Hard Irish (8 page)

“Fine.  I’ll get checked. My brother’s a doctor, so save the ambulance for someone having a heart attack.  I can drive myself.”

“Wrong.  If anything, I’ll be taking you.”  She set her hand on his chest as if to settle the issue.

Jared slid his hand over hers and lowered his voice.  “It isn’t me you need to worry about.”

Her clover eyes widened and her pupils darkened with desire before she slid her hand away.  “What do you mean?”

Jared took heart.  She was just as responsive to his touch as his kiss.  “You need a bodyguard.  That planter had help finding its way to the ground.  I heard a scrape just before it fell.”

He sucked in another breath and shivered. 
Dear God.  What would have happened to her if he hadn’t shown up
?

The men cursed and Roxanne raised a brow.  “Mack, go check out where this sucker came from and find out from Maggie who’s on today’s work list for that area.”

“Yes, ma’am.”  Mack hurried off.

“I heard this place was haunted,” Riley muttered, looking around as if a knife was inches from his throat.

Roxanne rolled her eyes. “You men have been muttering about ghosts and curses all day.  It’s all nonsense, Riley.  Now make yourself useful.  Bring the first aid kit and move my truck as close to this side of the building as you can.”

Riley walked away with a frown.

Jared shook his head.  “No truck.  I don’t need you to take me—”

“You don’t get to decide.  Around here, I’m the boss.  Your job is to listen and comply unless you’ve got a damn good reason not to.  Then I’m all ears.”

Jared’s jaw dropped a moment before he could snap it shut.  Roxanne McKenna ran a tight-assed ship and didn’t put up with shit.  Hell, if he heard right, she even had lists delineating who was to be where when.

“Right now.  We need to focus on getting your boot off before your foot becomes too swollen to get it off.  That’s one experience you do not want to go through. I know.”

“Okay.” Jared leaned up on his elbows to watch her unlace his boot.  He was surprised to see how bent the boot was.  As if the metal support had buckled.  Her movements were gentle and precise.  She seemed to know what she was doing, and Jared found himself relaxing and letting her take charge.  Since she was determined to have him checked out, he might as well enjoy the ride.  And in all honestly, he didn’t have a good reason why she shouldn’t accompany him.

In fact, there were several damn good reasons why she should, besides the bonus of getting to spend some alone time with her.  If she was with him then no more planters could mysteriously fall and no asshole ex could abuse her.

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that she needed to take his bodyguard comment seriously.  He would call Jesse at Sheridan-Weldon Solutions ASAP to see about doing just that.

Something sinister was up.  It was likely rooted in her ex’s rage.  The man didn’t necessarily have to be on the jobsite to be behind the planter incident.  The man had worked for the company for a number of years and odds that one of the crew might be more loyal to the ex than to their current lady boss were good.

Roxanne completely removed the lace from his boot then eased the tongue as loose as possible.

“Wiggle your toes and tell me what you feel.”

“My sock.”  He winced.  A wet one at that.  She was about to get a face full of work-boot BO. 

“No time for smart ass remarks.”

“If you’re asking if I can move my toes then the answer is yes.  If you’re asking if it feels good, the answer is no.  I don’t think they’re broken though.”

“Good.  I’m going to pull now.  Let me know if I need to stop.”  She inched his boot off.  It was already much tighter than usual.  The pain shooting up his leg had him fisting his hands.  He sighed once free of the boot, but then gasped as he looked down.  The blood soaking his sock gave him a shock.  Maybe he was more injured than he thought.

Riley returned with a tackle-box-sized first-aid kit and with him a crowd of men and the clipboard carrying woman Jared had run into earlier.

“What in the bloody hell happened?”  The woman knelt beside Roxanne.

  “Planter fell.”  Roxanne pulled some supplies from the kit.  “Maggie, help me by holding his heel up off the ground.”

The Maggie woman eased her hand under his heel. “Damn.  These old places are a hazard.” 

“Or haunted,” Riley added, causing a stir among the gathering crowd.

Jared would have argued with them both but was in too much pain at the moment.

Roxanne didn’t respond as she peeled the leg of his jeans up.  Blood had completely saturated his sock.  Her complexion had paled and Jared couldn’t blame her.  It wasn’t the simple little scratch he’d first thought.  “I’m leaving your sock on and going to wrap your calf and foot in gauze and an ace bandage, which should stop the bleeding until we get you to the ER.”

He nodded.  With adept efficiency, Roxanne had him wrapped in minutes then stood and glared at everyone.  “There’re no ghosts and the show is now over.  Everyone needs to get back to work.  We can’t afford to lose a day on this job,” she said.  “Mack you’re in charge.  Maggie, give him the assignment list and call me if there are any problems.”

 Everyone hopped to work.  Before Jared could think much less say Jack Rabbit, he found himself loaded into the backseat of her truck and Roxanne climbed into the driver’s seat.  The sharp edge of his pain had eased some with the bandaging and Jared welcomed the respite.

Mack came up to her and whispered into her ear as she put the truck into gear.  She nodded then hit the gas as Mack backed away.  A deep frown creased her brow.  “I’m thinking you need to go to the hospital.”

Jared shook his head.  “Jackson specialized in Emergency Medicine just out of med school, so I’m sure he can handle this.”  He gave her directions to the Midtown Clinic then waited until she was on the road before he brought up the subject of the planter fall and his concerns for her safety.

“What did he find?”

“Mack?”

“Yeah.”

“An empty sixth floor.  None of the crew had made it to that floor yet.  On the balcony he found the base cementing the planter in place was cracked in half.  All it needed was a hefty push.”

“A crime of convenience or was it preplanned?”

“Preplanned?”

“Yes, as in someone cracked the base before you were onsite.”

She shook her head.  “On the off chance that I’d just happen to stand underneath it?”

“You did.”

“I wasn’t alone.”

“You would have taken the full force of the blow, though.  As far as I can tell, you’re the only one wearing a red shirt on the site.  I’m betting whoever pushed that planter knew you were there.”

The bodyguard idea wouldn’t stop knocking on his brain.  Jesse provided security.  One phone call would have her taken care of.  Jared had two problems though.  One, he wondered if he was overreacting.  And two, he didn’t want some other guy at her side, spending time with her.  If a guy was going to do that, he wanted to be that man. 

“Maybe,” she said.  “Mind telling me how you found me and why you hunted me down at work?”

“You think I’m responsible?”

“Good Lord, no.  But you’re the last person I expected to see today.”

Jared sucked in air.  Truth time.  Only he couldn’t bring himself to it.  Revealing he was a competitor might break the tenuous thread forming between them.  He had no idea what devil snatched his soul, but it happened fast.  “I work with my brother.  And you need Sheridan-Weldon Solutions.  It’s a security company that helps folks in need.  I worried all night that your ex would hunt you down and finish that fight he started.  I wanted to make sure you were all right and maybe offer my services until your ex got a grip or the law does it for him.” Jared narrowed his gaze at her.  “Did he show up last night?”

“Not that I know of.” Relief filled her expression.  Her fear of her ex was real.  “I stayed at my neighbor’s house.”

“Damn.”

“What?”

“It just pisses me off.  That man has no right to make you fear being in your own home.  If you don’t mind my asking, what did he do to you?”

Roxanne didn’t say anything for a long moment then she changed the subject.  “Collin’s rage last night doesn’t correlate to what happened with the planter today.  He wasn’t even on site.”

Jared let the subject of finding out what her ex did go for now and gave her the loyal-to-her-ex crewman theory.  “Any man on the job could have pushed that planter.”

“Good point.”  She narrowed his gaze.  “How is it you know so damn much about my life?”

“I ask questions and people talk.  It’s what security guys do.”  He swallowed hard, wondering if the lump in his throat was the beginning of a noose around his neck.  “So, after I get patched up here, I want you to give serious thought to letting me hang around for a bit.”

“Provided you’ll be functional, are you asking me to hire you as my bodyguard?”

“No.  Not hire.  This one’s on me.”

“Why?”

“Let’s just say I take issue with abusive assholes, and I want this to be on a personal level, not a professional one.  I’ll apologize for coercing a kiss from you last night, but I am not in the least bit sorry that I did.  And I’m very interested in repeating it, which makes this situation a very personal one.”  He gave her his best salesman smile.”  Besides with my leg injured, I’ll be officially off the job for a few days until I’m back to full speed so I might as well be useful while I recuperate.”

He swore her lips twitched with a suppressed smile.  “You’re serious?”

“Dead serious.  If you have any questions about my character, I can give you references to check.”  He crossed his fingers, hoping she’d forgo that step.  Considering the way he and James had been bacheloring-it-up lately, his reputation might not be so sterling.  And there was the matter of his leading her into a lie.  He did work with his brother.  His brother James not Jesse.  And she did need Sheridan-Weldon Solutions.

“Let’s see what the doctor has to say first.  You might end up in the hospital instead.”

Jared hoped not.  If Jackson wanted to hospitalize him, Jared just might have to go AMA.  The thought of him not being around to stop anything bad happening to Roxanne was unacceptable.  Then again, unless he figured out a way to keep all his misleading white-lies secret when they saw Jackson, his plan was completely screwed.

Roxanne pulled into the parking lot of Jackson’s clinic and Jared braced himself.  His shit was about to hit the Weldon brothers’ fan of abuse and fly everywhere for years to come.  Even if they let him get away with his deception right now, he’d never live it down.  He was sure that once he knew Roxanne was safe and told her the truth that she’d understand why he’d had to do it.

But as he hopped into the clinic with Roxanne’s help, pain jarring his every move, he heard in his mind his twin James laughing. 
Screwed, blued, tattooed and delusional
.

C
HAPTER
S
IX

Rocky had to blink twice and pinch herself as she helped Jared into his brother’s clinic.  Last night’s kiss amid the bar fight happened so fast that she really hadn’t trusted her impression of the devastating stranger who’d come to her rescue.  She’d thought her addled mind had blown him out of proportion.  That his eyes weren’t quite that blue or his hair quite that silky black.  That he wasn’t quite that tall or quite that perfectly sculpted.  That the cleft in his chin and the dimples when he smiled weren’t that sexy, or that the spark of humor and desire in his eyes weren’t that captivating...well, that the entire package didn’t just send her off the deep end of desire.

She’d been sure her imagination had filled in the blanks because she could not have possibly absorbed all that she had in their short encounter.

As for the perfect kiss and his mastery of tongue and senses, by morning she’d decided her experience with him had been a combination of starvation and adrenaline.  If the book Dessie had given her could make her burn as badly as she had, then any drink would have likely been a life saver to a woman parched as she.  Over three years in a barren desert was a long damn time.

Well, maybe not any drink.  She’d rather die than partake of her ex.

Unfortunately, everything she’d imagined Jared Weldon to be, she was finding he was.  Twice in a row he’d knocked her off her feet, literally and figuratively. She’d followed him into a kiss last night, and as she walked in with him to the clinic, she found herself seriously entertaining the idea of letting him stick around for a little while.

Only as a bodyguard, of course.  Jared made a good Collin deterrent and Dessie had advised that Collin would be forced to realize the past was completely over if Rocky moved on into another relationship.  It had nothing to do with getting him bedroom-bound. 

Liar. Liar.  Pants on...

Damn.  Her pants had definitely been on fire last night.  Images from the book Dessie had given her kept playing in her mind, only she and this stranger at her side took center stage. 
Don’t go... there
.

How could she not?   He more than intrigued her.
Good Lord get a grip, woman. You sound like a sappy teenager.

The fact that he was a stranger to her was becoming less and less a factor, minute by minute.

The Midtown Clinic was simple, clean, and functional, but not overdone.  The elderly receptionist greeted him with familiarity and concern.  “Good heavenly day, boy.  What have you gone and done?”

“Not sure, Mary.  Jackson in?”

“Yeah.  Come on with me.”  Rocky felt the woman’s scrutiny as she helped Jared to an exam room.  “Where’s James? He okay?”

“James is fine,” Jared told the woman, then met Rocky’s gaze.  “There are four of us.  Jackson, Jesse, James, and me.”

“And all of you are devils with more on the way,” the receptionist said.  “Jake and Jason are following in the Weldon’s wild footsteps, for sure.”

“Hey, my nephews are both under two.”

“And they already have that lady killer gleam in their eyes.  You sit back and let me get Jackson.  The nurse had to leave early today, so we’re on our own.”