Keeping Her Safe Read online

  But she had, and DJ knew she had. This wasn’t the first time Ed had played games like this with her.

  “This is tough,” Ed continued without giving her a chance to respond. “There’s nothing I can do at this stage of the game.”

  “Oh, come on, Ed. That’s ridiculous. I know you got my message. I know you ignored it. And I know you’ve sold my snowblowers to someone else.”

  “That’s quite an accusation, DJ. I’m not sure I like the sound of it.”

  “I want my order.”

  “Well, I don’t know….” He let his voice trail off and pretended to ponder. “I might be able to get a few for you in a week or two.”

  “That’s not good enough. I need them by Thursday of next week.”

  “Can’t do it.”

  “I need them, Ed. I ordered them for this sale because you said you had plenty in stock.”

  Ed sighed heavily into her ear. “I know that, DJ.” His voice sounded patronizing, and her anger swelled. “But I had no idea the salespeople were overselling. Don’t overreact.”

  “I need my order, Ed,” she repeated, determined to keep him from sidetracking her into an unproductive argument.

  “The only way I could possibly get the blowers for you now would be to take them from someone else.”

  “Fine. Then do it.”

  “I can’t do that, DJ. You’re being unreasonable.”

  “I’m asking for the merchandise you promised me. I’ve already sent the ad to press.”

  “I can try,” Ed said after a long hesitation. “But I can’t guarantee anything.”

  DJ didn’t respond.

  “All right,” he said, as if her demands took a heavy toll. “Let me see what I can do. I’ll call you in a day or two.”

  “Not good enough,” she insisted. “Call me back later today.” But he’d already disconnected before she could finish speaking.

  She held the receiver away from her ear and glared at it. “I don’t believe it. That smarmy little weasel hung up on me.”

  Heather turned toward her and opened her mouth to respond, but the voice that spoke came from just behind DJ’s ear—too close for comfort, and too familiar after such a short time. “Anything I can do?”

  She brushed the hair back from her forehead and turned to face Adam. She tried to work up a smile, but she probably managed only a grimace. “No. But thanks, anyway.”

  He gave her a slow once-over. “I hope you don’t mind, but I decided to come and see what your place looks like.”

  DJ tried not to cringe, but she couldn’t help thinking he hadn’t seen her looking decent yet. This time, her hair was a mess, her overalls stained, her shirttail half out and her face muddy. “You want to see the store?”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  Embarrassed, she turned back to Heather and gestured toward the phone. “If Ed Hansen calls back, page me. And keep him on the line. Tell him I’ll sue if he hangs up again.”

  Heather nodded, but she didn’t look overly anxious to relay that message. No matter. That was mild compared to what DJ intended to say.

  She turned to Adam and gestured with one hand. “Here it is,” she said. “My store.

  “Do you have time to show me around?”

  She blinked once. Twice. And she wondered if she’d heard him right. A dozen customers wandered the aisles, lines of people waited at the checkout stands and Adam wanted a guided tour. “It’s a little busy right now. You’re welcome to look around, and I can show you the rest some other time.”

  “I wasn’t asking for myself. I just thought it might do you some good to take five minutes away.”

  She hesitated. The allure of five minutes without demands appealed to her far more than it should have.

  Nodding, she slipped from behind the checkout stand, but he stood so close she had to brush against him. The skin on her arm tingled and her heart beat a little faster. Ridiculous, she told herself. She was acting like a high-school girl with a crush on the football captain. Pulling herself together, she led him down a long aisle crowded with lawnmowers and weed trimmers to the back door.

  “This is nice,” he said when they stepped outside.

  “Thank you.”

  “You own all this?”

  “The bank and I are partners at the moment.”

  He nodded slowly and studied everything he could see. “What made you decide to get into this line of work?”

  She laughed. He sounded just like her mother. “Why?” she asked. “Am I going to show up in one of your books?”

  He looked at her for a long moment, then shrugged and let his gaze wander away again. “No.”

  She’d intended the comment as a joke. Obviously he hadn’t taken it as one. She started walking. Slowly. And tried to decide what to tell and what to omit.

  “My husband and I got divorced a couple of years ago. After he left, I needed a job. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn’t want to wind up in an office somewhere, answering telephones in my business suit and panty hose—which is exactly the kind of job Jeff would have considered acceptable.”

  He arched one eyebrow. “Jeff?”

  “My ex-husband. We were complete opposites.” She managed a weak smile. “Opposites might attract but they don’t work well together long-term.”

  He looked thoughtful. “No,” he said at last. “I suppose they don’t.”

  “Anyway,” she said with a weak laugh, “I looked around, finally found a job here and fell madly in love with the place. When the owners decided to retire to Arizona, I begged the bank for a loan and bought it.”

  He walked beside her without speaking for several feet, then snapped a carnation from a plant on the raised bed and held it out to her. “What about your ex-husband? What does he do?”

  Glancing at him, she hesitated only a second before she accepted the flower. “He’s an attorney.”

  Adam still didn’t look at her, but this time DJ sensed his interest “Criminal law?”

  “No. Real-estate law. Prestigious stuff—in Jeffs opinion, at least. He was with Peebles, Bateman & Lawrence here, but he got an offer from a huge firm in San Diego after the divorce, so he moved there.”

  Adam looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Do you see him often?”

  “Never.” The word came out harsher than she’d intended, but she didn’t elaborate. Adam didn’t need to know how much Jeffs complete absence from Marissa’s life disturbed DJ. Or how bitter his comments about her new career had left her. She’d said too much already.

  He didn’t speak again for a long time, and the only sound was of their footsteps on the concrete walk, mixed with snatches of conversation from people they passed. To DJ’s surprise, the silence felt almost companionable, and some of the tension eased from her shoulders.

  “Has there been anyone else in your life since Jeff?”

  She slowed her steps and waited until he looked at her. “Why do you ask?”

  “Just curious.”

  Too curious. She started walking again, debating whether to answer the question or not. “No,” she said at last, and tried turning the tables on him. “What about your ex-wife? What does she do?”

  He squinted at the tops of the trees. “Nothing.”

  DJ stopped altogether. “Nothing? What do you mean, nothing?”

  “She doesn’t work,” he said.

  “But she must do other things.”

  He shrugged. “She does other things.”

  “Like what? Does she volunteer with charities? Belong to clubs?”

  “No. But she does shop a lot.”

  She turned toward him again, surprised at the answer. “You married a professional shopper?”

  He lifted a shoulder and dipped his head to one side.

  She allowed herself a tiny smile. “Sounds like Jeffs kind of woman. Did you have any children?”

  He glanced at her. “No.” He turned to face her squarely and folded his arms across his chest. “You�
�re ahead. You’ve asked me more questions than I’ve asked you.”

  “I didn’t know we were keeping track.”

  “Oh, but we are.”

  “And you’re behind? All right, go ahead. Ask me something else.”

  He nodded toward the tree lot. “How far back does your property go?”

  “How—?” She broke off and studied him for a second, then gave up trying to figure him out and answered the question. “Just as far as the river. The land’s fairly narrow here, but it widens out on either side.”

  “And the other boundaries?”

  “The river on the west. The street on the north. The school on the south, and the fence on the east.”

  He followed as she pointed and took in everything with such a serious expression, DJ couldn’t fight her smile. “Is this for your research?”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah.”

  “Why don’t you tell me about your story? Then I’ll know what to show you.”

  “Just show me everything.”

  She shrugged and started walking again, but she couldn’t help thinking that her mother met some awfully intense people in her travels. “Okay,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. “This is where we keep the annual and perennial flowers. Rosebushes are on the south benches, and we keep plants that are less hardy in that covered area just outside the nursery.” She pointed as she talked and stepped onto the narrow gravel road that separated the tree lot from the rest of the nursery grounds. “Which way do you want to go?”

  “You choose.”

  She turned toward the south lot without breaking stride. “We keep the evergreens back here.”

  “Great.”

  They walked in silence for several minutes more, until the sound of someone running toward them through the gravel caught her attention. She stopped to wait, hoping for good news about the missing snowblowers.

  But Ramon closed the distance between them, puffing a little. “Telephone again, DJ. It’s the guy from Jackson & Perkins.”

  Surprisingly disappointed that this meant the end of their walk, she smiled up at Adam. “Duty calls.”

  “Go,” he said. His face revealed nothing, not even a touch of disappointment.

  “All right. Make yourself at home. And if you need anything—”

  “Don’t worry about me. I can find my way around.” To her surprise, he smiled. His face changed completely, and his eyes unshuttered for a moment. They changed from slate gray to almost blue, and something that looked almost like desire flickered there for a second before they shut her out again.

  The transformation left her speechless. She’d considered him attractive before, but that smile—He looked like a different man.

  She tried to smile back, but her lips felt stiff and heavy. Suddenly self-conscious, she turned and started away, but the walk back to the nursery seemed to take forever.

  She didn’t look back, not even when she reached the door. She couldn’t decide whether what she’d seen in Adam’s eyes left her disturbed or flattered.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ADAM STOOD IN the listless autumn sunlight and watched as DJ walked away. A light breeze whispered through the leaves on the trees, and the mossy scent of rich soil filled the air. After just a few hours, he could sense how completely DJ belonged here. The store and its surroundings reflected her essence, and he found it and the woman strangely comforting.

  Pushing aside the unwelcome sensation, he turned away and hurried down the gravel path. He hadn’t checked the perimeter yet, but the little he’d seen of the grounds convinced him Galloway wouldn’t have to work very hard to get inside if he wanted to.

  He hated knowing so little about his assignment. He could protect DJ and Marissa better if someone would just tell him who Galloway was and why DJ’s mother feared him. The only thing he knew for certain was that Galloway had been in prison too long to be an ex-employee of DJ’s. And unless DJ lied well, he didn’t think Galloway was an ex-boyfriend, either.

  So who was he and how would Adam ever learn what he needed to know?

  Crossing his arms on his chest, he ducked between two rows of trees and walked toward the fence. He paused several times to look at the leaves on the trees or touch the bark and to check for employees or customers nearby. Finally satisfied that he was alone, he studied closely what purported to be DJ’s security.

  Just as he’d expected, the fence was rusted in places, sagging in others and bent so far out of shape it looked as if an elephant could have crawled underneath. How did anyone expect him to maintain proper security with a setup like this? Chuck should have sent a whole crew to do this job.

  Already, he hated lying to DJ—but only, he told himself, because the assignment would be so much easier if he could tell her the truth. Then, he could carry his weapon and maintain a visible watch at night. In fact, if it weren’t for this stupid cover, he could do a dozen things, take countless steps to keep DJ and Marissa safe. Instead, he had to stand around and wait for Galloway to make a move.

  He shook his head in exasperation and went back out to the gravel drive. Every few feet, he repeated the inspection process, checking for loose fence posts or gaping holes that would lure Galloway. By the time he’d covered the entire southern end of DJ’s property, he’d decided DJ couldn’t possibly be anticipating trouble. If she had, she’d have taken steps to protect herself, her daughter and her property.

  Contemplating the possibilities, he followed the gravel drive around its final curve and back to the front of the store again. He passed a shed heaped almost to the ceiling with bags of fertilizer.

  Even the shed needed repairs. Its walls consisted of nothing more than chain-link fence covered with clear plastic. Gaping holes in the plastic left the bags exposed, and the gate that must have once provided an adequate lock, sagged on its hinges.

  Somewhere nearby he heard DJ’s voice. It rose and fell in syncopated rhythm, first rushing, then slowing, then moderating in tempo. She laughed, and almost without realizing it, Adam smiled in response.

  She was a different sort of woman from any he’d known before. Fiercely independent without sacrificing her femininity. Competent. Capable. Witty. Obviously intelligent enough to run an operation this size. And attractive.

  He tried without success to picture Victoria in DJ’s place, but no matter how hard he tried to form the image, it wouldn’t come. Victoria’s priorities had been different. She’d had no interest in working outside their home, and Adam hadn’t argued with her choice until she’d started to complain about his salary.

  As the years passed, it had become increasingly evident she wanted more than Adam could ever afford to buy her. And the tension between them had started to mount.

  The arguments had gone on for at least two years. He’d suggested that she find a job. She’d questioned his ability to provide for her. He’d suggested a budget. She’d called him cheap.

  Honesty forced him to admit he’d responded in kind. She’d suggested he take a job with her father’s business. He’d refused. She’d insisted that he leave the police department because of the dangers involved. He’d refused. Until she’d found the one argument that could persuade him—children.

  She’d refused to discuss starting a family for the first few years of their marriage. She’d argued that she didn’t want to raise children alone, and with Adam’s hours, she would have been the only parent home most of the time. And if something happened to him in the line of duty, their children would never know their father. They’d be the ones who would suffer, for Adam’s stubborn pride.

  So, he’d relented. He’d accepted the job she’d picked out for him, but she’d refused to get pregnant even then, and Adam had been miserable working for his father-in-law.

  The breeze picked up, scattering a handful of dried leaves across the ground and calling him back from painful memories. DJ laughed again, and the sound seemed to dance across the breeze toward him.

  For one brief moment, he almost gave in to t
he urge to step inside and find her. He’d enjoyed their few minutes together, and he wanted to continue their conversation. Scratch that. He needed to continue their conversation. Interrogating DJ was part of the job. But she sounded relaxed and happy, and he didn’t want to spoil the moment for her with questions.

  Increasing his pace, he passed the shed and turned toward the east tree lot. He couldn’t allow himself to seek her out for her company; he was here to do a job, nothing more.

  TIRED AND TOO full from dinner, Adam dropped onto his bed and propped a pillow against the headboard. He’d spent the rest of the afternoon checking DJ’s property and her limited security, but every fence he checked, every gate he inspected, every door, every window, every lock had left him more concerned than ever about DJ and Marissa.

  On top of that, he’d spent an even longer evening trying to make small talk with DJ and avoiding the subject of books while he’d tried pumping her for information about Larry Galloway. But he’d come away empty-handed and more than a little frustrated—both by the lack of information and by the way he found himself reacting to her. After the divorce, he’d sworn off women—at least women who wanted a full-time relationship—and he couldn’t imagine DJ wanting anything else.

  He shifted position, groaning a little as he did, and aimed the remote control at the small television set across the room. A sitcom popped onto the screen, accompanied by the wild shrieks of a laugh track.

  Adam made a face at the television and flicked the power off, but within seconds, he realized what a mistake he’d made. Silence hummed through the room.

  He thought about calling Seth, but he couldn’t risk having a conversation with him where DJ could overhear it. He tried to imagine what they’d be doing right now if he’d gone to Idaho as planned, but that didn’t make him feel any better.

  Propping his arms under his head, he stared at the ceiling. But within seconds, thoughts of DJ began to intrude. And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t rid himself of the image of her standing outside her store, hair blowing in the wind, eyes dancing with laughter and darkening with caution. Adam hadn’t been able to ignore her—not the way he should have ignored her.