Tempted By The Bodyguard. Elle James

glanced down at his watch and across to his wife. Despite her attempt to look in control, Debra was sagging under the weight of the baby. “There’s no use all of us waiting for her to wake up. We should go home and get some rest. Tomorrow will be stressful in itself.”

      “Trey, you need to get Debra home and off her feet.” Kate turned to Patrick. “You and Shelby will be staying at the Winston Estate.”

      Patrick crossed his arms over his chest. “You can’t order me around like you do the rest of the world. I have a business to run on the Outer Banks.”

      Kate nodded. “I know. But we almost lost Shelby tonight. If there’s any possibility her kidnappers will try to take her again, she needs protection. Can you provide that for her at your bar?”

      Patrick’s lips pressed into a thin line. After a long pause, he answered, “No.”

      “Then I implore you to bring Shelby to the Winston Estate where she can have 24/7 protection by the most trusted man the Secret Service has to offer.” She nodded toward Daniel. “I’ve just tasked Daniel Henderson with the duty of providing protection for Shelby.”

      Daniel bit down hard on his lip to keep from reminding her that he hadn’t agreed to play babysitter to a twenty-three-year-old woman. He’d rather be out investigating this case, finding the men responsible for the attempts on Kate’s life and kidnapping her granddaughter. But discussing that in front of the rest of the family was not professional.

      He’d wait and get her alone to discuss his duties in private.

      For the time being, if the former vice president wanted him to provide security for her granddaughter, he’d protect her granddaughter.

      “Okay,” Patrick said finally. “I’ll get my assistant manager to run the bar for the next few days. And I’m only doing this for Shelby. If I had any other choices, I wouldn’t have come to you.”

      “Patrick.” Kate stared into his eyes. “I thought my baby was dead.”

      “Her name was Carrie,” Patrick bit out. “She was beautiful, just like you.”

      “Was?” Tears welled in Kate’s eyes.

      “She died in an auto accident when she was only twenty-four. Shelby is all I have left and I’ll be damned if I lose her, too.” Patrick walked out of the room, leaving a stricken Kate in his wake.

      Daniel turned away, unable to watch as tears slipped silently down Kate’s face.

      “I never knew my own daughter.” Kate’s voice shook.

      “We had a sister.” Samuel stared after Patrick’s retreating figure.

      “And we’ll never know her.” Thad hugged Lucy close.

      Daniel wanted to storm through the room and yell at all of them, “You have Shelby. Don’t screw it up with her.”

      “Mother,” Trey said. “Go home. Get some sleep. I’ll stay.”

      “No need,” Daniel said. “I’ll keep watch through the night. If she wakes, I’ll call.”

      “She should be surrounded by familiar faces when she comes to,” Kate said.

      Patrick stood at the doorway. “Which isn’t even one of you. I’m staying.”

      “Fair enough.” Kate hooked Trey’s arm and leaned on him as they walked out of the waiting room. As she passed Daniel, she paused. “Keep her safe.”

      Daniel nodded. “I will.”

      Then the Winstons stepped into the elevator that whisked them to the ground floor. All the tension left the floor with them and Daniel let himself take a deep breath.

      Patrick stood beside him, his gaze on the closed elevator doors. “She’s as beautiful today as she was when we first met. If not more so.”

      Daniel didn’t comment. He saw a lot of Kate in her granddaughter’s features. If Shelby had half the gumption of her grandmother, she’d be a formidable foe and a dedicated friend.

      “I’m going to sit with Shelby. There’s a chair in the room that reclines.” Patrick stuck out his hand. “I understand you were the one who pulled her from the burning home. Thank you.”

      “You’re welcome.” Daniel clasped the man’s hand and shook it. This was a man he could relate to. He had a firm handshake, the calloused hands of a working man and an open, friendly face. “I’ll stay outside her room and make sure no unauthorized personnel enter.”

      “I owe you a debt I can never repay.”

      “No payment necessary. It’s part of my job.”

      Patrick returned to Shelby’s room, entering quietly, closing the door behind him.

      Daniel’s leg ached, and he was tired but still wound up by the events of the evening. He found a chair and propped it against the wall beside Shelby’s room. Too preoccupied to sit, he paced, dreading the boredom of being a bodyguard at the same time as he embraced the job, knowing he was protecting a woman who’d done nothing to become a target other than being born into the wrong family.

      After a while, Daniel sat to relieve the strain on his leg.

      Several hours passed, the clock hands spinning around the dial to six in the morning. Patrick O’Hara emerged from Shelby’s room, eyes bloodshot, clothes wrinkled and chin stubbled with a day’s growth of beard. “I’m going to hit the hay and then find a cup of coffee and a meal if such exists at this hour. Can I get you anything?”

      “No, thank you.” Daniel stood and stretched the kinks out of his sore muscles. “You might as well take your time. I’ll be here.”

      Patrick left, shuffling down the long hallway to the elevator.

      A nurse made her rounds, checking on the patients. When she came to Shelby’s door, Daniel entered behind her. She checked the position of the IV needle, the bag of fluid and the monitors and shone a light into Shelby’s eyes. When she finished, she left the room and Daniel stayed.

      Someone had wiped the dirt and soot from Shelby’s face. Clean and free of makeup, she looked younger than her twenty-three years.

      She stirred, her hand clenching and her lips twitching. Behind her eyelids, her eyes moved, but she didn’t open them. Daniel wondered what she was dreaming about.

      She raised a hand to her chest and moaned, the sound so sad and mournful, Daniel couldn’t help himself. He lifted her hand and held it, hoping his touch would ease her nightmares and allow her to sleep.

      She curled into him, tucking his hand beneath her cheek, and moaned again.

      His chest tightened and he leaned over her, wrapping his arms around her, shielding her from the bad guys in her dreams.

      Shelby walked to her car, carrying the satchel with all her notes, the copies of the pages she had yet to read and the half-eaten sandwich she’d set aside as she’d dug deeper into the shelves of case studies and books.

      Time had slipped away before she realized she should have left the library an hour before. Now she hurried, knowing her grandfather would be checking on her to see that she got back to the house by midnight.

      Her car was the only one left in the parking lot, parked near a large tree. When she’d arrived, the sun had been bright and hot, the tree providing blessed shade on an unusually sultry spring day. Now the tree loomed over her two-door economy car, casting darker shadows in the light from a million stars overhead.

      A trickle of apprehension skittered across her skin, making her walk faster, keys in her hand, ready to pop the locks and jump inside. Not that there was anything to worry about. She’d left the library this late on many occasions and had no trouble.