Free Silken Threats by Addison Fox

walking away from two beautiful women.
    In spite of herself, her heart softened another notch at the fact he’d added a woman old enough to be his grandmother into his assessment.
    But it melted at the obvious sincerity in his voice.
    “Be that as it may, you all didn’t need to give up so much time. Between yesterday and now today I can’t imagine you’ve gotten much done.”
    “We do okay.”
    “But I’ve been an awful imposition. We all have.”
    His gaze roamed over her face. “You giving me the bum’s rush?”
    “No. But—” The door slid open and Cassidy realized her purse was still in Mrs. B.’s room. “I need to go back up. I left my purse.”
    Tucker stabbed at the button for Jo’s floor, and Cassidy couldn’t help but think she’d overstepped in some way. “Problem?”
    “We may be men, but we’re certainly capable of helping out a neighbor. That’s not solely up to you and your friends.”
    “That’s not what I meant.” When he said nothing, his penetrating, deep brown gaze the only indication he was listening, she pressed on. “You’ve been so helpful and we don’t know each other and I’ve taken up so much of your time. You even came to check on Mrs. B. and she’s got a great team of doctors watching her. I just spoke with her doctor before I came in, and he said she’s going to be fine. A bit rumpled, but a full recovery.”
    Whatever fumbling had gotten her to this point morphed into something else entirely as she alluded to the doctor.
    “Yes, I believe you mentioned the doctor already.”
    Violet had suggested for years Cassidy was unable to see the forest for the trees.
    She’d also suggested—on numerous occasions—that Cassidy wouldn’t know a man who was interested in her if he walked up and gave her a love bite.
    If only she’d spent more time listening to Vi and less living inside her own head. “Of...of course.”
    “And maybe if he focused on caring for his patients instead of giving you puppy-dog eyes, your landlady might be getting out of here right now.”
    “She’s getting excellent care!”
    The elevator pinged as the car came to a stop, and she snapped her jaw shut. Whatever idiotic direction their conversation had taken, it wasn’t anyone else’s business.
    The elevators slid open and two men stood across the hall, both dressed in dark suits, their gazes sharp as they stared into the elevator.
    A subtle shiver at odds with the comfortable temperature in the hospital gripped her, and Cassidy had the strangest urge to shrink into her skin. Before she could say another word or make room for the new additions, Tucker had his hand on the door, pointing toward them. “You want in?”
    One of the guys shook his head and uttered a hard “no” before he and his friend hotfooted it down the hall. They moved out of view, and Cassidy was surprised to see Tucker surge forward.
    “What is it?”
    “Something I don’t like. Stay in there.”
    “What?” He was already into the hall when she pressed on the sliding doors and squeezed through into the hall. “What’s going on?”
    “Damn it, Cassidy.”
    Before he could say anything further the men took off at a heavy clip, running along the long corridor. Tucker’s shouted request for them to stop had no effect, and he took off after them, his long runner’s strides eating up ground as he moved.
    Without thinking twice, Cassidy took off behind him.
    * * *
    Tucker heard the staccato clip of her heels as she ran behind him but he ignored it. A nurse shouted, and as Cassidy’s footfalls faded he figured she’d been slowed by the staff.
    Good.
    He’d rather she stayed in their grasp and far away from whatever problem was currently running in the opposite direction. Hell, let her go cozy up to that damned doctor with the perfect teeth if it kept her out of trouble.
    Ignoring another round of shouts from the hospital staff, he hit the stairwell door before it fully closed, following his quarry.
    The tops of