Chapter Nineteen
Pain radiated all the way up Ivy’s arm into her shoulder. Gritting her teeth against the sensation helped very little, but damn if she was going to let out even a hint of a whimper. Hunter’s expression already scared her enough without dousing his fury with more gasoline.
The lethal set of his jaw…the glint of deadly determination in his eyes…had made her very aware of what her lover was capable of.
Seeing it in person was altogether different.
Even after Ivy tried to convince him that she could wait in the truck, he refused to leave her side. He cradled her in his lap, his touch gentle. But his jaw was clamped hard enough to snap as Colton returned to the house on a black mission.
With her good hand, she ran her fingers over his arm. “I’m okay.”
Steely gray eyes fixed on hers, then ticked to her ruined shirt. “Did they…?”
“No,” she said firmly.
He said nothing.
“Really, Hunter. I’m fine.”
“You need a hospital.”
Now that she could not deny. When she was eight years old, she’d broken her ankle climbing on some mountain boulders during a school field trip. The pain was the same.
Colton opened the door and climbed behind the wheel. When he set her purse on the console, she stared at it in shock.
“I dropped that back at the truck. I told my captor to go get it and I’d pay what my father owed. He told me he sent someone… What did you do?” She fixed her stare on Hunter.
“We did what had to be done.” He looked to Colton. “You good, brother?” Hunter’s question and Colton’s expression both filled Ivy with a sick dread. What these men had done for her—for her family—went above the call of duty.
Even if that duty was love?
She reached for her purse, and he stopped her.
“I’m going to check my phone. Meadow was bringing Daddy home today.”
He fished around in the depths of her purse and pulled out her phone. When she saw she’d missed eight calls from her sister, her stomach sank.
“I’m going to call her. She must think I’m ignoring her!”
“No.” His hard tone stopped her. “Colton will talk to Meadow after he gets us to the hospital.”
As they drove to the hospital in the larger town outside of Eden, they passed only a few cars. The town seemed to be eerily deserted, as if all the residents knew that some criminal activity had gone down and they were hiding in their homes.
She squeezed her eyes closed against the pain in her wrist and tried not to think about all the terrible things that could have happened to her. A broken bone and a backhand to the face were small compared to what might have befallen her. One of her worst fears could have been realized today.
She didn’t ever want to think about leaving Meadow and their father more broken than they already were.
The sky was a haze of white clouds, making it hard to determine the time of day without glancing at the clock on the dashboard.
Sudden panic struck her. She turned wide eyes on Hunter. “Livia!”
He smoothed a gentle hand down her back. “She’s fine, baby.”
“You’re sure?” Her voice rose a notch.
“I made her kick out her customers, lock herself in the restaurant and call the cops.”
Ivy relaxed as much as she could when her life and everyone around her was so entangled with these bad people her father had gotten involved with. Only feeling Hunter’s strong, protective arms around her allowed her to draw a full breath of air.
Minutes later, Colton pulled up to the front door of the hospital.
Hunter glanced his way.
“Call when you’re finished and I’ll send someone for you if I don’t come myself.”
With a nod, Hunter opened the door. When she started to slide off his lap, he banded an arm around her middle, holding her in place.
“I can walk,” Ivy told him.
“Let me take care of you.”
A different type of shiver ran through her. This one heated her insides and made her almost forget about the pain in her wrist.
He insisted on carrying her into the emergency room in case she fainted. The clerk checked her in and told them to sit in the waiting room. Hunter insisted that she remain in his arms and refused to let her sit next to him.
Now that a bit of time had passed, her body seemed to be waking up to what could have happened to her. She cradled her puffy wrist in her other palm. Drawing meditative breaths helped distract her a little, as did Hunter’s masculine scent mingled with the disinfectant the hospital used.
With her head tucked beneath his chin, she cuddled close. Tenderly, he brushed his lips across her brow.
At last, she relaxed enough to let some words pass through her tight throat. “Thank you.”
His already straight back stiffened. “You never have to thank me for doing my job.”
“You saved me.”
“Like I said…my job.”
Lifting her head, she searched his gaze, falling headfirst into the depth of his love for her. He didn’t need to say the words—she knew this man. Those few words…spoken in a low voice that sent goose bumps dancing over her skin…said so much more.
Hunter wrapped his arms around her. Dropping his lips to her hair, he drew a deep breath. “I hate that you got mixed up in this. You have no idea how much I want to go find your father’s room right now and give him a piece of my mind.”
She clasped his shirt front, holding him in place. “You can’t do that, Hunter. Promise me you won’t. I need to speak with him, and I will—when he gets settled.”
“I would never involve someone I love in a mess I made.”
“I know that. But please don’t think my father is a bad man—he just made poor choices. From my research on the finances, it looks like this all began after Forest died. He was probably trying to distract himself from his pain.”
“Not an excuse.”
She studied his hardened features. “I know you would never let anything happen to me.” She pitched her voice low. “You killed for me.”
The tendon in his jaw fluttered as he clamped off any response to her words. But she saw what it cost him not to speak his mind on the matter.
When he didn’t speak, she drew back to stare into his eyes. Her voice came out in a soft rasp of shock. “You think I’m afraid of you.”
“If I were a better man, I wouldn’t have snapped his neck. I could have incapacitated him in other ways and handed him over to the cops.”
She searched his gaze, as tumultuous as the sea beating the cliffs of Cornwall during a storm.
His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “But I am not a better man.”
Careful of her wrist, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “You are the man I love.”
* * * * *
Colton glanced in the rearview mirror—that made twice now.
As on edge as ever, Hunter directed his attention from the beautiful but bruised and battered woman in his lap to the side mirror.
“Who the fuck is that?” His harsh tone made Ivy twist in his lap to see.
“I’m not sure. But we’re about to find out.” Colton turned into the lane leading to the Gracey Ranch.
The truck trailing them pulled in right behind.
Hunter shifted Ivy in his lap, prepared to jump out and defend her to the death. “Ivy, keep your head down. Don’t move until we know if this is a threat.”
Colton opened the console and reached inside. When he pulled out a weapon, Ivy issued a low cry. He popped the door handle and stepped out.
Hunter followed, ready to back him up if he needed to take down an enemy. But when he spotted the familiar man climbing out of the brand-new truck, he stopped in his tracks.
At the same moment, Colton saw who it was too. “Jesus. It’s Wolfe.”
Carver Wolfe, aka Wolfman, pulled off his sunglasses and stared them down. Then his face transformed from the stern look that was so uncharacteristic of him into the grin he was so well known for among his fellow SEALs. More than a few ladies, too.
He spotted the gun Colton held and he cocked a brow. “Who you gunning for?”
Colton tucked the weapon in the waist of his jeans. “Long story.”
“It must be a bad one.”
“Bad enough. What the hell are you doing in Montana?”
He shrugged. “Figured two of my closest friends were here so I’d come for a visit.”
“A visit or to stay?” Hunter eyed him.
He rolled his shoulders in what passed as a shrug in Wolfman’s book. “Haven’t decided yet.” Then he glanced past Hunter. “Who’s in the truck with you?”
“Forest’s little sister.” Hunter glanced back to make sure Ivy hadn’t gotten out too.
“Seriously? Shit. I didn’t think I’d be meeting one of his sisters so soon.”
Colton cleared his throat. “There’s a lot to tell you. Come up to the house with us and we’ll find you a place to stay.”
Hunter moved in to take Wolfe’s hand and pulled him in for a bro hug. They thumped each other on the back. “Damn, it’s good to see you, man.”
“Only you guys know what I’ve been through.” True to form, Wolfe didn’t mince words.
With three of them fighting, they had an even better chance of winning this battle.
Hunter opened the truck door and set eyes on his beautiful woman.
He’d already won.