Made For Loving You (Rescue My Heart Book 3) by Kait Nolan (i can read book club txt) 📕

It wasn’t lit. She knew she’d set it.

Skin crawling with gooseflesh, she whirled, looking frantically to see if someone was still there. But there was nowhere to hide except the loft. Duke seemed unperturbed…but he’d been barking.

“Someone’s been in the house. While I was in the shower!” she hissed.

“I’m coming home.”

“Hurry.”

“Stay on the line.”

She heard him speaking to someone else then sounds of hurried footsteps and the slam of a car door.

Clothes. She needed clothes. She didn’t dare go up to the loft in case some kind of boogie man was hiding under the bed, so she rummaged through the laundry waiting in the tiny, stacked dryer, hauling out one of Ty’s multitude of flannel shirts and some sweatpants and yanking them on.

He’d been here. She was no longer able to think of this threat as anything but male. He’d been here, in the house, while she was naked in the shower. Her dog had barked at him, and she’d been blissfully unaware while she sang those stupid songs.

What if he’d come in the bathroom? What if he’d trapped her there, while she was at her most vulnerable? What if he’d had a weapon? Her writer’s mind spun with scenarios, each more horrific and terrifying than the last. What if? What if? What if?

Duke whined, clearly picking up on her distress. He nudged at her hand.

“You still there?” Ty demanded.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m here.”

“We’re coming, okay? We’re coming.”

She grabbed a cast-iron skillet off the row of hooks on the wall and backed into a corner with her dog to wait.

As a Ranger, Ty had nearly two decades of training and experience in how to compartmentalize and push through fear for the sake of a mission. He had to draw on all of it as he drove like a bat out of hell, with Paisley’s unsteady breath on the other end of the phone.

Why the fuck had he chosen to live so far out? Why had he left her alone this morning? She had no protection. He knew damned well Duke was worthless as a guard dog. It was too easy to imagine someone holding her at gunpoint or with a knife to her throat, threatening her to stay quiet.

Because the questions and the multitude of dangerous scenarios ate away at his focus, he locked them away with the fear, too. Something to bring out once she was safe and the perimeter was secure. He ran lights on, siren screaming, coaxing every ounce of speed out of the cruiser’s engine as he clung to curves.

“Still with me, baby?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was too small, too quiet. Soft enough he could hear Duke’s agitated panting.

“I’m nearly there.”

“I can hear the sirens.”

Let the bastard know he was coming. He’d rather run the threat off than risk Paisley getting hurt. The part of his brain still capable of rational thought recognized that she was probably safe. The flowers were meant to scare her, but there’d still been no direct contact. At most, the fucker was hiding in the woods watching, maybe getting off on watching them scurry like ants.

But he could feel the pulse of her fear over the phone, and that overrode everything else, lighting up a primitive part of his brain that didn’t give a shit about anything but getting to her as fast as humanly possible. He fishtailed into the driveway and skidded to a stop, not caring that he sprayed his own truck with gravel in the process. Urgency beat in his blood, driving him out of the car, up the steps, gun drawn.

Training kept him from just barging in with no cover. Years of habit had him following protocol, getting through the door to clear the room. It was that muscle memory that kept him from being koshed over the head. He pivoted, and something heavy and black glanced off his shoulder as he brought up his weapon.

Paisley dropped…was that a cast-iron skillet? “Ty!”

He barely had time to holster his gun before she threw herself at him. Absorbing her momentum, he wrapped her tight, still visually clearing the room, checking for threats. It wasn’t until there was no enemy fire that he fully let go of the idea that this wasn’t some kind of trap.

Outside he could hear the rest of his backup arrive. Car doors slammed. Xander shouted, “Fan out!”

But Ty’s focus narrowed in in Paisley.

He’d burst in on countless civilians in various war-torn countries. Everyday citizens just trying to survive, never knowing when violence would rear its head. Women and children huddling in silent terror, waiting for the end. Ty had expected something of that in her eyes. And there was fear when he pulled back to search her pale face. But there was equal part fury.

That he’d left her alone? That he’d broken yet another promise? That he wasn’t the protector he’d set himself up to be?

Yeah, he deserved her anger for that and more. But there’d be time for recriminations later. “Are you hurt?”

She gave a quick, sharp shake of her head. “I know I should’ve been gone already, but I got caught up and I just…I wasn’t expecting…this.”

“Of course, you weren’t. This asshole is getting bolder.” Which begged the question…what would be the next step?

Xander, Clyde, and Leanne came in.

“No sign of anybody.” Xander nodded to Paisley. “You must be Miss Parish. I’m Sheriff Kincaid. This is Deputy Parker and County Investigator Leanne Hammond. Sorry for the trouble. Can you tell us exactly what happened?”

Sucking in a breath, she stepped away from Ty, reaching automatically for Duke. “Ty left for work about seven-fifteen. I locked the door and set the alarm before he even pulled out of the driveway. I’ve been spending my days with Ivy and Harrison Wilkes for the past week, so I was getting ready to head that way, but I just wanted to linger over my coffee a while.”

Xander flashed a reassuring smile. “Best way to enjoy coffee. Go on.”

She