The Best Man in Texas. Kelsey Roberts
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Название: The Best Man in Texas
Автор: Kelsey Roberts
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
isbn: 9781472052285
isbn:
A spotlight clicked on from the driver’s side of the car. Sara could feel heat from the light as the car inched closer. Something didn’t seem right. Where had Hank Allen gotten a spotlight?
She was virtually blinded by the lights. An odd sense of calm washed over her. She ran the situation through her mind, remembering everything she had been taught in her self-defense course. Cooperation, she repeated like a mantra. Don’t antagonize him and don’t get into the car!
“Step up to the car, please, ma’am.”
Sara blinked at the unfamiliar male voice. She remained frozen in place.
“Texas State Police, ma’am. Step up to the front of the vehicle and place your palms on the hood.”
The disembodied voice was bellowing from a speaker. Sara was trying to grasp this sudden change in her situation when she heard a muffled curse as the car door opened.
“Lady,” an irritated young officer groused, “would you come on over here, please?”
“What?”
“Geez!” the young man groaned as he moved toward her. “What happened to you?”
“What?” Sara repeated.
He emerged from the spotlight, his gun belt jingling with each step he took. The faint smell of aftershave arrived a split second before the young officer. Tipping the brim of his uniform hat back slightly, he stared down at her face with a frown.
“You need medical attention, ma’am.”
Coming out of her fog, Sara gently shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”
“You aren’t fine,” he argued. “Who did this to you and what are you doing out here in the middle of the night?”
“Visiting a friend,” Sara explained.
His brows crunched together. “I don’t think so,” he countered. “If you tell me the truth, I can help you.”
Sara didn’t want to tell him how many times she had heard that before. There was the marriage counselor who was going to help her. Then the doctor who was going to help her. And the divorce attorney. And the support group. And the college dean. And the judge who issued the restraining order.
“Thank you, but I’m fine,” she managed to reply as politely as possible.
“You aren’t fine,” he argued.
“My friend owns this place,” Sara explained.
He snorted. “Is that right?”
“Yes. I’m surprised she hasn’t come outside with all these lights shining.” Why hasn’t she? Sara wondered to herself.
“Is this friend Miss Violet?” the officer queried.
Sara nodded.
“She isn’t here.”
Sara felt her heart plummet. “Not here?”
“You say she’s a friend?”
Sara nodded. “Yes, we met a few years ago.”
“You couldn’t have been too close,” the officer said. “Miss Violet died a while back. Which means you are trespassing.”
CHAPTER TWO
“IT WOULD BE a lot easier if you would just tell me your name,” the trooper said for the fifth time during their ride.
“I’ve agreed to go to the Harrisons’ shelter,” Sara argued. “Believe me, it’s better if no one knows my name.”
“What about your kin?” he asked. “Isn’t there someone you’d like me to call? Let them know you’re okay?”
“I don’t have anyone, but thank you.”
“What kind of man did this to you?”
“The worst kind.”
* * *
THE HARRISONS’ shelter was a converted bunkhouse on an immaculate ranch just outside the town of Pinto. It was pitch-dark when Kathy Harrison greeted them at the locked gate in her bathrobe.
She offered Sara a warm smile, then placed her arm around her shoulders and steered her to the main house. Kathy dismissed the trooper, then insisted that Sara have something to eat.
“You want to tell me your name?” Kathy asked as she piled lettuce on a sandwich.
“Jane Doe?” Sara suggested. She clutched the steaming coffee in both hands.
Kathy chuckled and joined Sara at the spacious oak clawfoot table that dominated the cozy kitchen. “You don’t look like a Jane.”
Sara simply smiled. Her smile slipped a bit when an imposing man with white hair entered the kitchen.
“This is my husband, David,” Kathy explained.
Sara’s greeting was a tentative meeting of the eyes.
“I smelled sandwiches,” David commented easily. Unlike his wife, he made no move to make physical contact. In fact, he seemed careful to avoid invading her space.
“I’m not really hungry,” Sara insisted.
“You should eat,” Kathy admonished.
“You should do what you want,” David countered as he accepted the plate Sara had pushed toward the center of the table. “Kathy can be something of a mother hen.”
“The girl looks half-starved,” Kathy protested.
David took a hearty bite of the sandwich and ate with appreciation. On a routine obviously established over many years, Kathy provided her husband with a glass of milk and a familiar pat on the shoulder.
This was what a marriage was supposed to be, Sara thought.
David met her gaze and asked, “Are you going to make us keep calling you ‘the girl?’”
Sara felt a little silly. Her face warmed with an uncomfortable blush. “If you don’t know my name, then you can’t tell anyone about me.”
“We don’t tell,” David stated with conviction. “This is a safe place. We’ve got an arrangement with law enforcement in four counties. They know if they bring a woman here for shelter, she’ll be safe because we know better than to reveal information. We know how dangerous it is.”
“I doubt it,” Sara sighed.
Kathy disappeared and returned in a flash with a framed photograph. She handed СКАЧАТЬ