Page 49 of Haunted

“Jesus, you idiot.” He shuffled backward. “I wantwhatyou have, notwhoyou have. Calm your tits.”

“Why are you talking about tits on my steps? And whydo I get the impression we stepped in the middle of a dick measuring contest?” Lanie grumbled as she and Koen, who was carrying four pizza boxes, stepped onto the sidewalk from the parking lot.

“No measuring of any kind going on here. We were just getting ready to knock,” Noah offered as he and I both moved to take the multitude of grocery bags out of her hands.

“Good. You’d give Mrs. Lewis next door a damn heart attack. The old bat doesn’t need any more ammunition to report me to the HOA.”

Maneuvering around us, she opened the front door, holding it wide for us to go inside ahead of her. I expected to hear something…anything; the hum of the TV or the soft chatter of two friends gearing up for a night of games, but the silence was deafening.

“Henley?” I yelled out, my hand itching to grab for the Glock still strapped to my hip.

“In here.” It wasn’t my girl’s muted reply, which came from the direction of the kitchen.

She was seated on a barstool, head bowed, with Jade next to her whispering something in her ear. I ignored the rest of my team as they filtered in, my gaze focused intently on the other half of my soul, who appeared to shrink in on herself the farther into the room I got.

“Baby?”

Her eyes hit me first, the normally vibrant emerald color having dulled with the tears which dripped from her swollen lids. What I saw next––a deep purple bruise beginning to form on the side of her chin––had me flying across the room, dropping the bags to the floor and lifting her from the stool into my arms, where she clung to my neck in a death grip. With my hands under her ass, Ihitched her farther up my body until her legs wound around my waist.

“What the hell happened?” Lanie peppered Jade with the same question that was burning a hole in my gut. Luckily, I was already on the move when she said the one name guaranteed to stop me in my tracks.Chase.

Kicking a chair out from under the kitchen table with the toe of my shoe, I sat with Henley curled in my lap, half-listening to the story being told in the background. At this point, I knew everything I needed to know. Chase-motherfucking-McArthur was a walking ghost for putting his hands on my woman.

“Shh, baby. I’ve got you. You’re safe,” I cooed, not missing the hiss of pain from her lips when I moved my hands from her ass to her back. “He hurt your back too?”

“He shoved her into the side of my car after she punched him in the throat.” Jade’s shaky voice somehow penetrated the whooshing sound in my ears.

Lifting my head, I peered around the room. Lanie was beside her, their fingers tangled together in a comforting move, while Koen stood at their backs, arms crossed over his expansive chest as if he were on guard. Which he damn-sure was. Noah had positioned himself in the corner, his jaw clenched while he spoke to someone––presumably Duncan or Waverly––on the phone. My gaze drifted back to Jade, who gave me a little nod, before my mouth tipped slightly at the corners.

“You hit him, baby?”

“Yeah.” She reclined back on my thighs. She was a mess, but she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

“I’m so proud of you.” I kissed each corner of her mouth, then carefully probed her chin around the bruisewith the tips of my fingers. There weren’t any obvious deformities or breaks that I could feel, then again, I wasn’t a doctor.

“Ambulance is on the way. Duncan and Waverly are as well, and they’ve invited a friend of the local variety.” Noah dipped his head, confirming the question he saw in my eyes. Their so-calledfriendwould be someone from the Huntington PD. Unfortunately, their assaults fell outside our jurisdiction, meaning we’d have to hand it off to them. We had a great relationship with the boys in blue so depending on who showed up, there was still a chance we could be involved.

“I don’t need an ambulance, Keaton,” she argued. “It’s only a few bumps and bruises.”

“We need it all documented, Henley,” Lanie interjected, leaving her post at the counter to kneel at our feet. “Considering the asshole’s last name, we have to do everything by the book, even though my first instinct is to hunt him down and make him suffer.”

“Jade. Do you have any injuries?” I cursed myself for not asking earlier.

“Oh, um. My wrist is pretty sore from when the guy twisted it behind my back.”

“Why the hell didn’t you say anything before now?” Koen exploded. Jade startled with his outburst, nearly falling off the edge of the stool. He reached her in time, steadying her with his hands on her hips. “I’m sorry for scaring you, Angel. Can I see?”

Angel? Interesting.

He waited for permission before gently picking up her arm. I’d watched him handle victims with kid-gloves numerous times, but this was not one of those times. Therewas something very different about the way he was acting with her. With a tender precision I’d never witnessed before, he tested her range of motion, slowly turning her wrist from side to side, then up and down. Every grimace she made; his jaw ticked in anger.

“I don’t think it’s broken, probably a bad sprain.” He laid her arm back on the counter, then rummaged through the freezer; coming back with a bag of frozen corn wrapped in a dish towel. “Keep this on until the EMTs get here.”

Sirens sounded in the distance and before long, flashing red-and-blue lights flickered through the glass of the kitchen window. Lanie rushed from the room to let them in, followed closely by a distracted Noah, who was typing frantically on his cell phone. Koen glanced at me, mouthing, “What the fuck?” which I answered with a fuck-if-I-know shrug of my shoulders. But all was revealed a few moments later when the ambulance crew was escorted inside by my two bosses, along with an older woman wearing a loose-fitting blouse and jeans with a badge clipped to her belt. What surprised me though, was the fact Nelson was trailing behind them, his laptop tucked under his arm.

Henley tensed in my hold with the appearance of the two most influential people in my life. I could almost taste the anxiety rolling off of her in waves, which was entirely my fault for not having prepared her better. From the talk about our pasts, she knew how much of a role Waverly and Duncan had played in my decision to become an FBI agent, so it made perfect sense for her to be nervous about meeting them. What she didn’t know was she had nothing to worry about. They were both firmly on the Team Henley bandwagon.

“Can you tell me where you’re injured, ma’am?”

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