Chapter 2
Malachi Isaac Stone
“Gracie, is that really you?” I spoke hesitantly, not believing my eyes, that the woman in my arms could really be the same sweet girl from my past. The one that had never left my mind and I carried with me every day.
Her slight body was rigid in my arms as I tried my best to steady her and take a step back. When I’d seen those scared green eyes and strawberry blonde locks, I thought I was imagining things.
How could she be here? Did my family move? Was my dickhead brother lurking around here somewhere too? But that made little sense. If she was taking my free self-defense class that was offered by the local women’s shelter, something must have happened.
Fierce anger rose in my chest. If Cain had hurt her, he was a dead man, brother or not. A primal need to protect surged through me, linked with a darkness I’d tried to escape since leaving the military.
I needed to know everything that had happened to her, so I could fix it. She deserved the world, and I would give it to her if she let me.
“Mal, what are you doing?” Kathleen, one of my volunteer instructors, called after us. “Grace, are you okay?” She pushed me back and took my place, stroking Grace’s arms. Her gaze was assessing, as if she were checking for injuries. “What happened?”
Kath’s gaze caught mine in a silent reprimand, as it bounced between Grace and me.
From the outside looking in, this didn’t appear to look good.
I’d followed a clearly distressed new student into an alleyway, by myself.
No one knew who I was, only that I was a former soldier and lived on Riverrun Ranch.
My connection to Gracie, or my past, was not something I talked about, ever.
Before I had a chance to say anything, Gracie spoke up, her voice wavering slightly.
“I’m fine, Kath. I…uh…mistook Mal for someone else and panicked.
” The way she spoke my name, so hesitantly, like she had to force it out, hurt me more than I thought it would.
She’d never called me Mal before. I’d always been Malachi or Kai to her.
She’d been the only person to call me that.
It saddened me not to hear my name, her name for me, from those lips.
I cleared my throat and caught her gaze.
The panicked look in her eyes was still there as she gave her head a slight shake; eyes pleaded with me to play along.
“Ah, yes. You look like someone I used to know. I’m sorry if I startled you, Grace.
” I had to bite my tongue to stop from calling her Gracie.
Her haunted eyes hurt my soul, and I wanted so much to hear her story.
She took a step back from both of us, wrapping her arms around herself. The sight of her, hunched in on herself, looking so small and defeated, had my protective instincts roaring. I clenched my hands into fists at my sides. What had happened to her? What happened to my Wildflower?
“I’m not sure I can handle a class today,” she mumbled as she shivered and looked down at her muddy clothes. “I need to change.”
“Are you sure?” Kath asked. “I have spare clothes in my car. We should get you changed anyway.”
Kath glanced between us, her amber eyes taking in everything we hadn’t said. Kath was whip-smart and knew something was up, but her priority seemed to be Gracie’s welfare, and for that, I was grateful. I moved aside and watched them leave the alley.
She’d grown up a lot in the last six years, and seeing her again after all this time had thrown my newly ordered world off balance.
What did it mean? Would I see her again after today?
Would she even want to take my class now that she knew I taught it?
My thoughts threatened to overwhelm me but I had a class to lead and would need to crack the case of Gracie Boseman later.
Thankfully, today’s volunteer, Emily, had started warm-ups while I’d been running after my past, and when I returned, the class was ready and waiting for my instructions.
“Sorry about that, everyone. Let’s continue from last week and partner up. We’re working on knee strikes today. Grab pads and let’s get to work,” I called out, scanning the room to ensure Gracie had been my only newcomer.
As the class got to work, I fell into the routine, letting the familiarity and comfort chase away my racing thoughts.
This class was full of people who needed and deserved my full attention.
They’d each been through their own version of hell and had come out the other side.
I was here to help them grow and hopefully gain back a little confidence and allow them to feel safe for their next steps in life.
The side door creaking distracted me as Kath and Gracie came back in.
Gracie had changed into sweats and a hoodie that dwarfed her too-thin frame.
She kept her gaze downcast, avoiding eye contact.
Everything about her demeanor was the opposite of the bright young girl I’d once known.
Gracie headed for the bleachers as Kath came over to join the group.
Kath nodded at Emily before addressing me. “Can I have a quick word, Mal?” Her amber eyes blazed with a warning I wasn’t sure I was ready for.
“Sure.” My heart rate picked up as I turned to check in on Emily. “You okay to check everyone’s forms for the moment? I’ll be right back.”
“No problem.” She was always no-nonsense, so I knew my class would be in good hands.
Kath led me to the opposite side of the room, away from Gracie and the class.
Turning to me, arms folded, she let me have it.
“What was that? How could you chase and invade Grace’s personal space like that?
You know why she’s here; you know why each of these people are here.
I’ve talked you up all this time and here you go and freak her out.
” Kath was such a passionate person at the best of times, and when she was defending her family, you had better watch out.
“I’m sorry, okay. I don’t know what I was thinking.” As I pinched the bridge of my nose, I could feel the tension of a headache forming. “I’d never want to scare anyone, especially her,” I muttered. “Wait a sec, Grace is the roommate you’ve been talking about all this time?”
“Duh,” Kath said and looked at me like I’d hit my head.
All Kath’s stories and hints at her roommate’s situation came flooding into my mind.
My stomach dropped like a lead weight, and I felt ill.
My brother was her husband. He was the one who had hurt her and forced her to flee in the middle of the night with what she had stashed in her car.
He’d broken her face, cracked her ribs, and who knows what else. “Oh my God.”
“Mal, are you okay?” Kath set a hand on my shoulder to steady me as I swayed in place.
“You’ve gone pale.” She pushed me onto the hard bench seat at the bottom of the bleachers, and I collapsed onto it.
I hadn’t seen any of my family since I’d left, and all the letters implied everything was fine.
Apparently, Grace and Cain were the perfect couple my parents wanted them to be.
When did everything go wrong? How could my mother and her parents stand by and let Cain treat his wife like this?
Did they even know? I’d tried to point out how cruel Cain was when we were kids, but my parents wouldn’t hear it.
As far as they were concerned, he could do no wrong. I guess some things never changed.
A throat-clearing startled me out of my spiraling thoughts.
“Ah, Mal, are you okay?” Gracie was standing next to me, her beautiful pale eyes looking worried.
She held out a bottle of water to me, my bottle of water.
“It looked like you might have needed this,” she said as she rocked from foot to foot.
“Thank you,” I croaked. I flipped the lid and took a much-needed gulp. My mind was racing with all this newly aligned information. I’d seen shit; I’d been through it, but for anything to hurt Gracie was unacceptable.
“Kath, can you give us a second, please?” Gracie’s soft voice didn’t waver this time. My gaze snapped to her, and I could tell Kath was just as baffled by her request as I was.
“You sure?” Kath stood in front of me, blocking my view of Gracie.
“I’m sure. I just need a sec with Mal. To ah…explain.” The hesitation in her voice couldn’t have been more obvious that something was up.
I jumped to my feet. “You don’t need to explain anything. I’m sorry I startled you earlier.” I hurried to speak as Kath huffed from between us.
Gracie took a step to the side and straightened her spine.
“Thank you, Mal, for saying that.” She turned back to Kath, reaching out and taking her hand.
“Just a sec, please. I promise you, I’m fine.
Go join the class, and I’ll be over in a minute.
” She squeezed her hand as Kath’s warning gaze bore into me once again.
“If you’re sure.” She turned and wandered over to assist Emily with the class as silence settled over us.
Gracie sighed, as if bracing herself before turning back to me. “I take it Kath has hinted at why I’m here.”
“Ah, yeah. Just a little, but enough to have me worried. Cain hurt you?” I heard the anguish in my voice, and I wanted so badly to reach out and offer her some form of comfort.
“There are no words for what he did to me. Yes, he hurt me, but he never will again.” Her voice was firm, laced with steel as her eyes met mine, full of determination.
“I need you to promise me that you won’t tell your family, or mine, about me, that I’m here, or that you’ve even seen me. Not a word, okay?”
The fierceness in her voice should have surprised me, but it was classic Gracie. Strong, stubborn, honest.
“I would never,” I promised as silence settled between us again. “You know my father’s an asshole, and I avoid talking to them, anyway. They don’t even know I’m here and never will.”
Cain would never touch her again.
My Wildflower had come back into my life.
I couldn’t protect her the first time, but I vowed, this time would be different.