Officer off Limits

“Ah, you were listening.” Jack shifted on the bed. “I might have gotten a little carried away with that last part. You know how I get when I’m on a roll.”

Daniel gave a quick shake of his head. “I’m sorry. I still don’t get it. You can’t actually want her with me.” Daniel searched for the right words. “Story…lights everything up. Where I come from, the things I’ve seen and done…took something out of me. I don’t know how to be good like her.” He stood and paced to the window, looking out over the river.

“You just made my point for me,” Jack said quietly. “Danny, you’re the only one with that ridiculously low opinion of yourself. I saw the way she looked at you before that little f**ker came in and ruined everything. She sees something more in you.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I…see something more in you.”

Daniel turned away before Jack could see how his words affected him. No one, especially his mentor, had ever paid him such a high compliment. For so damn long, he’d looked in the mirror and seen someone broken. Someone who couldn’t be fixed. Was it really possible that others saw an entirely different man? Yes, he thought tentatively. If Jack and Story, the two people whose opinions counted the most, thought he could be salvaged, then he had to believe it, too. He wanted to believe it. Some of the pain he carried inside him withered and died, to be replaced with something that felt like hope. “Why the reverse psychology, then? You had to know from the first day it wasn’t necessary. I asked her out before we even walked into this room.”

“Because,” he stressed, “If I’d come right out and told you I couldn’t think of a better man for my daughter, you would never have believed me. You had to realize it yourself. She had to make you realize it.”

Jack was right. A week ago, he wouldn’t have thought himself capable of coming this far. She’d done it. Pulled him out of the darkness where he’d been living for so long. He couldn’t lose her now. Once again resisting the urge to chase her down, he questioned Jack. “So what was your plan? Break up the wedding and have a heart attack to get us together? Seems pretty risky even for you.”

Jack chuckled. “I had a hunch if I got you two in the same room, the rest would take care of itself. And the second you walked in, I knew I was right.” He gestured toward the beeping heart monitor. “I didn’t realize the meeting would happen quite so soon. The heart attack was fortuitous.”

“And you just referred to a heart attack as fortuitous.” His eyes narrowed on the older man. “You sent those flowers, didn’t you? And forcing Story to give me Hayden’s number…?”

“Nice touch, right? I’m sure it came in handy, too.” Jack stuck a pillow behind his head. “Now why the hell did you let her leave with that whelp?”

“I didn’t exactly have a choice, thanks to you.” Daniel ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “After she found out she’d been moved around like a pawn on a chessboard all week, me telling her what to do wouldn’t have ended pretty.”

Jack shrugged, but Daniel could see his self-satisfaction beginning to slip. “You met the kid, can you blame me for what I did?”

“That’s not the issue here. She’s upset because you went behind her back, didn’t give her a chance to come to the right conclusion about him.” He pegged the older man with a look. “And you didn’t give her enough credit to draw her own conclusions about me, either. Now she’s doubting her own judgment. So your plan backfired, didn’t it? You’re an expert negotiator, but you’re obviously not an expert on your daughter.”

“Oh, and you’ve somehow become an expert on her in a week?”

Daniel held up a hand. He wasn’t going anywhere near that question. “Look. If she’ll have me, our relationship will be ours. No interference from you. I won’t let you use me to control her. Or vice versa.” His hand came to rest on his chest. “You chose me for Story, and don’t get me wrong, I owe you a huge debt for bringing us together. But now you have to back off. Or we could both lose her.”

The older man scowled. “Is it too late to change my mind about you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then,” Jack snorted. “What the hell are you doing here still talking to me? Go get her.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Story stepped off the elevator into the hospital lobby, Fisher following close on her heels. As she speed-walked toward the street exit, she couldn’t stop seeing Daniel at the end of the hall as she’d left, staring after her. He’d looked so devastated she wanted to sob under the weight of the memory. Could she possibly be feeling this way if their relationship was a product of Jack’s meddling? It couldn’t be true when even now she wanted to run back to him, throw herself into his arms, and never let go.

Fisher entered her line of vision, bringing her to a halt in the middle of the crowded lobby. “I came all this way, let’s at least discuss this.”

Through the grief and confusion brought on by the last ten minutes, she found the strength to respond to her ex-fiancé. “There is nothing to discuss. You lied to me about so many things, I wouldn’t believe a word that came out of your mouth anyway. Jack might have been acting like an entitled jackass when he paid you that money, but you’re the one who accepted it.”

“But I’m giving it back! No more lies, Story. I swear it. When I heard you’d come to New York, I realized what a mistake I’d made. I hated the thought of you so far away.”

All his impassioned speech served to do was annoy her. “Let’s be honest for once, Fisher. We barely saw each other during the last year. We were just going through the motions. I changed during that time, but I didn’t realize it until this week when I got a little distance. I don’t think you know me anymore. I sure as hell didn’t know you were the kind of person who could accept a bribe to break up with me.” She sighed, suddenly weary. “I really hate saying this, but Jack probably did us a favor. It doesn’t excuse what he did, but we shouldn’t be married.”

“You’re wrong. I’ve changed, too. Let me prove it.”

“No, I’m right about this one. Good-bye, Fisher.”

“This isn’t over.” He vowed, backing toward the exit. “I’m not giving up.”

Story didn’t respond. Not wanting to encounter Fisher once again outside, she waited until he’d been gone five minutes before turning once more to leave. But as she drew closer to the revolving exit door, she noticed her neighbor, Frank, out of the corner of her eye. He stood at the customer service desk to her left, growing increasingly agitated. Although the woman speaking with him remained calm and respectful, he shook a fistful of papers in her face, demanding that she look at them once more. A nearby security guard made his way toward them.

“Sir, I’ve already looked at them and there’s nothing I can do. You need to speak to your insurance company about the matter. But we do have other options for your mother—”

“I’m not interested. She needs to be here. I want to see a manager!”

“I am the manager, sir.”