CHAPTER FOUR
THINGS HADN’T GONE as smoothly with the police as Kurt would have liked. They had a hard time believing an unarmed Navy guy could take down three men, two of whom had weapons. Some of that might have been Kurt’s fault. He deliberately left out the part about him being a SEAL. If that tidbit of information showed up on the police plotters, the media would be on the story in a flash. That wasn’t good for the Navy or SEAL Team 5. Luckily, the people who worked in the restaurant had seen enough of what had happened to support his and Melissa’s stories.
On the downside, they’d spent more than two hours giving their statements to four different cops—both together and separately. Melissa hadn’t said a word since.
Kurt hoped that was because she was simply exhausted, but part of him worried it was because she was in shock.
He pulled the truck into the parking lot of her apartment complex and found a space, then cut the engine.
Beside him, Melissa didn’t move.
“We’re here,” Kurt said softly.
She gave a little start, blinking as she looked around. “Oh.”
Kurt jumped out and hurried around to her side of the truck to open the door. She let him help her out, but released his hand the moment her feet touched the ground. For some reason, that stung way more than it should have.
They walked upstairs in silence, then down the hallway to her apartment. When they got there, she opened her purse to dig around for her keys, but it slipped out of her hand. Melissa mumbled something and moved to pick everything up, but Kurt got there first. He scooped up her lipstick, brush, wallet, and keys, shoving them back in her purse.
“Which apartment is Veronica’s?” he asked as he as he stood up.
“What? Why?”
“I don’t think you should be alone right now.”
And while he definitely wouldn’t have minded sleeping on her couch, he didn’t think she’d go for it.
She frowned. “It’s late. I don’t want to wake her up at this time of the night. I’m fine. Really.”
Kurt might have believed her if she wasn’t as white as a ghost and her hands weren’t shaking.
“Melissa, you’ve had one hell of a night and I don’t want you to be alone after something like that. So you’re either going to tell me which apartment is Veronica’s, or I’m going to start knocking on doors.”
He thought Melissa was going to fight him over it, but after a moment, she sighed. “It’s right across from mine.”
“Thank you.”
Kurt placed his hand on her back and urged her in that direction, then knocked on the door. Hopefully Veronica was a light sleeper.
The door opened immediately to reveal a surprisingly wide-awake Veronica. Her smile disappeared the minute she set eyes on her friend. She quickly stepped forward to wrap her arm around Melissa.
“Honey, are you okay?” When Melissa didn’t answer fast enough for her liking, she shot a questioning look at Kurt. “What happened?”
“Some guys jumped us as we were leaving the restaurant,” he said.
Veronica’s eyes widened. “Oh my God! Did they hurt either of you?”
He shook his head. “No, but I’d feel a lot better if Melissa wasn’t alone tonight.”
“Of course,” Veronica murmured.
Kurt wanted to hang around to make sure Melissa was okay, but something told him that she needed Veronica right now more than she needed him.
“I’m sorry the night didn’t turn out differently,” he said, leaning forward to press his lips to Melissa’s forehead. He would have preferred to end the date with another kind of kiss, but he figured that would be a bad idea. “For what it’s worth, I really did have a good time with you.”
Melissa nodded. “Are you going to be okay alone tonight? After what happened, I mean?”
He gave her a small smile as he trailed his fingers down her arm. “Yeah. Sad to say, but the stuff that happened tonight is something I’m kind of used to.”
She caught his hand as he stepped back, holding onto it for the briefest of moments before releasing it. Just like that, the connection between them was broken, making him wonder whether there was ever one to begin with.
Kurt wanted to say that he’d call her, but he didn’t. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he was pretty sure she didn’t want him to.
So instead, he gave her a nod then he turned and headed for the stairwell, refusing to let himself look back. It was scary how much it hurt to walk away from Melissa. Just another indication of how good things could have been if only fate had been kinder to them.
* * *
Melissa refused to move from Veronica’s doorstep until Kurt stepped into the stairwell and disappeared from sight. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was hoping he’d turn around and come back, or because she was trying to work up the courage to run after him.
Neither of those things happened.
Letting out a sigh, she walked into Veronica’s apartment and straight over to the leather couch, then collapsed onto it. Her friend flopped down beside her.
“Do you want a glass of water?” Veronica asked. “Some tea maybe?”
Melissa shook her head. “No, thanks. Were you waiting up for me?”
“Yeah. I wanted to see how your date with Kurt went.” Veronica half turned on the couch, tucking one leg under her. “So, how was the date? Other than the part where those jerks tried to jump the two of you, I mean.”
Yeah, she’d rather not think about that part.
“It was fun.” Lips curving, Melissa shifted on the couch, mirroring Veronica’s position. “We went to this barbecue place that was really good. Not that I was paying much attention to the food with Kurt there.”
Veronica grinned. “I knew you were hot for him!”
“I never said I wasn’t. Kurt’s gorgeous, funny, and smart, not to mention the most charming guy I think I’ve ever been around.” She frowned. “I almost forgot he was a SEAL until those three guys showed up.”
“What do you mean?”
Melissa didn’t want to talk about what had happened in the parking lot. She got the shakes just thinking about those men and what they’d planned to do to her. But it hadn’t only been the attack that had turned her knees to jelly and kept her silent the whole ride home. Seeing Kurt do what he’d done had kind of freaked her out, too.
She grabbed the throw pillow from behind her and hugged it, wishing it was Kurt she was holding on to. “At first they only wanted Kurt’s truck, but after he gave them the keys, they decided they wanted me, too.”
“Oh, God,” Veronica breathed.
Melissa shuddered at the memory. The image of those men staring at her like she was a piece of meat would be etched in her mind forever.
“When one of the guys reached out and grabbed me, Kurt went… crazy.” She shook her head. “Just between you and me, I’m not sure what scared me more—what those men had been planning to do to me, or watching what Kurt did to them.”
Veronica looked confused again. “I don’t understand.”
Melissa didn’t look at Veronica as she played with the tassel on the edge of the pillow. “All through dinner, Kurt went out of his way not to mention the Navy or what he does as a SEAL. I’m not naïve. I know what SEALs do for a living and that they sometimes have to resort to violence. For a little while there though, I completely forgot he was a SEAL.”
“And then?” Veronica prodded when Melissa hesitated.
She sighed, not sure how to put it into words without sounding ungrateful. “Then those jerks attacked us, and the sweet guy I’d had dinner with disappeared to be replaced with a man I barely recognized. I don’t know how to explain it. Kurt put those three men down like it was nothing. It was so cold and calculating. I feel horrible admitting it, but it kind of scared me.”
“Why?” Veronica asked. “What did you expect him to do when those men threatened to take you with them? Give them his blessing? Crap, Melissa. He was protecting you. Would you have felt better if he’d let them have you?”
Melissa glared at her friend. “Don’t be stupid! Of course not.” She ran her hand though her hair with a sigh. “I know he did what he did for me. I get it. And I’ll never be able to say how grateful I am that he was there. But at the same time, his capacity for violence frightened me. It was like I was watching a machine. A violent, deadly machine.”
Veronica regarded her thoughtfully, then took her hand. “Honey, were you scared he’d turn that violence on you?”
Melissa remembered how tenderly he’d held her in his arms afterward and quickly shook her head. “No. I was never worried about that. It’s just that I can’t help but wonder which one of the two men I saw tonight is the real Kurt Travers. Is it the sexy, charming guy I had dinner with, or the dangerous, violent man who protected me in that parking lot?”
“Why does it have to be one or the other?” Veronica asked. “What’s wrong with accepting that a man can be sexy, charming, and dangerous?”
Veronica made it sound so easy. Like being a Navy SEAL was a switch Kurt could flip on and off when needed. Melissa knew differently. When a person was part of something like the SEALs, it became part of him. It made him who he was. It couldn’t be turned off—ever. She opened her mouth to tell Veronica that, but her friend interrupted before she could.
“Are you going to go out with Kurt again?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because there’s something that terrifies me even more than what happened in the parking lot of that restaurant tonight, and that’s what Kurt said before he left. About him being used to that kind of thing. Like getting into hand-to-hand combat isn’t a big deal. As a SEAL, there’s a chance he’s going to go up against bad guys like them—or worse—every time he goes to work. I can’t handle being with a guy who does that. I can’t imagine what woman would.”
Veronica considered that for a moment. “Okay, I can see your point. But if you think about it, it’s no different than being with a cop.”
“You don’t see me dating a cop either, do you?”
Her friend sighed glumly. “Well, this stinks, because he really seems to like you.”
Melissa hugged the pillow tighter. She liked him, too. Remembering the tender way Kurt had kissed her forehead before he’d left was enough to bring tears to her eyes. She blinked them back. If she was so sure that not going out with Kurt again was the right decision, then why did it feel so wrong?