Chapter 7
D evi took a deep breath and attempted to talk without stuttering. Unfortunately, she wasn’t very successful. She had to pause several times, wishing she had a glass of water.
“So you thought it was a smart idea to go outside, on your own, after you’d just had a run-in with these guys?” Jerry asked incredulously.
Great.
Just what she needed. Someone to point out what an idiot she’d been. As if she hadn’t known.
His walkie-talkie made a noise and he stepped out for a moment. She stared down at her hands. They were still shaking.
Shit.
Get yourself together, Devi.
Things could be worse.
But she still didn’t know if Hayes was all right. What if he’d caught that guy? Killed him?
No. He wouldn’t do that.
Would he?
Jerry walked back in and gave her a look. What? Did he really expect a reply?
“I . . . I . . . I . . .” The door suddenly opened and she let out a small cry.
Hayes paused and the fury on his face faded away slowly until he was staring down at her emotionlessly. She wasn’t sure if he thought that was better than the anger.
It was not.
She’d rather have the real emotion. Although she guessed he was doing it for her.
“What are you doing? Who are you?” Jerry demanded.
“I’m Hayes,” was all he said before running his gaze over her. “You okay? Injured?”
“I’m f-fine.”
His eyes narrowed. “Clearly you’re not that. You’re shaking and pale. Has anyone checked you over? Offered you a fucking glass of water?”
Her shaking increased. He sounded really mad.
“We’re actually in the middle of something,” Jerry said. “If you wait outside, I’ll talk to you after.”
“You can interview us both at the same time.” Hayes strode over and sat next to her.
His warmth seeped into her cold skin and her shaking decreased. It was strange but she chose not to think about it too hard.
“Where were you up to?” Hayes asked as he settled back. His thigh was touching hers.
Oh my God.
Her insides were practically dancing with joy. What was wrong with her? It wasn’t like he’d kissed her. Or, heck, even held her hand.
“This won’t take long,” Jerry said. “It would be better if you waited outside.”
“Yeah? You ask Devi if she wanted support while you questioned her?”
Jerry stared at the other man. “She didn’t ask for support.”
“Really? She had to ask? You didn’t offer?” Hayes turned to her. “I’m staying.”
Devi nodded. On a normal day, she likely would have argued. But not today. “I w-want him to s-stay.”
God. Maybe she should have said no. This was humiliating.
Jerry didn’t look happy, but he didn’t protest. “What were you doing here tonight?”
Huh? She worked here. Then she realized that he had directed that question to Hayes.
Dumb ass.
“Having a drink,” Hayes replied.
She wished that she sounded as cool and calm as he did. And not a blithering idiot who couldn’t get her words out.
“Aren’t you supposed to be working? Guarding the Steins?” Jerry asked.
So Jerry did know why Hayes was here in Angel?
Hayes raised an eyebrow. “Is this an interrogation? What does my job have to do with Devi being attacked twice in one night? Is this the way you’ve been talking to her? Is that why she’s shaking like a leaf?”
Jerry’s face darkened. Oh, he didn’t like being questioned, did he?
He stared at Hayes for a long moment, then he turned to her. Hayes tensed beside her. But Devi actually felt more calm. Jerry had been talking to her like she was the problem.
“I’m fine,” she said quietly.
“See?” Jerry said triumphantly. “She’s fine. You can go.”
“N-no.”
“No?” Jerry repeated.
“I want him.” She cleared her throat, realizing how that sounded. Please don’t let her be going red. “I meant what I-I said before, I w-want him to s-stay.”
Shit.
She’d hoped that stuttering would disappear now that she was feeling less on edge and . . . safer.
Yeah.
There was no denying that Hayes made her feel safer.
Jerry’s jaw tightened. “Fine. You thought it was a smart idea to go outside when you’d just been attacked. On your own?”
“No.” She rubbed her forehead. “But it’s never been a problem before?—”
“You’ve done this before?” Hayes demanded.
“Um. Yes.” She winced at the anger in his voice.
“You’re not doing that again,” he told her firmly.
Irritation stirred and she welcomed it. Built it up. She needed it to stop herself from falling into him, from begging him to hold her.
“Pretty sure you’re not the boss of me,” she told him. “And you can’t tell me what to do.”
Yay her! Seemed all she had to do to get rid of her stutter was get angry. Sure, she shouldn’t really be getting mad at Hayes. And he wasn’t wrong. She wouldn’t do that again.
However, that wasn’t up to him to decide.
Hayes leaned into her. “Seems like you need someone telling you what to do.”
He spoke so quietly that she was fairly certain Jerry couldn’t hear.
Well, she hoped he couldn’t. He might get the wrong idea about what she and Hayes were to each other.
Which was . . . nothing.
“It was a dumb thing to do, Devi,” Jerry told her bluntly. “And Hayes is right. Don’t do that again.”
“How is this my fault? I didn’t ask to be attacked!” She blinked rapidly.
“You’re right,” Jerry said with a sigh. “Of course you didn’t and in an ideal world, you should be free to go where you want whenever you want.
But it’s not an ideal world. There are things we all need to do to keep ourselves safe.
We all have to think smart. Letting someone bigger than you, someone who hadn’t just been accosted by some asshole, put the garbage out would have been smarter, don’t you agree? ”
Well, yeah.
Of course she did.
“I just needed to do something. I was . . . antsy.” She wrapped her arms around herself.
Hayes moved, shifting forward. Where was he going? Was he leaving? She didn’t want him to leave. But he simply drew off his shirt, leaving him in just a T-shirt. Turning, he unbuttoned it and drew it around her shoulders.
Wow.
Was he . . . was he trying to warm her up?
Well. It had worked. Her body was so hot that she felt herself flush. His scent swamped her, making her feel light-headed.
But she couldn’t take his shirt. She reached up to grab it, to pull it off her and hand it back but he put his hand on hers.
“Leave it.”
“But . . . you’ll get cold.”
He just stared at her.
“Something going on between the two of you?” Jerry asked abruptly, completely ruining the moment.
What a dick.
“Nope,” Hayes replied, not saying anything more.
Devi wasn’t sure she could talk, so she just stayed silent.
Jerry grunted. “My officers said that they’ve got your attacker secured. You caught him.” He turned to Hayes.
“Yep. Chased him down, caught him in a dead-end alleyway. Had two other people from the bar with me.”
“They said he was a bit beaten up,” Jerry said.
She winced. This was when Hayes got into trouble. How could she protect him?
“Was he? Must have happened before I found him. Like I said, I have witnesses.”
Jerry just grunted and she let out a small breath in relief.
“And you’ve never seen this guy before, Devi? Not an old drinking friend of your father’s or anything?”
Why was he asking her that?
“I’ve never seen him before.”
“Pretty sure they’re all from Chicago,” Hayes said.
“And how did you know that Devi was in trouble?” Jerry asked.
“Noticed she’d been gone a while. I went to check on her and the back door was open. That’s when I heard a scream and I yelled out to Mac and ran through the alley.”
He’d gone looking for her? Why would he do that?
Her head ached as Jerry asked a few more questions.
“Do you need anything else?” Hayes asked. “Devi is exhausted. She needs to go home.”
How did he know that?
Crap. Did she look that bad? She had to, right?
“No, that’s it for the moment.” Jerry stood and Hayes stood with him. Jerry stepped up to the door and then turned back to her. “I’ll go and check in with my officers. Devi, I’ll need you to come in and sign a statement. But we can do that tomorrow. Get some rest.”
That was kind of nice? At least he wasn’t making her feel like an idiot anymore.
When the door closed, she turned to Hayes, wanting to know if he was okay.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he snapped.
She reared back, not expecting him to sound so . . . angry. Her heart started racing as the door opened and Mac stepped in.
“Devi, you all right? I saw Jerry leave. I’ve shut the bar down. Gonna give you a ride home.”
That was really kind. The last thing she felt like doing tonight was catching the bus. She turned to Mac. “Thanks, Mac.”
“I’ll give her a ride home,” Hayes said abruptly.
Um. Nope. That wasn’t happening.
“No!” Whoa. She probably shouldn’t have said that so loudly. She stood up and the world spun.
“Careful,” Hayes snapped, reaching out a hand to steady her.
But she didn’t want him touching her.
Well, that wasn’t actually true. She absolutely wanted him touching her. Just not right now.
“I’m fine.” She stepped away and hit the back of the sofa, falling into it.
God. This was so irritating. She smacked her fists down onto the sofa. She hated being this clumsy. It was ridiculous.
She stood again, this time slower. She didn’t want to get dizzy again. “Mac, thanks for the offer to take me home. I accept.” She took off the shirt and attempted to hand it back to Hayes.
He ignored her, staring down at her with hard eyes.
Then he crossed his arms over his chest. “What you did tonight was stupid.”
“It’s my fault he attacked me?” Wow. She hadn’t thought he’d be like this.
“That’s not what I’m saying. You had no business going outside in the dark on your own into a fucking alleyway. You needed that garbage thrown out, you should have gotten someone else to do it!”
“There was no one else to do it! And I should be able to throw out a bag of garbage without being attacked!”
“Nobody is disputing that. But you were just accosted a few minutes earlier, you should have been more cautious. Don’t you understand that you could have been hurt?”
“And why would that matter to you?” She didn’t know why she was yelling. Why she felt so mad. It was just better than feeling scared and worried.
Everything he said made sense, even if she still felt like he had no right to tell her off. It was all that asshole’s fault. He was the one who should be getting yelled at.
“Now, we might need to all calm down,” Mac said.
Hayes turned to Mac. “And you, why the hell are your servers throwing out the garbage? They shouldn’t be going into that alley on their own.”
“Now, see here—” Mac started to say.
“You cannot get mad at Mac!” she told him.
“This isn’t his fault. Andy is supposed to throw the garbage out.
But he didn’t do it. And I should have left it, but I needed to do something.
I didn’t want to stay still, then I might start thinking about what happened .
. . and I just couldn’t do that. But it’s not Mac’s fault. ”
Hayes just stared at them. Then he heaved out a breath. “Make sure this doesn’t happen again. It does and you’re going to find yourself with a hot ass.”
Then he stormed out of the room before she could say another word.
The nerve of the man! Bossing both of them around like that. And threatening to spank her! She didn’t think so.
In the back of her mind, she knew she was probably overreacting. That he was upset and she should understand that considering everything that had happened.
But she couldn’t let herself be reasonable.
She also couldn’t let herself think about how much she would like to be spanked by him.