Jamie led her to his car, his hand protectively clasping her elbow. He made her sit in the back while he used a shop vac he’d found in the pool house to clean the glass from her seat. All she could think about—just couldn’t get it out of her mind—was that her possible father had tried to rape her. She shuddered, afraid she might lose her breakfast.
“I think you should skip your classes today,” Jamie said when he finished.
“I ca-can’t. It’s a review for . . . for one of my last exams next week.” And hopefully, it would help get her mind back where it needed to be.
He studied her for a moment before sighing heavily. “Then I need to go back inside and get your books. You’re coming with me.”
The last thing she wanted was to see her destroyed apartment again, but she didn’t want to be alone either, even knowing the cops had Fortunada. Paranoid much, Maria? “I’ll stand just inside the door.”
A few minutes later and they were back in the car. Hot wind was blowing in the broken window and battling with the air-conditioning Jamie had turned on high.
“I’m sorry.”
She reached over and gave his arm an awkward little pat. “I know, and you don’t have to keep saying it. There was no way for you to know he would be there.” It hadn’t occurred to either of them that Fortunada would be inside her apartment, behind the door. That he’d hit Jamie over the head with her bronze statue of Lady Justice just seemed wrong.
“I should have been prepared for the possibility.”
She heard the disgust—aimed at himself—in his voice. She’d been around SEALs long enough to know they took failure to heart, and nothing she could say would keep him from beating himself up about it. Maybe he should have considered Fortunada to be a devious rat bastard, and Logan would no doubt blow his top when he heard, but what was done was done.
“How’s your head? You really should have it checked.” Both she and Detective Nolan had tried to get him to go to the hospital, but he’d refused to leave her side. She was grateful he hadn’t been knocked out for long.
“It’s fine.”
Okay, he wanted to stew about it for a while.
He slapped the heel of his hand against the steering wheel. “If you hadn’t left me a trail to follow, I might not have found you in time. I’m not sure I could’ve lived with that.”
So that’s what was really bothering him. She shifted in her seat to face him. “Jamie, you did find me in time and I’m okay.” Not true, but he was doing a fine job of wallowing in guilt without any help from her.
He looked at her for the first time since they’d gotten in the car. “Are you? Really?”
Wanting to see the guilt in his eyes go away, she smiled. “I am. I won’t deny he scared the crap out of me, but nothing happened and I wasn’t hurt. He’s a creep, one I don’t plan to think about after today.” And how she wished that were true. It would probably be easier to get him out of her mind if she knew for sure he wasn’t her father.
“Good.” Jamie flipped on the blinker to turn into the school’s entrance.
How hard was it going to be to get him to keep this between the two of them? “I don’t think we should tell Logan and Jake about today.”
“No can do.”
Well, it was worth a try. She’d expected he would feel obligated to tell her brother. “Just Logan then. Jake will likely freak out and do something stupid like come back here. Then Logan will get pissed . . . well, you can see how that would play out.”
“I’ll leave it up to the boss whether or not he wants to tell Jake.”
“Fair enough.” It was better than nothing, and she would ask Logan not to tell Jake. Jamie parked the car and walked her to her classroom, taking a position against the wall outside the door. She knew he wouldn’t move from that spot until she came out.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Four o’clock finally arrived and Maria was free until Monday. When she walked out of class, Jamie stood exactly where she’d left him. Poor man, he must be bored out of his mind.
“You need to call Jake.” He pushed away from the wall and stepped next to her.
“He knows?” Damn, that was the last thing she wanted.
“No. Just call him.”
Handing her books to him, she dug in her purse for her cell. Turning it back on, she punched *3, speed-dialing Jake.
“Hey, Aunt Maria,” Jake said.
Because she was used to being called “aunt” by Regan, it didn’t register at first.