The Boss's Love (12 page)

Incredibly late, Courtney pulled into a parking space at the Italian restaurant and rushed inside. She prayed David wasn't waiting.

As soon as she saw
him, she knew her drought of beatings had come to an end. He seethed in his seat. His ferocity radiating from his body. When he spotted her rushing towards him, his eyes turned black as night. 

"I'm so sorry," she apologized. She speedily sat down across from him.

"I have been waiting here for fuckin' twenty minutes, Courtney," he hissed. 

"The showing ran over, David. You know I have to stay as long as they want to talk. It's a large commission," she tried to defend herself.

He rolled his eyes. "You won't get it. You never do."

"That's not true," she snapped. He always tried to demean how good of an agent she was.  

Quick as a rattlesnake, David reached across the table and snagged her wrist. He twisted the skin in opposite directions. Wincing, she tried to hold back the cry of pain she needed to release. 

"Don't you dare talk back to me, Courtney. You'll—"

An angel appeared before them, interrupting David's pending tirade.

Darren Murphy gallantly stood before them, glaring down at David's hands clamped around her wrist. His eyes bounced back and forth between them. He then focused in on Courtney, a genuine smile crossing those devastatingly handsome features. "Miss Millen, what a pleasant surprise." 

David nonchalantly released her wrist. She hid her injured arm under the table, trying to rub away the pain. She watched Darren's sharp eyes shift again between them. His brow furrowed.  

"Mr. Murphy," Courtney said. She motioned to David with her good hand. "I would like you to meet my boyfriend, David James." 

"Murphy?" David snorted. 

A deeper frown crossed Darren's masculine features. 

"Would you like to join me? We can discuss the building, Miss Millen. I do have an offer," Darren said. He refocused on her. 

For a
moment, Courtney thought he was trying to convey something to her. She considered she was imaging things. 

"I appreciate the offer, Mr. Murphy, but—"

"But we're having dinner alone this evening, buddy," David snarled. 

"David," Courtney scolded.

Shooting her a warning glare, David jolted out of his seat and threw down his napkin. "I'll be in the car. I expect you in less than two minutes."

He brushed past Darren and stormed out of the restaurant. 

"Courtney, you cannot leave with him," Darren demanded. "He's dangerous."

"I can handle him. He's just in a bad mood because I made him wait. My showing took
longer than I thought it would," she said.

"That's your career. No man should be upset with you because you made him wait," he said firmly. "There
’s no way in hell I would ever be upset with you. Worried, maybe, but once you arrived I would be relieved and then relish in your company." He waved his hand in the air. "You need to walk away from that. I know you have more sense than to be with a man like him."

How dare this man, who she just met today, tell her who was good for her and insult her decisions. Plus, he managed to add fuel to the fire. Huffing, she stood from her seat and grabbed her purse.   

"I didn't realize my private life was your business, Mr. Murphy. Can you tell me when you became my guardian angel? Did I lose the memo?" she snapped, breezed past him and left the restaurant. 

Darren

             
Watching Courtney walk away from him about killed Darren. His radar was on full alert as he stalked back to the table where Jack and Carl sat. 

"That man has asshole written all over him," Jack said then took a gulp of his bourbon.   

Darren couldn't sit. Something bothered him. Something didn't feel right. Without a word, he turned and stalked towards the front doors of the restaurant with purpose. There was no way in hell he could allow her to leave with that man. She was the first woman he'd ever been drawn towards. Not the lusty kind of draw. The kind that spoke to a man's soul. She was beautiful, well-spoken, polite, amusing, intelligent. The entire package. She called to him on an entirely different level he didn't recognize. When she cordially turned him down, that made her all the more alluring. Rejection was new to him.

When he bust through the doors, Darren rushed to
the parking lot. Jack and Carl were on his heels.    

"Boss?" Carl called
from behind him. 

A noise from the back of the lot caused him to pick up the pace. As he neared the back, in the dark left corner, David was pounding the hell out of Courtney. She desperately tried to defend herself, but
the man was all over her. He threw a solid punch to her skull and kicked her in the stomach while she struggled to get off the ground. When she slumped down, unable to hold herself upright, he picked up her limp body and slammed her head into the side of a black sedan. 

Darren pulled his
hidden Glock from his jacket and aimed for the asshole. But before he got a shot off, Jack snatched the weapon off him. Without missing a step, Darren continued towards the scene. David never heard the heroes coming for the damsel in distress. Too consumed with taking his anger out on Courtney, he didn't look up in time to defend himself and was knocked out cold from the solid hit to the side of his temple. His unconscious body fell hard to the cold ground.  

A beaten, bloody mess, Courtney
sobbed while she tried to climb to her knees. Darren knelt down and wrapped his arms around her frail frame. 

"Shhhh,
stay still. We're going to call an ambulance," he said. 

With absolutely no strength, she melted into his body and succumbed to the damage.
 

Carl pulled up next to them in Darren's SUV
. They quickly placed her into the backseat and drove her to the hospital themselves. They didn't want to wait for an ambulance. Also, they couldn't afford to have a police presence at the restaurant. The David situation needed resolved.

Carl pulled the SUV into the emergency room entrance, and Darren carried a bloody Courtney inside. The nursing staff jumped into action and whisked her away. After she was treated, the police, who were automatically called as per hospital protocol, tried to take a report. But Courtney remained uncooperative and refused to give an account of what happened. That forced the staff to call in Darren to try and persuade her to talk. 

When Darren stepped into her room, the two officers
blanched, genuinely surprised to see him. 

"Mr. Murphy." The first young officer held out his hand. 

After courteously greeting the two officers, he focused on Courtney and took a seat adjacent to the bed. Swollen, black and blue, his beautiful girl looked virtually unrecognizable. He held her scraped hand. 

"Courtney, honey, you have to tell the police officers what happened," he said
. He reached up and brushed her matted hair off her battered face.

Turning away from him, she gave a small shake of her head. The two officers looked puzzled back and forth from Darren to Courtney. They slid each other questioning glances.   

"Honey, you know they want to interview me because I'm a witness. I will tell them everything, starting from inside the restaurant where he grabbed your wrist," he warned.

Her head whipped back to him, and he watched her wince in pain. The look in her eyes was pure disbelief. Did she think he didn't notice the way her
boyfriend
manhandled her? And did she believe he would walk away without getting involved? Well, okay, she didn't know him well enough to make that determination, but he would rectify that issue. 

"Go on," he encouraged.

Sighing, she reluctantly explained to the police what happened. Darren listened to the entire story from beginning to end, feeling his blood boil. Again. It took all his power to reign in his temper.  

After Courtney finished, the police asked Darren to walk with them to take his statement. Apparently David James was well known by the police department. Bar brawls, drugs, petty thefts, prostitutes, he was an all around shady character.
The police were unaware he had a girlfriend, so Courtney hadn't been on their radar. The two officers suggested that Darren might consider keeping her away from David. After all, they had never received any domestic violence calls against him.

When Darren finished his discussion with the police, he snuck back into Courtney's hospital room.
The nurse informed him she would be kept overnight for observation. "Can I stay with her?" 

"No, I'm sorry, sir. Only family," the nurse said.

"I'm her fiancé," Darren blatantly and brilliantly lied.

"Visiting hours are until nine, sir," the nurse said strictly. 

"I won't be any trouble. I don't want to leave her alone." That was the truth. He felt responsible for making certain when she woke she'd be comforted by someone who cared for her. 

Fortunately an ER doctor who he dealt with on a regular b
asis breezed into the room. He was one of the handful of doctors on the Murphy payroll that could be called upon in the wee hours of the morning for a stitch-up.

"I think Mr. Murphy will be fine in Miss Millen's room, Mrs. Norris," the doctor said
, his tone inarguable.  

"Fine," the nurse snapped, wheeled around and left the area.

"Will she be all right?" Darren asked.

"She will. She'll be in pain for a few days. She doesn't have a concussion, no internal bleeding. Considering how you came across her, she was lucky," the doctor said.

"I'm sure she would disagree with that assessment," Darren said snidely. 

Nodding, the doctor didn't push further. He scribbled in Courtney's chart then left the area to attend to his other patients. 

Darren gazed at the beaten, beautiful woman that looked so small in the oversized bed. He took her scraped, bruised hand into his. It was then he knew he was a goner. He silently vowed to spend the rest of his life taking care of the gorgeous creature in need of help.

***

While Courtney slept, Darren watched her chest rise and fall shallowly. Such a delicate, peaceful motion. He had spent the entire night in the hospital room to keep a close eye on her. He minutely considered his over-the-top draw towards her and what the hell had come over him? He'd never been obsessively drawn towards a woman. Yes, he’d lusted after women but his current state was vastly different.

Spark
. That was the best explanation he could come up with. She had that spark he'd been looking for in a long-term relationship. When they toured the office building, it felt as if an unseen electric current ran between the two of them, pulling them towards each other. He had caught himself  needing to touch her by grazing her hand, brushing against her shoulder. Totally unable to help himself. Afterwards when he'd asked her to lunch, he could have sworn he heard regret in her rejection. Briefly he considered walking away and letting her go. But when he wanted to catch one last glimpse of her and looked back, catching her staring after him, that was the moment he made it his mission to go after her. He knew she'd felt their spark as well. Promptly he ordered his closest people do background checks on her to find every detail they could. What was reported back to him was nothing short of fantastic and frightening. She was wife material.
His
wife material. But with a boyfriend who needed to disappear. Little did he know Mr. James would provide him with the perfect opportunity so soon.

***

Courtney

She felt her body stir itself from its deep slumber but an agonizing pain ripped through her head. She moaned.

"Court, do you need pain meds?" Darren asked concerned.

"My head
," she groaned. 

He brushed her matted hair off her face
that felt like it was swollen like a balloon. "I know, I know. Let me get the nurse for you." 

Where had
Darren come from? How long had he been here? What day was it? Did he just call her Court and gave her a pet name? Unable to process her scattered questions, she stopped herself from going further. Her head was throbbing too badly to concentrate.

Darren rushed out
of the room and a minute later returned with a nurse. 

"Miss Millen, how are you feeling?" the older female nurse asked. 

"My head is killing me," she rasped. 

The nurse handed her a tiny plastic cup with two pills. "For the pain." 

She swallowed the pills then laid back down and closed her eyes. She prayed the damn pounding pain miraculously went on its way.  

When Courtney woke again, night had fallen. A warm, glowing light behind her bed gave the room a calm feel. She blinked her eyes open and noticed her room was filled with flowers, baskets, and "Get Well" balloons.