Chapter Four
Tornado
Can I let my guard down and finally let her in? It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. -Tornado
My breath leaves my body. I can’t believe it’s her. After all this time. After all these years.
She looks better than she ever did. She’s lost some weight, which bothers me, but her face has matured and her body…
well, her body was already amazing at seventeen, but now she’s really a woman.
If I wasn’t good as resisting her at the age of seventeen, I’m sure as hell not going to be any better at it now.
“I came here to see you, Tor, but now that I have maybe you can’t…maybe you’re not…well, I needed help, but…” Her navy eyes fill with tears and my heart immediately crashes to my feet.
Damn me. I can’t do anything right when it comes to her.
I take her by the upper arm. “Let’s go outside, Cat. We can’t do this here.” I try to soften my voice, to take away the harshness of my words before.
We step through the double doors, and I hear the volume of the bar finally increase to its normal range.
The guys will never let me forget this, but maybe they’ll give me tonight to straighten it out.
Because apparently my Cat needs me. I can’t stop the feeling of satisfaction that runs through me at that thought. After all this time, she came to me.
She stands in front of me with her head bowed.
I lift her chin with my hand. “Look at me, Cat. Tell me what’s happened. Tell me how I can help.”
She bites down on her lip and then looks away. When she looks back at me, that sparkle of tears is back in her eyes. “You would still help me after all this time. I thought you hated me. I thought that’s why you left.”
Those words hit me like a punch to the stomach. I stroke my hand along her cheek, feeling her silky soft skin. “I never hated you. I left…well, I had my reasons. They had nothing to do with you.” They had everything to do with her, but not in the way she thinks.
She lets out a long breath. “That’s good to know. I’ve thought all this time…thought it was my fault.”
“Never.” I want to put up barriers against her, but as always, I’m drawn to my Cat. She’s always been that way. I’ll do anything for her.
“What do you need, Cat? Are you sick? Is there something wrong with…your family?” I barely spit those last words out. Her family are the people who have kept us apart all these years. If I could get my hands on her daddy without hurting my Cat I would.
She shakes her head. “Not…really. It is daddy, but he…he…” she breaks down and reaches for me.
I pull her in, reveling in the feel of her body against mine, even as she sobs. Surely there’s a place in hell for me just because of that.
I awkwardly pat her back. “Tell me, Cat. Tell me what he’s done.”
She pulls back and wipes at her tears with the back of her hand. She leans in. “He murdered someone, Tor. Murdered them in cold blood and I heard him. I heard him talkin’ about it.”
I suck in a shocked breath. Cat had always believed in her father and ignore the gossip about what he did.
She never understood what he was capable of.
For so long, she had been daddy’s girl. I never thought she would find out the horrible person he really is.
That innocence has been stripped of her.
I smooth back a piece of her blonde hair. “Maybe you heard wrong, Cat. Maybe it’s not what you think.”
At those words, she recoils from me. “You don’t believe me? I know what I heard, Tor. I know what I saw. I know…I know what he intends to do with me.”
My heart rate speeds up at her words. “What do you mean, intends to do with you?”
She throws her hands up in the air. “He’s going to marry me off, like I’m livestock. He’s willing to just throw my life away and give me to…give me to…Jefferson Frost.” Her voice goes low on his name like it’s a dirty word and I let out a long breath.
“Jefferson? He’s going to marry you off to that snake?” I roar. No way. Not my Cat. Not my innocent, sweet Catherine. I’ll kill him first.
“Yes, he’s going to marry me off! Just like that!” She snaps her fingers. Anger and frustration lace her every word. She turns around and hugs herself with her arms. “You weren’t there for me to turn to. You weren’t there to love me like you should have been.”
I place a hand on her shoulder. “Cat, I had reasons. But you know I’ll help you. I’ve always been here for you. You always could have come for me.”
She swings around. “How was I supposed to know that? You left like a thief in the middle of the night!” She stalks towards me, and I take a step back.
I can feel the full strength of her anger.
“How could you leave me, Tor? How could you leave me when you were the only real thing I had in my life? Fuck you, fuck you for not loving me enough!” She pounds at my chest.
I let her. I take every blow, knowing I deserve all of them.
Then, I let her cry. She buries her head in my chest and just lets go. I let her sob until I finally pick her up in my arms.
It’s time to take her home. My home, where she was always meant to be.