He nodded slowly. His hair was a bit longer. Still short, but the dark cropped hair did not quite hug his scalp anymore. “I heard you.”
He was still cold. A damned robot. Was that all he would ever be? All he was? Disappointment bubbled up in her chest. She thought she had seen something in him . . . when those bullets had ripped through glass and he had thrown his body over hers, she thought there had been something between them. A connection that ran deep.
A man didn’t do that for just anyone, right? She had been so certain she had seen something more in him. Heat in his gaze as he was hauled away from her in the HSU.
She had thought he would say something in that moment if he could have. Touch her. Claim her like some warrior after a near miss with death . . .
God. She was reading too many romance novels to have such fanciful thoughts. This was reality. Not fiction.
She swallowed back against the hot lump clogging her throat. “I just wanted you to know that.”
“Okay. Sure.” He turned then and headed for the cash register, dismissing her like she was no one. Just some stranger. Not anyone that he had a bond with. Not anyone who mattered.
Watching him walk away felt like a slap in the face. Yeah, he was free now. Why would he want to waste time on her?
It took her a moment to make her feet move again. He was walking out of the store, not a glance over his shoulder for her as she stopped at the counter and paid for her ice cream.
The guys were still loitering in front of the door when she exited. Their gazes fell on her. The one that had tried talking to her earlier was ready for her. He pushed off one of the cement posts he had been leaning on. “Whatcha got? Some ice cream? I like ice cream.”
Rolling her eyes, she turned to head for her car. She definitely wasn’t in the mood to suffer some delinquent’s awkward attempts to hit on her.
Her eyes burned and she wished she had just stayed home. She wished she had never seen Knox Callaghan. Her last memory of him in the infirmary had been better than the memory of him turning his back on her at a convenience store. Almost to her car door, she fumbled with her keys to push the unlock button.
“You shouldn’t stop at convenience stores so late at night.”
She jumped and swallowed back a squeak, dropping her keys. She hadn’t even seen or heard him approach, but Knox was at her side, towering over her.
He glanced behind them and she followed his gaze, noticing that the boys were closer, the burrito--wielding guy who claimed to like ice cream hovering at the lead. They’d actually been following her toward her car, and she hadn’t noticed. She was too upset over her run--in with Knox to even pay attention.
The boys stopped and looked between her and Knox.
Knox adjusted his stance, bracing his legs and looking even more imposing. He nodded once at them. “S’up?”
The leader of the group eyed him. “Nothing, man.”
“Yeah? Then turn around and keep walking.” Knox stared hard at him, his blue eyes flinty, his jaw locked tight.
The boy sank his teeth into his burrito almost defiantly and turned around, walking stiffly back to his post at the front of the store, his two friends sticking beside him, casting shifty glances at Knox.
Knox faced her then and she realized they were standing really close. Closer than they had ever stood before. The top of her head barely reached his chin. “Uh, thanks. I’m sure I didn’t have anything to worry about, though. This is a pretty safe neighborhood.”
His lips twisted. “Never know what you’ll run into late at night at a gas station.” His head dipped a fraction closer and she felt his breath on her cheek. “You could even run into a dangerous felon.”
She arched an eyebrow. “You trying to tell me I should be afraid of you?”
He released a short huff of laughter as if that was the dumbest question in the world with the most obvious answer.
She lifted her chin. “Well, I’m not.”
The laughter faded from him. His gaze flicked over her face, taking in all of her features, scrubbed free without so much as lip gloss. “You should be, Nurse Davis.” Yeah, he was definitely annoyed with her. “I’m still that guy you knew behind bars.”
“Yeah. I remember you. I remember what you did for me in there, too.” She moistened her dry lips and her stomach tightened, clenching as his stare dropped down, watching the slide of her tongue. She was suddenly tempted to take the ice cream she purchased and roll it down her overheated throat.
He moved in suddenly and the air sucked out of her in a hiss. Until she realized he was only bending to retrieve her keys. Not to touch her. Not to do anything else.
He held her keys out for her to take. “Don’t confuse me with some hero. I’m as tarnished as they come.”
She opened her hand, palm up, and his fingers brushed her skin as he dropped the keys into it. He started to turn to go.
“Why did you do it?” she whispered so quietly she wasn’t sure he heard her. “Why did you save me?”