He turned fully to her, a question is his eyes. “Would it really matter?”
Yardley didn’t misunderstand. “Of course it matters. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”
“No.” He reached out and began drawing a slow circle on her cheekbone without a bruise. “I need to know. Would it matter personally to you, Yard?”
She took a deep breath but she was already nodding. “It would matter, Kye. I just don’t know how that changes anything.”
She could see him trying to evaluate her words as if each and every one was a puzzle to be solved.
Muttering a curse word, he moved suddenly into her and grabbed the back of her neck as his mouth swooped down on hers. His one-arm embrace crushed Lily between them but the dog didn’t struggle to get away. It was a hard kiss, as if he was trying to brand the impression of his lips on hers. Just as quickly, he dropped his hand and backed away. “Finishing the task before me. That’s where I am. After that…”
After that what? He would fight for her? Did he see David as a rival?
While those thoughts chased one another, he turned and slipped out the door with a whispered, “Lock it.”
Only when she had locked the door and turned away did she notice David standing in the doorway. How much had he seen, or heard? Impossible to tell. His expression was composed only of pain.
She felt her neck flush but her tone was brisk. “I’m calling the sheriff. Kye needs backup. We’ll talk later.” Though she hadn’t the slightest idea what she would say to him about what he’d just seen, maybe heard. It was impossible to make decisions when the sky was falling.
David braced himself against the door frame. “Kye looks like a man who can take care of himself.”
She nodded. “I sure hope so.”
David offered her a probing stare. “About that gun you were discussing earlier.”
Ooo-kaaaay. He’d heard a lot. She nodded and went to get it, pulling out her cell phone to call the sheriff as she climbed the stairs to the second floor.
She reappeared from an upstairs bedroom less than two minutes later, Glock and bullets in hand. David was perched on the arm of her sofa, his mouth a firm line of pain. “The sheriff says he’ll get someone out here as soon as he can. There’s been a pileup on the main highway and the state police pulled in all available law enforcement personnel to help. Meanwhile we should find a safe place and hide.”
He looked at her dubiously. “Where would that be?”
The lights flickered and went out. Their enemy had gotten to the generator.
Please let Kye be safe. That was the only thought in Yardley’s head as she stood rock-still, waiting for who-knew-what.
“Yardley?” David’s voice was no more than a breath.
“I’m okay.” She puffed out the words into the silence.
She strained so hard for sounds from outside that her head began to ache. But all that happened was her eyes gradually became accustomed to the light source beyond the room—the security light on the telephone pole out front. It was connected to a separate line from the one that ran to the house and generator. The light bounced off the snow, making it eerily bright as it seeped between the gaps of the curtains at the window.
“I can’t sit by and do nothing. Kye won’t know where things are in the dark. If he uses a flashlight, it will make him a sitting duck.”
“You aren’t armed. Yardley, don’t do this. I know you care for Kye. I understand. But it isn’t safe.”
“It isn’t about that. I wouldn’t leave you, or my brother Law, or any of my trainers to face God-knows-what while I hid. It’s not in me to let someone else fight my battles.”
He nodded. “Got it.” But his expression said he understood a lot more. And none of it in his favor. “Take this.” He handed her the loaded gun.
“I don’t think—”
“Don’t think. Just do what you have to do.”
She stared at him. “Could you shoot a man who came through the door?”
“If he was trying to hurt you, in a heartbeat.”
“That’s why you get to keep the gun.”
Giving up, he pulled her close and kissed her. He was hot with fever and trembling. “I want to be your hero. I’d follow McGarren out there in a heartbeat if I could.”
“I know. I know.” She cupped his handsome face in her hands, trying not to let him see that she knew how every breath was taxing him. “You’re already trying to save millions of people. Let me try to help out one Hawaiian dog handler.”
*