Page 75 of Her Summer Hope

“Need help?”

The man’s voice was unexpected and she yelped and whipped around on the stool…and promptly lost her balance. She had the sudden sickening sensation of falling backward, of losing control. She threw her arms out, desperate to catch herself.

Everything happened so fast that she caught only blurs of motion. One moment, her flailing arm swept everything off a part of a shelf, and the next she was partially caught in a man’s unfamiliar arms.

Unfortunately, she was too heavy and her descent was only slowed a little by the arms around her. She felt like she smacked every shelf on the way down and it was so shocking and unexpected that she barely felt the tiled concrete as she fell into a heap with her struggling savior.

The violent discordance and then sudden silence were disorienting. She raised a hand to her battered head and groaned as she opened her eyes.

Jace was leaning over her, wincing at the strain in his body.

“Madison, I’m so sorry—” he began. “Damn!”

“No, Jace. I’m sorry for practically crushing you,” she grimaced as he shifted over her to remove his wounded arm from underneath her back. “Are you okay?”

He stifled a groan and put his good hand on the floor on her opposite side, trying to untangle their legs and push himself up. She struggled to lift herself enough to help him. Her back and head were throbbing, but she didn’t feel too bad.

There didn’t seem to be any permanent—

“You motherfucker,” a man growled, slamming through the open doorway and jerking Jace off of her with one bulky arm around his neck.

Cal’s face was icy cold and the almost mechanical brutality in his eyes scared her.

“Cal,” she started.

His frosty gaze slammed into hers and then he scanned her as she lay on the floor. Her dress had been shoved up embarrassingly high over her thighs and she realized how it must look.

“He didn’t do anything. It’s not what—”

Murdock only glowered and turned his glare back on Jace, who was holding his arms up in surrender.

“I was only—”

“I heard a scream…what the fuck is going on?!”

Her heart stopped completely and she was mortified as Kyle’s shout echoed in the small space.

He took everything in, in one horrified and murderous glance before dashing forward, slipping his hands under bare knees and back, and practically sprinting out into the kitchen with her.

This was not good!

“Kyle, stop!” she begged.

“I’ll fucking kill him,” he hissed, looking down and not seeing her eyes, but only the bruises on the side of her head that must be starting to darken already.

His arms flexed involuntarily and she felt the bulge of his biceps and forearms. He didn’t seem to have plans to put her down any time soon.

She put a hand on his cheek and turned his face until he met her eyes. “Jace didn’t do anything to me. I’m an accident magnet, remember? He tried to catch me from falling and I’m afraid that he’s hurt. It’s all my fault.”

Kyle tightened his arms around her and frowned.

He looked back to the pantry where Murdock seemed frozen with his large fists in Jace’s shirt. He didn’t look anything like the Murdock she knew. His face was cold and blank and menacing.

“Cal, stop!” he ordered. “He didn’t do anything wrong. Check him for injuries.”

She sighed in relief as the big man shifted from a ruthless killer and seamlessly went into medic mode.

He helped Jace to a chair. Kyle looked over at them.

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