Protecting His Best Friend's Sister (The Protectors Book 1) Read online

  I stared at him for a minute, waves of heat slamming into me, partly from fury and partly from humiliation. He’d snapped out the last words loud enough for everyone in the bull pen to hear.

  Now every one of them would think I was overcome by grief and acting like an irrational child. They would feel sorry for me. They wouldn’t respect me.

  And this story would never come out.

  Evidently, Jack read something in my face because his expression softened. “I’m sorry, Harper. I just—”

  “It’s fine,” I interrupted, putting down the notebook I’d been holding. I didn’t even know why I was holding it. I’d just picked it up when I’d stood up at Jack’s approach. “The town council is meeting this afternoon about that sanitation thing. Do you want me to cover it?”

  “You don’t have to do that. Mary was going to—”

  “It’s fine. I can do it. It’s fine.” I wasn’t looking him in the eye because I knew—I knew—he was feeling sorry for me. So was everyone else in the room. “It’s really fine.”

  I made sure my expression was calm and controlled as I stuffed my notebook in my bag and slung the strap on my shoulder.

  “Harper,” Jack began as I started to walk out. He obviously felt bad. I was the poor little girl whose big brother had just died.

  “It’s fine,” I said, my voice convincingly casual. “I’ve got it covered.”

  I stopped in the bathroom on my way out. Relieved it was empty, I hurried into a stall, locked it, and sat down, leaning over and trying to smother a sudden surge of emotion.

  Gavin used to laugh at all my “causes,” every time I found a new issue or battle to devote my energies to. In high school and college, I’d have a new cause every month—from animal rights to the school administration trying to drop the Women’s Studies program—and he thought they all were hilarious.

  He’d probably laugh at me now, getting so worked up at uncovering what they weren’t telling me about his death.

  Except he would never laugh again.

  For a moment the knowledge hurt so much I could barely breathe. I hugged my arms to my stomach and shook helplessly. I’d always hated to cry though, so I pulled myself together, breathing deeply, telling myself that families felt like this all over the world whenever soldiers or sailors or airmen or Marines were killed for reasons that just didn’t make any sense.

  I left the stall and went to stand in front of the sink, washing my hands and then running a finger under one eye to wipe away a smudge of mascara.

  I never wore my hair loose since it only emphasized the fairy-princess look. But my hair is slippery and never stays neatly in a ponytail or twist. It was slipping out again, stray tendrils framing my face. With a sigh, I tried to tuck the strands back into the twist again.

  I’d go to this damned sanitation meeting. I’d always been conscientious, and I made As all through school. I certainly wasn’t going to risk my job.

  But I also wasn’t going to give up on this story.

  Gavin deserved the truth.

  ***

  I sat for two hours in the town council meeting. I wrote the story while I was sitting there, adding in the sentence about the outcome of the vote—which I’d already predicted—in the last two minutes of the meeting. Once the story was written, I also wrote next week’s column and then spent the past hour sending emails and writing a press release.

  I needed a bigger platform if I really wanted to get my voice heard. I’d been interviewed a few times after the funeral by cable news channels, but I felt like the media interest in the accident and Gavin’s death was dying down.

  It couldn’t die down yet. I needed to get someone else’s attention.

  I hit up every connection I had. When a friend from college replied just as the meeting was ending, I called her on my way out.

  I was so excited about the possibility of getting on the news show she worked for that I didn’t think about putting my tablet back in my bag. So I was juggling my tablet and my phone and trying to pull my wallet out of my bag as I stopped by the coffee shop next door.

  Jack loved the chai tea lattes from this place, so I figured I’d get him one on my way back and maybe he’d be more inclined to listen to what I had to say.

  There was a line, and it was noisy in the coffee shop. I saw Gina DeMarco in line in front of me. She had dark hair and heavy makeup, and Gavin had sort of dated her on and off for years. I turned slightly away from her. I’d always tried to be nice when Gavin hung out with her, but she was one of those overly needy people who invariably got on my nerves. I just didn’t have the energy to deal with her right now, and her unexpected appearance made my belly twist at the memory of Gavin.

  Since I was still on the phone, I had to speak louder to be heard over the noise in the shop.

  “No, listen to me,” I said, tucking my phone between my ear and shoulder as I tried to get my fingers on my debit card. “You tell them they want me on the show. I’m not a nobody. You tell them who I am and who my brother is and show them the stories I’ve already written. They want me on that show.”

  I got to the front of the line as my friend hemmed and hawed some. I gave Gina a distracted wave as she saw me as she was leaving, and I handed the guy at the cash register my card. “Chai tea latte and the biggest cup of coffee you have.”

  My tablet was slipping down from where I’d tucked it under my arm, and I barely caught it before it dropped. Then it did fall as the guy asked what kind of coffee I wanted.

  “I don’t give a damn. Whatever is freshest.” I leaned over to grab my tablet from the floor and bumped my head on a shelf filled with coffee mugs for sale. My phone fell to the floor. “Damn it,” I muttered, grabbing the phone. “You still there?”

  When I ascertained that she was, I said, “Just do what you can. I’ll really appreciate it. I have things that need to be said, and I really think I’m the person to say them. I’ll be happy to fly up to New York on the spur of the moment even if they have an opening at the last minute.”

  I’d moved from the cashier to the opposite side of the counter to wait for my drinks, which seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time to prepare.

  My friend was telling me that she couldn’t make any promises, and I was reaching for the two drinks when my tablet slipped again.

  I growled in annoyance, feeling flustered and disorganized and like everything was going wrong and no one was really hearing me.

  I set the drinks down and bent to reach for the tablet when someone beat me to it.

  Levi.

  I don’t know where the hell he came from, but he was suddenly there, holding my tablet, looking big and masculine and absolutely gorgeous.

  His expression was sober as reached down and pulled my bag open enough to drop the tablet in.

  He wasn’t really that gorgeous. Obnoxious, for sure.

  “Yes, I’m still here,” I said into the phone. “Sorry. Just get me on the show if you possibly can. I really appreciate it.”

  I said goodbye, disconnected, and slipped the phone into my bag, which gave me two hands to take the two cups again.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked Levi, who was still lingering as if we were going to have a conversation.

  I actually felt kind of bad for what I’d said to him at the funeral. I don’t even know why I said it—just that he was almost smiling as if something were funny, right after they’d put Gavin in the ground, and it made me so mad I had to lash out.

  But remembering how cruel the words had been just made me embarrassed, so I was hoping not to see him again at all.

  Not very likely since we were both now living in our smallish hometown.

  He raised his eyebrows. “Getting coffee.”

  “Nice.” I gave my head a little shake and just walked away. No use to continue a conversation that would just annoy me even more than I’d already been annoyed today.

  Levi followed me out. “You’re drinking fancy drinks now?”
/>   I stared at him in confusion until he nodded toward the chai tea latte.

  “No. That one isn’t mine.” I don’t know why I was offended by the question, but it seemed to imply he thought I was a silly girl who drank pretentious drinks.

  To prove my point, I took a gulp of the coffee. It was too hot, so it burned my throat as it went down.

  He gave that little smile again—the one from the funeral, the one I remembered from when we were younger and he would hang out with Gavin and do nothing but tease me. “So you still drink your coffee black?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” I felt annoyed again and—what was worse—like the girl who was constantly bossed around by her older brother and his best friend. I moved the tea into the crook of my arm so I could dig my keys out of my bag.

  “I don’t know.” He reached to take the tea without asking. “I figured in middle school you were just trying to show off by drinking black coffee.”

  That was exactly why I’d started drinking it that way, but there was no reason why he had to know it. “Is there something you wanted?” I couldn’t figure out why he was talking to me at all. We’d never be friends, and after what I said at the funeral, I didn’t know why he would make an effort to even be polite.

  Years ago, I was supposed to go to my senior prom with him. I’d been waiting in my pretty dress and heels, more excited than I could ever remember, and he’d just never shown up. Any friendliness that might have remained between us from our childhoods had vanished after that night. He and Gavin had joined up shortly afterwards anyway.

  One teenage heartbreak didn’t matter now.

  “I was just—” He broke the words abruptly as he stared at my car, which we were approaching. “What the hell happened?”

  “What do you mean?” I turned in the direction he was staring and saw what he saw. “What the hell?”

  My bad day had just gotten even worse. Only two tires on my car were visible from where we stood on the sidewalk, but they were both completely flat.

  When we got nearer, I saw that one of the others was flat as well, and I walked around the car to ascertain it was true of all four of them. “What the hell!”

  “Someone slashed them,” Levi said. He was crouching on the sidewalk near one of them, and he showed me the place where it had obviously been cut. “Who would have done that?”

  He sounded outraged, and it actually made me feel a little better. I had no idea why. Just that it was nice that someone else thought this was a big deal too.

  “I don’t know.” I tried to think of someone who would hate me that much, someone so petty. “Just a random piece of vandalism, I guess.”

  It was very strange that it happened right here in the middle of town, but strange things sometimes happened that way.

  “It doesn’t look random to me.” He stood up and seemed to loom over me. I hated that he was so much taller and stronger and more than me. “Someone did it on purpose. Who have you pissed off?”

  “I piss off people all the time but not enough to do something like this.” I shrugged dismissively. I felt strangely disoriented and upset by this, but I wasn’t about to let Levi see. “I’m sure it’s just random.”

  “I don’t think it’s—”

  “Well, no one asked you. I’m telling you no one hates me that much.”

  “You’ve been stirring up a lot of shit with all those stories and columns you’re—”

  “That’s ridiculous. It has nothing to do with that.” I grabbed the tea from his hand and started to turn away, deciding that walking away was the best way to deal with him. Then I realized I didn’t have a functional car anymore, and it was a couple of miles back to the office.

  I’d have to walk—in my very high heels—or call a friend or use public transportation.

  “I can give you a ride,” Levi said, obviously reading my mind.

  “Don’t you need to get back to work?” I knew he was working for his father’s construction company now, like he had for two years after he’d graduated from high school, before he and Gavin had joined the Marines. It was a strange thing to envision him doing—since he’d been so set on a military career since he was a boy—but it looked like that was his future.

  Which meant he’d be hanging around town indefinitely.

  I couldn’t imagine he was happy about that.

  “This is my lunch break.”

  “But it’s after four in the afternoon.”

  He gave a half shrug. “Just the way the day worked out.”

  So now I could either reject his offer and waste a ton of time trying to find another ride, or I could just say yes. I almost groaned out loud as I thought about buying four new tires and then arranging for the work on my car.

  I hated messing around with cars.

  “So do you want a ride or not?” Levi demanded.

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “I guess. Thanks.”

  “My truck is just down the block.”

  So we turned around and walked back down the sidewalk, and he opened the passenger door of his pickup to let me in.

  I saw a couple of people glance at us as I climbed into the seat, and I desperately hoped no one I knew would see us. I could just imagine the gossip.

  Harper and Levi. An item. Brought together by a tragic death.

  The reminder of Gavin was like a hammer crashing down on me, and I shook through a silent wave of grief as Levi walked around to get into the driver’s side.

  He sat for a minute, his eyes focused on my face. In the silence, I couldn’t help but notice how strong his hands were as they rested on the steering wheel. The fingers were long and graceful, the skin was tanned, and there was power evident even when they weren’t moving.

  I suddenly wondered how it would feel if he touched me with those hands, and then I pushed away the thought as completely inappropriate.

  “You okay?” he asked at last.

  He must have seen something on my face a minute ago when I was thinking about Gavin. Now he was feeling sorry for me too. “I’m fine,” I snapped. When I realized how sharp I sounded, I added, “Sorry.”

  He shrugged off the apology and pulled out into the street. “So you really don’t think someone slashed your tires on purpose?”

  I really had no idea. “Would you drop that, please? It happened. Let’s just move on.”

  So, instead of an interrogation, he called up Rick from a local garage to ask him if he had tires in stock, managed to haggle down the price, and then arranged for the tires to be put on.

  I sat in stunned silence after my first automatic objection when I realized what he was doing. I was torn between relief that I wouldn’t have to mess with all the car stuff and indignation over his high-handedness.

  I concluded that he probably meant well enough, but he was just as bossy as Gavin had always been, treating me like a child, like I couldn’t handle things on my own.

  At least Gavin had the excuse of being my brother. Levi had no justification for his bossiness at all.

  When I was around sixteen, Levi seemed to change—at least, he started treated me differently. Before then, he’d basically just ignored me, sometimes laughing at me and sometimes getting annoyed if I was pestering him and Gavin too much. But at some point in high school, he started to recognize my existence, but not in a good way. He’d hang around more than he used to, but not because he liked me. He was never really nice or friendly with me. He just stared at me a lot and bossed me around. He’d always try to tell me how to take care of my car, how to deal with boys who bugged me, not to wear certain shorts or tops because guys would get the wrong idea.

  Like how I dressed was any of his business.

  Some guys are just bossy by nature, but that didn’t mean I had to be okay with it.

  He ended the call right as he was pulling up in front of the newspaper offices. Then he turned to look at me quietly. “Rick said he should have your car ready by the end of the week. He’s booked up tomorrow, but he’s going to fit it in
as soon as possible.”

  “I never asked you to arrange all that. It’s really not your business.”

  “Why wouldn’t I? Rick and I have been friends for years.”

  I felt like shaking him, but he was too big for me to even move. “The fact that you’re friends has nothing to do with it. It’s my car, and I make decisions about it.”

  He was still frowning as I got out of the car, but he got out too. He walked around to the sidewalk, where I was standing.

  “Harper,” he said, reaching out and wrapping his fingers gently around my upper arm.

  It sounded like he was going to say something, but he didn’t continue past my name. I gazed at him in surprise, feeling like the placement of his hand was a sign of understanding, of connection.

  It was ridiculous though. A little touch like that couldn’t evoke even the slightest of connections. Not between Levi and me.

  “I heard your phone conversation back in the coffee shop,” he finally said, his expression changing. “Maybe it’s not a good idea for you to be in the public eye so much. Maybe the tires were random, but maybe not.”

  “You’re crazy.” I straightened myself up to my full height. “And next time don’t eavesdrop on private conversations.”

  “I guess you still always have to get the last word.” He almost smiled, and his smug expression made me want to scream.

  I managed to rein in the urge and instead just said, “Only when I’m right.”

  Convinced I’d said all I needed to say, I turned on my heel and walked away from him, carrying Jack’s tea and my coffee.

  This whole day was a disaster. I’d have to give up on it and start over tomorrow.

  But two things I knew for sure.

  I wasn’t going to give up on the story.

  And I wasn’t going to talk to Levi again.

  Two

  Levi

  For a year after I went out to help Harper with that blown tire in high school, I felt like some kind of stalker.

  I didn’t stalk her. Not really. I just made a point of noticing when she was around and finding out what she was up to. Gavin would occasionally talk about her, and I’d listen.