Page 131 of Challenged by the Single Dad

Fresh fear crashed through him and he pounded on the door. “Chloe!” he hollered. “Chloe!”

Stepping back against the black wrought iron railing of the porch, he lifted his foot and kicked the door, but it didn’t budge. He did it again.

Still nothing.

Even though the wind and rain should have had him in a state of impending hypothermia, his fear and rage were enough to keep him hot. Enough to keep him moving. He busted open his fists until blood poured over his hands, disappearing with the rain as he banged on the door.

A sob clutched the back of his throat. “Chloe!”

Two beams of bright light appeared on the front of the hostel and he spun around to see Chloe’s car pulling into the large parking lot.

Wait, did she escape? Was that her? Why was she coming back?

He ran down to the car and without even looking to see who was behind the wheel, he opened the driver’s side door, but paused and stumbled backward when he saw it wasn’t her. “Why do you have Chloe’s car?”

A terrified twenty-something man with floppy blond hair stared at him with wide eyes. “She … she loaned it to us so we could pop to the shop and grab dinner. Is everything okay?”

Fuck.

“No. That fuckwad Joey is back and he’s in there alone with Chloe and he’s locked the door.”

The other young man and young woman in the car bailed out and ran for the door. The driver unfastened his belt with haste and followed. Dom did too.

“We have a key for the front door,” the woman said, fishing it out of her coat pocket, having to holler over the rain on the metal roof of the building. “Is Joey that bloke who worked here and let that other guy into Chloe’s bathroom?”

Dom nodded, impatient when she fumbled with the keys before finally sliding it into the keyhole. She opened the door and Dom elbowed his way forward between them. “Chloe!”

“In here,” came a soft voice down a small hallway.

He ran to the door. “It’s Dom. Let me in.”

The lock disengaged and the door to a small two-piece bathroom opened. He lunged for her, taking her in his arms and probably squeezing her too tight. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, all the tension left his body and lightness filled him.

She trembled in his arms and a sob clutched her throat, making the words she spoke could out cracked and stuttered. “I … I didn’t know w-what he wanted. So I just locked myself in here.”

“Got him!” came the voice of one of the boys—Dom’s money was on them being Scottish.

Right. Joey. He’d completely forgotten about catching Joey. His focus had been on getting to Chloe.

Prying her from his grasp, he held her by the face, staring straight into her eyes. “He didn’t …” Fuck, he couldn’t even get the words out. “He didn’t …” he swallowed, “hurt you. Did he?”

She shook her head, tears pouring down her face. “No. I ran in here before he could touch me.”

Boots clomping down the hall toward them pulled their attention and the two young Scottish men had Joey in their clutches.

“Caught him escaping out the back emergency door,” the taller one said just as the lights in the hostel all flickered.

Joey glared at all of them, his whole front muddy.

“I may have had to throw my body on top of him outside to stop him,” the shorter one said, beaming with pride. “But I got ‘em.” He winked at the pretty blonde girl who Dom suspected was Australian, given her accent.

“Yeah, well, he completely trashed the entire common area,” she said, glancing around.

Dom hadn’t even looked. He wrapped a protective arm around Chloe and they surveyed the damage. A knife had been taken to the couch cushions, there was Sharpie all over the walls, the computer for the front desk was smashed, and based on the bits of dish shrapnel coming from the adjacent room, he’d also gone into the kitchen and taken out his wrath in there too.

The lights flickered and the wind howled like a wolf in the woods just as an enormous shadowy figured lumbered onto the threshold of the still open front door, and Hawke appeared, his eyes taking in the scene. Then he zeroed in on Joey and his nostrils flared like a bull’s. “Bennett called me. I got here as soon as I could.”

“I’m okay,” Chloe said, her voice hoarse. She leaned deeper into Dom. “I’m afraid the hostel’s not though.” Her bottom lip wobbled. “I’m sorry, Hawke.” Fresh tears streamed down her damp cheeks.

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