Chapter 5 #3
Caleb shouted again as he approached them, knowing that something as harmless as noise could sometimes scare muggers off.
He was close enough now that he was able to see distinct movements, and he saw her clobber one of the men on the jaw.
She pulled away and kneed the second man in the groin as he reached out to seize her again.
But she hadn’t gotten far enough away when the first one made another grab for her. Caleb watched as the man brutally slammed Kelly into the side of the car.
And Caleb was washed with waves of rage. White-hot, blinding rage. He had no idea where the violent emotion had come from, except that it was one of his primal instincts that he’d done his best to stamp out.
But he’d never been able to completely erase the raw, primitive side of himself, and it took him over at that moment, as he watched Kelly slump limply to the pavement. He didn’t know her. Didn’t owe her anything.
Yet he was fiercely enraged by seeing her attacked.
As he reached the two men, they were trying to pull her up, and Caleb grabbed one of them and rammed his fist into the man’s face.
The impact from the blow shook him, and the jolt of pain shot all the way up his arm. The second man knocked Caleb aside, using his elbow in a hard blow on the side of his mouth.
But by this point there were other voices from down the street as people saw what was happening. The two men ran away, and Caleb had no choice but to let them since Kelly somehow, as she was trying to rise, had ended up slumped on his feet.
Giving up on catching the attackers for now, Caleb knelt down beside Kelly, waving away the couple who had started over to help. As he did, his hand moved to his mouth, and he realized that he was bleeding from a cut on his lip.
Kelly was blinking up at him, clearly dazed and in pain, one of her hands blindly groping at his knee.
“Are you all right?” he asked softly, holding her by the shoulder.
“Yeah.” Her voice was choked, and she groaned helplessly as she tried to sit up. One of her hands moved to her head and the other to her stomach, as she plainly tried to fight both dizziness and nausea.
“You need a doctor,” Caleb said, his mind working quickly now that the crisis was over.
“No,” she objected weakly. “I’m fine. Just help me up.” She made a few attempts to stand but wasn’t able to do so yet.
“You are not fine. I’ll take you to the emergency room, and then we’ll have to report the attack. Could you tell what they were trying to do? Mug you? A carjacking?” It hadn’t really looked like either of those, but he wanted to know if she would take the offered suggestions.
“They weren’t muggers or carjackers,” Kelly muttered. Her face was pale, and her eyes were still dazed, but she grabbed for his shoulder in an attempt to rise. “I know who they were.”
“Kelly,” Caleb began urgently, feeling the dull anger return at the knowledge that she was hiding this from him, along with a renewed feeling of powerlessness. “What is going on?”
“It’s my business,” she said despite her obvious weakness. “Just help me up.”
“I’m not going to let you try to drive yourself away,” Caleb gritted through clenched teeth. In her struggle to rise, her neckline had shifted, and his eyes were drawn once more to the lush crease and shadow at the top of her breasts.
He was an asshole for focusing on her cleavage when she was obviously in pain, so he made himself look away.
She swatted away the hand that had been on her shoulder, the one he was using to prevent her from rising. She stumbled to her feet, and Caleb had no choice but to put a supporting arm around her waist since she almost collapsed back to the ground.
Kelly smothered a groan and closed her eyes. She held his arm to keep her balance and put her free hand on her belly. Soon she’d have a heavy bruise under one eye and a substantial knot on the side of her head.
“Where are my keys?” she mumbled, pulling away from him and trying again to stand on her own.
Caleb couldn’t believe how foolish she was acting. “Kelly,” he said roughly, then cleared his throat to restore his voice to normal. “I’m not going to let you drive. You have a concussion.”
Now there were tears leaking out of her pained eyes. “I have to go. He’ll find me again.”
Caleb filed that away with the other information he’d gotten from her thus far. Obviously she was running from someone. That would be helpful to know when he began to check into her background more deeply.
She was taking deep breaths and trying to steady herself, and her cheeks and lips were sickeningly white.
Part of Caleb—a part that he’d almost forgotten existed—wanted to take care of her. And the rest of him recognized a good opportunity when he saw one. So his entire self was speaking when he offered, “Come with me then. Let me help you. I’ll take you somewhere safe where you can recover.”
“No. I don’t want you involved. I don’t even know you.” She sucked in an urgent breath, moved her hand back to her stomach, and turned away from him.
Caleb felt a little queasy himself when he asked, “Are you going to be sick?”
“No,” she replied, swallowing the word. “I’m okay.”
She definitely wasn’t okay. Caleb narrowed his eyes. “I’ll take you to the emergency room, or you can come with me and let me help you. Those are your only two options.” He wasn’t used to people not doing what he said, and he didn’t like it at all.
“Can’t go to emergency room,” she gasped. “He’ll find me.”
Caleb’s brow furrowed as he watched her. She was definitely concussed, and there was something else going on here.
“Come with me, Kelly. You have no reason to trust me, but you have no reason to think I’ll harm you either.”
“No.” She put both hands flat on her car for support.
“Kelly.” He put an arm around her waist again since he was afraid she was going to fall down.
Finally she slumped against him. And since she didn’t argue anymore, he took that as her agreement. “My car is a couple of blocks away,” he said gently. “In the parking deck of my office building.”
Kelly tottered beside him for half a block before her knees began to buckle. So, seeing no other available means of getting her to his car, Caleb swung her up into his arms and carried her the rest of the way.
He didn’t like it. It made him feel strange—as if the gesture were too clichéd, too heroic, too… something. It didn’t suit him at all. The same way he’d felt making the call to Wes earlier that day.
But Kelly couldn’t walk anymore, and he had to get her to his car somehow. So he did it anyway.
Her body was soft and substantial in his arms. She was basically a dead weight—not trying to support herself or present a pretty picture. It made him uncomfortable. His chest felt too heavy and too tight all at once.
But his mind was whirling. There was a mystery here. So many unanswered questions.
After getting her into his car, he drove to his house outside the city since that would be less visible than his downtown apartment. Kelly was in and out of consciousness, but Caleb kept trying to keep her awake.
When he was stopped at a light, he glanced over and saw that her eyes were closed. So he picked up the phone and texted out a brief message to a guy he used to investigate things he didn’t want listed on the company books.
Find out more information about Kelly Watson. Focus on men she’s been in relationships with.
Kelly’s eyes were still closed when he put his phone back down and accelerated as the light turned green.
His mind was whirling with questions and possibilities.
He didn’t fully trust Kelly. He didn’t fully trust anyone. But he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
She obviously needed his help, and he liked that. But he needed to know her story in order to do anything about it.
When there were things he didn’t know, his world would start to spin out of control. And when things were out of control, he would have to resort to methods that were distasteful, unpleasant in order to gain the upper hand.
He preferred not to have to do so.
He would if he had to though. It was the reason he was sitting here now. He was willing to do what other men couldn’t. Wouldn’t.
And he never let weaker qualities like guilt or fear or morality get in his way.