Page 6 of Operation Protector
Quinn let out an audible breath. “Well, we had December off at least.”
“And a lovely December it was.” Hayley was smiling now, and Ali was a little boggled by how relaxed they both suddenly were, when the man who had tried to break in next door was sitting right there. Not to mention they’d just had an entire conversation that made no sense to anyone else.
She stifled the pang she felt, thinking of when she, too, had had a relationship like that, and shifted her gaze to that man on the ground now. He looked as puzzled as she felt.
He also looked familiar. He was a big guy, she could tell that even as he remained crouched there. Long legs, muscular arms—the left one blood-soaked even wrapped in what looked like a strip torn from his plaid shirt—slightly shaggy dark brown hair, and bright blue eyes.
Her pulse jumped. She’d seen those eyes before.
Grace’s eyes.
The image captured in the photo Grace had once shown her, a clearly precious thing to the child, flashed through her mind. She remembered the girl pulling it out of her pocket, whispering that she had to hide it or her mother would take it away and burn it.
It showed a couple-of-years-younger Grace, a delighted grin on her face, getting a ride in a wheelbarrow pushed by her equally grinning father.
By this man.
“You’re Grace’s dad,” she said, staring at him.
The man stiffened. “You know my girl?”
She nodded. “I moved in next door three weeks ago.”
His expression cleared immediately. “You’re Ali?”
Surprised, she nodded again. But she was even more surprised by the utterly and unmistakably grateful expression that came over his face then. And when he spoke it was with a sincere tone that matched that look. And surprised her even more.
“Thank you.”
Chapter 4
Colby Kendrick had known he was in trouble the moment that puppy had started yapping. He’d had no choice at the time except to grab it and try to quiet it. His ex-wife slept like a log—usually a drugged one—but he couldn’t risk it. So he’d picked up the dog, who had wiggled so much it hurt his bleeding arm to hang on to him, and then he’d put him down on the ground back here in the trees so he could try to stop the bleeding. And as he’d hoped, the territory outside his fenced yard fascinated him enough he’d just started sniffing and exploring.
But now Colby was obviously in more trouble than he ever had been in his life.
That was what he got for sitting here in the rain for what, a couple of hours? But Liz had been so furious about the window he had been worried about his little girl. He heard the whole fight from here in the trees. His brave, courageous little girl who had immediately told her mother she had broken the window accidentally.
He didn’t think Liz would physically abuse her, but at this point he wasn’t certain of anything. And he wasn’t about to leave Grace alone, even if he was bleeding.
And that was when everything had changed. When that other dog had arrived. He’d looked like a police dog or something when he’d first come racing out of the trees at him, and Colby had wondered if he was about to get bitten on top of everything. But it all changed again, and he was acting like a well-behaved pet. Well-behaved and…friendly.
“We need to have a discussion,” the tall, powerful-looking man who had come up beside the dog said.
That was when a sudden thought struck him. “Did she call you? You work for them?”
“Them?” The woman who had come with the man spoke now. He assumed they were a couple, presumably the owners of the dog. There was something about the way they were together…
He nearly laughed aloud at himself, for thinking he had a clue. After all, he’d thought Liz loved him, too.
“Who?” the man asked, and there was an edge in his voice that said he wasn’t a guy to mess with. And that instinct Colby trusted. So he answered.
“The Hollens.”
He saw recognition of the name cross both of their faces. But unless he was completely wrong—entirely possible—he also saw a tinge of distaste.
“Hollen? Grace told me that was her mother’s last name.”
Colby’s gaze snapped to Ali. And it happened again, just as it had the first moment he’d looked at her, before she’d explained and he realized she was that new friend Grace had told him about. That hair, the color of the reddest leaves in autumn. And her eyes, green like the other woman’s but different, lighter, like the first growth of spring. And that voice, low and deep and rich, sending an oddly shivery sensation down his spine. He hadn’t had a reaction like this to a woman in…forever.
