Page 7 of Her Three Rangers
“No,” I shook my head, smiling. “I think you know more about making him feel better than I do, Doc.”
“You can call me Grace,” she said, her voice sounding much less sure than when she’d been talking about Rambo.
“Okay… Grace. In that case, you can feel free to call me Ty.”
She nodded, then cocked her head to the side. “Are you all from around here? You and Rambo and… and the other guys?”
“No. We’re from around Austin, originally,” I answered, pausing to consider how much I was prepared to tell her. “We’ve all been riding together for a few years now, though, and we pretty much go all over the state these days.”
Her look of curiosity turned to confusion. “And you just… travel around the state? Sightseeing?”
I laughed. “Would you believe me if I told you that’s what we did?”
“Not even for a second,” she replied, a slow smile spreading across her face.
And fuck if that smile didn’t make me forget what I was talking about again.
The silence stretched out between us as I looked back at Rambo, who was unhelpfully starting to snore.
Now would be a great time to wake up and distract her a little, buddy.
But nope. Just the doc—Grace—and me, with Rambo’s snores the only sound in the room.
“So if you and your, um, friends aren’t tourists…” she began again tentatively. “What do you do for a living?”
“We go where we’re needed,” I said, knowing it was a non-answer. “And we do what we need to do. Helping with law enforcement, mostly.”
“Law enforcement?” Her eyes went wide and a tiny crease formed between her eyebrows. “I mean… I’m sorry, I just…”
I gave a wry smile as I watched her search for the right words. I had seen this exact same reaction too many times to count over the years.
“The guys and I used to be Texas Rangers,” I said. “That’s how we all met. Rambo, too.”
“You were all Rangers?” she repeated, looking at me as if I’d just said we all used to be unicorns.
“Yep. Rambo here even saved my life by tackling a guy who had pulled a gun on me. When we all left the Rangers, I couldn’t give him up.” I sighed and absently scratched behind his ears. “And now my carelessness almost got him killed.”
“It was an accident,” she said, resting her hand on mine for just a moment before taking it away again and looking into my eyes. I could see the color rising in her cheeks. Fuck, everything about this woman was distracting. “You’ve gotta stop beating yourself up about it, Ty.” She paused for a moment, then continued. “So why did you quit? The Rangers, I mean. What made all of you decide to do… this… instead?”
I had a feeling she didn’t really know what this was, and I wasn’t telling. I could see that she had been impressed—shocked, for sure, but still impressed—by the fact that I was a former Ranger. Saying that I was basically a vigilante and a bounty hunter now might be a step too far.
And even though she had an uncanny knack for making me forget what I was saying with nothing more than a smile, I had to remind myself that Dr. Black—Grace Black—was still more or less a stranger.
“We just got tired of seeing criminals walk free,” I answered, finally. It was the truth, mostly. “We felt powerless. We felt like there had to be a better way—or at least a different way.”
“I see,” she said, still looking at me like she had no idea what I was talking about. Which was probably for the best. She stood up slowly and gave another hesitant smile. “I need to get back to my office soon. I have some paperwork to finish before we close for the day. Were you all able to get, um, everything set up out there?”
“We did,” I nodded. “Thank you… but does that mean Rambo is going to be in here overnight by himself?”
I knew it sounded a little ridiculous for me to be worried about him now. He was probably safer in this little room than anywhere else—certainly safer than anywhere I could possibly take him.
Still, I hated the thought of him lying here alone all night.
She gave me a pained look. “I’m afraid he will. I’ve given him an anti-inflammatory and a pain-killer, and I honestly think he’ll be fine, but—” She shook her head, then smiled. “I can’t believe I’m even about to offer this… I’m gonna blame it on him being so sweet. But if you’d like to come in and check on him through the night, I’ll leave the back door unlocked. You can see the door from where you’ll be sleeping, so in return I’d just ask that you guys keep an eye on the place.”
Now it was my turn to be surprised. I couldn’t believe she offered to do that, either, but I definitely wasn’t going to turn her down.
“Hell yeah—I mean, of course, we will. That’s very kind of you, Grace. I won’t forget this, and you don’t have to worry for a minute about this place tonight. My guys and I have you covered.”