Theirs to Keep

ribcage, she righted herself and lunged for the crowbar mere feet away on the floor.

She grabbed it and came up swinging.

He howled in pain when she connected with his face. His head snapped back, and blood spattered onto the concrete below them.

Not giving him a chance to break away, she nailed him again, this time in the ribs.

He doubled over, holding his midsection as blood dripped from his mouth.

“How’s it feel, you son of a bitch?” she raged.

She hit him again, and he dropped like a stone onto the garage floor. For a long moment, she stared down at him, still holding the crowbar over her head.

Then it slid from her grasp and clattered loudly at her feet. Her knees buckled, and she went down. The material of her pants ripped where her knees scraped the concrete, and then she pitched to the side, every breath she took excruciating.

For a long moment, she simply lay there, trying to gain control over the pain that wracked her body. Then she became aware of the fact that she had a body lying in her garage. She may have killed a man.

She reached out, groping blindly for the purse that had gone flying when the man had grabbed her. Her fingers scraped across it, and she fumbled for it, dragging it close enough that she could dig her cell phone out of it.

Every breath was agony, and her hands shook so violently that it took her three attempts just to punch in 911.

Finally she put the phone to her ear, and when the dispatcher came over the line, she simply croaked, “Help me, please. I think I just killed a man.”

C H A P T E R T H I R T Y - O N E

CADE TURNED ON THEIR STREET and accelerated before slowing for the one stop sign before the house. He frowned when he saw a myriad of cop cars with flashing lights and two ambulances parked in what looked like his yard.

What the fuck?

He automatically checked his phone, wondering if he’d missed anything, but there were no missed calls or texts. He floored the accelerator and raced down the street, his pulse pounding in his ears.

He’d assumed when he’d gotten to the office and no one was there that Merrick and Elle had just gone home after his training session. He’d driven straight to the house thinking they could have a late lunch together.

As he pulled up, he saw Merrick’s Hummer parked to the side, and to further his what-the-fuck reaction, two paramedics were loading a strange guy into the back of the ambulance. Even from a distance, Cade could see the blood on the man’s face.

He slammed on the brakes and slid out, engine still running. As soon as he got to the edge of the driveway, he was held up by two cops.

“I live here,” Cade bit out. “What the fuck is going on?”

One of them looked relieved. “Thank God. Maybe you can help us with her.”

Cade froze at the mention of her.

“We can’t get near her. She’s out of it. She called 911 saying she’d killed a guy.”

The cop jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward the ambulance the stranger had been loaded onto.

“That guy over there. When we got here, she was barely conscious and lying next to the guy on the floor of the garage. She took a crowbar to him. But as soon as we tried to touch her, she went ballistic. No one can get near her. Right now, someone’s trying to get close enough to sedate her so we can take her to the hospital. She’s pretty banged up. Looks like the guy worked her over before she got ahold of him with the crowbar.”

“Where the fuck is Merrick?” Cade exploded.

The policeman’s brow wrinkled. “There’s no one here but her and the dude she beat the shit out of.”

Not waiting to hear anything more, Cade broke and ran for the garage. What he saw made his stomach bottom out.

Elle was hunched in a protective posture, her legs drawn up as close to her body as she could get them. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her legs, and her head was buried between her knees.

A female police officer and one of the paramedics were a short distance away trying to talk her down. The police officer reached out to touch her arm, and Elle reacted violently, jerking away and sliding back in panic.

Cade pushed his way through and dropped to his knees beside her. He gathered her tightly in his arms, ignoring the way she went tense from head to toe.

“Elle, it’s me, Cade. It’s me, honey. I’ve got you.”

For a long moment, he thought he hadn’t been able to penetrate her consciousness, but then she went utterly limp and wrapped herself around his much bigger body so there wasn’t a breath between them.

He kissed her head, his mind a whirl of confusion. What the hell had happened?

“Make them go away,” she whispered. “Please, Cade, just make them all go away.”

Cade stared at the sea of police officers and medical personnel. His heart sank. He knew how terrified she was of policemen, but he couldn’t make them go away. Not even for her. “I can’t do that, honey, I’m sorry.”

She buried her face in his neck and clung like a burr to him. He shifted his weight so he could push up from the hard concrete. It couldn’t be comfortable for her to be on the ground, and he needed to see the extent of her injuries.

“Talk to me, Elle,” he gently coaxed. “How bad is it? Can you stand? Where are you hurt? Hold onto me, honey. I won’t let you fall.”

He rose, taking her with him before he allowed her to put her feet down. His arm stayed firmly around her because she was wobbly as a newborn colt, and he worried if he let go, she’d face plant right in front of him.

He was about to motion to the paramedic to bring the damn stretcher because she wasn’t going to make it, when Merrick and Dakota shoved their way into the garage, their brows drawn in confusion and concern.

Dakota paled and rubbed his hands uneasily down his pants when he got a look at Elle.

Merrick promptly lost his mind. “What the fuck happened here? What the hell happened to Elle?” There was rage and fear in the big man’s eyes. His hands were curled into tight fists at his sides, but Cade knew that look. Merrick was about to kick some serious ass, and if Cade didn’t get a handle on this quickly, they’d all end up in jail.

Cade held up his free hand to stop the flow of Merrick’s tirade.

“I don’t know yet, man. I just got here. I don’t know what the hell is going on. I’m hoping the police will fill me in, but first I need to make sure Elle is taken care of.”

“Why the hell did you leave the gym?” Merrick demanded. “You should have never left on your own. We’ve been over this, Elle!”

Cade could hear the worry in Merrick’s voice and knew he was reacting to the same gut-wrenching fear that had gripped Cade when he’d first arrived. But Elle went stiff next to him and then pushed away from his body. Her eyes filled with tears as she stared at Merrick and Dakota with so much hurt in her gaze that it took Cade’s breath away. What the ever-loving fuck was going on here? Then she simply turned and slowly and painfully walked away, pushing into the house and slamming the door behind her.

He turned on Merrick. “Have you lost your goddamn mind? What the hell were you yelling at her for?”

Merrick was pale, and his fists still curled tight at his sides. “I didn’t mean to yell at her, for God’s sake. She scared the piss out of me. I just don’t understand why she left the gym and came here alone. She’s never supposed to go anywhere alone!”

Dakota looked like he was going to puke, but Cade didn’t have time to figure out what the hell his problem was.

Two of the police officers stepped forward, and one spoke up. “We’re going to need a statement from her, and she really needs to be looked at. When we arrived on scene, there was a lot of blood on her, and she was having a hard time breathing.”