Guarding Hearts (Living Again #3) (17 page)

He was a different person than he was then. He had been a kid, a kid so messed up by the circumstances of his life that he didn’t know whether he was coming or going. He had made stupid choice after stupid choice that had ended him in juvie. In retrospect, he knew that he had been crying out for help. He hadn’t wanted to take care of his mother anymore, or live the way he had been forced to for so many years. He knew the easiest way to get out of there was to do something and get locked up. At least while he was there he got three meals a day and a bed to sleep in. That was more than he had had for most of his life. After getting Mason taken away from him, he knew he really had nothing left.

When he had gotten out of juvie, he had been put on probation and had to complete community service. Since Officer Richards had taken a liking to him, he took him in once he was released. This had been the turning point of his life. Eighteen years old, not a person in the world to help guide him to the right path, and Carl insisted on him living with him. Ellis knew that if it wasn’t for him, he’d more than likely be in prison or dead right now.

He had gotten him a position for his volunteer hours at the Big Brothers/ Big Sisters organization in Miami. He was required to go there twice a week for a year and mentor other kids whose paths were at risk like his was. At first, he wanted nothing to do with it. He had never been a talker, and didn’t think that he had anything to offer a child that could help them. But Carl had changed all of that. For the first several sessions, he had sat with Ellis at the center, talking to some of the kids with him and urging his conversation. By the second month, Ellis knew that he could save another child from the type of life that he had endured, so he started putting himself completely into his community service, going every day instead of just twice a week. Carl came with him when he could, but he didn’t even need him anymore.

He had met a five year old little boy named Jaden. He came to the center for after school care because he lived in a high risk neighborhood known for drug deals and prostitution. It was rumored that his mother was the most popular prostitute, and his dad, the head drug lord. Ellis knew where his future lied if someone didn’t get to him the way Carl had to him.

He had dark hair and blue eyes, and loved anything having to do with police officers. Carl would tell Jaden all about being a police officer, and Ellis would draw pictures with him, play games with him, or go outside and play. Jaden would cry when it was time for them to leave, often hanging on to them and begging for them to take him home. For Ellis, it felt like Mason was crying for him, even though Mason was much younger than Jaden. He wanted nothing more than to right his wrongs by taking Jaden and making his life better, but he knew he never could.

One day, right before his community service was up, Jaden didn’t come to the center. Ellis had known that he was there every day, and he had been worried. He and Carl had driven out to where they knew he lived to find out that he had been shot in a drive by shooting while out riding his bike. His own parents didn’t even know yet, as they had left him with a ‘roommate’ and were out on the streets. They probably wouldn’t even care. Ellis hadn’t even cried the day that his own mother died, but that day, he crumpled on the sidewalk and wept.

That might’ve been the last time he cried. After that, Carl helped him get his GED and apply for the police academy. Thanks to a favor a judge owed him, Ellis’ juvenile record was expunged and he was able to join the police academy with Carl’s recommendation. He had decided that he needed to help kids like Jaden and himself, and being a police officer to try to get the bad guys off the streets was the only thing he could think of to make it right. To this day, he had a picture of Jaden tucked inside his wallet to remember what he was doing all of this for. Not only to make up for what he had done and lost, but to remember the little boy that changed the direction of his life.

“Ellis?” Sam’s sleepy voice brought him back to the present.

“Sammi,” he answered, kissing the top of her head. “You okay?”

“Hmmm,” she murmured, rolling over so that her breasts were pressing into his chest. He immediately woke up in other places, and he wasn’t sure that was a good thing. “I’m wonderful. Are you okay?”

He reached over and turned on the lamp at the side of the bed so he could see her. She blinked, then smiled at him. “I have to be honest with you,” he said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I had no intention of ever doing this with you,” he indicated them in the bed. He felt her stiffen, but he continued. “Not because of you, Sammi, because of me. I meant what I told you before. I don’t think that us being together is going to do anything good for you.”

“Ellis…” she interrupted, but he put his finger over her lips, silencing her.

“Let me finish.” He lifted his head and kissed her lips, almost groaning at the suppleness of them. “I can’t stay away from you, Sam. I told myself all along that I could make it one week and then go home. I knew that I had to get away from you if I had any chance of escaping the connection we have with each other. But now? Staying here with you, in your room, being with you twenty-four hours a day, and I just can’t deny it anymore. If you’re in, I’m in, too.”

Tears shimmered in her eyes, but she said nothing. He was worried he said too much too soon. Maybe she wasn’t ready. “I mean, you don’t know anything about me, not really, so I get it if you just want this to be casual.”

“Ellis,” she said, putting her finger on his lips. “Shut up. Since the second I met you, I knew there was something about you that I was just naturally drawn to. I know we have a lot to get to know about each other, but if we are both in, that’s going to happen. I’m not perfect either, Ellis. You seem to think that I can’t handle whatever is in your past, but I have a past, too.”

“What, smoking in the girls’ bathroom?” Ellis joked, but her face fell. “Sam, I’m sorry. Ugh, I should just shut up.”

“I want to tell you everything,” she answered. “But, not tonight, okay? I don’t want you to think differently of me right now.”

“Not going to happen, Sam.”

“Can I ask you something?”

Fear clenched in his stomach. He knew that he was going to have to talk to her eventually, but he didn’t want to answer anything right now. “Sure.”

“Can you stop calling me Sam?”

“What?”

“Ever since the first time you called me Sammi, that’s the only thing I want to hear out of your mouth. Every time you say that, it makes me tingle from head to toe.”

“Is that right?” Ellis teased, running his hands along her bare backside.

She giggled, putting her head on his chest “Why did I say that? You make me lose my mind.”

“I like that,” he flirted, cupping her behind and pulling her on top of him. “Why are we still talking?” Ellis crushed his lips to hers. He knew he was avoiding her, and he would for as long as she would allow it. She began rubbing her body against him, and he lost all sense of thought, his body instantly reacting.

The hotel phone rang, and she groaned into his mouth. “Seriously? Who the hell is calling here so early? We don’t have to leave for two hours.” As she leaned over to grab the phone, he took the opportunity to touch her supple breasts.

“Hello?” he continued his perusal of her beautiful curvy body as she listened, not saying a word. “What? Is she okay?” She scooted off of him and sat up, and he sat up, too. Who was she talking to?

“Okay, Dad. Yes, we’re up. Do you want to talk to Ellis? He’s right here.” She covered the phone and handed it to him. “Something happened to Brian’s wife.”

Ellis took the phone from her, watching as she stood up off the bed and walked to the bathroom. “Samuel?”

“Sorry to call so early, Ellis. Brian’s wife, Amelia, has been rushed to the hospital in Nashville. Brian is leaving Florida right now and heading home. There’s no information on the stalker there, anyway.”

“What happened to her?”

“The information that Brian is getting so far is that she was attacked in their home.”

“Attacked? Like a robbery gone bad?”

“No one knows yet. All we know is that a neighbor heard a commotion and called the police about two a.m. When they arrived, they found no one but Amelia was beaten unconscious and has lost a lot of blood. It’s not looking good.”

“She may not survive?” Ellis felt for Brian. He liked the guy a lot and knew just from their brief conversations that he lived and breathed Amelia.

“It’s not likely. Brian won’t be back for some time, as it seems. I know you need to get back to work in Florida…”

“I’ll stay,” Ellis said immediately, hoping Andrew would agree with him. “I’m not leaving her.”

“I figured you would say that,” Samuel answered. “Ellis, I know that things are escalating between you. I’m okay with that, truly. She’s my little girl, but I want her happy. What I don’t want to see is her getting hurt, so if you aren’t going to be able to handle her life, please back out now.”

Ellis felt that cold feeling creeping back in. He couldn’t handle any of this, but his stupid heart didn’t seem to remember that. “Sir, I would never intentionally hurt her.”

“You’re a man of your word,” Samuel stated. “So thank you. Okay, so we need to meet to decide what to do with the security team if you are going to stay. You will be the head and Sam’s bodyguard, of course. But since Brian is out for the foreseeable future, I’m going to come up and figure out a plan with you. I’ll be there in about thirty minutes. That good?”

“Good,” Ellis agreed. “See you then.” Hanging up the phone, he picked up his cell and typed a quick text to Andrew, then Devin. He wasn’t waking them up at this ungodly hour.

He tapped on the bathroom door, but he could hear the shower running and knew she didn’t hear him. The urge to go join her in the shower was overwhelming, but he turned instead and slipped on his clothes to wait for her father.

“I feel terrible for Brian,” Sam said, sitting next to him as they made their new security plan. “For someone to come into their house while he’s not even home and hurt his wife so terribly that she may not survive! He must feel so guilty.”

Samuel turned to his daughter. “He’s a wreck. But he has an idea that might help us, and then we won’t have to wait for someone to replace him that we can trust.”

“What’s that?” Ellis sipped a cup of hot coffee, watching Sam out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t think she had stopped looking at him since she came out of the bathroom. He would be lying if he said he didn’t love it. She reached over and rested her hand on his thigh, and his body instantly reacted. She was getting bold with her dad around, but he guessed that she knew he was okay with them. For now. There would be a time when he wasn’t going to be okay with Ellis, and he knew it.

“Brian’s son Sean is a police officer in Nashville,” Samuel explained.

“Sean’s going to come?” Sam sat up, a smile on her face.

Samuel nodded. “Yes. I called him after I talked to Brian. He’s agreed to come take Brian’s place until he can return. He’s been granted a leave from the Nashville PD.”

“That’s
so
nice of him!”

Ellis looked at her quizzically, and she laughed. “Sean and I have known each other most of our lives. He’s a great guy. You’ll really like him.”

“Well that’s great,” Ellis agreed. “I’m sure Brian can get him up to speed on things, and he can hit the ground running. When does he arrive?”

“Tonight, probably right after we arrive in South Carolina,” Samuel answered. “Ellis, talk to Andrew when you get time and see how long he’s willing to let you stay for. We don’t want to jeopardize your job, but we certainly will make it worth your while.”

Ellis nodded, knowing that no matter what Andrew said, he wasn’t leaving her now. He wouldn’t rest until this idiot was caught. “Okay. Are we ready to load up?”

“Ellis, this is Sean, Brian’s son and my lifelong friend,” Sam said.

Ellis outstretched his hand, grasping the man’s hand. “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m sorry to hear about your mom.”

“Stepmom,” Sean answered. “My mom passed away when I was 12. And thanks. Nice to meet you, too. You’re the head guy now?”