I never slowed down and dove right through the window in the door.
“Gray! Stop…”
I barely register the voice, lost in the heavy rhythm of my punches until hands start tugging at my coat.
“Gray! Stop! You’re killing him!”
Robin.
My fists freeze in midair and the blurred face of the man on the ground slowly comes into focus.
Not my father.
I jerk back and land on my ass, caught in arms banding tightly around me, a soft body cushioning my back.
“It’s okay. I’m okay. It’s okay…” She chants the words over and over again with her lips pressed against the shell of my ear. “I’m all right, Gray. I’ll be okay.”
I pull from her hold and turn, taking in the swelling of her face, the trickle of blood escaping her hairline.
“Robin,” I breathe out, my fingers wiping at the hair hanging in her face. “Oh, God, Sunshine.”
I manage to switch places with her, pulling her onto my lap and resting my back against the base of the counter. My arms encircle her as she grabs fistfuls of my jacket.
“What the fuck?” Jason walks in from the kitchen, confused at the scene in front of him. Then his eyes get caught on the man’s prone body on the floor and he drops to his knees, pulling a phone from his pocket.
I listen with half an ear as he talks to the 911 dispatcher, concentrating on the chest of the man on the floor. It’s moving, barely, but moving. My eyes don’t waver until I hear the sound of sirens outside.
“He’s coming with me,” Robin says firmly, when the EMT tries to block me from the ambulance. “He comes or I’m not going.”
“Let him go.”
The unexpected support comes from Officer Derek Francisi; first cop on the scene. Robin started talking to him the moment he showed up. She told him what happened, how she tried to get away but that motherfucker caught her. She explained how I crashed through the glass of the door and fought the guy off her. She swore high and low I was protecting her and that’s how he got hurt.
She didn’t leave me a chance to speak.
Derek’s large hand lands on my shoulder.
“Looks like a pretty clear case of self-defense to me. I can catch you later for your statement. Go on.”
I climb in the back and sit on the narrow bench beside the EMT, with Robin on the stretcher in front of us. Immediately she reaches her hand and I grab onto it.
Unlike the other ambulance, which already left with lights and sirens on, our trip is silent.
The entire time I’m trying to come to terms with the fact I almost killed another man—at least I fucking hope I didn’t succeed—if it hadn’t been for Robin pulling me off. Robin, who also jumped to my defense, conveniently leaving off she’d had to hold me back or things might’ve ended differently.
At the hospital, right before they wheel her inside, she calls me close. Her hands come up to cup my face and her heart shows in her eyes.
“Thank you. You saved me.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Robin
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” he counters stubbornly.
Gray has been hovering over me like an angry bear since we got home late last night. They closed the cut on my scalp, where I’d hit the counter going down, and made sure no bones were broken. The only other issue was the minor concussion, which is what has him sitting like a sentry by the side of my bed.
I agree, I may not be at my prettiest with my face swollen and bruised, but he’s taking the doctor’s suggestion to keep an eye on me for twenty-four hours a little too seriously.
I wasn’t surprised to find out, when Jason and Donna showed up at the hospital, Kim had closed the diner for the day. They came to deliver my purse and coat, as well as my phone the cops had found in the office. One of them had also driven my SUV so we’d have wheels.
During the entire time we were in the hospital, Gray had said maybe five words. Even when the cops came, snapped some pictures of my injuries, and took my statement as well.
The eventual ride home had been mostly silent as well, which was welcome because my head hurt. He put me to bed and left the bedroom only to walk in seconds later, carrying one of my kitchen chairs. I didn’t question him then, I was too exhausted and fell asleep, but seeing him still sitting there, now hours later, I wonder if his eyes ever left me. It’s a bit too much.
“Have you even slept?”
He doesn’t need to answer; I can see it in the pallor of his skin and the red-rimmed eyes glaring at me.
I fling back the covers and swing my legs out of bed, hissing when my body aches in response.
“What are you doing?”
“I need to pee,” I announce snippily. “Pretty sure I remember how to do that.”
When I return from the bathroom after brushing my teeth and washing up at the sink, both he and the kitchen chair are gone. I slip into a pair of old yoga pants and a sweatshirt and head for the kitchen. He’s standing at the sink, staring out into the trees bordering my backyard.
I’m already regretting my sharp words. Giving myself a few minutes to think about it, I recognize all he’s trying to do is keep me safe to the best of his abilities, even if it means spending the night sitting on a kitchen chair, staring at me.
I place a hand in the middle of his back.
“I should be thanking you, not bitching at you. I’m sorry.”
He slowly turns around and folds his arms around
