Page 9 of Hunted

Blood pounding in his ears, he crouched down to snap a few pictures of the damage with his phone, thinking he’d text themto Rodney and have him look into it. Should probably get the cops involved officially, even if all they’d do was write a report. Since it wasn’t his vehicle though, he’d leave that up to Leila to decide. He’d just sent the pics off to Rodney when she arrived.

“Hey, thanks again—” She stopped suddenly and cursed under her breath at the sight of the damage to her car. “Crap. I knew I should’ve pulled it behind the building during my lunch hour. Mike lashes out when he’s pissed.”

Clint didn’t like the sound of that. He straightened slowly and proceeded with caution. “Did he ever lash out at you? Or Thomas?” He had to suspect that Mike had.

Her chin came up, and she swallowed hard. He expected a quick denial, so her answer surprised him. “Sometimes. Always at me though. Thomas was born after Mike went to prison, so he’s always been…safe..” Leila gave a sad little shrug. “It was nothing too awful,” she tried to reassure him, but he could sense that she was lying. “A split lip one time. Some bruises. For a long time, I thought I deserved it.”

“No woman deserves to be hit. Ever.”

Her casual tone sliced deep into his heart. Apparently, the abuse had happened often enough that it became just another fact of life to her. Clint wished he’d met her years earlier, before the hitting had started, so he could have told her that she deserved so much better than asshole Mike in her life.

The realization brought him up short for a moment. He already cared about this woman and her child more than was probably wise, given that he’d just met them two days before. Also, he wasn’t sure getting more deeply involved in her troubles was a good idea, but in for a penny, in for a pound. Besides, heknew what to expect, if Mike got out of hand. Leila and Thomas needed him and that called to the deepest recesses of his warrior heart.

Decision made, Clint tucked his phone back into his pocket then hiked his thumb toward his truck. “It’s going to get dark soon and with no headlights, your car’s not drivable. How about I give you a ride to the gun range and we have your shooting lesson then I take you to get Thomas?” He looked back at her car and frowned. “You should call the cops and have them write a report, even if you can’t prove it was Mike. Where do you keep the vehicle registration?”

“In the glove compartment. Why?” She followed his gaze then cursed again. “He’s got my registration. That means…that means he knows where I live now. Damn, damn, damn.” Pure terror showed on her face as she realized her home was no longer safe.

She began to pace, mumbling to herself under her breath.

“Do you have family to stay with?” he asked. She shook her head. “Friends?”

“I wouldn’t want to bring them trouble. That wouldn’t be fair to them,” she said. “I’ll just be really cautious. I can do that.”

Being cautious wasn’t going to cut it, and he couldn’t stand the thought of her or Thomas in danger. What he was about to say was a bad idea. He knew that.A stupid, godawful idea…but I’m going to do it anyway.“I’ve got an extra room at my place. You and Thomas can stay with me if you want until this either blows over or you find other accommodations.”

“Oh, I couldn’t.” Leila stepped back, holding her hands out in front of her. “That’s going a bit far. I’m grateful for all you’vedone for us, but I don’t want you to feel obligated to continue helping us. And staying at your place, well…”

“I want to help,” he said quickly, maybe too quickly based on her surprised look.

“Why?” Leila shook her head. “You saw what Mike’s like earlier. Why would you want to get involved in a mess like that? You barely know me.”

Clint looked around the lot and chuckled. “True. But what can I say? I’m still a SEAL at heart. I like helping people. And you and Thomas need help. Your ex isn’t going to just go away on his own. I’ve dealt with a lot of people like him. I can handle him, make him leave you alone, if that’s what you want. I can teach you how to protect yourself and your son better too. If you’ll let me. I won’t even charge you for the lessons.”

She stared at him for a long moment, and Clint lived and died in that short eternity. If she said no, he’d obey her wishes, even if it would kill him to walk away. He didn’t want her and Thomas to become another set of statistics on the evening news. Then she gave a dry chuckle and stared down at the mess of glass in the parking lot. “This is crazy, but…okay, I’ll take you up on your offer. I don’t know why I trust you, but I do.” She lifted her head and gave him the tiniest of smiles, reminding him that her smiles were worth their weight in gold. “Don’t make me regret that.” Her voice was half serious, half teasing.

Overwhelming relief swamped him, and Clint couldn’t stop his grin. He held out his hand to her. “Got it.”

Leila shook his hand. Her skin felt soft and warm against his, her grip strong and sure. He ignored the jolt of awareness zinging up from their point of contact. Heat flickered in her dark eyesbefore it vanished, letting him know he wasn’t the only one who felt this strange connection between them.

“Good.” Clint said. “Call the police. After they get here and do their thing, we’ll get Thomas’s car seat out of the back of your vehicle and put it in my truck. Then we can swing by your place. I’m guessing you’ll need some things from there before we go to mine—and we should take care of that before we have Thomas with us, just in case.”

As she pulled out her phone, he had a moment of second guessing the decision he’d just made. It was too late to change it, though—and he wouldn’t even if he could. He felt a need to protect her. It was just that he’d never lived with a woman before, let alone a kid. He’d kept his distance from that world. Intentionally. So what was it about her that had him changing his tune? As she talked with the dispatcher, she pulled the ponytail holder from her hair and shook her dark locks out. The breeze caught them, blowing them around her shoulders. He had the almost overwhelming urge to touch her. Part of that was the need to give comfort, but yeah, he was attracted to her physically, too.

And there was something else. Something he couldn’t quite identify that drew him to her. Something he was just going to have to keep a handle on while he focused on keeping her safe.

As they drove toward the day care center, an awkward silence fell. Leila felt the need to say something, anything, to fill up the space between them. She didn’t know how to thank Clint for what he was doing for her and Thomas. It seemed too much, and it should be sending off alarm bells in her head. But for somereason, it wasn’t. Admittedly, she hadn’t always been the best judge of men’s characters. And yet, Clint seemed different from anyone she’d ever known.

It bothered her, though, that he probably thought she was an idiot for having allowed a dangerous criminal like Mike into her life. And considering that Clint was opening his home to her, she owed him an explanation of how she’d gotten in this spot. So she was going to give him the ugly truth.

“Mike wasn’t always that bad,” she blurted, staring out the passenger side window at the scenery passing by. “Not at first anyway. When I first met him, he was nice. He used to take me out to dinner and buy me nice clothes and gifts. At the time, he was working at a convenience store. I never questioned where the money came from—he said he made good overtime there.” She gave a snort. “It wasn’t until we we’re engaged that I first learned about his gang involvement. Mike told me that those guys were like his family and that they’d be my family, too, if I did right by them. Meaning if I looked the other way while they committed their crimes.” Leila glanced over at Clint and gave him a sad smile.

“But you didn’t,” he said.

She had for a time, and she wasn’t proud of that. “I begged him to leave it behind. He said he couldn’t cut ties with his friends, but that he’d stop committing crimes. I was naive enough to believe him, so we got married. It didn’t take long before things started to go south for me and Mike. His gang was always hanging around. I didn’t bother hiding that I didn’t like them, which made Mike angry. I guess they made fun of him for not being able to keep me in line. He got really controlling and aggressive. Started monitoring my movements. He would get so angry when I did something he didn’t like.” She sighed, upsetwith herself for having gone along with it for so long. “Even after he got abusive, I still loved him and wanted to try and make things work. The night…the night he beat me up enough to send me to the hospital was the night I found out I was pregnant with Thomas. I made the decision to get out of the marriage right then. I couldn’t risk bringing my child into an abusive home.”

“What about him hurting you?” Clint asked. He looked at her when they stopped at a traffic light, concern darkening his blue eyes.

“I didn’t matter. All I cared about was my baby.” Leila shook her head, pulling her gaze from him and going back to staring out the windshield at the horizon where the sun was setting in the west. “Before I ran, I gathered up as much information as I could about Mike’s criminal activities and turned it over to the police on the condition that I wouldn’t have to testify. After that, I got as far as I could as fast as I could, then I hid until I thought I was safe.”

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