Wilde Chase (12 page)

“Ben, put the gun
down. Travis is trying to make amends, and I need him to help slow the bleeding
while I get this cleaned up and stitched.” Kelly gave him a brief smile. “Chase
is going to be just fine. It’s just a shallow cut along his shoulder. It’s
bleeding a lot, but it’s nothing serious.”

“And when were you
going to mention the fact
you’re
bleeding?” Ben snarled, lowering his gun.

“”Uh…” Kelly
blinked at him, looking guilty.

“Busted,” Travis
whispered, but he was looking at Kelly with concern. “You got hurt? When? I
didn’t know they was planning on hurting you, doc.”

“I got cut with
the same knife that got Chase. Your friend didn’t like me moving so slowing
walking over here.”

“He ain’t my
friend. Not
no
more. I told ‘em I didn’t want
no one
getting hurt. I just needed the money. I’m sorry.”

“Why did you need
the money, Travis?”

“My grandma got
sick. Her medicine is real expensive. Those others said I could make money real
quick if I helped them. I didn’t think anyone would get hurt.”

“Okay, you can let
go of Chase now. Give him a pat and then go wash your hands. You’re going to
have to go talk to the police, but maybe, if you help them out, you and I can
talk about another way for you to earn some money. After you’ve answered for
what happened here tonight.”

Ben caught her
expression and inwardly sighed. He knew that look. It meant Kelly was in rescue
mode, and Travis was her new project. He almost felt sorry for the kid.
Almost.

“Wilde,
everything good in here?”
Chapman asked as he
stepped up behind Ben.

“Apparently.”

Kelly glanced up
from her work to smile at Chapman.
“Hello again.
Travis here is going to cooperate any way he can with your investigation. Do
you think you could make sure the judge knows that he’s sorry? You know, when
the time comes.”

Ben groaned and
Chapman made a soft sound of surprise.
“Uh, yeah.
I
guess…”

“Wonderful. Travis,
this is Officer Chapman. He’s going to talk to you and help you, if you’ll let
him. You’re in a lot of trouble, but if you listen to him, he’ll help you make
some better choices.”

Danny scratched
the back of his neck and cleared his throat.
“Right.
Uh, okay. You need to come with me now Travis.”

Ben’s lips
twitched as he heard Chapman’s confusion. It was the first time either of them
had ever had a victim befriend the suspect before an arrest was even made. As
Travis left, he turned and looked up at Ben.

“I’m real sorry
about your dog, sir. And ‘bout your old lady getting hurt. It won’t happen
again.”

“It better not,”
Ben growled at him, pleased when the kid blanched and swallowed as he darted
for the door.

Once they were
alone, Kelly glowered at him. “Did you have to scare him like that? He isn’t a
bad kid. Not like those other two.”

“You have got to
be fucking kidding me! Baby, he was part of a gang who grabbed you out of a
parking lot and tried to rob you! Yes, I had to scare him. If I had my way, I’d
tear the three of them apart for what they did to you.”

He closed the distance
between them between heartbeats, hauling her into his arms and burying his face
in her sweet scented hair. “Don’t you ever scare me like that
again.
Do you hear me?
Never again.
If something happened to you…” The thought made his chest ache and his throat
close over, cutting off his next words.

“When it got bad,
I didn’t panic. Do you know why?” Kelly wrapped her arms around his waist, her
head pressed to his chest, right over his heart.

“Because
you’re crazy?”

She laughed, a
soft, fluttering sound that soothed his fears more than any words she could
have spoken. “Maybe I am. But I knew you’d come for me.”

“Always.”
In that moment the truth dawned on Ben. He would always be there
for her, no matter what the cost. He would protect her with his dying breath,
because he loved her.

Chapter Ten

The sky was
lightening with the first blush of sunrise by the time they finally got home.
Kelly was so tired that it didn’t even dawn on her at first that she
instinctively thought of Ben’s place as
home
.

It had been a long
night and all three of them were bone-weary. Even still, Ben insisted she stay
seated while he exited the vehicle and carefully lifted Chase to the ground.
Then Ben had opened her door and taken her into his arms, ignoring her repeated
protests that she was perfectly able to walk.

Truth be told,
Kelly was happy to be carried. Not that she would ever admit it. Ben hadn’t let
her out of his sight all night. No matter what was going on, he had always
managed to be close enough to touch her, as if to reassure himself she was
really okay. As the adrenaline had worn off, she had needed that reassurance.
The reality of how close she had come to being a victim of terrible crimes had
seeped into her awareness a bit of a time. Each new realization had threatened
to overwhelm her, but she had bitten back her tears, clenched her hands, and
refused to give in.

Ben had been there
every step of the way, offering his silent support. Kelly wasn’t sure if she
would have made it through the night without him, and she was grateful she
didn’t have to find out. Despite being a vet, hospitals made her deeply
uncomfortable. They were too big, too anonymous, holding too many sad memories.
Her parents’ death, her sister’s overdoses, nothing good ever seemed to happen
inside the dreary, worn out walls.

The staff had
poked and prodded at her, making Kelly roll her eyes on more than one occasion.
She knew full well the cuts weren’t that bad. Hell, they didn’t even need
stitches. But they had wanted to document everything and it had taken hours.
Hours of waiting and answering the same questions over and over again. Nurses,
police detectives, everyone wanted to know what had happened in painstaking
detail. It was exhausting.

Now they were
finally home and Kelly could hardly keep her eyes open. She let her head fall
against Ben’s broad chest, listening to the steady thump-thump of his heart as
he carried her inside. She felt cherished and safe in the comfort of his
embrace, and Kelly knew this was what she wanted. She wanted his love and
protection, now and always.

There was a time
when she believed that would have lessened her as a woman, made her weaker,
announcing to the world that she wasn’t capable of facing the world alone. Not
anymore. Ben didn’t weaken her, he made her stronger, and she would do the same
for him.

“Hey, baby. I know
you’re tired but I need you to open your eyes.” Ben’s soft words drew her out
of her introspection and Kelly forced her lids to open so she could look up at
him.

“What’s up,
caveman?” He smiled at her nickname for him and she felt a flutter of love and
desire deep in her core, along with a pang of guilt as she saw the bruising
beneath his right eye. All three of them had been hurt tonight, and that was on
her. She would have to find a way to make amends.

“Well, before you
went and got yourself kidnapped, I had a plan. I was going to apologize to you
properly, and then I had a question I needed to ask. Think you can stay awake
long enough for me to do that now? Then we’ll go to bed, I promise.”

“I think after
tonight, you shouldn’t be apologizing for anything. You were right, Ben. The
world is more dangerous than I wanted to admit.”

“That doesn’t give
me the right to tell you how to live your life though. I could have found a
better way to tell you I was worried. I should’ve told you about the guys I saw
hanging out by the clinic and explained why I was concerned instead of just
ordering you around.
That
is what I’m
sorry for.”
 
He sat down on the couch,
cradling her in his lap.

“I’m sorry I
didn’t tell you about Jenny. I should have.” Kelly lifted her head so she could
look him in the eyes.

“Yeah, you should
have. If we’re going to do this, then we’re both going to have to try and
actually communicate. You know, like couples are supposed to.”
 
He sighed and Kelly couldn’t help but laugh at
the faint look of horror on his handsome face.

“I promise I won’t
tell anyone. It will be our secret.”

“While we’re on
the topic of promises, I want another one out of you.” Ben’s brows wrinkled as
he glowered threateningly. “Promise me you will never, ever drive off with one
of my brothers again and leave me standing at the side of the road.”

Kelly laughed at
that. “What if you go all
caveman
again?”

“You want to see
caveman? Get into one of my brothers’ cars again without me there to make sure
they behave themselves. I promise when I catch you I will throw you over my
shoulder, carry you back here and spank your pretty little ass pink.”

“You wouldn’t
dare!” she exclaimed, but as Kelly met Ben’s gaze she could see he was dead
serious. The thought sent a tiny thrill down her spine and she wondered if
there was another way she could get him to make good on that promise without
having to drive off with one of his flirtatious siblings.

“I would. I will.
Don’t tempt me.”

“That’s some
apology, caveman.” The storm clouds departed as quickly as they had come, and
his sunny smile returned.

“You want a proper
apology? Turn around and look at the coffee table.”

Kelly turned her
head and blinked. How had she missed this? Roses, tulips, and carnations in a
rainbow of colors covered every inch of the table. Well, almost every inch. A
larger than life, plush stuffy that looked a little bit like Chase took up the
center of the arrangement. Around the puppy’s neck was a bright pink ribbon,
and fastened to that was something metallic, but it was too far away to see
properly.

Kelly turned in
his lap so she could reach the nearest bouquet, wincing when she twisted too
fast and tugged at the butterfly closures holding her cuts together until they
healed. “When did you have time to do this?”

“Right after I got
off the phone with Tag. Do you have any idea how much it sucks getting lectured
by your little brother on your love life? Especially when the little shit was
right and you were wrong?”

She giggled at the
mutinous expression on his face and then hid her smile behind a handful of
sweet smelling petals. “Sorry about that. I was angry and hurt and it all sort
of
came
tumbling out when he was taking me home.”

“It just had to be
Tag you ran into in the door on your way out,” he grumbled, but the corners of
his eyes crinkled with laughter as he said it.

“If I had known he
drove a gas-guzzling girl magnet, I would have reconsidered.”

Ben’s laughter
echoed around the living room. “Never disparage Tiffany. I swear Tag loves that
car more than any woman he’s ever dated.”

Kelly put the rose
back in its vase and started to reach for the stuffed animal, stopping when her
side protested the movement. “I want to see the rest of my apology present, but
I can’t reach it.”

“I’ll get that.”
Ben lifted her very gently off his lap and set her down on the couch before
moving off of it completely. He knelt on the floor at her feet and snagged the
big stuffed German shepherd puppy out of the sea of flowers.

Chase watched with
idle curiosity from his spot on the rug, his tail thumping against the floor as
she gave the massive toy a hug. “He’s lovely.” She peeked over at Ben and found
him staring at her, an unfathomable look in his hazel eyes. “What?”

“Check around his
neck, baby.” Ben’s voice was thick and he never took his eyes off of her as she
untied the ribbon and finally saw the rest of her present. It was a freshly cut
key.

“What’s this for?”
she asked, surprised by the quaver in her voice.

“This is a key to
my house.”
 
Ben put a hand on her knee
and leaned in closer. “Before we got to dinner tonight, I was trying to find a
way to ask you if you wanted one, so you could come and go from here as you
pleased.”

Kelly opened her
mouth to speak and he cut her off with a soft kiss that made her heart race and
her fatigue fall away. She kissed him back, gripping the key in one hand as she
stroked his stubbly cheek with the other. This was what she wanted. To be in
his life as much as he would let her, the future
be
damned. She was done worrying about if they’d last, or what would happen when
it ended.

He broke off the
kiss with a rueful chuckle. “As much as I want to do more of that, I need to
finish explaining. When I had that key made, I wanted to give it to you so you
could come and go. Now, I want more. I want everything, Kelly.
You and me, together.
I don’t care if it’s only been a few
weeks. You’re what I want. You’re who I love. Move in with me, please?”