Page 44 of Legacy of Lies
“Yeah. Maybe. Yet.”
“We should go to the police.”
“No!” When she looked up and away from him, her hair fell back to reveal a quarter-size bruise on her jaw. The way she’d lain on the couch earlier had hidden the purple oval on her skin.
“Shit. What’s that?”
Careful to move slowly, he brushed her hair back farther. Turning her face the other way, he found smaller bruises speckling her opposite jaw. The fingers of a big hand would line up perfectly with those bruise marks.
She stared somewhere off into space, face blank. Who would do this to her? He might be a temperamental boor, but he sure as hell never laid a cruel hand on a woman.
He could only stand there, frozen in place.
Neither his need to rip the hands off whoever had touched Sara nor his desire to yank her into his arms would solve any problem tonight, but those were the only emotions he had to work with right this minute.
What kind of asshole would do such a thing?
Asshole. Yep. Bet he knew who.
No way was she in any state to discuss certain dickhead ex-boyfriends.
Then she blinked and turned to face him, her head barely reaching his chin, and the crystalline moment of his fury and her fear met. And cracked.
He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
She stepped back. “You can’t be here. Please leave.” Her breathy voice riled his nerves like a breeze skimming his skin.
“But, I still have to fix the window—”
“I need you to leave.”
“Uh, can I take you home with me instead?”
Her head shot up, mouth dropping open. Stumbling back a few feet, she wrapped her arms over her chest.
Crap. Wrong impression.
Clearing his throat, he started digging. “No, not like ... Um, we can use a guest room. Not for ‘we.’ Only for you. Or other people if they stay. But you can stay there. Alone. For safety. I mean, I’ll be in the house but not in the room. Because it’s not safe here.”
Andboomwent the dynamite. What a colossal babbling idiot.
The best thing to happen to this conversation would be for him to shut the hell up.
“I’ll be fine here, thank you.” Just like that, she stepped around him and limped to the door.
And just like that, he followed her swaying hips across the living room, snagging his coat on the way out.
“Sara, I don’t like this situation.” He motioned with his palm up. “You sure I can’t call the sheriff?”
Her eyes downcast, she shook her head. “That would be the worst idea ever.”
“Please reconsider my offer to come to the ranch.”
“Thank you. No.”
“You have my phone number, right?” From the ten times he’d called, yeah, she could probably figure out which number was his. “Call if you need anything, anytime. Please.”
“Fine.”
Like a drowning man, he flailed for a life buoy. “Can I check on you tomorrow?”
She raked her fingers through her dark hair. “I don’t know. Maybe. Look, you shouldn’t come back here.”
That answer would have to count as a “yes.” Before he could try again to convince her to come with him, she closed the door in his face, leaving him to study the weathered wood. Then the porch light turned off, leaving him alone in the dark night.
