Page 46 of Queen of Diamonds
“Where is she?” Nate demanded.
“Upstairs in X-ray.”
“Start at the beginning.”
The brothers and their wives crowded around him. Keeping his voice low so their prisoner couldn’t overhear, he told them what happened, leaving Deidre out of it. There was no reason to bring this mess into her life since she hadn’t witnessed the attack. When he finished, Nate stared at him for a moment with narrowed eyes.
“You’re being a little fuzzy on a few details, intentionally, I think. Where were you when you saw him follow her out of the ballroom?”
And this was where the brothers were going to chew a piece of his ass. “I was across the room.” He’d hoped to skirt around this part because it was only going to confirm their belief that they didn’t want him anywhere near Kinsey.
“Why? If she was your date, you should have been with her.”
“She wasn’t my date.”
“So you attended the gala solo and she just happened to be there, too?”
“No, I was with someone else. It appeared that Kinsey was here with her boss and coworkers.”
Nate’s black eyes went from narrowed to slitted, giving Rand the impression of a viper about to strike. “You have my…” He glanced at the other members of his family. “Our gratitude for stopping him from hurting her even more than he did, but this is where you step away.”
“Nate, that’s Kinsey’s decision,” Taylor said.
“No, it isn’t.”
Both Taylor and Madison gave him sympathetic looks, and he appreciated it, but it was the brothers he was going to have to deal with if he wanted to keep seeing Kinsey. And he did. More than ever.
Rand stiffened his spine and lifted his shoulders. “What happens between Kinsey and me is between Kinsey and me.” If she wanted to share what had been said between them, that was up to her. As far as he was concerned, it was none of their business.
“We’re her family,” Court said. “We have the right to protect her, and if that means keeping you from hurting her, we will do that.”
“If you think my son will hurt your sister, you’re delusional. His date was one I set up for him, not knowing that he—”
“Dad.” Rand shook his head. Although he understood his father not liking the way this conversation was going, it was his battle to fight. “Why don’t you call Harrison to come get you? I appreciate all you did tonight more than you can imagine, but it’s time for you to go.”
“It probably is. I stick around much longer and I’m going to knock some sense into these boys.” He squeezed Rand’s shoulder. “I’m proud of you, son. When I hear from Greg, I’ll call you.” He nodded at Nate, then walked away.
Alex watched him leave before shifting his gaze to Rand. “I would have given anything to have a father like yours.” He glanced at his brothers. “All of us would have. That tells me you were raised right. I also think there’s a lot you’re not saying about things you and Kinsey have talked about. And you’re right. Those things are between the two of you.”
“Alex,” Nate warned.
“Nate,” Alex mocked. “That he was even keeping an eye on her while he was with someone else tells me something. The minute Kinsey says she doesn’t want to see him, he’ll see her over my dead body. Until then, who attacked her? Because that’s where our attention should be, along with what are we going to do about it? I vote for teaching him a lesson he’ll never forget.”
Court let out a sigh. “I hate it when Alex’s right.”
Rand’s phone vibrated, and at seeing his father’s name on the screen, he clicked on answer. “Yeah?” His gaze skimmed over the brothers as he listened. They weren’t going to like what his dad had learned any more than he did. “Thanks. Now tell Greg to stop nosing around.”
He slipped his phone back into his pocket. “His name’s Sebastian Summer, son of Jacob Summer, the owner of Summer Fashions. He—”
“That has to be who she said was bothering her,” Court said.
Taylor frowned. “He was bothering her before tonight?”
“Yeah,” Nate said, nodding. “She mentioned it, then told us to back off, that she could handle him. Our mistake was agreeing.”
“She had no reason to think he was anything more than a nuisance. If she’d known what my father just told me, she would have handled things differently.” He’d witnessed the man bothering her and hadn’t done anything about it, assuming the same thing. That didn’t sit well with him. “Seems Sebastian Summer has a history of stepping over the line where women are concerned. He was expelled from high school for spying on girls in the locker room. In college a student reported him to administration for sexually harassing her. He was reprimanded, then when a second female student reported him, he was expelled.”
“How did your father find that out so fast?” Madison said.
