“I could be wrong. It was a total guess.”
“I know, but you could be right. If we wait much longer, we’re both going to be too weak and too sick to walk at all. God knows how, considering your leg and all, but you’re still holding up pretty well. You’re the logical one to go for help.”
“Chloe, I am not leaving you in the forest alone with a high fever. End of discussion.”
She sighed. “All right. I’ll try to keep walking as soon as the storm is over.”
“I know it won’t be easy, but you have to try. We have to get you to help as quickly as possible. Infections can be…well, they can be dangerous.”
She bit her lip, probably remembering what he’d told her about his mother. “It’s probably just a passing fever. Or weakness from not eating. I’m sure I’ll be able to go on after resting for a while. I just thought it would be quicker if you—”
“If I have to carry you on my back, I’m not leaving you here alone.”
She didn’t speak again for a while. They listened to the storm, shivered when cold rain blew in on them, and dealt silently with their individual mental and physical discomforts. Donovan was just about to start another silent litany of his failings when Chloe broke the silence between them again with a request that caught him completely by surprise. “Tell me why you hate to be called a bodyguard.”
“What?”
“I need to talk to take my mind off my problems.”
“So you want to talk about my problems instead?”
“Is being called a bodyguard a problem for you?”
“It’s just inaccurate. Bryan didn’t ask me to serve as your bodyguard when I picked you up the other day. I was simply supposed to drive you to his house and wait with you there until he arrived.”
“I know. You’ve explained all that. But you still haven’t explained why you get all tense when I use the word. Have you worked as a bodyguard before?”
“Briefly.” He looked out at the rain and hoped his short reply would discourage her from asking more.
It didn’t, of course.
“What went wrong?”
“The person I was guarding got killed. I ignored my instincts, and went along with him when he insisted that I leave him alone with his girlfriend for a few hours. He was tired of being guarded all the time, thought he would be safe for a while in the hideaway we had selected for him, and he convinced me that he would be safe there—but he wasn’t.”
“You were working for the man who was killed?” she asked, trying to follow the terse story.
“Yes.”
“And he asked you to leave him alone for a few hours?”
“I shouldn’t have listened. I should have insisted I stay with him.”
“Donovan, you can’t blame yourself for following your employer’s orders. It sounds as though he made the mistake, not you.”
Staring blindly into the rain, he shook his head. “I was hired to protect him. I failed. He died. I’m not the only one who blamed me for that failure.”
“The only person who should be blamed is the killer. Was he ever caught?”
“Yeah. Lot of good that did my client.”
“Who was your client? A friend?”
“No. A man who’d made some powerful enemies on his way to fame. You would probably know the name if I mentioned it, but it doesn’t matter now. That ended my bodyguard career.”
“Was that when you went to work for Bryan?”
He shrugged. “I bummed around for a few years after that, taking some assignments I’d just as soon not discuss now for some people who operated just barely within the range of the law. My reputation was going downhill fast when Bryan tracked me down and convinced me to join him.”