Beneath the Badge. Rita Herron

my God, Taylor, I heard what happened. Are you all right?”

      Taylor clenched the sheets as Hayes gave Margaret a feral look, a look that nearly froze Margaret in her rush to hug Taylor.

      “I’m fine, Margaret,” Taylor said, although tears blurred her sight. She could hold herself together in the face of Hayes’s brusqueness, but her best friend’s tenderness unraveled her calm facade. Although Margaret was old enough to be her mother, they had bonded as soon as they had met. The one person in the world Taylor trusted, the one who loved her unconditionally, was Margaret. And Taylor felt the same way about her friend. Not only was Margaret smart but kindhearted, and she’d faced her own share of problems and pain, although she hid them well from the prying eyes of the public.

      Margaret bypassed Hayes and swept Taylor into a hug. “God, this is awful, Tay. What happened?”

      Taylor relayed the short version of the story, well aware of Hayes’s scowl.

      “Who in the world would want to hurt you, honey?”

      “I don’t know, Margaret.” Taylor sighed. “But Sergeant Keller saved my life.”

      Surprise registered on Margaret’s face, then she gave Hayes a curious look and smiled. “Sergeant, thank you so much for rescuing Taylor. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to her.”

      Hayes’s dark eyes turned icy. “Just doing my job, ma’am. Where were you this evening?”

      “Sergeant Keller, you’re out of line,” Taylor said sharply.

      “Like I told you earlier, Miss Landis, your attacker could be one of your friends.”

      “It certainly isn’t Margaret,” Taylor said between clenched teeth. “She would never hurt me.”

      “That’s right,” Margaret said, obviously insulted at the thought. “Taylor and I are best friends.”

      “Then you won’t mind answering my question,” Hayes said in a lethal voice.

      Margaret tightened her jaw, and Taylor gripped her hand. “I told you she wouldn’t hurt me.”

      “I had dinner with Taylor, then met my fiancé, Devon Goldenrod, at his house,” Margaret said. “You can ask him.”

      Hayes arched a brow. “Right, the golden boy who’s vying for votes in the next City Board election.”

      Taylor grimaced at the disdain in Hayes’s voice. She’d heard he’d had a rough life but he didn’t have to take his attitude out on her and Margaret.

      Then again, for a moment, pain had flashed in his eyes when he’d seen Margaret hug her. Kimberly had mentioned that he’d been adopted, that there were some things he refused to talk about.

      Margaret folded her arms. “Sergeant, what are you doing to find the person who attacked Taylor?”

      His lips thinned into a deeper frown. “I’ve processed the crime scene and will be investigating everyone in Miss Landis’s life for motive.”

      “What about keeping her safe?” Margaret asked.

      An evil grin slid across the ranger’s face. “Well, ma’am,” he drawled mockingly, “I’ve got that covered.”

      “How?” Margaret asked.

      “I’ve been assigned as her bodyguard day and night.”

      Taylor’s stomach sizzled with nerves yet she pressed her fingers to her lips, remembering how gentle he’d been when he resuscitated her. How in the world was she going to endure being near this man when he obviously hated everything about her?

      HAYES BALLED HIS HANDS into fists to control his temper. Dammit, Taylor Landis looked all soft and needy. And she’d touched those luscious lips and looked up at him as if she was remembering his mouth on hers when he’d brought her back to life.

      Hell. He couldn’t think about that. Couldn’t touch her mouth or any other part of her body again.

      So he lashed out at her by taking perverse joy in taunting her rich friend. Maybe it was payback for all the taunting he’d received as a kid.

      Margaret narrowed her eyes. “For some reason that doesn’t make me feel any better, Sergeant.”

      He threw his head back and chuckled. “Don’t worry, Ms. Hathaway, I won’t let anything bad happen to the little princess.”

      “You’d better not.” Margaret’s eyes flashed with emotions that Hayes refused to allow to get to him. “Because she’s going to be my maid of honor at my wedding, and I don’t want her showing up in a cast or on crutches.”

      Or not showing up because she was dead, Hayes thought, although he refrained from comment. “In light of the fact that someone tried to kill you tonight, Taylor, you shouldn’t put yourself in the limelight right now.”

      Margaret’s face blanched with fear, and Hayes’s gut tightened.

      “He’s right,” Margaret said. “I’ll postpone everything until after the police find out who did this to you, Tay.”

      “No, you won’t,” Taylor said, shooting Hayes a harsh look.

      “But I don’t want to take a chance on you being hurt,” Margaret argued.

      “She’s right, Taylor,” Hayes said. “You need to go into hiding until we find the man who attacked you.”

      Anger sizzled in Taylor’s sky-blue eyes. “I refuse to run and hide. I’m not going to let some creep scare me from living my life.”

      Hayes glared at her. “Then you’re a fool and asking for trouble.”

      She turned a saccharine sweet smile on Hayes that was so fake it fueled his temper. “But, Sergeant, you’ll be with me day and night to protect me.”

      He met her gaze with a sinister stare, but she smiled again, and focused on Margaret as if he was her minion.

      Rage ripped through him. That was how she saw him, and he couldn’t forget it.

      AS SOON AS MARGARET LEFT, Taylor fell into an exhausted sleep. Fitful images of the attack drove her awake several times, but when she opened her eyes, she saw Hayes Keller sitting in the chair in the corner watching her. She shouldn’t have found comfort in having him close by, but his big masculine presence soothed her nerves, and she rolled to her side and drifted back to sleep.

      The last time she woke, sunlight streamed through the hospital window, and she checked the chair. He was slightly slumped, his head having fallen sideways in sleep, and his massive chest moved up and down with his breath. Catching him off guard in sleep seemed somehow intimate.

      She noticed the fine dark stubble along his rugged jaw, the way his thick lips formed a constant scowl, the little curl in his dark hair that made her want to run her hands through it. His jaw was broad, his nose blunt and slightly crooked as if it had been broken and his eyebrows were full and thick, arched to frame his eyes in a way that added to his intensity.

      The sound of his breathing floated toward her, a coarse whisper just as masculine as his face and body.

      Somehow in that moment, he looked almost…human. And approachable.

      He suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze meeting hers, and a tingling started low and deep in her belly. Lord, he was potently sexy. Like a cowboy hero in a Western.

      No, no, no. She couldn’t allow herself to fantasize about him.

      His eyebrows lifted slightly, and a heartbeat of silence stretched between them, fraught with tension.

      She must be insane because at that moment she wanted him.

      Then the door swung open and the doctor walked in. “Good morning, Miss Landis. Let’s see if it’s time to dismiss you.”

      Hayes pushed