Oh, he wanted the man to react. He wanted him to fight. Knight wanted every logical excuse possible to make this jackass pay for knocking Miranda down.
Miranda was up to her knees now. She still hadn’t said anything else. The door swung open, and the sheriff stormed in. A bunch of Lesley Beise’s coworkers gawked through the windows at them all. “What’s going on in here?”
“He knocked her down. Check on her, would you?” Knight wasn’t about to take his hands off Beise until the man was contained. “You have cuffs?”
“Never leave home without them.” The sheriff tossed him a pair of flex-cuffs. Knight cuffed Beise quickly, then shoved him into a chair. The sheriff could deal with Beise.
Miranda was still not on her feet. Knight wrapped his hands around her waist before he thought it through. He lifted her to her feet, then guided her back to sit on the table currently covered with old shop magazines and a plastic plant. “Breathe. Take a deep breath.”
“I’m…trying. It hurts.” She shot him a rueful look. There was just the tiniest bit of panic in her big green eyes. It had the anger boiling again. Knight shoved it back down. It wasn’t his place to worry about Miranda Talley. Not by a long shot. “He’s built like a brick wall.”
“No kidding.” He had fifty pounds on Knight, though Beise was a good three inches shorter, at least. More than a hundred-twenty pounds on her. “Grab your bag.”
He looked at the sheriff, who was reading Beise his rights. Knight’s hand fisted; he wanted to slug Beise. As hard as he possibly could. Pound him into that concrete wall. Instead, he forced himself to look at the woman next to him. There were tears in her eyes, but she hadn’t let them fall. No doubt from the burn of the pain.
He had to get out of there. Now. Before he did something he’d regret. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To the ER. Get you checked out.”
To his surprise, she didn’t argue. He would have expected her to argue, as obstinate as he suspected she could be. Knight grabbed her coat from where she’d sat it on the chair in the too-warm waiting room. He swung it around her quickly, and she gingerly slipped her arms in. He buttoned it with efficient movements, not saying a word. She didn’t speak, either. Instead, she meekly went with him outside to the vet’s truck.
That told him everything he needed to know.
“Careful. I’ll help you in.” Knight unlocked the passenger door and wrapped his hands around her waist, the black material of her FBI-issue jacket crinkling beneath his hands. He lifted her into the truck as gently as he could.
“Are you in?”
She nodded. “I’m good, Knight. Just…damn, his shoulder was hard as granite.”
“He probably cracked ribs or something.” That would be his inexpert opinion, anyway. She still held one hand to her left side. He swore again—it was one of his favorite habits, after all—and reached around her for the seat belt himself. He was an extra-tall man; the awkward position put them almost face-to-face. Close enough he could see the little gold freckles dusted over her cheeks. “Let’s get you checked out, then we’ll come back and try again.”
“It’s a…deal.” She gave him a rueful smile. “Never dull in PAVAD. Better get prepared for that.”
He was supposed to only be observing. Not getting involved.
It was hard not to get drawn right in.
Right into her. It was the sunshine that did it. Miranda Talley exuded damned sunshine right from her pores. It was fitting, the red hair and the freckles. The sunny smile that was just too much most of the time. Sunny.
Screw sunny. He hated sunny. “Do you have to smile about everything?”
“Mmmm. Probably…better than growling over everything, don’t you think?”
He just grunted, then snapped her seatbelt into place, avoiding her hand when she tried to do it herself. “Keep your feet inside.”
“No kidding.”
He slammed the door in her face as she gave him another one of those sunny smiles despite the obvious pain she was in.
When he climbed behind the wheel, she was staring at him. Making him feel like a bug.
He felt like an ass, grumbling at her right now. She was hurting now; Knight wasn’t too stupid to see that. “Tighten your belt. Focus on breathing evenly. Try not to think about the pain.”
“I’m ok. It’s not the first time I’ve had cracked ribs.” She still watched him. “Didn’t know you cared so much.”
Knight just grunted and kept driving. “Infernal sunshine wears on a man, Talley. I want you ok, so we can finish this case and I can get away from all the happy sunshine that surrounds you.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about.” She was talking better than she was before. He didn’t think the damage was too bad, at least. But she was getting looked over and signed off on before returning to work. An image of the last agent he’d worked with who’d been injured flashed in his head.
He’d always see Ian’s blood on the sidewalk.
“You. You’re so bright, you’re practically glowing. And no one is that happy all the time. It’s just not realistic.”
“I think it is. Happiness as a state of mind can be a conscious choice.”
“For you, maybe, Sunny. But not for the rest of the world. You’re going to burn yourself out. Quick.” He’d seen young agents like her before. With their pie-in-the-sky belief that everything always worked
