have anything I could sell that would bring enough money to buy Jock a plane ticket.”
“We’ll talk to Hayes,” he told her. “He’ll know what to do.”
* * *
AND HAYES DID. They arranged for a sum of money that Boone would give her father to lure him into a trap. Keely had already given Hayes the number where her father could be reached when she got the money.
“You’re not going,” she told Boone when he and Hayes were discussing who was going to take the money to Jock.
“Excuse me?” Boone asked haughtily.
She flushed, but she wouldn’t backtrack. “You’re not going. Everybody around me is either dead or in danger, and you’re not going to join my mother at the local funeral home. Let him do it.” She pointed at Hayes. “He knows how to deal with criminals. He’s good at it.”
“Thanks,” Hayes mused.
“I was with a Special Forces unit in the Middle East,” Boone reminded Keely. “I came home.”
She looked to Hayes for assistance.
He grimaced. “Okay, I’ll work out the details once you get the money together. With any luck, we can nab both men.”
“I’ll call you,” Boone promised.
When Hayes left, Boone watched Keely with faint amusement. “You’re afraid I’ll get hurt.”
She shifted on her pillows. “My mother is dead because my father wanted money. I don’t want to lose you…I mean, I don’t want Clark and Winnie to have to lose you.”
He pursed his lips. “I could have wrung your neck when I saw those photos,” he said conversationally. “I could have wrung Clark’s, too.”
“I know you don’t want him around me because I’m in another social class…”
“Stop that,” he muttered. “I didn’t want him around you because you’re mine, Keely,” he said curtly.
Warmth shot through her body like fire. Surely she was hearing things. Her expression said so.
“We’ll have to do something about that self-image.” He chuckled. “I don’t know why you ever thought I didn’t want you. Even Clark realized I was jealous as hell.”
“You hated me,” she exclaimed. “You ignored me when you came to bring Bailey to Dr. Rydel!”
“Camouflage,” he replied. “I didn’t know about your shoulder, then,” he added, in a subdued tone. “All I could think about was my own defects. I’d already had evidence of how a woman would react to them. You’re so young, Keely. I thought you were too young to cope.”
“I’m older than I look,” she replied.
“We both are.” His dark eyes grew intent on her face. “I don’t care about the obstacles anymore. We’ll improvise.”
She was tingling at the way he looked at her, but she was a little apprehensive. It was a modern world, in the circles Boone frequented. But Keely was living in the past. “I’ve never been…I’ve never had…I don’t know how…” She gave up, exasperated.
“I know all that,” he said gently. “We’ll go slow. I won’t rush you.”
“Yes, but it won’t matter,” she said earnestly. “Don’t you see? I was raised religiously, despite the bad role models my parents were. I don’t believe people should sleep together if they aren’t married.”
“Funny,” he returned with a smile, “that’s exactly the way I feel, too.”
She seemed to stop breathing. Her eyes were held by his. She felt funny. “It is?” she parroted.
“It is. So we’ll get to know each other a lot better, then we’ll make long-term decisions. Okay?”
She smiled. Her heart was soaring in her chest. “Okay.”
He chuckled deep in his throat. It was the first time he’d felt happy since the ordeal began.
* * *
HE GOT THE money out of his bank, in cash, and phoned Hayes, who had Keely call her father and set up a time and place for the money to change hands.
“You got it!” her father exclaimed. “Keely, you’re a wonder! This will save my life!”
“I thought it was going to save mine,” she replied suspiciously.
“Of course, yours!” he said quickly. “I meant it will save us both! Where do you want me to meet you?”
“Dad, I’m still in the hospital,” she pointed out.
“Oh! That’s right. I guess I could meet you in the hospital, then,” he said.
She repeated what he said, so that Boone and Hayes could hear him. Hayes nodded enthusiastically.
“Yes, that would be fine,” Keely said. “When do you want to come?”
“Ten minutes,” he said, and hung up.
She put the receiver back down. “He’s on his way here,” she said. Her tone was bitter. “He said it would save his life. He wasn’t ever concerned about mine.”
“I’m sorry, Keely,” Hayes told her. “But he never was concerned