Chapter 24
CASSIDY
Denial.
That was where her head seemed to be as she put the last bite of sandwich in her mouth. Denying how devastating the news was, or denying how much pain she was in, that was the only explanation I had for her over-the-top giggling and flirting.
Part of me didn’t mind because, well, her hands were all over me, but at the same time, it didn’t quite feel right. Leaning back in my chair, I grinned at her, not letting on that I could see the stormy anguish behind her gaze. Silence draped upon us like a gentle blanket warmed in the dryer.
Tell me, I silently begged. I wanted her to tell me how she felt about me, wanted to pretend just as she was that a bomb hadn’t been dropped in her lap. But this wasn’t the time.
“Stop,” she muttered, her cheeks blooming bright red.
“Stop what?” I asked, feigning innocence. This darn concussion certainly had put a damper on my ability to regulate my expressions and keep any emotion that wasn’t cool, calm, and collected at bay.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
“I’m just lookin’ Goldie,” I whispered.
Her bottom lip slipped between her teeth, and she pulled her gaze away from me. “I’m not trying to pretend like this news about my mom doesn’t hurt, Cassidy,” she mumbled.
“That ain’t why I’m lookin’, but you sure?” I tenderly asked.
A slow nod rocked her head up and down. “Then why are you looking?” She brought her eyes back toward me, not really answering my question, but if she didn’t want to discuss it right now, then okay.
“Just don’t want to forget.”
“Forget what?”
“What you look like sitting right here at my table.”
Her brows knitted together, and she turned to face me entirely. “What’s so fancy about how I look right now?”
“Nuthin’.” I smiled gently. “And everything.”
The tension slipped away from her face, and for a moment, the swirling misery in her irises disappeared like a ripple in a still lake. My heart warmed, pattering gently against my ribs, which still ached from a few bruises.
“You’ll get through this,” I quietly said.
“How do you know?” she whispered, staring directly into my soul.
“’Cause I’ve never met someone stronger than you. And you don’t have to do this alone.”
“Like I said, I don’t want to do it at all. But what if she somehow finds out…?” Her bottom lip trembled, and she pulled her hands into her lap.
I shook my head. “That woman isn’t owed your presence ever. So, if she somehow tries to confront you without your consent, I’ll fight her.” I gave her a lighthearted wink that pulled a faint smile onto her lips. “But if you ever feel the need for an answer from her, then you do what you need to. For you. That’s it. Not for anyone else.”
“And whatever I choose…” She paused, her chest rising with a deep breath. “You won’t see me any different?”
“Goldie, you couldn’t do a thing to change how I feel about you,” I stated without hesitation.
A single tear slid down her cheek. “I can’t ask you to wait like you have been. Especially since I don’t know how long all of this insanity is going to take.”
“Ha!” I exclaimed with a grin. “So, you do have feelings for me.”
She rolled her eyes, a tiny smile flashing across her face as the tension slithered away. “Hush, Cassidy Duke. Just hush.” That was her answer. Not a denial either, and there was no stopping the grin that widened on my face. “Oh, wipe that smirk off of your face, dummy,” she said, and I smiled so wide, my cheeks hurt.
“So, Miss Briar Kensington, when are you gonna go on a second date with me?” I asked.
“Never.”
“We could go to a honky tonk this weekend. The bar over on Ninth Street usually has some good music, and we could swing by to see how things are going with Doc if he hasn’t called with any results by then?” I pushed, and she shook her head, burying her face in her knees, which she scrunched up to her chest.
“Am I allowed to be happy while all of this other stuff is going on?” she asked, her voice muffled against her thighs.
“How boring would this life be if we were only allowed to feel one emotion at a time?” I replied, and the legs of my chair grated against the wood floor as I pushed it back from the table. Gathering the empty plates, I slid on my socks over to the sink.
“You’re not going to give up, are you? No matter how many times I say no, you’re just gonna keep asking,” she called out after me as I ran the dishes under some warm water.
“Did you hit your head too? ’Cause even I remember you very briefly saying you didn’t want to be in charge of whatever is going on between us so clearly. That leaves me as the leader,” I teased. Fishing out some dish soap from beneath the sink, I snatched up a washcloth and began scrubbing away. “Oh, and don’t roll your eyes at me,” I tossed over my shoulder knowing she totally did even though I wasn’t facing her at this moment.
“Cassidy!” she exclaimed in defiance, her voice no longer muffled as Briar pulled her lips away from her legs and plunked her chin on her knees. “Nothing is going on between us.”
“No? You didn’t say no to the second date, though.”
“Well… So?”
“That’s all you have to say is ‘so’?”
“Why do you want to take me on a second date? I mean, the first one kinda ended disastrously.”
Shaking my wet hands off, I spun around and narrowed my gaze at her. “First off, just because it ended in an accident that was just that, an accident out of our control, doesn’t mean the date itself was disastrous.”
“Okay, fair.”
“Second, the only time I’ve seen your hair out of a braid was on that date, and I want to see that again, Rapunzel.” I raised a brow as her eyes widened, and she turned away from me. Grinning triumphantly to myself, ignoring the dull ache that was a constant in the back of my head, I grabbed a towel and quickly dried the dishes. “It’s a date. I’m hoping Doc will have some answers before Saturday, though.”
“You haven’t—” her voice squeaked and she paused, clearing her throat. “You haven’t heard anything at all from him?”
“Nah, but I mean the labs take several days to send out and process from what I know.” Turning around, I gave her a gentle smile. Not wanting to let her change her mind or back out from her agreement that wasn’t really an actual agreement, I changed the subject. “Ready to go move some panels?”
She nodded, pushing back from the table.
“You do know how to drive a tractor, right?” I teased, plodding over to the mudroom.
“Obviously, dummy!” she called out. “I’m gonna run to the restroom really quick before we go.”
“Alright,” I answered and stepped into my boots. Wrapping my hand around the doorknob, I tugged it open.
And as if a hot coal split beneath my skin, pain shot through my left arm.
My eyes darted down to the pocketknife protruding from the side of my forearm as a body barreled into me. Slammed against the floor, all oxygen rushed from my lungs in a short grunt. My head pounded, my arm throbbed, and I gasped for air.
Pressure dug against my stomach, pinning me beneath my attacker.
A fist flashed toward my face. Slapping my palm against his wrist, redirecting the punch that should’ve connected with the side of my skull, his knuckles rammed into my shoulder. A blast of adrenaline snapped through my body, bringing my entire focus to the hazy, faceless figure above me. Fumbling for my waistband as this unknown man sat up and raised his other hand, my fingers found an empty holster.
Crap.
Gnarly, yellow teeth met my vision as his fist rammed into my jaw. Spit spewed from my lips as the force vibrated through my head. Despite the splitting pain ricocheting up my arm from the stab wound, I swung a counter jab. Knuckles cracking against his jaw sent blood flying through the air.
Another blow rammed into my ribs, forcing the last bit of oxygen to rush from my lungs. Crunching sideways from the wave of indescribable pain, I swung blindly at the shadowed, blurry face hovering above me, gasping for air and missed, instead knocking the pocketknife loose.
“CASSIDY!” Briar screamed, her footsteps pounding toward us.
“NO! Stay away!” I shouted. The attacker looked up, momentarily distracted, and I threw a last ditch punch. My fist connected with the underside of his jaw.
Bones crunched, his head flew backwards as jolting agony ripped through my wrist. But he was caught off guard. Using his momentum, I tucked sideways, wrapping my arm around his body, and rolled into him as hard as I could.
My turn.
On top, in the advantageous position, my knuckles rammed against his nose, again and again. Hooking my heels around his legs, I kept him plastered to the ground and unable to fight back. The blood flowing from his face increased with every blow, mixing with the iron liquid dripping down my arm and seeping from my cracked knuckles.
Drunk on adrenaline, long past feeling pain, rage like an animal flew from every blow that landed against his face. His palm began mindlessly smacking the floor to the side, so without looking away, I used my peripherals to see him grasping for my gun that was just out of reach.
But there was no way he’d be able to get it, so all of my strained focus returned to the man below me. His other arm reached up, attempting to hook my bicep or anything to block my next blow, but I rammed an elbow against it, deterring his attempted hold.
And he slammed a fist to the side of my ribs again. Spit flew from my mouth, crashing against his face that was quickly becoming unrecognizable as I didn’t let up. Again. Again. My knuckles railed into him.
Dazed, the world spinning, my head pounding, all sounds around me muted. His arms finally flopped to the side, whether conscious or not, I didn’t know. But I kept going. Desperation to end this filled my soul, and my fingers found the bloodied pocket knife laying on the floor. I raised it into the air.
A hand wrapped around my wrist, jolting me to a halt.
“No! Don’t!” A voice I didn’t recognize commanded. The only thing that stopped me from plunging it into this faceless man’s neck was the fingers restraining me. Straddling the attacker, blood and spit dripping from my own lips, I stared down at the blurry figure I’d almost killed.
His face was swollen, unrecognizable. Red iron flowed freely from his nose that twisted in the wrong direction. Purple bruises swelled his eyes shut, and short, shallow breaths raised his chest sporadically. Panting, my blind rage slowly slunk back into its cage deep within the recesses of my mind, recognizing the crisis that had been averted.
Opening my fingers, the knife clattered to the floor beside the man barely twitching below me. My vision settled, normal daily sounds resumed, and I blinked the sweat away from my eyes.
Red and blue flashed through the windows, lighting up my kitchen and living room like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Several footsteps pounded into my house, and whoever was holding onto my wrist helped me rise to my unsteady feet.
Surveying my surroundings, confusion bubbled in my stomach as my eyes connected with the policeman standing beside me. “Sheriff Jones?” I shakily questioned. “How’d you get here so fast?”
“We were already on our way,” the dark-haired, thin man replied.
Glancing away from the scene around me, my gaze rested on Briar. Her eyes narrowed, anger washed over her features, and she suddenly marched away from the deputy standing next to her.
Before any of us were able to stop her, she cocked a fist back and pummeled the guy straight against his nose.
“STAY AWAY FROM US!” she shouted in defiance.
And then she jumped at me and wrapped her legs around my waist. It was a good thing some adrenaline was still rolling hot through my veins, or we would’ve crashed to the floor.
“He was going to kill you!” she cried out through sobs.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, burying my face into the side of her neck. “I’m okay.” Wet tears were my answer as she tightened her hold around me.
“You definitely don’t have feelings for me,” I quietly teased, and she gently slapped my back.
“I already tried to tell you that my answer was yes,” she whispered. I had no idea what she was even talking about, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was the fact that we were both okay and that this beautiful woman was in my arms.
Side conversations occurred around me, filling the silent air with a comforting buzz. No sirens were on despite the flashing lights as I threaded fingers through her hair, not caring about the braid, and squeezed her tightly.
Her body shuddered as Sheriff Jones placed some gauze against the wound on my arm. He didn’t say anything; instead, he silently applied pressure, simply waiting and giving us the minute that we needed.
Eventually she unhooked her legs from my waist and slid to the floor. Keeping my gaze locked onto her gray eyes, I gave her a gentle smile but spoke to the man beside me. “So, why were you already on your way here?”
The sheriff chuckled as I quickly smoothed down some of Briar’s hair. “Believe it or not, because of that man you just beat up,” Jones replied. “How about we sit down, let the paramedics stitch and clean you up, and talk.”
“You found something,” I stated, glancing away from the girl who kept her arms around my waist.
He nodded once. “We found something,” he muttered, sending an ominous message with his response.
Briar stiffly inhaled as I glanced back down at her eyes. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and chewed, stepping even tighter against me. It seemed she didn’t care about the blood that stained my clothes, the iron that dripped down my arm or trickled from my knuckles. All she cared about was being close to me. I quickly pressed my lips to her warm forehead.
And for a moment, I soaked it in, knowing that whatever news that the sheriff was about to spill, only compounded our situation.