Forever Yours, Sir (16 page)

Yeah, she’d tell the big idiot exactly what she thought of him. That he was a fucking hypocrite who could kiss her ass.

And then he’d probably spank it. Maybe fuck it.

Christ, she was like a lovesick little puppy. She couldn’t even hold on to her anger against him.

Because she loved the bastard.

Shit. She
loved him.

Talk about great timing, right as she was about to die, she realized
she loved the idiot.

“Police, freeze!”

About time. Not that they had gotten there in time. She was a goner.

***

Hunter raced into the hospital, his heart racing. He couldn’t believe Cady was in the emergency room. What the hell had happened?

All he knew
were the sparse facts her landlord had given him when he’d called. Thank God he’d bribed the man to keep an eye on her and call him if anything happened.

Not that he’d ever expected this. Had she interrupted a burglary? Had someone jumped her when she’d been coming home from the bar?

Why the hell hadn’t he gone with her? If he’d been there, this would never have happened. No way would he let anyone touch her. No way would anyone hurt her like this again. His heart couldn’t take it.

He stomped up to the desk. He’d left Connor watching the
building. He could care less about that at the moment.

To think he’d been staying away from her to protect her and when she’d needed him most he hadn’t fucking been there.

Never again.

“Cady
Franklin,” he barked.

The woman behind the desk looked at him worriedly. “Are you a relative?”

“Her fiancé. Show me where she is. Please.” He forced himself to calm down a little when the woman looked like she was about to call security.

“I’ll take you myself,” she said, still looking a little worried but at least she was taking him to Cady.

“Through there. The doctor should be back soon.”

He stepped into the cubicle, coming to a stop as he saw her. She turned toward him, her face pale, a huge bruise covering once cheekbone.

He winced.

“Hunter!
” she said, cheerfully.

Relief hit him like the force of a
Mack truck. She was okay. Bruised, injured but awake and talking.

He
stepped forward. “What the hell happened?”

“
The Terminator doesn’t like peanut butter cookies.” She giggled.

“What?”

A nurse stepped into the cubicle. “She’s been given some pain medication. How are you feeling, Cady?”

“Just peachy.”

“How bad is she hurt?” Hunter asked worriedly.

“The doctor will
be back in a minute. He’s just looking at her x-rays now.”

“Cady, can you tell me what happened?” Hunter asked. Sitting beside her, he ran his fingers through her hair.
He shook with anger at the sight of the huge bruise on the side of her face. “Nice shiner, sugar.”

“He hit me. I went in with my baseball bat, but it didn’t do much
good. He was ten feet tall and had a jaw like concrete. I hurt my hand when I hit him.” She held it up and the icepack fell to the floor revealing how swollen and bruised it was. “Kiss it better?”

“Always.” He gently kissed the knuckles before grabbing the icepack and settling it back over her hand. “What sort of drugs did you give her?” he asked the nurse.

The nurse frowned slightly. “Nothing really strong. Some people react more to painkillers than others though. She said she didn’t have any allergies.”

Hunter glanced up as a young, female doctor stepped into the room.

“Hello.”

He stood and held out his hand. “Hunter Black. I’m Cady’s fiancé
. The landlord called and told me that Cady had been taken to the emergency room. I don’t know who did this yet, but I can assure you I will find out.”

Cady giggled. “Told you, it was
the Terminator.”

“Shh, baby, let me talk to the doctor,” Hunter said quietly, running his hand up and down her arm.
“Can you tell me what happened?”

“All I know is that they
have the guy who did this, he’s being patched up. Apparently Ms. Franklin heard an altercation between him and his ex-girlfriend and raced in to help. The police will probably be in soon to question Ms. Franklin, although I don’t know if they’ll get much out of her at the moment.”

“What injuries does she have?”

“Well, luckily the x-rays all came back clear. That doesn’t mean that she’s not going to be in quite a bit of pain for the next week or so. She’s got some bad bruising around her ribs and on her thigh from where he kicked her. Her hand is bruised and swollen and you can see the bruising on her face. I’m going to write out a prescription for pain medication and then we’ll get her discharged so you can take her home. Make sure she gets plenty of rest.”

“D
on’t worry,” he said grimly. “I won’t be letting her out of my sight for a long time.”

The doctor and nurse soon left, the nurse promising to return soon with the discharge papers and a wheelchair.

Hunter sat on the side of the bed, careful not to jostle her. “Jesus, baby, what were you thinking?”

She eyes opened and she stared up at him with a soft smile. “Hunter, you’re here
.” She patted her hand against his thigh. “You’re so hot, so sexy.”

He grinned despite his urge to kill someone.

“I can understand why you don’t want me anymore. I’m so not in your league.”

His grin vanished at her
words.

“And why would you think I don’t want you?”

“Cause you’ve stopped coming around.” Tears filled her eyes and almost broke his heart. “I’m good enough to fuck but I’m not good enough for a relationship.”

“We have a relationship,” he in
sisted.

“Nuh-uh, a relationship involves more than fucking.” She squeezed his thigh. “It involves communication and trust and stuff. We don’t have that. We just have really, really good fucking. Except for the last week, when we haven’t even had that. You forced me to go out and buy a vibrator.” She glared at him. “Do you know how embarrassing that was? I don’t have a credit card so I couldn’t buy it online. I had to go into the shop and ask for the biggest damn vibrator they had. I was quite disappointed, none of them really matched up to you.”

A throat cleared behind him and he turned, knowing he still looked dumbfounded. Great, it would have to be someone he knew.

“Detective Stanson,” he
greeted the man standing behind him. The female detective with him was trying to hide her grin. Stanson, the bastard, didn’t even try. He had a wide grin on his face. Nate Stanson was a regular at Twisted Thorn and he was good Dom. He also had a smart mouth so Hunter had no doubt that he was going to be hearing about this for a long time.

“No, the vibrator I got just doesn’t measure up,” Cady said with a pout, looking up at him.

Hunter placed his hand gently over her mouth. “Shut up about the vibrator, okay, babe?”

He kep
t his hand over her mouth as a precaution as he turned back to the detectives.

“Cady isn’t up to any questions right now,” he said.

“Oh, I don’t know, she seems talkative enough,” Stanson said, still grinning. His partner elbowed him in the side.

“
I’m Detective Ryans. The doctor warned us that Ms. Franklin has had a reaction to the painkillers. We were wondering if we could set up a time to come and see her tomorrow morning.”

“Sure, she’ll be a
t my place.” He gave them his address. “Tell me what you’ve learned so far.” It wasn’t a question.

“Unfortunately, the victim’s too scared to talk and the idiot who was
beating on them both isn’t talking. When we got there, though, it looked as though Ms. Franklin had heard an altercation and bashed in the door to help the victim.”

Christ, what
had she been thinking?

Probably
that she had to help that woman. It was something he’d expect of her, Cady wasn’t one to call the cops and wait for help. But damn, he needed to instil a sense of caution in her. She seemed to think she was indestructible and if she kept going this way she was going to end up really hurt. Or worse.

He swallowed heavily.

“We’ll come by tomorrow morning at ten,” Ryans said.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Stanson added before leaving.

Asshole.

Cady woke with a groan. God, she hurt. It felt like every inch of her body had been beaten. She blinked rapidly, trying to look around without moving her head which was pounding.

What happened? Did she get drunk last night and fall down the stairs?

No, she remembered Gray driving her home and she’d walked up the stairs to her apartment and then… ah fuck. So she was still alive.

Her body just wished that it wasn’t.

How the hell had she gotten here, though? She looked around her, groaning as she recognized Hunter’s bedroom from when she’d stayed over before. How had he known she was hurt? When had he brought her here? The last thing she really remembered was the nurse giving her some painkillers.

There were some flashes of memory. Hunter’s furious blue eyes. Another man and woman talking to him,
something about vibrators. Why the hell would they be talking about vibrators?

Cady sighed. As much as she longed to hide i
n bed for the next week or two she had to get up. She was not lying around in Hunter’s bed any longer than she had to. Although it was a really comfy bed.

Biting her lip to hold in her whimpers of pain, she sat and swung
her legs out. She held her side as her ribs protested the movement. God, that asshole had really done a job on her. She glanced down at herself. She was wearing one of Hunter’s t-shirts. It smelled like him. And…yep, she was naked underneath.

Great, so he’d brought her home, undressed her, put her to bed and she couldn’t remember any of it. She pushed herself up. Beads of sweat broke out along her brow as she shuffled into the living room. Boxes were strewn throughout the room. Was he moving? He hadn’t told her.

But why would he? They weren’t anything to each other.

So why did he bring me here?

Probably felt sorry for her. Poor little girl with no one to look after her. Well, she didn’t need anyone’s pity, least of all his.

Cady glanced into one box. Huh, it was filled with books and not the type she would have picked for him.

“What
are you doing?”

She swung her head around, wincing as she moved too quickly.

“Do you have to sneak up on me?” she snapped. “I woke up, so I decided to get out of bed. Since when did you have a thing for romance novels?” She held up a paperback. The cover had a half-naked woman kneeling at the feet of a bare-chested, muscular male.

“They’re my sister’s,” he replied.

“These were Angie’s? I thought all of her stuff was destroyed in the fire?”

“So did I. Turns out she had a storage unit I knew nothing about until I got a phone cal
l last week. This is what was in it.” He ran his hand around the room. “I’ve been going through everything.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that’s what you’ve been busy doing?”

“Because I’m an idiot and because that’s not the whole story. Not even close. Look, I owe you an explanation and an apology, but the police will be here in about forty minutes and I want you to be dressed in something other than just my t-shirt.”

“The cops? Right, I suppose they want to talk to me about last night. How did I end up here, anyway?”

“Your landlord called me. I came to the hospital, you were pretty out of it on pain meds so I brought you home with me.”

She nodded carefully, wincing a little as her throbbing head and cheekbone protested. So he’d brought her back here because she was too wasted to be by herself.

Not because he’d wanted to look after her.

“Well, I’ll get dressed
, and after I’ve spoken to the police, I’ll get out of your way.”

“What are you talking about? You’re not going anywhere. You’re not in any condition to be lef
t alone, plus, we need to talk. I’ll see if I can find you something to wear, your other clothes are ripped. I threw them out.”

“I need a shower.”

“All right, I’ll put a stool in the stall so you can sit.”

Before she could protest, he was moving into action. She had to admit
, she was feeling kind of shaky and standing in a hot shower probably wouldn’t be the best idea right now.

After her shower, she stared at herself in the mirror. Crap, she looked like shit. There was a huge bruise covering her cheekbone, more bruising over her ribs and stomach and a
nasty bruise on her thigh. Her hand ached, although it was only slightly swollen.

With a sigh, she reached for the soft clothing Hunter had found. A pair of woman’s pants and
a sweatshirt. She felt a surge of jealousy. Where had these come from?

“Cady?
” he called out. “The police are here. Did you get the clothes? They were Angie’s. She was taller than you but they should fit.”

Feeling stupid over her burs
t of jealousy, Cady got dressed and moved through the bedroom into the living area. Two people stood up as she walked in. One was an attractive, blond-haired male and the other a rather plain-looking woman with her dark hair pulled back into a short ponytail.

“Cady.” Hunter moved to her side, putting a hand on the small of her ba
ck. His touch filled her with instant warmth and need, which is why she forced herself to step away from him. She was not going to start relying on him.

“This is Detective Ryans,” the woman nodded, “and Detective Stanson.”

“You have some questions for me?” she asked as she sat on the couch. Hunter sat beside her, his thigh brushing hers.

“We do
,” Stanson replied, looking down at his notepad. “I understand you used to be a police officer, Ms. Franklin.”

She stiffened. “I fail to see what that has to do with anything.”

“Well, obviously you still have the instinct to jump in and help someone, but you’re not a cop anymore, you’re a civilian. Next time, leave it to the professionals.”

“You seriously expected me to just sit next door and listen while he abused her?
Just sit and wait until you guys got there? Should I have made some popcorn as well, made a real night of it?”

Detective Stanson
sighed. “Next time you could end up hurt worse, maybe dead. Wanting to help people is fine. Putting yourself in danger by running into a situation you knew nothing about was reckless. I would think you of all people, would know that rushing in without assessing the situation first can end up in tragedy.”

He was talking about Rusty’s death, blaming her.

“That’s enough,” Hunter said harshly, surprising her. She’d figured he’d back the detective. “Ask your questions or get out.”

Detective Ryans spoke quickly. “Could you just take us through what happened last night?” She sent her partner a firm look when he looked like he was going to protest. He sat back and Cady let out a sigh of relief.

She went through everything that had happened last night, right up to the point where she’d passed out then woke up at the hospital.

Ryans took notes, asking a few questions every so often. Beside her, Stanson remained surprisingly quiet. So did Hunter. She glanced up at him, to find his face was cold, unmovable.

He wasn’t happy, well tough, he hadn’t been there. She’d bet he wouldn’t have hesitated to do exactly the same thing.

“
Okay, I think that’s all we need for the moment. We’ve gotten the victim’s statement and her story corroborates yours. We’ll need a more formal statement and have you sign it, but that can probably wait until Monday. Come on, Stanson.”

Hunter stood to walk them out.

“You need to get her under control or she’s going to get hurt,” Stanson said to Hunter.

“Fuck off and mind your own business, Stanson,” Hunter growled before slamming the door behind him.

“You don’t like him much, do you?”

“Stanson? The guy can be a smartass but he’s a good cop.”

“Unlike me,” she muttered.

“What?”

“He doesn’t believe I was a very good cop. He was right about that.”

“No, he wasn’t. But he was right about one thing, you’re impulsive and you often act without assessing things first. You could have been badly
injured, maybe even killed.”

“I couldn’t just sit by and let her get beaten up.”

“No, I know.” Hunter sat down across from her, looking tired. “But you should have waited for back-up. You should have called me.”

“I w
asn’t sure you’d answer.”

“That’s fair enough. I’ve been acting like an idiot and I’m sorry. My only excuse is that I’ve been trying to protect you. That backfired on me. Instead of being here when you needed me I was miles away. If I’d been there you wouldn’t ha
ve been hurt. This is my fault.”

“I never said that,” she replied sharply, knowing she couldn’t let him take all the blame. “You and that idiot detective are right. I hear someone in trouble and I jump in feet first, I know that.”

“We need to work on that impulsiveness,” he told her.

“Do we? I thought we were over.”

“Christ, that’s the last thing I want, but I can understand why you might think that. I’ve pulled away from you in the last week because I didn’t want to drag you into my shit.”

“What shit?” She s
at forward. “Are you in trouble?”

“Why don’t
I make us something to eat and we can talk about it.”

***

Hunter made some breakfast, giving himself time to think. His guilt over not being there with Cady last night had kept him awake most of the night, just watching her sleep. Each whimper she’d let out, every time she’d moaned in her sleep had felt like a knife digging into his heart.

He’d been wrong to pull back, and he knew he’d hurt her. He’d promised not to leave her
, and although he hadn’t seen it that way at the time, that was exactly what he’d done.

“Food’s ready, babe,” he called out, placing the food on his small dining table.

Cady shuffled in from the other room. “You know, this book isn’t half bad,” she said, placing one of Angie’s books on the table as she took a seat. “I hope you don’t mind me reading it.”

“Not at all, help yourself. I think I’m going to donate them, anyway.”

“I wonder why she had all these boxes in a storage unit,” Cady mused as she picked up a fork.

“Probably didn’t have enough room in her small apartment.” He ate in silence for a long moment.

“So, you were going to explain why you’ve been acting like a jerk this week. You know, if you wanted to call things off you could have just told me. I’m a big girl, I can take it.”

He stared at her, his gaze narrowing as he took in the tension around her mouth.

“I do not want to call things off,” he growled. “Look, I was an idiot, I admit it. You know that my sister died.”

“Yes.”

“Well, what I never told you is that I believe she was murdered. Angie worked for Stephan Worthington. She quit after eighteen months of working for him and moved back here. I knew something was wrong, but I just never got around to asking her. Then one night I missed a phone call from her saying she was in trouble, that she needed my help. By the time I listened to my messages, she was dead.”

“Worthington killed her?”

“Yes. But I couldn’t prove it.”

“Good thing that bastard is dead,” she said, putting her fork down. She leaned back with a grimace,
placing her hand over her ribs.

“Y
ou’re in pain, I’ll get your pills.”

She shook her head slowly. “I don’t want them. Pain medication tends to make me loopy.”

“You don’t say.” He held back his smile as she looked at him suspiciously.

“I can’t remember much of what happened in the hospital, so I guess whatever
they gave me put me out of it.”

“The doctor prescribed a
lighter pain med for you. It shouldn’t make you loopy. I’m going to get it for you, you can wait until after we’ve talked to take it, but you will be taking it.” He spoke in a low, deep voice, knowing how beautifully she responded when he used his Dom voice.

“Go sit on the sofa where it
’s more comfortable. I’ll clean up in here.”

She had to be in more pain that she was letting on, because she moved without protest.

Hunter quickly tidied up, got her bottle of pills which he’d run out to fill while she was asleep and grabbed a glass of water. He walked in to living room to find her sitting back on the sofa, her eyes closed.

“You need to go back to bed,” he said quietly, with concern.

Her eyes shot open and she shook her head, wincing. “I’m okay, my head’s just a bit sore.”

He placed the pills and water down on the coffee table before sitting beside her. “Lay back, rest your head on my lap.”

“No.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“And don’t bother giving me that look or trying to order me around. I’ve been as patient as I can. Explain yourself or I’m going home. I’ve had enough of being shut out, Hunter. I want to know what the hell is going on.”