Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
brADY
“ Y ou need a new suit for the party,” Millie says, leaning against the counter at her coffee shop, her arms crossed over her chest as she looks me up and down, as if she’s examining me. “You’ve worn the hell out of the one you have. It’s time for something new and fashionable.”
“It’s a black fucking suit.” I scowl at her. “I can buy a new tie. Maybe a new hat.”
“No.” She shakes her head, reminding me why my baby sister drives me bananas. “New suit. I’m serious, this party is important, and you have a date. Abbi deserves to have her date look extra hot.”
“Who are you going with?” I counter, and she scowls.
“I don’t need a date,” she replies, lifting her chin. “I complete myself.”
“You should write a book about that.” I shake my head when she scowls at me. “Do not throw something at me. Anyway, this party is in four days. I can’t buy a custom suit in four fucking days.”
“It doesn’t have to be custom, fancy pants. Go across the street and buy something off the rack.”
“You know, this would have been good to know a couple of days ago.”
“You know,” she counters, “you’re a complainer.”
“I am not. ” My phone rings, and I answer when I see Chase’s name. “Yo.”
“Get up to the resort,” he says, his voice hard and brisk. “Abbi needs you now. Condos, near the restaurant.”
“Is she hurt?”
“Get here,” he says and hangs up, and I stare at Millie for two seconds before running out of the coffee shop and to my 4Runner, my heart pounding, as I drive a couple of miles up a winding road to the resort near the chairlifts.
I can’t get there fast enough. Did she get hurt on the job? I know she’s working more in the field this week. God, did she fall?
I come around a corner and spot Abbi’s SUV, so I park next to it and see that she’s in the driver’s seat, crying.
“Fuck.” Within seconds, I open her door and am squatting next to her, brushing her hair off of her cheek. “Hey, sweetheart. Deep breath.”
She’s not just crying. She’s having a panic attack. Her eyes are round and bright, her hands clenched on the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles are stark white. She hasn’t even acknowledged that I’m here. I don’t think she realizes that I’m right next to her.
“Come on, beautiful. Breathe with me.”
She finally glances my way, and her face crumples.
And I see the huge bruise across her cheekbone and her eye. Rage fills me, spreading through me like fucking wildfire, but my hand is gentle as I brush my thumb over her chin.
“Hold…your…”—she gulps—“fingers…up.”
I frown, but I do as she asks, spreading my fingers and holding my hand up, like a child telling someone their age.
And she systematically blows on each finger, then reaches up and tucks it down to my palm.
She’s shaking but concentrating on blowing on my fingers, and after the third time of going through each one, she starts to settle.
“Oh, God,” she sobs and brushes at the tears on her cheeks.
“Okay.” Shaken to the core, I cup her face and lean in to kiss her cheek, sure to be gentle so I don’t hurt her. “It’s okay now, Abs. Where’s Chase?”
“Upstairs,” she says, gesturing with her chin toward the building. “I was cleaning. I thought the condo was empty, but—” She shakes her head, and the tears start again, fueling the bright red anger pulsing through me. I’m going to kill whoever did this to my girl.
“Brady.”
I stand and turn at Chase’s voice, and see that he, along with two other cops, is leading a shirtless man out of the building, his hands cuffed behind his back.
“You motherfucker.” I charge him, fist cocked, but Chase catches me, holding me back. “I’m going to rip your goddamn heart out. I’m going to be your worst fucking nightmare, you hear me, you piece of shit?”
“Stop.” Chase’s voice is hard in my ear.
“Let me kill him.”
“I can’t let you touch him,” he says, jerking me. The asshole smirks at me, but I see blood running down the side of his face.
“Tell me she did that to him.”
“Oh, she clocked him good with a frying pan,” my brother replies, pride in his voice. “And she needs you. Abbi is who you’re here for. This asshole will get what’s coming to him. He confessed to everything, gleefully. Fucker.”
“I’m going to hurt him,” I promise my brother.
“I didn’t hear that.” When the asshole is in the back of the squad car, headed to jail, Chase turns to Abbi, who’s just staring straight ahead now, the look in her eyes breaking my fucking heart, and squats next to her. “Abbi, I need to ask you some questions, but first, we should take you to the hospital.”
“No.” She focuses on him and licks her lips. “Absolutely no hospital. I’m fine. It’s nothing I haven’t had before.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
“I have to clean that condo,” she continues.
“Definitely not.” I shake my head and take her hand in mine, lacing my fingers through hers. “You’re going home. Or to my house. And we’ll call someone else to take care of this.”
“I’m the only one who can.”
“Then we’ll call the owner and tell them they have to find someone else. You’re not working today,” I stress when she tries to argue, and then she deflates, blows out a breath, and nods.
“I can’t go home,” she says softly. “Daisy is just next door, and she’d see me come home and would want to be with me, and I need some time.”
“Polly’s house,” Chase says, sparing me a glance before he calls our soon-to-be sister-in-law. When she picks up, he says, “Tell me your house in town is empty right now. Good. I need to take Abbi there. She’s okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Polly.”
“I’ll drive you. Shit, where are your shoes?”
“Inside,” she says, looking down. All I want is to pull her against me and soothe her. “I need my purse.”
“I’ll go get your things,” Chase says before jogging back inside.
“Come on.” I tug her out of her car and get her settled in my 4Runner. “Everything’s going to be okay, baby.”
“Would you really kill him?” Her voice is low, but she’s watching me shrewdly.
“In a motherfucking heartbeat.” I let the anger show in my eyes and in my voice. “He fucking touched you. He marked you. If Chase hadn’t stopped me, he’d be a dead man.”
She swallows hard and turns to look out the windshield, and I worry that I said too much. Chase returns with all of Abbi’s things, including a bucket of supplies, and we stow them in the back of the 4Runner.
“I have to come with you,” he says grimly. “I need to get her statement.”
“Let’s do this, then,” I reply with a nod, and we follow Chase down the road into town.
Polly decided to keep her little house near the high school and use it as a short-term rental property. I’m surprised that it’s empty right now, given that it’s the holidays and rentals are hard to come by.
But I won’t complain about it.
Abbi’s quiet as we make the short drive, and when I park in the driveway, she wiggles into her shoes, pushes the door open, and steps out. I take her hand to lead her inside, where Chase is already waiting.
“How are you doing?” Chase asks Abbi as I close the door behind us. Abbi sits on the comfy sofa, then drops her head in her hands. “Is that a stupid question?”
“No,” she says as I cross to the kitchen and open the freezer, pulling out ice to make a pack for her face. “I’m okay. A little shell-shocked. Sore. Dealing with some PTSD.”
Her eyes slide over to me, and she licks her lips.
“You don’t need to tell me about your past,” Chase says as he sits across from her. “I just need to know what happened today.”
“Okay.” She accepts the ice pack from me and gently presses it against her cheek and eye, sighing when the cold hits her skin. “Oh, that helps. Thanks, Brady.”
I sit next to her, not sure if she wants me to, but I’m relieved when she takes my hand and squeezes, holding on tight as if I’m a lifeline.
“I’m short-staffed,” she begins. “Some of my people are on vacation for the holiday. So, I’m cleaning places this week that I normally wouldn’t. I also don’t have a partner, and I demand my people team up for just this reason.”
She blows out a breath.
“Anyway, I had two short-term rentals to clean up there today. I knocked and called out that I was there, and the place felt empty. There was no response when I called out, so I started on the kitchen. It was a fucking mess . I got the dishwasher packed up and had just turned to start on the stove when I heard him.”
She swallows hard, and her hand on mine tightens.
“He was a slimy piece of shit. Suggested I get in bed with him. I said absolutely not, that I’d just go and come back later, and he b-blocked my way.”
Her voice wavers, but she clears her throat.
“He said he’d fuck me whether I was into it or not, so I should just calm down and go with it. Grabbed me. Smacked me.”
Seeing red, I have to stand and pace the room. Christ, I want to hurt him. I want to tear his heart out through his fucking asshole.
“I reached for the frying pan on the stove and hit him, hard, and then I just ran. I didn’t stop to see if he was chasing me. I knew I had to get out of there because he was going to rape me, and I had to run.”
“Okay,” Chase says calmly when her voice rises, and it sounds like she might spiral into another panic attack. “You’re absolutely right, Abbi. You did the right thing. I can tell you that I did a run on his name, and it turns out this is not his first sexual assault. The fucker is a rich brat whose daddy paid for attorneys to get him a plea bargain on the last case, but part of his parole stipulation was that he not offend again. He’s going back to prison.”
“For how long?” My voice is a growl.
“Twenty more years,” Chase replies.
“You found all of that out?” Abbi asks. “That was fast.”
“My office does good work,” he says with a smile. “He can’t hurt you, or anyone else, again. I’m so sorry this happened, Abbi. Are you sure I can’t take you to the hospital?”
“No hospitals,” she repeats, shaking her head. “But thank you. Thanks for coming so quickly.”
Before he leaves, Chase takes his time, assuring Abbi that she can call him anytime and that everything will be okay. Then we’re alone in the quiet house.
Abbi stands, blows out a breath, and calmly walks into the kitchen to freshen up her ice pack, before turning to me with big, sad blue eyes.
Those eyes are going to be the death of me.
“So, I guess this means that anything you and I might have started is over.”
I blink at her and then scowl. “What? Why would you even think that? None of this is your fault.”
She sighs and, if I’m not mistaken, chuckles.
Chuckles.
“This isn’t funny, Abbi.”
“No.” She presses the pack to her face and cringes. “It’s not funny. But it’s typical. I’m a fucking mess and a half, Brady. You don’t need to bring my bullshit into your life.”
“I don’t see any bullshit.”
“No, you’ve seen what I want you to see, and I don’t mean that as deceitful as it sounds.”
She walks back into the living room and sits on the couch, pulls her feet up under her, and looks so… sad.
“Maybe you should talk to me.”
I take Chase’s seat across from her so I can look her in the eyes.
“I don’t ever talk about this,” she replies quietly and shivers, and I pull the throw blanket off of the back of the chair I’m in and take it to her and wrap her up in it, before returning to the chair. “I’m not going to go into the nitty gritty because I can’t. I have to go home later to be with Daisy, and if I go there, I might not come out of the darkness that it puts me in. But I was in foster care. You know what Jake went through.”
My brother’s son was in foster care for over a year after his biological parents died in a car accident. He was brutalized in that house, over and over again, until Chase and Ryan saved him.
I narrow my eyes on her and nod. Christ, I want to hold her.
“I was abused in every way there is to hurt someone. In. Every. Way.”
Unable to stand it, I cross to her and lift her into my arms, settling with her in my lap, and press my face to her neck.
How could anyone want to hurt this beautiful, smart, sweet woman?
“Never again,” I say, my voice rough with emotion as we cling to each other. “No one will ever hurt you again, Abbi.”
“I didn’t think so. Until today. And I was unprepared, unarmed, and so damn stupid. ”
I pull back and frown down at her. “What are you talking about? Are you supposed to carry a gun every time you leave the house?”
“I should have been more aware of my surroundings,” she says. “I should have checked every room before I started cleaning, and I should have had a partner with me.”
“I won’t argue about the partner,” I agree. “That’s just common sense, but it’s the holidays and you were short-staffed. Jesus, Abbi, it’s not your fault.”
Her lower lip quivers, and I cup her cheek, pressing my lips to hers.
“I wish…” She stops talking and closes her eyes.
“What, baby? What do you wish?”
She takes a long, deep breath. “I wish you hadn’t seen me like that. The panic attacks don’t happen very often anymore, and it’s bad enough that poor Daisy has to help me through them. I didn’t want you to see it.”
I don’t like that Daisy is the one she has to lean on.
“Well, to answer your previous question, no. This doesn’t change anything between you and me. We all have a past, Abs. We all have stuff. If you need to fall apart, then fall the fuck apart. I can handle it.”
She leans in and buries her face in my neck.
“I have secrets, Brady. You don’t deserve that.”
“Will any of your secrets hurt my family?”
She jerks back as if I’ve just hit her, her big, blue eyes full of fire. “Of course not. Jesus, of course not.”
“Then I don’t give a shit. When you want to tell me, you will.”
“As simple as that?”
“It doesn’t have to be hard. Now, what do we need to do? Who do we need to call?”
She chews her lip, and it looks like she might cry again, but she squares her shoulders and pulls her phone out of her pocket.
“I need to call my people and find out if anyone can cover those two condos. Then, I have to call the owner of the one I was cleaning. And I really, really need to eat something.”
I grin at her. “You make those calls, and I’ll handle the food.”
“Deal. And, Brady?” She smiles up at me. “Thank you. No one has ever had my back like that. Not since my mom died.”
God, I want to tell her that I’ll have her back every goddamn day for the rest of her life, but I can’t promise that.
Instead, I gently kiss her sweet lips and brush her hair over her shoulder.
“I’m right here,” I whisper before I set her on the couch and stand to cross the room to place my own call for food.
An hour later, once we’ve polished off a pizza and Abbi seems to be much calmer, she sighs and smiles over at me.
“As much as I’d like to stay here with you all night, I should go home to Daisy. I have some arnica there for this bruise, and I need to do some rearranging on the schedule for the rest of the week.”
“I understand. I’ll take you home, and my brothers and I will get your car for you later.”
“You can just take me up there now, and I’ll drive it home. It’s no big deal.”
“No. I’ll take you home.” I soften the statement with a kiss and then help Abbi clean up from our surprise visit to the rental before I drive her the short distance to her townhouse. “Do you need anything?”
“No, I’m honestly fine. Do you want to come in?”
Surprisingly, no. I don’t want to come in. I want to work off some pent-up aggression.
“Actually, I think I’m going to go to the gym for a while, unless you need me.”
“By all means, go to the gym,” she replies with a smile and leans in to kiss my cheek. I grip her chin, turn her lips to mine, and kiss her long and slow, until she whimpers against me. “Maybe we should have stayed at Polly’s place, after all.”
I grin at her. “Soon, I’d like to have uninterrupted, kid-free time with you. But for today, I’ll say goodbye.”
“Soon,” she says and turns away to get out of the car. “Now, go lift some weights. Your arms are my favorite.”
I quirk up a brow. “Is that so?”
“Super hot,” she confirms and steps out of the 4Runner. “I’ll see you at the gala, if not before.”
“It’ll probably be before,” I assure her with a wink, and once she’s inside, I pull out of her driveway and let the fear, the absolute rage pulse through me. I’ve held it back over the past couple of hours because that’s not what she needed from me.
But now, I need to beat the shit out of something, so I dial Ryan’s number.
“Chase told us,” my brother says by answering. “What do you need?”
“Your gym,” I reply grimly. “More specifically, the bag.”
“It’s yours, help yourself. Need someone to spar with?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I’m pretty shitty company right now, Ry. I want to kill that motherfucker.”
“I get it. I’d want the same in your shoes. Hit the bag for a while.”
“Thanks.”
I park just outside of Ry’s shop, where the gym is also housed. It has its own entrance in the back, and because my brother is who he is, this gym is likely outfitted with better and more state-of-the-art equipment than the actual gym just outside of town.
When I walk in, I find Jake on the treadmill, earbuds in his ears, sweating as he jogs. I wave at him and head straight to the corner, where a punching bag hangs.
After slipping on gloves so I don’t tear my knuckles apart, I start in. First, I see that asshole’s face from today, and I pound it as hard as I can. Then I make my way through the fuckers that were supposed to protect Abbi when she was a teenager. The ones who not only hit her, but raped her, and tore apart her mental health, as well. She didn’t spell it out for me, but it was clear.
And I wish I could make them all pay.
So, I hit and hit and hit until my arms and shoulders sing in protest. Until I’m fighting for breath and every inhale is pure fire. Until all the injuries I’ve ever had—and there are more than I can list—scream in protest.
And then I hit some more.
The bag falls from the ceiling, catching me by such surprise that I step back, and then applause breaks out around me.
When I turn, I find Ryan, Jake, Remington, and Chase all standing nearby, hands on hips or in pockets, watching me.
“You’re going to hurt tomorrow,” Rem says.
“I hurt now. Give me just five minutes alone in a cell with him,” I say to Chase as I wipe my arm over my forehead.
“I can’t do that, no matter how much I want to,” Chase says quietly. “He threatened to sue her for assault.”
“You’re fucking kidding me.” I turn and kick the bag now.
“He dropped that idea when we reminded him that what she did was in self-defense.” Chase crosses his arms over his chest. “How is she?”
“Better. She’s a lot better. Bruised and sore, but she ate and wanted to go home with Daisy. And I needed—” I point to the bag. “I’m just so fucking pissed. ”
“Did this help?” Jake asks quietly, watching me with sober eyes.
“A little. I pictured his face.” I blow out a breath as I tug my sweat-drenched shirt over my head and then accept the bottle of water that Ryan offers. “I hate that there’s nothing I can do.”
“You did it,” Ryan replies. “You stayed with her. You took care of her. That’s all you can do.”
“It’s not enough.” I chug some of the water. “Hey, you’re fancy.”
Ryan’s lips twitch. “Are you insulting me?”
“No, Millie says I need a new suit for this big party. But I only have a couple of days until the gala.”
“Oh, I can take care of that,” Ryan says, pulling out his phone. “What color do you want?”
“It’s a fucking suit, I don’t know.” I eye Jake. “Sorry, buddy.”
“I figure you have the right to swear a lot today,” Jake replies. His face is still sober. “Did he hurt her really bad?”
“He got one hit in,” I reply and walk to him, patting him on the shoulder. “And she smashed a frying pan over his head. Made him bleed.”
Jake nods, relief obviously moving through him. “Good. That’s good. Maybe I’ll go see her tomorrow and see if she needs anything. I’m gonna go kill some zombies.”
He waves at us and then walks out of the gym, closing the door behind him.
“Fuck,” I mutter, shaking my head. “I should have thought of how he was feeling before I went on my rampage.”
“He’s okay,” Ryan says. “He’ll go kill some zombies and feel better. The way you killed my bag over there.”
“Sorry.” I grin at him. “Not sorry. Hey, this asshole is the son of a rich fucker. I can’t hurt him physically, but?—”
“I’ll take care of it,” Ryan says with a lethal grin. “That family might just have to lose all of their money.”
“Jesus, you guys are scary,” Rem mutters. “How can I help?”