Heartbreaker Read online

  Roger.

  What a fool she had been! She had considered him as a danger only to herself, not to John. She should have expected his insane jealousy to spill over onto the man he thought had taken her away from him. While she had been trying to draw him out, he had been stalking John. Fiercely her hands knotted into fists. Roger wouldn’t stand a chance against John in an open fight, but he would sneak around like the coward he was, never taking the chance of a face-to-face confrontation.

  She looked down at the two carry-ons Edie had packed for them and put her hand to her head. “I feel a little sick, Nev,” she whispered. “Excuse me, I have to get to the restroom.”

  Nev looked around, worry etched on his face. “Do you want me to get a nurse? You do look kinda green.”

  “No, I’ll be all right.” She managed a weak smile as she lied, “I never have been able to stand the sight of blood, and it just caught up with me.”

  She patted his arm and went around the partition to the public restrooms, but didn’t enter. Instead she waited a moment, sneaking peeks around the edge of the partition; as soon as Nev turned to sit down while waiting for her, she darted across the open space to the corridor where the examining rooms were. The door to John’s room was closed, but not far enough for the latch to catch. When she cautiously nudged it, the door opened a crack. It was on the left side of the room, so John wouldn’t be able to see it. Phelps should be on John’s right side, facing him; with luck, he wouldn’t notice the slight movement of the door, either.

  Their voices filtered through the crack.

  “—think the bullet came from a little rise just to the left of me,” John said. “Nev can show you.”

  “Is there any chance the bullet could be in the upholstery?”

  “Probably not. The trajectory wasn’t angled enough.”

  “Maybe I can find the cartridge. I’m coming up with a big zero from the airlines, but I have another angle I can check. If he flew in, he’d have come in at Tampa, which means he’d have gotten his rental car at the airport. If I can get a match on his description, we’ll have his license plate number.”

  “A blue Chevrolet. That should narrow it down,” John said grimly.

  “I don’t even want to think about how many blue Chevrolets there are in this state. It was a good idea to keep Michelle with you in Tampa; it’ll give me a few days to get a lead on this guy. I can get a buddy in Tampa to put surveillance on the hospital, if you think you’ll need it.”

  “He won’t be able to find her if the doctor here keeps quiet and if my file is a little hard to find.”

  “I can arrange that.” Andy chuckled.

  Michelle didn’t wait to hear more. Quietly she walked back down the corridor and rejoined Nev. He was reading a magazine and didn’t look up until she sat down beside him. “Feeling better?” he asked sympathetically.

  She gave some answer, and it must have made sense, because it satisfied him. She sat rigidly in the chair, more than a little stunned. What she had overheard had verified her suspicion that Roger was behind John’s “accident,” but it was hard for her to take in the rest of it. John not only believed her about the phone calls, he had tied them in to the blue Chevrolet and had been quietly trying to track Roger down. That explained why he had suddenly become so insistent that she tell him exactly where she was going and how long she would be there, why he didn’t want her going anywhere at all. He had been trying to protect her, while she had been trying to bait Roger into the open.

  She hadn’t told him what she was doing because she hadn’t thought he would believe her; she had learned well the bitter lesson that she could depend only on herself, perhaps learned it too well. Right from the beginning John had helped her, sometimes against her will. He had stepped in and taken over the ranch chores that were too much for her; he was literally carrying her ranch until she could rebuild it into a profitable enterprise. He had given her love, comfort, care and concern, and now a child, but still she hadn’t trusted him. He hadn’t been tiring of her; he’d been under considerable strain to protect her.

  Being John, he hadn’t told her of his suspicions or what he was doing because he hadn’t wanted to “worry” her. It was just like him. That protective, possessive streak of his was bone deep and body wide, defying logical argument. There were few things or people in his life that he cared about, but when he did care, he went full measure. He had claimed her as his, and what was his, he kept.

  Deputy Phelps stopped by to chat; Michelle decided to give him an opportunity to talk to Nev, and she walked back to John’s room. The ambulance had just arrived, so she knew they would be leaving soon.

  When the door opened, he rolled his head until he could see her with his right eye. “Is everything okay?”

  She had to grit her teeth against the rage that filled her when she saw his battered, discolored face. It made her want to destroy Roger in any way she could. The primitive, protective anger filled her, pumping into every cell in her body. It took every bit of control she had to calmly walk over to him as if she weren’t in a killing rage and take his hand. “If you’re all right, then I don’t care what Edie packed or didn’t pack.”

  “I’ll be all right.” His deep voice was confident. He might or might not lose the sight in his eye, but he’d be all right. John Rafferty was made of the purest, hardest steel.

  She sat beside him in the ambulance and held his hand all the way to Tampa, her eyes seldom leaving his face. Perhaps he dozed; perhaps it was simply less painful if he kept his right eye closed, too. For whatever reason, little was said during the long ride.

  It wasn’t until they reached the hospital that he opened his eye and looked at her, frowning when he saw how drawn she looked. She needed the bed rest more than he did; if it hadn’t been for his damned eye, and the opportunity to keep Michelle away from the ranch, he would already have been back at work.

  He should have gotten her away when he’d first suspected Beckman was behind her accident, but he’d been too reluctant to let her out of his sight. He wasn’t certain about her or how much she needed him, so he’d kept her close at hand. But the way she had looked when she saw he was hurt…a woman didn’t look like that unless she cared. He didn’t know how much she cared, but for now he was content with the fact that she did. He had her now, and he wasn’t inclined to let go. As soon as this business with Beckman was settled, he’d marry her so fast she wouldn’t know what was happening.

  Michelle went through the process of having him admitted to the hospital while he was whisked off, with three—three!—nurses right beside him. Even as battered as he was, he exuded a masculinity that drew women like a magnet.

  She didn’t see him again for three hours. Fretting, she wandered the halls until a bout of nausea drove her to find the cafeteria, where she slowly munched on stale crackers. Her stomach gradually settled. John would probably be here for at least two days, maybe longer; how could she hide her condition from him when she would be with him practically every hour of the day? Nothing escaped his attention for long, whether he had one good eye or two. Breeding wasn’t anything new to him; it was his business. Cows calved; mares foaled. On the ranch, everything mated and reproduced. It wouldn’t take long for him to discard the virus tale she’d told him and come up with the real reason for her upset stomach.

  What would he say if she told him? She closed her eyes, her heart pounding wildly at the thought. He deserved to know. She wanted him to know; she wanted to share every moment of this pregnancy with him. But what if it drove him to do something foolish, knowing that Roger not only threatened her but their child as well?

  She forced herself to think clearly. They were safe here in the hospital; this was bought time. He wouldn’t leave the hospital when staying here meant that she was also protected. She suspected that was the only reason he’d agreed to come at all. He was giving Deputy Phelps time to find Roger, if he