Chapter 22
Arabella stared in relief at her small house as they pulled up in front of it at five that night.
Despite the fact that she’d slept a lot today she was still feeling tired. And weirdly anxious.
It felt good to be home. Even if Horse was still with Cole. Who hadn’t been at all happy to see her.
Well, that was something to think about another day.
You are not in control of how people feel about you.
“You all right?” Kellan asked.
“Um, yeah. Just tired. I’m also wondering why no one from hospital admin came to see me about the bill. I don’t think I have insurance anymore.”
“Oh, that’s because I paid for it. Wait there.”
Her mouth dropped open in shock as he got out and moved around to her side of the car.
What. The. Heck.
She couldn’t even take in the fact that he was being a gentleman and opening the door for her. This car wasn’t the same one they’d had before and she wondered where it had come from.
“You paid for it?” she asked as he opened the door.
“Yep.”
“You can’t pay for my hospital bill.”
“Why not? I have plenty of money.”
“Now I owe you for that and the hotel room.” How was she going to pay him back?
“You owe me for nothing,” he said fiercely. “And if you mention it again I’m going to be very upset.”
Yikes.
It didn’t feel right that he’d paid the bill. But she also didn’t have the energy to argue right now.
Instead of just holding the car door for her or even offering her a hand, he slid his arm under her legs and around her back and lifted her.
Shock filled her.
Kellan hadn’t touched her much. When Eli was kissing her the other night he’d just watched on . . . directing things.
Although that had been pretty hot. She wasn’t going to lie.
She still had to apologize to them for her reaction.
However, they had disappeared on her.
It was the second time they’d disappeared on her.
She guessed it wasn’t like they had owed her an explanation when she’d been the one to kick them out of her house.
“You don’t have to carry me, you know,” she said. “I’m fine now. Just a bit tired. There’s no reason to carry me everywhere.”
“You just got out of the hospital. You’re not walking.” He walked up to the door. “Key?”
“It’s in my handbag.” Which she was holding. She dug into it. Thankfully, Eli had thought to grab it for her when she’d collapsed.
She took it out and unlocked the door.
Shock filled her as she took in the state of the house.
“Oh my God! What happened here!”
Eli drove up to Cole’s house. It was a huge home in a newer area of Haven. There wasn’t a lot of development in the town since the council wanted to keep it small. So when he said newer, he meant that it was about ten years old.
The house was down the end of a drive and had two levels with extensive gardens.
Eli didn’t like it.
Probably because you don’t like Cole.
Not that he had ever had much to do with him. But he didn’t like that he’d been engaged to Arabella. And because it seemed that she’d never wanted to be engaged to him.
Her nightmare the other night played through his mind. She wouldn’t explain it, but it had been clear that it had to be about Cole.
Her ex-fiancé.
If he’d hurt her . . .
Well, it was time to find out, wasn’t it?
Getting out of his car, Eli stormed up to the front door and knocked loudly.
He could hear Horse howling inside and someone talking. Then the door opened and Cole stared out at him, looking harried.
His control just seemed to snap as soon as he saw the bastard and he grabbed him by the neck, forcing him into the house.
Cole let out a startled noise as he slammed him into a wall.
“Tell me you didn’t force her, you asshole!”
“What’s going on? Oh my God! Let go of Cole!” Keira cried.
Shit. He probably should have made sure that Cole was alone. Keira was an innocent who didn’t need to witness this.
Horse barreled into the room and to Eli’s surprise, he came to Eli’s side and growled at Cole.
Who managed to push Eli off him. But only because he wanted to be moved. He really didn’t like upsetting Keira.
“What’s going on?” Julian asked, coming in and gently pushing Keira behind him as though to protect her from Eli.
“Have you lost your mind?” Cole roared, moving to cover Julian and Keira. “Why would you come in here and shove me around? I was doing you a favor taking care of that dog! And all he’s done is howl.”
“He really misses Arabella,” Keira said, peeking around her two men. “How is she?”
“Arabella is fine now. She’s gone home.” He pointed to Cole. “Did you fucking force her into getting engaged to you?”
“What? No! What are you talking about? Did she say that?”
“She has nightmares,” Eli said. “Where she says that she doesn’t want ‘him’ and don’t make me marry ‘him’.”
“Oh shit,” Julian said.
Cole blanched. “What the fuck? She never said anything about not wanting to marry me. I mean, it was clear that it wasn’t a love match. It was for business. But I would never have forced her into anything.”
“Why would she move here if Cole had forced her into something she didn’t want?” Julian asked.
Good point.
“Her father must have forced her into it,” Cole said grimly. “That asshole assured me that she was happy and that she wanted to marry me. But what if he forced her into saying yes?”
Fuck. “We’ve started looking into him and we couldn’t find much dirt.”
“Oh, there will be dirt,” Cole said. “He wasn’t a clean man.
I couldn’t believe it when I heard he jumped off a bridge.
Hank Bridges was the last person I expected to do something like that.
He was too full of his own self-importance.
He always thought he’d come out on top. I still have no idea how he managed to become the Governor of Texas.
He was close to broke, then suddenly, he’s running on a ticket with Richard Lyle.
Then Lyle dies and Hank becomes governor? ”
“It sounds like something out of a soap opera,” Julian said. “How did he know Lyle?”
“I don’t know,” Eli said. “But I think I need to find all of this out.”
“I want to talk to her,” Cole said. “Make sure she wasn’t forced into an engagement with me.”
“You’ll have to wait. She needs rest. If she’s willing to talk to you, I’ll let you know.”
Cole frowned. “Arabella shouldn’t be on her own.”
“Maybe we should go get her and bring her here to stay,” Keira said worriedly.
Cole shot her a warm look. “You’re so sweet.”
She blushed.
“Actually, we will be staying with Arabella,” Eli said. Like hell she was coming here.
“And why are you looking after her?” Cole asked smoothly. “You don’t even know her. She would be better here.”
“Not happening. My brother and I will be taking care of her. And you will stay away until she wants to talk to you. Thanks for taking care of Horse.”
Grabbing the dog’s lead, he stormed out of the house.
As he headed back toward his car, his phone rang. He frowned when he saw it was Kellan. “Yeah?”
“You need to come back here,” Kellan said. “Arabella’s house was broken into and they’ve trashed the place.”
What the fuck?