Page 264 of Redeemed

My forehead comes to rest against hers. “I’m going to take care of this. Ofhim.I’m going to fucking end him. I promise you, angel.”

“W-what?”

“I’m not going to let him hurt you again. The next time you see him, he’ll be in a goddamn casket.”

Haven rears back in shock. “Colton, he’s yourfather.You don’t have to—”

“He was going to kill you.” I grip her shoulders, resisting the urge to shake some sense into her. “He was going to drug you, get you out of here, andtake your lifesomewhere we wouldn’t be able to find you. Do you understand that?”

Tears flood her eyes, and her bottom lip trembles. “He—Colt, he said—”

Dammit.I’m being too hard on her. I need to calm down.

“I’m sorry.” I cup her face with my hands. “It’s okay. Just take a deep breath.”

She does, and when her tears spill over, I thumb them away.

“Tell me what he said.”

“It’ll make you more angry,” she whispers, and her hand comes up to frame my uninjured cheek. “And I need… I need to know—”

“Just tell me what he said,” I say impatiently.

“Promise me you won’t yell.” Her voice is so small, and I see a flash of the fear that only shows up when she’s thinking about Isaiah.

Shit.My dad really fucked with her head.

“I won’t yell.” My fingers run through her hair and down her back in a soothing motion. “I’m not angry at you, angel, I promise.”

Given her past, I know it has to be hard for her to trust that, but she takes a shuddering breath and nods. Her hands curl into my shirt, and I wrap both my arms around her in silent support.

“He… he threatened to take me back home if I didn’t cooperate.”

My body goes rigid. When Haven senses it, she winces and tries to cringe away from me.

“Hey, hey, it’s all right.” Leaning down, I kiss the top of her head and let my lips linger there. “You’re all right.”

“I was so scared,” she whispers. “But then you were there, and you got him off me, and then you… you…”

“I what?”

“You said…” She presses her lips together, and the pain in her voice guts me as she she mutters, “No. No, that’s…”

“What,Haven?”

“He was going to kill me,” she mumbles. Her gaze is unfocused, and her grip on my shirt loosens. “He was going to… but then you said…Colton.”

I’m losing her, probably to some sort of mental shock. Maybe a panic attack. And god, I’d do just about anything to save her from that right now. She’s been through enough.

Keeping her against me with one hand on her lower back, I use the other to stroke her hair. “Shh, it’s okay. I won’t let him touch you again.”

“No.” She pushes me back, but I only let her put enough distance in between us so she can look up at me. “You… did you mean what you said?”

I don’t like the way her voice fades into a barely there whisper, or the way she’s staring up at me with disbelieving awe.

“I said a lot of things, angel.”

“You said you’d die protecting me if you had to.”

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