Welcoming the Bad Boy: A Hero's Welcome Novel (24 page)

The whole scene felt like déjà vu. He’d told her things about himself that he’d never opened up about to anyone. And she had kept this secret.

“Or do you want to explain that you don’t have feelings for me? We were just having fun this summer, right? Nothing serious. I got all that. Loud and clear,
Sophie.
”

Her eyes widened as she stared back at him.

Griffin’s jaw was so hard, it was giving him a headache that pulled from the back of his neck. He wasn’t angry. He was hurt. Disappointed. He shook his head, wondering if he knew the woman in front of him at all. Maybe that was the beer distorting his perception, but that’s how he felt.

“Go home, Val.”

“Griffin.” She looked up at him with dark eyes that shimmered with tears. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

He wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her. Wipe away those tears and make amends.

He also wanted to shut the door and shut her out.

“You never said we were more than just fun. You’re the one who’s been coming up with all these fantasies for us to act out,” she said. “Is this more than just fun, Griffin?” She shook lightly as she stared at him.

God, he loved her so much that it felt like someone had taken hold of his heart, thrown it on the ground, and stomped on it. He didn’t like being this vulnerable.

“Apparently not. Go home, Val,” he said again.

He pulled the handle of his door and shut it. Then, for good measure—to keep himself from yanking it right back open and pulling her in—he bolted it.

Val shook on the other side of the door. Griffin’s actions read loud and clear. She’d given him a chance to tell her if things between them were serious and he’d told her.

Swiping a hand over her cheek to smooth away her tears, she walked quickly back to her car. She couldn’t get away from Griffin’s townhouse fast enough. She pressed a hand over her heart. It hurt so much.
This
hurt so much. Her reader had asked her if she’d ever been in love and the answer had been no. Not before now. She would remember feeling like this.

Val drove around Seaside, past her friends’ houses. Julie and Lawson’s lights were off. The light in Kat’s kitchen was on. She was awake, but Val didn’t want to intrude. Everyone had their own lives. She wanted to share a life with someone, too. She’d wanted to have that with Griffin.

Sniffling, she headed back to her apartment. Some part of her hoped Griffin would be sitting in her driveway as she pulled up, wanting to apologize for acting like a jerk. He wasn’t. Val slid her key in the door and went inside. She left her lights off and walked straight down the hall to her bed to cry herself to sleep.

The next morning Val lay in bed, unable to force her body to get up. She felt like she had a hangover, except she hadn’t drunk a drop of alcohol last night. No, this was what it felt like after a breakup.

Sweet Cheeks was in bed beside her, nuzzled close.

“You really do have an awful name,” she told the puppy, laughing softly. A tear squeezed from her eye. “This is what I wanted anyway, you know,” she told Sweet Cheeks, who licked her hand. “I wanted to end things with Griffin when the summer was over. He wasn’t supposed to be my forever guy.” Her breaths bumped through her chest. “He’s all wrong for me. Right?”

Except he wasn’t at all what she’d assumed him to be. He was everything she ever wanted rolled into one badass Marine with tattoos that told his life story on his body. She wanted to be immortalized on his skin, too. This couldn’t be the end for them.

Val forced herself to sit up. Then, after a little coaxing from Sweet Cheeks, she walked to the back door to let her outside. The next stop was the coffeemaker. She had a mile-long list of things to do today—sad and depressed or not—but none of it was happening until she put her butt in the chair and finished editing her book. At least that would serve as a distraction from what had happened between her and Griffin last night.

Six hours, five cups of coffee, and a mild amount of hair-pulling later, she sucked in a breath and hit send on her computer. Her manuscript was done and delivered. A huge part of that was thanks to Griffin. A little ache rumbled through her heart, like aftershocks from an earthquake. He’d ripped her heart to shreds last night. He wouldn’t even allow her to explain things to him. He’d been cold and distant after all they’d been through. A man like that didn’t deserve her attention.

Glancing at the clock on her kitchen wall, she got up and headed toward the bathroom to shower and get dressed for the rest of the day. She was meeting Alma’s family at the church later to help with whatever they needed. She also wanted to talk to them about who would take ownership of Sweet Cheeks now that Alma was gone. The puppy wasn’t fully trained, but she’d made a lot of improvement in her behavior over the last few weeks. She’d become a great pet.

Val glanced down at the fur ball at her feet. “Don’t worry. You’re going to find a good home. I promise.”

The day so far had been uneventful, which Griffin regretted. He’d gone to work that morning hoping for some kind of action to take his mind off Val. Instead, he’d spent the last eight hours driving around and thinking of nothing but the sassy brunette with a heart of gold.

Griffin stopped his vehicle and took Jaws for a walk to relieve himself. A few minutes later he tossed his partner a treat as he loaded him in the back of his Explorer to head back to the office. As he was pulling back onto the road, his receiver went off.

All officers needed.

There was a fight between some grunts in the barracks.

Griffin turned on his lights and pressed the gas. Adrenaline coursed through him as he made an illegal U-turn in the road—but he was the one who handed out the tickets here—and raced toward the scene.

He was the first car to arrive. He unloaded Jaws and took a steadying breath. “Just be cool,” he told Jaws, who was already pulling on his leash. “Down!” he commanded in a sharp tone. Then he led the way toward a three-story building that housed a couple dozen Marines. He could hear the commotion as he entered the first floor. He glanced behind him to see if any other police cars had arrived yet. Not yet, but he could hear sirens in the distance.

“Military police! What’s going on?” Griffin shouted as he broke through a small crowd toward the aggressors.

There were two men who looked like they wanted to kill each other. Not on his watch.

“Go away! We don’t need help!” one of them shouted, pointing a gun at the other guy.

Sirens were getting closer. That was a good thing, because most barracks fights didn’t involve guns.

Griffin pulled his own gun and shouted behind him for the crowd to get the fuck out. The less people standing around, the less potential for victims to get caught in the cross fire, the better.

“No, you get the fuck out of here, man!” the gunman barked at Griffin, heavy sweat lining his brow. Griffin suspected he’d been drinking.

“Just calm down. Let’s talk about what’s going on,” he said.

“What’s going on?” The gunman shook his head, pointing his revolver at the unarmed grunt in front of him.

Who said the only danger in being a Marine was in war?

Griffin heard the entry doors to the barracks open. Backup was coming.

“This douchebag fucked my girlfriend. That’s what’s going on,” the gunman shouted. “What kind of brother fucks another man’s girl?”

The other Marine shook his head. “It just happened. She came on to me.”

“You’re a liar! A motherfucking liar!” The man shook his gun as he yelled.

Griffin kept his gun steady. “Just release—”

The man turned his gun toward Griffin.

“Put the gun down now!” Griffin ordered. From the corner of his eye, he could see Jaws maintaining a ready posture beside him. Ready but not trigger-happy this time.
Good dog.

The gunman swayed drunkenly, then aimed his gun at the other Marine again. “I loved her and you had sex with her,” he said. He stumbled forward with his gun.

Jaws reacted like he’d been trained to do, not a moment too soon. He charged toward the gunman.

Griffin’s first instinct was to disable the gunman, but the other Marine was in the way and the hallway was too narrow.

A gunshot reverberated through the room and Jaws went down.

“You asshole!” Griffin growled, relieved to see officers swarming the back of the room. In all the commotion, they’d entered from both sides of the hallway. The gunman was surrounded.

“Drop your gun!” one of the backup officers shouted.

“Oh, God. I didn’t mean to shoot,” the gunman said, shaking his head. The slur in his voice increased.

Griffin’s gaze flicked to Jaws on the ground. The gunman hadn’t meant to, but he’d shot Jaws. “Drop your gun now!” Griffin ordered.

Slowly, the gunman lowered his gun.

“Drop it!”

The revolver fell to the ground with a loud clang of metal.

Griffin waited for another officer to cuff the Marine before he went to Jaws, whose breathing was rapid and shallow.

“What’s going on, Officer Black?” Officer Rodriguez wanted to know.

Griffin’s hands were shaking as he stroked Jaws’s fur. “I need to attend to my partner.”

Jaws whimpered on the ground, blood pooling from his abdomen.

“Do you have this, Rodriguez?” Griffin asked. There were at least half a dozen other officers in the room. Where were they five minutes ago?

“I got it. You go. Take care of your partner.”

Griffin scooped Jaws up in his arms and carried him to the vehicle. Jaws had to live. Griffin couldn’t stand to lose something, or someone else, who was important to him this week.

Val hesitated before walking into Seaside Harbor. She had her bag of books draped across her shoulder for the book club to pick their next book, hoping they’d still want to do the club with her. They’d been great last night, but maybe, like Griffin, they’d decided she’d lied to them. Or used them, or whatever Griffin was thinking. She didn’t know what he was thinking because he wasn’t talking to her.

“Hey, Louise,” Val said, suddenly worried about the head nurse’s reaction, too. She didn’t worry long. Louise would never judge her.

Louise smiled from behind the reception desk. “Hey, Ms. Evans.”

Val grinned. “You heard?”

“Oh, yes, indeed. You are quite the popular topic among the women around here. They’re all so excited to know a local celebrity.”

“I don’t know about being a celebrity.” Val clung to the bag of books on her shoulder, feeling better already.

“The only person you don’t seem to be popular with is Griffin. What happened between you two?”

Good question.
“What do you mean?”

“He called to check on Helen and didn’t even laugh at my flirting. He always laughs at my flirting. Did you two get in a fight or something?”

Val shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

Louise wagged a finger. “Well, you need to make up with that man. He’s one of the good ones.”

“He is good,” Val agreed. Or she’d thought so.

“Let’s keep your sex life out of this, all right?” Louise said.

Val’s mouth dropped. “I meant he’s a good guy, not a—” She pointed a finger. “You need to pull your mind out of the gutter, Louise.”

“Look who’s talking.” The head nurse raised a brow. “Now you’ve even got me reading romance.” She pulled a book from under her desk. “This was Alma’s.”

Val swallowed. “I wish she could’ve finished reading it.”

Louise tilted her head. “Didn’t he tell you?”

Val stepped closer. “Tell me what?”

“He read the rest of the book to her.”

Chills spread over Val’s body. “Griffin?” she asked.

Louise chuckled softly. “No, honey. Your father. He came to read Bible passages, and when he was done Alma asked him to finish reading the romance novel.”

Val’s hand was over her heart now. “I can’t believe that.”

“Believe it. And if you want to know the truth, I think your father liked it.”

Val laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks. “I have to go see my ladies in the book club. You should join us. Seeing that you read the book, too.”

“Maybe I will.”

Griffin signed his name to the report on that day’s shooting and took a breath. He’d left Jaws at the veterinarian’s office and come back to his office. His cellphone was beside him, though, so he’d be privy to any more news about Jaws.

Hopefully good news. He needed good news this week.

Troy patted his back as he walked up and sat down beside him. “How’s Jaws doing?”

Griffin swallowed. “He’s in surgery. The veterinarian thinks he’ll live, but no promises.”

“Fuck, yeah, he’ll live. He’s a fighter.”

Griffin nodded as he recapped his pen. “Yeah. The irony is, he reacted just the way he was supposed to on that scene. He didn’t budge until the gunman came at us. He was ready.”

“You spent a lot of time training him. It sunk in, like we knew it would.”

Griffin sighed. “Well, if he lives, he won’t be eligible to stay on the K-9 unit. He’ll never be one hundred percent again.”

Troy shook his head. “I’m sorry, man. I really am.”

“Thanks.”

“So how’s the girl? The one you got naked with on my property?”

Troy was trying to lift Griffin’s spirits, but that was the wrong topic of conversation.

Griffin turned and looked at him again. “How did you know that?”

“I didn’t.” Troy laughed. “I just assumed. The kids in Paradise Point don’t call that place Make-Out Point for nothing. That’s why I posted all the
NO TRESPASSING
signs.”

Griffin smiled for the first time all day. “Val actually isn’t a good subject right now.”

Troy frowned. “What happened? Did you break her heart?”

“Not exactly.”

Troy’s gaze narrowed. “Don’t tell me she broke your heart, Mr. Badass Himself.”

Griffin sent his pen rolling on the desktop. “I’m not sure we were ever for the long haul.” As much as he’d started to think they were. Not if Val was willing to keep things from him. Not if she thought everything between them this summer had just been for fun.

Griffin turned and looked at Troy. “I’m meeting Micah and Lawson at Heroes for drinks later if you want to come. They think it’ll help to keep my mind off Jaws.”

Troy nodded. “Sounds good. Maybe I’ll meet you there.”

“Great, man. Hope to see you.” Griffin watched Troy walk out. Then he collected his signed report of what had happened and dropped it in Charlie Myer’s office mailbox.

He made the short drive home and took Trooper for a walk, glancing at his cellphone every few minutes to check for messages from Dr. Rogers. Still no news.

Waiting was the worst. He wished he could call Val. She had become a beacon of hope to him over the last couple of months. She made impossible things seem possible. Val would tell him that Jaws would be okay. That it wasn’t his fault. And somehow she’d make him believe her.

Griffin stuffed his cellphone back in his jeans pocket. He wasn’t calling Val. What could they say to each other to change things? The fun was over now and it was time to move on.

His phone buzzed and for a moment he wondered, halfway hoped, it was her. He pulled it to his ear. “Hello.”

“Mr. Black?”

Griffin straightened. “Dr. Rogers. How’s Jaws?”

“He’s doing well. We’re giving him pain medicine, but he’s stable now. And I have every reason to believe he’s going to stay that way.”

Griffin blew out a breath. “That’s great news. Thank you, Dr. Rogers. When can I come get him?”

“I want to watch him for a few nights. Maybe early next week,” Dr. Rogers said.