Her Family's Defender. Kim Findlay

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СКАЧАТЬ was going to have to talk to security, as well.

      He spoke in a quiet, soothing voice as if she was a nervous dog prepared to attack. “Okay, then, if you really are staying here legitimately, and everything is on the level, why did you attack me?”

      “I didn’t attack you!” Her voice rose. “You attacked me and I defended myself!”

      “Attacked you? I didn’t touch you! I just tried to keep an unauthorized person from following me to my place!”

      “You tried to keep me in the elevator using force.”

      “That wasn’t force. You need to chill out.”

      “Easy for a man to say,” she responded with rancor, but she released his arm and stood up. Troy carefully tested his arm and, finding it a little sore but undamaged, got carefully to his feet.

      She took a few steps back and Troy got his first good look at her. She was shoulder height to him, about his age, but fit and held herself erect. Her hair was dark and long and tied back in a messy ponytail. She had no makeup on, and she was wearing a rumpled T-shirt and shorts. And she was majorly pissed at him.

      She had let him go, but she was still on guard, and it bothered Troy. Wasn’t he the one who’d been upended here? She looked like she’d been hiding behind a dumpster for a few days. She didn’t appear to belong in his upscale building, let alone the penthouse. But he didn’t attack women. Had he done something she could consider threatening?

      “I wasn’t trying to attack you.” He tried a smile, one with a little extra charm in it. “But I think I’d know if my neighbor was letting someone stay in her place. The condo board here is pretty strict, so people don’t just drop off their keys to strangers. You’ve got a good story, but you should just walk away now.”

      Apparently, the charm in his smile wasn’t working on her. She narrowed her eyes and put her fists on her hips. “Do you even read your condo notices?” she said witheringly. “The board sent one out to inform residents that we were going to be staying in Mrs. Epps’s place. But go ahead and call security if you want. Just do it fast. I’ve had a tiring day, and I don’t want to be standing around any longer than I have to.”

      She gave him a long stare, stepped back another few feet and reached into her bag again. He tensed, but when she pulled out her hand she had only grabbed her phone. She swiped it, tapped, and started opening something on the screen. She found what she wanted and held it up to him. “This is a copy of the condo letter.”

      She must have decided she was either out of danger or that she could handle whatever threat he posed, because she crossed over to him and held the phone out. He reached for it, but she held on. As if he’d try to steal it.

      Reading the screen, he recognized the condo logo on top and scanned enough to verify that Mrs. Epps had asked the board to let someone stay in her condo, and that the board had agreed.

      The brunette stepped back once he raised his eyes. Darn, he was in the wrong. She’d nailed it when she’d guessed he never read those condo board letters. They were usually about some stupid rule, and no one expected him to follow every rule.

      He should apologize, but it stuck in his throat. He was a big guy, and made his living dominating his opponents physically. This woman had dropped him to the carpet without breaking a sweat. That was troublesome. She had no idea who he was, and that made him all too aware of the year he’d missed playing, and what else he could still miss. And certainly the way she was looking at him like he was a creep wasn’t helping.

      But fair was fair. She did belong here, and he’d missed the memo. He probably had more paperwork about the whole deal that he’d ignored.

      “Okay. I’m sorry I tried to block you from getting off the elevator. But you didn’t need to pin me to the ground. Maybe say something next time.”

      “You think I overreacted?.” She eyed him levelly. “Have you ever been assaulted?”

      He squelched the glib response that tried to work its way up. A lot of guys came after him on the ice. He was assaulted pretty well every hockey game. But he was paid for that, and knew what he had signed up for. What she was talking about couldn’t compare. And if she had been attacked herself at some point...

      She continued. “I was in the Forces. I learned how to protect myself, and I don’t apologize for that. I have two kids who will be staying here with me. I will protect them, as well.”

      And with that she turned and walked toward Mrs. Epps’s door. She inserted the key and walked in without giving him another look.

      * * *

      TROY LOOKED AT himself in his bathroom mirror. He was dressed only in running shoes and shorts. Some might label this prolonged self-examination as narcissistic. Troy certainly would admit to vanity, but that wasn’t what this was about.

      He was fit; more fit than he’d ever been. And as a professional athlete, he was used to being in good shape. There was nothing to concern him in his reflection. But still he stared, trying to drill beneath the skin, down through the blood and muscles to the basic cell structure. It was useless. If the cancer was coming back, he wouldn’t find it on the outside, just like he’d noticed nothing a year ago when it first attacked him.

      Still, he looked at himself. He was in peak condition, but knew that as fit as he was, as well as he ate and trained and as much as he checked himself every day, he was no longer invulnerable. He never had been: he just hadn’t realized. Now he did. And while he saw the same body in the mirror now that had made him one of the best defensemen in the league, he couldn’t trust it anymore.

      * * *

      “ANGIE, THIS IS your room.” Michelle paused in the doorway, letting her daughter peer inside.

      “Wow!” Angie said. “This place is awesome! Way better than our old house in Winnipeg!” She pushed past her mother, eager to start pulling her belongings out of the boxes and finding places for them in this larger room.

      Michelle smiled. She’d agonized over the decision to move. Leaving behind the city they’d called home for years hadn’t been easy. Growing up an army brat and then joining the Forces herself, she was accustomed to moving. This, though, was the first time she’d relocated entirely on her own, leaving a support network behind without having one waiting for her. Her encounter with the man who apparently lived across the hall had made her second-guess her decision, but that had been the only negative note so far.

      She’d just picked up the kids from the airport and was showing them their home for the next few months. They were going from base housing to a penthouse condo. They should be pleased.

      Tommy was tight on her heels, following her to the next doorway.

      “And this is your room.”

      Tommy paused, considering. He’d always been a quiet kid, but during the past year he’d become more so. Michelle tried not to reveal her worry: they each had to work through their grief in their own way.

      “It’s nice. Where’s your room, Mom?” he asked.

      Michelle wrapped her arm around his shoulders. He kept close tabs on her, and that was only natural. She hoped the new setting might help him come out of his shell.

      She СКАЧАТЬ