Christmas Double Cross. Jodie Bailey

like the man who’d apparently tried to kill her.

      She fought to sit up, wanting to feel less vulnerable and helpless, but her muscles protested. Her whole body was too heavy to move, the pain amplifying her panic.

      Gentle hands on her shoulders eased her back, and someone laid a hand on the top of her head. “Dani. It’s okay. You’re safe.”

      Dani. Only one person was allowed to call her that.

      Relaxing into the pillows, she turned her face toward the voice. “Lights?”

      “Want me to see if I can turn ’em off?”

      She nodded slightly and the sound of his feet in those ever-present Vans padded across the room, then the light in front of her eyelids dimmed considerably. She eased them open as her brother sat in a chair beside the bed and slouched against the back, stretching his legs out.

      Danielle almost smiled, and would have if her jaw didn’t ache so badly. Now that he knew she was awake, all signs of concern or affection from Justin would probably cease. They were in public, after all.

      The twinge of amusement didn’t last long. His brown eyes were dark with something that had to be fear as he stared at her. His too-long brown hair fell over the creases in his forehead. He was upset, even if he’d never say it out loud.

      “I’m fine. Really. Don’t look at me like that.” Even though it was painful, Danielle pressed the button to ease the bed up, trying to prove to both of them that she’d survived the ordeal mostly unscathed. Still, if she hurt this bad tonight, what would tomorrow feel like?

      “Somebody tried to kidnap you. They stuffed you in a trunk, Dani. And when that car wrecked, you could have been...” He shoved out of the chair and paced to the window, shoving his hand through the mop of hair she kept begging him to cut. “Somebody has to look out for you. I should have been at the shop tonight.”

      Fear threatened to rip Danielle’s chest open, but she managed to keep her voice level. In spite of her own trauma, she had to stay strong for her brother. He’d been through enough, losing both parents when he was younger. Nearly losing his sister in a car accident had to be weighing on him now. But she was entitled to her fear, too, and the thought of those dangerous men anywhere near her brother twisted her stomach into knots. “What were you going to do? You’re fifteen, and those guys had guns.”

      “Maybe I should start carrying.”

      “Absolutely not.”

      “All I’m saying is—”

      “No.” She pushed every ounce of the parental authority the state had given her into her voice. “All I’m saying is you’re too young. And you’re letting that crew you hang around with fill your head with the idea—”

      “They’d have helped me save you tonight.”

      “They’ll drag you to jail with them.” She’d seen him on the corner and in the little Mexican take-out place in the shopping center, hanging out with a whole new group of friends who gave her insomnia. They were a rough bunch. While she believed Justin hadn’t done anything crazy yet, sometimes she thought it was only a matter of time before they convinced her soft-hearted brother that he needed the group’s “protection.” Or their cash. They flashed a lot of it. Was that what drew him? “Justin—”

      “The cops want to ask you some questions. Wanted to know when you had your head on straight and were awake.” He huffed out a sigh without turning away from the window. “I’ll go tell them you’re back to your old self again.”

      She huffed. The police hadn’t been any help so far. “I won’t talk to them.”

      “Dani, you have to. They’ll find these guys so they don’t hurt you again. Somebody has to figure out why this happened.”

      “Somebody has been zero help since the shop was hit by vandals. For whatever reason, the police aren’t doing anything. When they do talk to me, they treat me like I did something wrong. Tell them to go away.”

      “I won’t.” He whipped around so fast his hair flopped across his forehead. “Somebody tried to kidnap you. Don’t you think that’s a little bit worse than tearing apart the store? You know what they keep talking about at school, warning the girls about? It’s not drugs these guys are after now. It’s pretty girls. Young girls. Wanna know why?”

      “Stop it.” Nausea whirled in her stomach, overwhelming the pain with a fear that might take her out. If those guys were human traffickers...

      Justin’s expression softened and he came back to her, resting his hand on her head again, the way their father had done when they were kids. “Help stop these guys. Make sure they don’t target somebody else, somebody who doesn’t have a hero willing to chase them down. One of them... One of them got away.”

      “Then they can question the other one.”

      His fingers tightened on her scalp. “The driver’s dead. He didn’t have an ID on him.”

      Dead. It was a final, awful word, even for a man who had harmed her. “Who told you that?”

      “The guy who saved your life.” His words bit off at the end. He was trying to bury his fear underneath anger.

      Danielle’s eyes widened. “He’s here?”

      “At the end of the hall in a huddle with a bunch of official-looking types. I think he’s a cop. Or something bigger. There’s some cowboy hats, boots, leather belts out there...”

      Texas Rangers? They handled things the police wouldn’t touch.

      Maybe that was what she needed. “I’ll talk to Colter Beckett. But only him. Nobody else comes in this room.” Something in his demeanor at the store had tugged at her, had said that despite the odd air about him, she could trust him.

      And he had, after all, been the one to rescue her.

      Justin headed for the door, then stopped at the entrance and hung his head. He glanced back at her, all traces of his earlier anger and frustration gone. “I’m glad you’re okay. If you weren’t...”

      If she could get out of bed and go to him, she would. Even if he tried to pull away, she’d hug him hard enough to reassure both of them. “God’s got us, Justin.”

      “Sure He does.” He was gone before she could say anything else.

      Spent after trying to be strong for him, Danielle shut her eyes and let the weight of her head pull her into the pillow. All she wanted was to go home, but she hadn’t seen a doctor or a nurse to ask how long she’d be here.

      A soft tap at the door opened her eyes again.

      Colter Beckett stood there. Tall. Muscular. His brown eyes just as unreadable now as they had been in the shop. But the set of his jaw was a whole lot different.

      Guarded. Cautious. Angry.

      But at whom?

      Stepping into the room, he shut the door and strode in with a defiant confidence he hadn’t carried earlier. He stopped at the foot of her bed and looked down at her as though he was holding back a whole lot of what he really wanted to say.

      She suddenly wished she hadn’t let him in the room.

      With practiced efficiency, he held out identification that included the familiar star-shaped badge of the Texas Rangers. “Ranger Colter Blackthorn. Who were those men?”

      The abrupt question tensed her shoulders and raked across her already aching head. “I’m sorry?”

      “Did you recognize either one of them? Have you seen them before? Anywhere?”

      Danielle shook her head, her eyebrows furrowing and tugging on the bruise that was bound to be forming in her check and jaw. Something was wrong. The way he was looking at her, questioning her... It was exactly like the police had treated her