It wasn’t realistic. Not in the world Knight inhabited, anyway.
Worse, he’d seen it get young, inexperienced agents killed. Sometimes, it got the people around them killed, too. Far fewer FBI agents had been killed while on the job than most of the public thought, but each one was one too many.
People who were as naive as she was were a danger to all around them.
“Look, Knight, I get what you’re thinking. But I’ve been on this job since before PAVAD was formed. I know how things really are. I just chose a long time ago not to let the dark things in life keep me from enjoying mine.”
“I wish I had the same—” Mindset. The same outlook on life. But then again, perhaps Miranda Talley hadn’t been tested as much as he had. Knight fingered the scar on his temple almost unconsciously. He pulled into the ER parking lot. “We’re here.”
“Great. Time to get poked and prodded. Wonder if they give out cherry lollipops. Cherry is my favorite flavor of everything.”
“Stay there; I’ll help you down.” The last thing they needed was her falling from the big truck and hurting herself any more than she already had. “Do you always antagonize people just by sight like you did Beise?”
“Not usually. Not unless the case calls for it.” She winced as she freed the safety belt. Knight opened his door and rounded the front of the truck just as she opened the door. She looked at him next to her for a long moment. Knight just stared back. “I can get myself inside, you know.”
“Shut up. I’m going to make certain you’re ok, then we’ll go back to the way things are supposed to be. Me, watching. You, doing.”
She turned in the passenger seat, then slid those miles-long legs of hers from the cab. His hands went around her waist automatically. Like they had every right to be there.
The woman made him want to curse up one side and down the other.
Something about her constant sunny disposition grated on every nerve he had, while still drawing him in like a fish on a reel. He guided her down to the ground, knowing he was being an idiot and she could probably see right through him. Still, she hadn’t pushed his hands away. And she was studying him like he was her science experiment or something.
“You going to be ok to walk?”
“I think I can manage.” She shot him another smile, a quiet, intimate one just for him. Soft and familiar, like he’d done something to please her.
He wanted to please her. No doubt he’d agree to be her lapdog far too easily. All she had to do was smile at him just like that.
“What were you going to do, carry me inside? I appreciate the gesture, but I prefer to walk in on my own two feet.” She was still gasping as she said it, her hand back on her ribs. “Pride and dignity and all that.”
Knight fought every instinct shouting at him to just scoop her up and get it done.
A wildly inappropriate response. Logically, he knew that. But it was still there. He hadn’t exactly had full control of himself for a while—not since the moment she’d first looked at him and smiled. “Sure you do. You’re just so annoyingly sunny all the time.”
“Gets on your nerves?”
“You’d get on a saint’s last nerves.”
One soft, feminine hand rose to caress his cheek faster than a butterfly wing. The touch scorched his skin.
“And you, Allan Knight, are far from a saint. I think we can both agree to that.”
It was the last thing she said to him. Instead, she walked into the ER, those long legs of her carrying her faster than she probably should have been moving, but no doubt slower than she wished. The woman took stubborn to a whole new level.
He bit back a short, harsh laugh. This woman was the last thing he needed or wanted or would ever have in his life.
If he did take the supervisory position of the cold-case division, he was going to have to make certain he stayed far, far, far away from Miranda Talley. The woman could ruin his peace of mind with just one look.
One of those damned sunny smiles.
She gave her name and showed her badge. Explained the situation and what she needed. Knight just stood behind her, hulking. Watching over her and guarding her even though that was the last thing he wanted to do.
32
Jac stared at the whiteboard for what seemed like forever after disconnecting from her call with Knight.
Lesley Beise had been found. Knight had taken Miranda to the hospital, and Sheriff Matt Karr was driving Lesley Beise to Masterson as a material witness. He’d then be transported to the nearest state facility and charged with assault. On Miranda.
His mother on Max, him on Miranda.
Jac wasn’t going to stop worrying until she saw her friend herself.
Someone crossed into her field of vision. She looked up to study the two men who’d just entered the room. Sheriff Masterson was attractive, but it was Max who would always draw Jac’s attention from clear across the room. Strong, steady, sure, and beautiful. Max really was a good man.
She missed him. He’d been her closest friend for years, other than Miranda. Even now, she wanted to go to him and just calm herself down. Deal with the stress of what had just happened. She pushed her worry for Miranda away. Her friend had been up on her feet, walking, talking—making jokes at Allan Knight’s expense. She was going to be ok.
Jac had been terrified of hospitals for years, though only Max and Miranda knew that. The fear of hospitals had never truly left her. It probably never would.
“So what do we know?” Max asked, sending her a look. A carefully blank look. Almost as if he was looking right through her again.
“Miranda is on her way to
