Page 16 of Callahan's Haven

She searched every inch of his freckled face while heat pooled low in her belly at his intense gaze, and her need to vent her anger at him receded. Hewasbleeding after all, and hehadstopped Brayden. She eyed the man lying so still on the ground underneath her savior and shuddered.

She lifted her eyes to the man who she was fairly certain hadn’t looked away from her. And call her crazy—maybe it was the surge of relief flooding her—but she had the inexplicable need for this stranger to take her in his arms.

It was probably because he’d saved her life.

Right, Haven. That’s exactly why.

6

Cal had wantedto get up close and personal with Haven, but this wasn’t what he’d imagined, especially seeing how pissed she was. Too bad he was about to make matters worse. He was getting pretty pissed himself as the rush of adrenaline began crashing on him.

He pushed away from the unconscious lump beneath him, and then stood and gave the asshat a hard shove with his booted foot for good measure before rounding on her.

“You just scared the shit out of me!” Her eyes widened as she took a faltering step back. “Do you know how hard that is? To scare someone who’s seen enough scary shit in his life to be mostly immune to it?” She slowly shook her head. “Well, believe me, it ain’t easy. Dammit, you nearly took ten years off my life.” He ran a slightly trembling hand through his hair.

“I… I…” Her hazel eyes narrowed while the cupid-bow mouth he’d wanted to kiss for a couple of weeks drew into a straight line. “Look here,buddy,” she grumbled, stepping into his space and poking his chest with her pointy finger. “If anyone has the right to be hacked off right now, it’s me.” She poked him again. “And who gave you the right to talk to me like that. I know it wasn’t my dad.”

“Your dad…”

He glanced down at her finger still anchored to his chest and then took a deep breath and paced away—anything to calm down and keep himself from throwing her over his shoulder and taking off. Hell, he might still for her own safety and hisownsanity. He eyed the kid on the ground and resisted the urge to kick him.

Her startled gaze flew to his when he turned and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Do you have any idea what this bastard might have done to you?” He struggled to gentle his tone. The last thing he needed was for her to be afraid of him. “What if I hadn’t been here?” Just the mere idea had him close to losing it. If she hadn’t stopped him moments before…

Cal squeezed her shoulders. “What then? What would I have told your dad?”

Haven cut her eyes away from his. “I would have gotten away.”

No, she wouldn’t.

“So, what now,” she said, pulling out of his grasp, her defiant hazel eyes glaring at him. “Are you going totellon me.” She crossed her arms. Too bad the action didn’t hide her tremors he was certain weren’t just from the cold. He had a feeling the reality of the situation had started sinking in.

An intense stare-off ensued until Cal’s anger slowly drained away. The silence between them finally ended when the asshat let out a pained groan. Cal ignored him, but Haven broke eye contact and frowned at the guy. “We might need to call an ambulance when we call the police.”

“We don’t have to.” He spared his own glance at the kid’s swelling, bleeding face and shrugged. “I’d just as soon let him suffer.” If the kid laid there and rotted, he wouldn’t care. “It’s your decision.”

Her bemused expression led to a short unexpected laugh. “Yeah, well, even though I’m kinda all for letting him fester and die, I think it’s best he stays alive to face the consequences.” She went to where she’d dropped her purse during her earlier struggle and picked it up. “I’ll call.” He came up behind her while she rummaged through it and pulled out her phone. “And then I’m calling my dad to tell him I don’t need a watchdog.”

He reached over her shoulder, plucked her phone from her hand, and then grinned at her cute scowl when she whirled around.

“Okay, you had stopped pissing me off, but now you’re doing it again.” Her scowl deepened. “And don’t grin at me.”

“You can’t call your father.” He put the phone behind his back.

“Oh, I can’t?” She raised one brow and smirked. “Watch me.”

She reached around him and made a grab for it, but he quickly put his other hand behind him and switched hands. She went around his back, but he held it up high and then glanced over his shoulder as she stretched her arm up as far as it would go and did a few short hops.

“Look, you…you…hell, whoever you—”

“Cal.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s Cal. Cal Rothe.”

“Okay,Cal Rothe, give me my damn cell.”

She jumped several more times to make a grab for it, but with his height and long arms, she wasn’t even close. He did, however, almost drop it when with each jump she brushed against his body.

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