Accidentally Yours (Coyote Bluff Series Book 1) (8 page)

What was she going to do? She could call the sheriff and let him handle Ron, but she’d have to admit everything she’d allowed the asshole to do. All the times he’d hit her or pushed her. How would she explain that to a man she didn’t know? She’d just moved to town. What if Ron and the sheriff were friends? Would he take her word, or believe the bastard? She couldn’t lose her job over this, but she was afraid Ron would come back and hurt her.

While she contemplated her next move Cammie worked her fingers into Titan’s fur. His warmth and the press of his body against hers gave her more comfort than she could remember. He’d saved her. Ron would have killed her, or beaten her badly
, but her wolf friend had attacked him and drove him away.
All right, Cammie-girl. Get a grip and get up
. She needed to go shut the door and decide what to do next. Ice would be a good idea as well, for the lumps on her skull and shoulder.

With a groan she moved and climbed, unsteadily, to her feet. The kitchen was unscathed in the violence that had erupted. She’d expected some sort of carnage. A sigh of relief slipped over her lips. A light brush of soft fur against her hand brought her attention back to Titan. “Oh, what a good boy you are. I owe you something big for saving me, don’t I?”

She laughed when he grinned at her. The first time she’d seen the toothy smile she’d been terrified that he was silently snarling at her, but now, she could tell he was just happy. It was cute in a scary sort of way. She stroked a hand over his head. “Come on. Let’s go in the dining room and see the damage. Then, I guess I’ll have to call the sheriff and make a report.”

Slow
, limping steps led her into the other room and she gasped at the destruction. Where there had been none in the kitchen, there was a scene of disarray in the dining room. Chairs were over turned, dishes lay shattered on the floor, her glass was broken and iced tea sprawled in a wide puddle on the hardwood floor. She could feel her breath sawing in and out of her lungs, rasping roughly down her throat. The ringing in her ears was a pretty fair indication that she was hyperventilating again.

She knew, in a small part of her brain, that she was losing it. She was going to pass out right there on her floor, probably land in the puddle that was slowly creeping along the floor boards. She couldn’t stop the panic-induced breakdown. Her back hit the wall next to the doorway with a dull thud. She was thankful for the structure as she slid, weak-kneed, down until she was sitting against the cool, cream paint. She knew that if she didn’t get a handle on her breathing she’d be passing out any moment. Darkness was already edging her view.
You are stronger than this
.

A slight noise interrupted her panic for a moment. She watched in amazement as Titan came limping into the room from the other doorway. In his mouth was her cell phone. What the hell? Was he a trained helper dog? Was she completely wrong about his heritage? She watched in befuddlement as he wandered over to her, gingerly cradling the phone in his jaws. He stopped in front of her and slowly lowered his head until the phone slid from his teeth. She absently wondered if he had gotten it wet enough to not work.

“Good boy, Titan.” She reached over and picked the moist phone off the floor. When she flipped it open she was surprised that it still worked. She glanced at him again. “If I didn’t know better I’d think you actually had listened to me talking about calling the sheriff. Were you trained to get the phone if someone was injured?”
He’s not going to answer you
. She snorted at herself. Maybe all the hits to her head over the last day had finally knocked something loose. Although the animal seemed to know what she was saying, or it was reading her emotions enough to understand things.

She looked at the phone and shook her head. She pushed the question from her mind about how he’d known to bring it, and dialed the sheriff. Sucking in a deep breath, she waited. She almost hoped Conner didn’t answer, but then where would she be? Once she found Titan
’s owner she’d be alone again, a sitting duck waiting for Ron to come back and hurt her. After three rings she was just ready to pull the phone from her ear.

“Hello, Conner Manning.”

Shit.

“Hi, Conner. This is Cammie Henderson. Um. I think I need to talk to you about Ron.” Her voice shook and she could feel tears prickling behind her eyes.

“’Bout time, missy. I’ve been waitin’ for you to see reason. I’m about twenty minutes from your place. Can you wait that long? Do I need to get an ambulance out there?”

What the hell did he think was going on? “Um, no. I just need to talk to you. I don’t have any plans today other than running into town. You don’t need to rush over here.”

“Cammie. Darlin’. I’m on my way now and I’ll see you in a few minutes. Do you have that .22 of yours handy? Did you lock the door?”

“Geez, Conner. What do you know that I don’t? You’re starting to scare me.”

“Just lock the door and I’ll be there as soon as I can. Call me if he shows up.”

“Okay, but I don’t think he’s coming back today.”

“Shit, Cam, he was there already? You’re okay? I’m putting the siren on and I’ll be there in fifteen.”

She jumped at the quick disconnect and stared at the phone for a moment. What the hell was that? She’d clearly heard the panic in Conner’s voice. They really didn’t know each other well. His concern scared her more than anything else. What did he know about Ron that would cause such a reaction in a normally stoic man?

The nervous energy that the call had generated was enough to get her back up to her feet. She quickly walked through the kitchen and locked the door. Running through her mind what other precautions she probably should be taking. She’d go upstairs and get her rifle, and the baseball bat.

She turned to find Titan studying her with an intense look. The hairs on her arms stood. He sure seemed much more than a normal animal. Perhaps it was because he was a wolf, an undiluted predator. She shook off the feeling and rushed for the stairs. Conner’s concern made her antsy and she wanted to be moving to burn off the excess nervous tension.

“Cammie? It’s Conner. Come let me in, darlin’.” She stood just inside the kitchen, breathing hard. She’d heard the vehicle coming down her driveway minutes before, and had watched Titan become more and more agitated. He’d stalked from the door to her repeatedly, growling deep in his chest. The noise put her nerves on edge and made her wish she didn’t live so far out in the woods.

As soon as the truck came in
to view she’d let her breath out, relief flooding her system. She knew Conner’s vehicle from watching him drive by her office window. She’d tried to calm Titan but he was still wired and snarling.

“Give me a minute,” she called. She squatted and looked into the wild eyes of her wolf. She whispered and stroked his head. “I know you aren’t going to be happy, but I’m closing you in the kitchen so you don’t attack Conner.”

She stood quickly and pulled the kitchen door shut. The surprised look that crossed his face was comical. He immediately started growling through the door and she was glad she got it shut before he’d pushed into the laundry room with her. She walked the couple of steps to the door and opened it, pasting the best smile she could on her lips.

“Hey, Conner. Thanks for coming out. Why don’t we sit out here?” She ushered the sheriff to one of the chairs on her porch. He was dusting off his uniform pants with his hat as she opened the door. His dark eyes took in her injuries with an intensity she didn’t like having directed at her. “Do you want something to drink?”

“No, that’s fine. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like you’ve gone through a meat grinder.” He quirked a brow in question and sniffed. A scowl scrunched his brows and he tipped his head enough to see around her into the house. He looked like he wanted to ask something, but turned and headed to the proffered chair. “I didn’t know you had a dog.”

She trailed him and took the chair next to him. Her hands clenched in her lap as she struggled to sit still while he stared at her with a mixture of concern and pity. She really didn’t want to explain everything had happened. Why had she called him? Should she tell him about Titan? Would he try to take the wolf from her when he left? Maybe she should have called Margie to come sit with her while she talked to Conner. If he was friends with Ron then she was sitting outside with some
one who could hurt her. Or worse, take her to him.

A slight touch on her knee jerked her from her thoughts. “All right, Cam. I can see you’ve been through a lot recently. Want to tell me about it?” With a practiced move he removed a small notebook from his front pocket and unclipped a pen from his shirt. She watched him flip through pages of notes until he reached a blank sheet.

She took a deep breath and looked out over the small yard, focusing on one of the large maples that bordered it. She tried to still the shaking of her hands by clasping them together in her lap. Starting at the beginning was going to be painful, but she owed it to herself to get it all out. A deep sigh fortified her nerves enough to open her mouth and let the first sentences tumble out of her numb lips.

She explained Ron’s courtship of her, how he treated her so well in the beginning. She tried not to pay attention to the scratching of the pen on the paper as he scribbled notes as she talked. Cammie relived the first attack, the one brought on by her purchase of lite beer instead of the regular. She felt the impact of his palm on her cheek and the sound of it cracking through the silence in his kitchen.

Her cackle completely lacked humor. “The ass had the audacity to tell me that he wouldn’t have hit me, but he wanted to set an example for something small so I understood my place. What the hell was I thinking staying with him after that?”

“Hon, you know that I don’t blame you, so you shouldn’t blame yourself. He is trouble. Ron has been a problem for years, and it just sounds like you were the last in the long line of women he found
who would put up with his shit.”

She knew that in her head, but her heart wasn’t so forgiving. She’d
allowed a man not only to demean her more than once but she’d let him strike and bruise her. What the hell was wrong with her that she’d permit something like that? She was the first one to scoff at women who repeatedly went back to an abuser. Now, she found herself sitting with the sheriff, talking through her inability to act appropriately during multiple instances of abuse. Her head dropped into her hands and she almost reveled in the slight pain from her black eye and bruised face as she pressed it into her palms.

“Cammie. Keep going. What happened today?” She glanced over at Connor and cringed at the pure pity shining in his eyes.

She looked away and stared out into the trees again. She didn’t need his pity. She felt bad enough for everyone. “Last night I drove to Ron’s house. We were going to just hang out, or that’s what he told me. When I got there he was already drunk off his ass. He started yelling about nothing particular, ranting and raving. When he came at me with a miniature bat I panicked. I grabbed the first thing I could, which happened to be a broom. In the fight I got hit a few times. I whacked him over the head with the broomstick, and, well, knocked him out.”

The memory of the drive home, getting hit by Titan, and the struggle to get the poor baby into her car brought a tired smile to her lips. She shook her head. It was pretty sad that something so traumatic was almost a nice memory. “I knew that wouldn’t be the end of it, but I didn’t expect him to show up here and try to kill me. He came in and chased me around the house. When we made it into the kitchen he threw me around, and if Titan wasn’t here I’d probably be dead.”

“Who’s Titan?”

She’d forgotten she was telling her story to Connor. The memories had been so vivid that she was stuck living them again, wincing with the phantom feel of hard flesh striking her. She turned to the sheriff slowly, letting the images bleed from her mind before meeting his eyes. “The wolf inside my house is Titan. He hit my car last night while I was driving home from Ron’s. If he hadn’t come in and attacked Ron in my kitchen I’d be gone. I saw it in his eyes. Ron was going to beat me until I wasn’t breathing anymore.”

She’d tried so hard to keep her voice level throughout the story, but a sob escaped when she uttered the last sentence.

“All right. Just stay calm. He can’t hurt you now.” Connor moved in the chair and reached toward her, but her jerk
ing away from his hand made him stop. Slowly the hand dropped back into his lap. A look close to rage crossed his face. “Cammie, you’re going to press charges, right? You aren’t just telling me this story to warn me or some other horse shit.”

“I don’t know what I was thinking, actually. I know that he is pissed. He threatened to come back and kill Titan. The problem is that I will eventually be alone again. Once I find Titan’s owner I’ll be out here by myself. I can’t carry my gun with me everywhere.” She sighed. “I’m scared, but I don’t know what I can do about it.”

“Let’s chat about this wolf for a minute. Tell me that story, because honestly, hon, I find it hard to believe that you found a wolf and he not only hit your car, but then protected you in your house. You don’t think he might just be someone’s dog, do you?”

“No. I had Margie out here last night and she confirmed it. He was wearing a bandana, so I know someone owns him. He ran into my car enough to leave the dent you see on the passenger side door,” she said, pointing to the sizable dent in her car. “I got him in the back of my car and drove him here. Even in horrible pain he never lashed out at either of us.”

“And you trusted him to stay in your house? Cammie. Shit. You’re lucky he didn’t attack you or something.”

“I trust him. He even slept upstairs last night, and I felt safer with him in the room with me.” She watched shock and a mix of humor and wariness cross his face.

“You let him sleep upstairs with you? Really?” Connor craned his neck around and grinned while looking through the front window into the house. She thought she heard a growl from inside. “Did you make him sleep in the hall?”

“Well, honestly I tried, but he ended up sleeping in my room on the floor.” She chuckled, remembering how she woke this morning with her wolf on her bed.

“Can I meet him? I love dogs and I haven’t seen a pet wolf in a long time.” There was something with his voice, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Sure. Hang on and I’ll bring him out.” She rose to let Titan out, hoping he behaved and didn’t attack the sheriff. He’d probably shoot the animal if that happened and
, no matter, what she didn’t want to see the wolf harmed. He’d helped her both emotionally and physically more in the last twenty-four hours than anyone had in years. She knew she was becoming attached to him, but who wouldn’t when he was the only living thing that had defended her in spite of his own injuries?