Chapter 33
Cal was cursing—his damned ribs, and Bruce Tyler. The man had gotten lucky. That was the only way the bastard had gotten away. Cal stayed where he’d landed, then heaved in a breath. He needed to get to her. Make sure that bastard hadn’t hurt her.
What had Bruce wanted here? Cal didn’t delude himself, there was no way in hell Bruce was there to see his daughters. Terrorize them, more likely.
No. That guy had been after something. Looking for something, was his first bet.
Rumor had it, Bruce had been looking for something around Masterson lately. Well, they could confirm he was still there. And that truck—Cal was almost certain it had been the one to run him off the road. He’d been wrong about the green lettering. That was the only answer.
Auggie was calling his name from the porch. He pulled himself to his feet, ignoring how his knee protested. If he didn’t get to her, she’d try to get to him. And he didn’t know if she’d been hurt by her father at all. Didn’t know how long that bastard had been alone with her.
Cal just needed to get to her now.
“I’m good. Bastard just got lucky I’m not on my A game right now, that’s all.” And Cal was going to see Bruce paid for it eventually. “Did he hurt you?”
Then she was meeting him halfway, stumbling off the porch steps without her leg brace, to get to him.
Cal just acted. He wrapped his hands around her waist and just lifted her closer. He scooped her close. And just held her. His hand slipped into the wild red hair and cupped the back of her head. Hell, she had to have been terrified.
Cal had always known she was still afraid of Bruce. Deep down. From the moment he’d learned what that bastard had done to her and her sisters. He’d seen it in her extraordinary eyes that first night at her dinner table. And he had never forgotten. “It’s okay. He’s gone, baby. He’s gone.”
He could feel her shaking against him. Cal wished he could scoop her up and carry her back inside to safety. Protect her from every bad thing that would ever come her way. But he was hurting a bit too much for that right now.
Bruce Tyler was a ham-fisted asshole. He’d gotten in a few lucky punches. Cal wouldn’t deny it.
“I came out of the shower and he was just there. In my bedroom. Looking through the desk. He was looking for something.” She was just shaking in his arms now.
Clinging. Hell, she didn’t know what she was doing to him now.
He wished he could track that asshole down and make sure he never hurt anyone again.
Cal would do it. For her. In a heartbeat.
There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for this woman in his arms now.
“We’re going to call Claudia now. Get the cops out here. We’ll figure out what he was up to; I promise.”
“I need to call Em and Junie, tell them to keep the girls in town. I don’t want the girls to know he was here. It will scare my girls too much.”
Cal just nodded. He understood. “Let’s get inside.
I’ll call my sister while you call yours.
We’ll have them take the girls to Chandler’s and feed them dinner.
I’ll call that cousin of yours myself to cover the bill.
” And he’d call Cadell, send his brother to sit with Junie and Em. Make sure they were safe, too.
“Did my father hurt you?”
“Got close a time or two, but I’m good. I’m indestructible, remember?
” And she was still shaking in his arms. She was afraid.
But Augusta Dawn Tyler would never admit that aloud.
Because she had never had someone to make it all better for her before.
She’d always had to be the strong one. Well, she had him now.
She just looked up at him. And that was when Calloway Grady fell. Completely.
He wanted this woman forever, and would do whatever it took to make it happen.
Period.
He’d spend the rest of his life just trying to make the world a better place for the woman in his arms. “I’m okay.”
He lifted her slightly, ignoring the hurts from the wreck and from fighting with a man who outweighed him by fifty pounds, and just kissed her. Tried to show her how he felt.