Page 33 of Wait in the Truck
I shake my head, gently whispering to her, “Let’s getyou up off the floor.” Her grip relaxes on what I see now is a barrel-racing trophy, and I seize the opportunity to take it from her, setting it next to Ridge’s unmoving body.
“What am I gonna do? I d-don’t w-want anyone to know,” she whispers. The agony of the words catch in her throat.
With a hard swallow, Rhett’s eyes meet mine. His jaw twitches, but he nods, understanding perfectly without me having to say anything.
I gather Sage in my arms, standing up with her cradled against my chest. Pressing my lips to her forehead, Ridge’s blood taints my lips. Ignoring it, I rasp, “We’re gonna help you. We’re gonna fix things. Don’t worry.” I jerk my head toward the bathroom. Rhett knows as well as I do what we’ll need to do to make this right. Because there’s no way in fuck anyone is ever going to question a goddamn thing she had to do tonight. Ridge? He’s never gonna be fucking found. “John Cena.”
“John fuckin’ Cena,” he agrees.
Nudging the bathroom door open with my foot, I take a trembling Sage in there, then carefully set her on the counter beside the sink and hit the light switch. She cringes under the harsh fluorescents, her shoulders caving in.
Trying to be matter-of-fact about it, I murmur, “Gonna get you cleaned up.” I bend at the waist, cupping her cheeks with both hands. She stares blankly at me but nods as I step away to turn on the shower. I crank thetemperature to hot, waiting for a moment with my hand under the water until I’m satisfied, then return to Sage. “Need to take off these clothes,” I choke out.
She makes no move to do it herself, but she allows me to bring the T-shirt over her head. As I guide her to her feet, her panties fall the rest of the way down her legs.Dear fucking Christ. I clench my jaw to hold the potent wrath inside me. I refuse to let her see that. It’s not what she needs right now.
After helping her into the shower, I attempt to draw the curtain closed, but her arm shoots out, grasping my hand. “Don’t leave me.” The spray of the shower has begun to remove the stain from her skin, and it kills me to see her gaze is pinned on the blood as it runs down her body and swirls toward the drain.
The pain in her eyes makes me ache in a way I didn’t know I could. “Never, Sage.” I thread my fingers through the hair at the side of her head, gently pushing it away from her face. “I mean that.” I gesture in the direction of the partially open door. “I’m gonna be right there. Just need to talk to Rhett for a second, okay?” Her chest rises and falls with an exaggerated breath, but she nods. I wet my lips, scanning her face, and tuck my knuckle under her chin, touching my lips to hers, feeling the tremble in them. “Hang in there. Gonna get you out of here.” It’s the worst kind of misery when I step away from her.
Poking my head out the bathroom door, my gaze landson Rhett. He stands beside Ridge’s body, surveying the massacre. I jut my chin at him. “Hey. Let’s get her home, and after that, we’ll come up with a plan.”
Rhett closes his eyes on a long blink, then opens them again, focusing. “Yeah, okay.” He rubs a hand over his jaw. “This is going to take a while. We’re gonna have to be really thorough.”
“I know. But”—I glance back over my shoulder—“he needs to disappear. I refuse to put her through anything else. Understood?”
“Fuck.I knew he wasn’t the best role model, but I never anticipated he would do something like this to his own daughter.”
I drag in a ragged breath, feeling the full weight of everything Sage must have gone through tonight as it descends on my shoulders. My throat thick, I lock eyes with Rhett and grit out, “How the fuck do I fix this? She’s completely broken.”
He grimaces. “I don’t know, brother.”
The need to make sure she feels safe slams into me like a ton of bricks. And hot on the heels of that, something darker follows, clawing and ripping at my insides. Deep in my gut, the need to take out my fury on her father becomes something that I know will quickly spiral out of control.
But first things first. Gotta get Sage the fuck out of this nightmare.
KADE
20
As we pullup the gravel-lined drive, I notice the flickering of the porch light as it illuminates the lone figure perched on the old swing.
Fuck.I wasn’t expecting Grandma Jo to witness our arrival. What the hell is she doing up? In a few short hours, the sun’ll rise, and the last place she should be is on the front porch, ready to scold heradultgrandsons for sneaking around as if we’re two ill-mannered teens who broke her damn rules.
Is that a…Jesus Christ. Most grannies would wield a wooden spoon, ours has a double-barreled shotgun by her side, and if I had to guess, it’s locked and loaded.
“Shit,” Rhett curses under his breath when he notices the head of our welcome-home committee. His gaze snaps to me. “How the hell are we supposed to explain this?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Josephine Rivers is quickon the uptake. She’ll have questions and demand answers. I can hardly say,Sorry, Grams. I’m pretty fucking sure my not-girlfriend, Sage, bludgeoned her dad in the head with a barrel-racing trophy. D’ya mind if she spends the night in my bed?
“You know as well as I do she won’t take avoidance as an answer, Kade.” Rhett states the obvious, doing fuck all to ease the newfound tension clinging to every fiber of this cab.
My gaze rests on Sage. She’s nestled against my chest, wild hair concealing her face as she uses me as a giant pillow. I’d avoided my brother’s stares when we left Lilac Meadows and pulled my wildflower across the bench seat and onto my lap. Within seconds, she was curling into me like a needy kitten, and then like fucking magic, it was lights-out. The fact that she’s comfortable enough to let her guard down when she’s in my arms does something to me I can’t explain. I’d do anything to protect this girl.
I’m not the warm and fuzzy kinda guy who spews declarations of love and lifetimes. I’m possessive, erratic, and pretty damn sure my morals are divided across two personas.
For her, I’d risk toeing the line between Kade and The Gambler. For her, and her alone, I’d happily allow the monster in me to wreak havoc, let him rattle the cage, then set him free so he can chase the ones who haunt her away for good.
I’ve already killed one man with my bare hands, and before morning arrives, I’ll have disposed of another. All. For. Her. Should that scare me? Probably. Does it? Absolutely fucking not.
