking was that she’d go pick up the prescriptions that are waiting for me at the drugstore while I gathered my things up here so I could go back home with her.”

Hank stepped back, feeling like a total fool. And in that moment, he knew what emotion had caused him to stomp over here, recognized what he’d known deep inside for a while. He loved Melody Thompson.

The realization struck him like a blow to the gut and brought with it an incredible sense of joy and a fierce pang of pain. He loved her, and soon she would be gone.

“Are you all right?” she asked, pulling him from his tortured thoughts.

“Yeah…no. No, I’m not all right. I’m scared,” he said in a low voice. He’d never confessed to being scared about anything to anyone before.

She got up from the bed, her eyes the glorious blue that pierced his heart. “Scared? Scared of what?”

He gazed at her, seeing the tender concern on her features, remembering not only making love with her, but laughing with her and talking about things that mattered and things that didn’t.