Read Keeping Guard for Free Online Page B

wouldn’t stumble.
    Her eyes flickered around as if her brain was processing a large amount of information. “Someone broke into my apartment back in Kentucky last night.”
    He bristled at the news. “The same man?”
    â€œMost likely. Nothing was stolen.”
    â€œYour brother is a good police officer, Kylie. I know he’s making sure that the people assigned to your case are doing their job. They’ll figure out whoever is doing this to you. And when they do, that person will pay.”
    Kylie nodded. “You’re right. It’s just so hard being here when all of that is happening back home. I feel like I need to be there, to go through my things, help pick up the pieces.”
    He squeezed her elbow, trying to reassure her. “You’ll have plenty of time for that later, Kylie. Right now you just have to focus on your safety. That’s the most important thing.”
    She let out a little laugh, the action ruffling her bangs. “You sound like my brother, you know.”
    Nate smiled and released his grip on her some. “Your brother is a good man.”
    She sighed and leaned against the counter, some of the lines disappearing from her face. “He said you served together in the Coast Guard.”
    â€œThat’s right. Bruce helped keep me sane.” He did more than that. Bruce had saved Nate’s life. After a devastating rescue gone wrong, Nate had picked up some bad habits to ease his pain. Bruce had been the only one brave enough to gently, yet firmly, correct Nate. He couldn’t imagine what life might be like today if Bruce hadn’t intervened.
    â€œWhen did you guys work together?”
    â€œWhen we were stationed at Elizabeth City, North Carolina. We were both rescue swimmers. The first day we met we discovered we both rooted for the same pro football team. We were inseparable after that.”
    Kylie pulled her arms across her chest. “I used to pray for Bruce every day when he did that job.” She closed her eyes. “Jumping out of helicopters, battling the seas, the temperatures and storms and all those other elements that came with being out in the middle of the ocean…I don’t know how you guys did it.”
    Those were the moments that Nate missed. Those rushes of adrenaline. Knowing he could save someone’s life. Using every ounce of strength to do his job.
    But there had been tough moments also, moments when he hadn’t been able to save everyone. Moments where he hadto tell one family member that another hadn’t made it. He pushed the memories away.
    Saving people—whether it had been at sea or just in life itself—had been his passion. He’d failed. And as further proof and a daily reminder of that failure, he now ran this restaurant.
    â€œNate?”
    Kylie’s voice pulled him out of the memory. He decided to put the focus on Bruce and hoped Kylie wouldn’t ask too many questions of him. He wasn’t ready to go there. The emotions of leaving the Coast Guard two years ago still felt raw at times. The last thing he needed was for Kylie to feel sorry for him. “Your brother was a great rescue swimmer. I was surprised when he decided to get out of the Coast Guard.”
    Kylie nodded. “I guess he decided he’d had enough excitement in his life. So he came back to Kentucky and became a police officer instead.”
    Nate thought of what his second career choice had been, before the restaurant had been given to him. He’d been offered a position as instructor at the Coast Guard Training Center in Yorktown. Every day, he questioned whether or not he should have taken that position there. But his father’s wishes had been for him to take over this place after he died. How could he say no to the man who’d sacrificed so much for him? Besides, that last mission always seemed to haunt him.
    His gaze focused on Kylie for a moment, and he could see her studying him,