Threat of Darkness(30)

 “I’m great,” Sam finally replied. “I just want to get home, check on Brutus and chill with my best bud.”

 “Well, okay,” John drawled, “but the dog won’t like it if we don’t include him.”

 “I meant the dog,” Sam shot back, realizing belatedly that John had been baiting her and she’d fallen for one of his silly ruses exactly the way she used to.

 She folded her arms across her chest and tried her best to work up a show of displeasure. That would have been a lot easier if she hadn’t heard her companion start to chuckle softly.

 Frowning and smiling at the same time, she glanced over at him. “You are hopeless, Waltham. You know that?”

 “Yup. So you’ve told me often enough.” He laughed a little more before sobering. “Seriously, Sam, we need to talk about a plan of defense so we’re ready for anything.”

 “Like what?”

 “Like keeping each other on speed dial and making sure neither of us goes anywhere without informing the other.”

 “What you really mean is, you don’t want me to make a move unless I tell you first. Right?”

 “Well…”

 “Then say it. I might as well be the one under arrest instead of Bobby Joe. I have very little more freedom than he does.”

 Instead of agreeing or arguing or reacting in any of the ways Samantha had expected, John merely nodded.

 When he said, “Believe me, I’d prefer you were in jail where every cop in town could keep an eye on you,” she felt the urge to deliver a scathing rebuttal.

 Instead, she smiled sweetly and said, “I’m really sorry you got stuck babysitting me. I guess we’ll just have to make the best of a bad situation and get through it as fast as possible. Right?”

 “Right.”

 Sam noticed how firmly his hands were gripping the steering wheel and saw his jaw muscles clenching. He was really uptight. Well, too bad. This police protection assignment hadn’t been her idea in the first place. It wasn’t her fault that he was stuck with her. And she certainly wasn’t going to continue to apologize for their awkward situation when none of it was her doing.

 John eased the truck and trailer into her driveway and started to slowly approach the house while Samantha sat there and fumed. Okay, so he didn’t want to be with her and had made no bones about his feelings. She could take that. It wasn’t the first time she’d been rejected and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

 But, in the back of her mind, she’d hoped…

No, she insisted, steeling herself for whatever was to come. She would not start wishing for things that were beyond impossible. She’d learned the hard way that that was futile. John Waltham was only there beside her, protecting her, because he’d been ordered to. And he would do his job to the best of his ability, as always.

 Samantha could understand that kind of work ethic because she possessed the same kind of dedication. That was why she’d laid her job on the line, more than once, in an effort to help the helpless. And it was why she would do the same thing again, in a heartbeat, if she suspected any child was in jeopardy.

 Picturing Danny and remembering his fright, she momentarily closed her eyes and shot a quick prayer heavenward. “Father, be with him. Keep him safe,” was all she deemed necessary. She was a no-nonsense person with regard to her daily existence and didn’t stray far from that approach in other areas.

 Perhaps that was one reason she’d gone into nursing, she concluded. She liked to see things done well and handled properly, efficiently. Having order in her life made up for the chaos of her childhood, for the moment-by-moment uncertainty, for the deep-seated fear that even now occasionally surfaced and caught her unawares.

 Samantha shivered and wrapped her arms around herself to hold her nylon jacket tighter over her hospital-type scrubs. The iciness was more in her mind than her body. It kept company with unreasonable dread and the feeling that she might be on the receiving end of more senseless violence at any moment.

 Lashes lowered, she chanced a sidelong glance at her companion. He wasn’t paying the slightest attention to her. He didn’t have to. Just seeing him there beside her was enough. As always, John Waltham’s mere presence both blessed and comforted her.

* * *

 John drove his rig around the farmhouse and carefully checked the trailer’s clearance before easing it beneath Sam’s carport. Thankfully, there was plenty of room.

 While he was doing that, she jumped out and headed for the back door.