No Holding Back

by Lori Foster

  And in fact, he did feel wretched. Loss of blood, maybe.

  Well, that and the fact that he was about to break a cardinal rule. He’d meant what he said, though. He didn’t know another woman who could deal with what lay ahead. Star was the exception. Always. In everything.

  With her, he believed it’d work out.

  * * *

  DRIVING PAST TALL aspens and magnificent boulders, Sterling pulled up to...a freaking lodge. “That’s not a house.”

  “It is.”

  “No.” She shook her head and pointed at a different home off to the side. “That smaller place over there, that’s a house.” The place in front of her...she’d never seen anything like it, not even in a magazine.

  “That’s my sister’s private cottage. Drive right up to the front door there and help me inside before I lose more blood.”

  That silenced her. But God, she was caught in conflicting emotions. Cade took precedence, most definitely, but this, all this grandeur and wealth? Not her cup of tea.

  She put the van in Park, turned it off and rushed around to his side. He’d gotten out on his own steam, thankfully, because Cade was a huge guy and she wasn’t sure she could bear his weight on her own, especially not with a bum leg. At the door, she leaned on a buzzer. “Didn’t they see us driving up? What good are security cameras if you don’t—”

  A tall man jerked the door open, already glaring in fury. “What in God’s name...!”

  The only way to brazen through a situation was to really brazen it through. “Out of the way, man,” she barked. “He’s been shot.”

  Immediately the man tucked his own shoulder under Cade’s other arm. “I’ll take care of him. You may leave.”

  Leaning heavily on them both, Cade stated, “If she leaves, I leave.”

  That caused a visual standoff between the two men—until Sterling slugged the stranger in the ear. “He. Is. Bleeding.”

  Impotent fury darkened the man’s face. He looked like he wanted to say or do something—to her—but instead he bellowed, “Bernard!”

  The sound echoed around a grand sky-high foyer.

  “She follows us,” Cade warned.

  The man said nothing, but he didn’t try to stop her. Another man—she assumed poor Bernard—came to a halt before them.

  “What in the world.”

  “Get the door,” the man said, but before Bernard could do that, Cade’s brother came to a screeching halt on his motorcycle and bounded in.

  “Run every red light?” Cade asked.

  “And drove ninety,” his brother said, moving her out of the way so he could take Cade’s other arm. “But I’m here, so don’t complain.”

  Securing the door, Bernard said, “I’ll get things prepped,” and then he rushed off.

  “Can you walk?” his brother asked Cade.

  “I’m fine—but I’d like to see you try to carry me.”

  The older man snapped, “Don’t you two start.”

  They all ignored her. If she’d wanted to leave, now would be her chance.

  Of course she didn’t. She’d promised Cade, and besides that, she wanted to see with her own two peepers that he was okay.

  So she meekly followed along.

  A pretty young woman came out of a room, took in the scene before her and immediately set aside a laptop on a polished table to rush ahead of them. She now led the pack, while Sterling pulled up the rear.

  They went across the great room, which really was great, before they veered off to the left and through the wide expanse of the kitchen, around a powder room, down a small flight of stairs, where the woman opened doors...into a lab?

  Disbelief rounded Sterling’s eyes and turned her in a circle as she took it all in. It looked like an honest-to-God operating room. Just what had she stepped into?

  The men helped Cade to a white-sheeted bed that the handy Bernard had just finished making up with sheets from a metal cabinet.

  Cade’s brother neatly ripped open his shirt.

  Blood was...everywhere, and Sterling felt her knees going weak. She reached out until her hand flattened on a wall, offering needed support.

  Bernard set out a tray of stuff that looked too ominous for her peace of mind.

  The older man, not Bernard, was busy scrubbing his hands and muttering, “You are the most stubborn, difficult—”

  “Son. I know,” Cade said, not really sounding like a man with a bullet in his chest. In fact, he was staring at Sterling, so she tried not to look so worried. “Reyes is the constant joker and Madison is the most obedient.”

  Reyes and Madison? Difficult son?

  Her gaze slowly traveled to the sink where he washed. So that fire-breathing dragon was Cade’s father? Yes, she saw the resemblance now, but...

  Madison took offense at what he’d said. “Obedient? That’s a lie.”

  Cade snorted. His brother did, too.

  Madison folded her arms. “Don’t take your temper out on me because you were foolish enough to get shot.” Then to their father, who was now pulling on surgical gloves, Madison asked, “Is it serious, Dad?”

  Sterling gaped at her. Serious? He’d caught a bullet! In his chest.

  “No, it’s not,” Cade said, still not sounding all that wounded. “Damn bullet deflected off a rock and came back on me.”

  “You coulda shot your eye out,” Reyes mused.

  Madison reached out to swat him, but he ducked away.

  They were all certifiably insane. From one to the other, Sterling stared—until she got snared again by Cade’s gaze.

  His father leaned over him, pressed...and announced, “It stopped at his collarbone, but luckily it doesn’t appear to have broken anything.”

  Good news? At the moment, Sterling would take any she could get.

  Utilizing scary surgical-type pincer thingies, his father poked and prodded while Cade gritted his teeth.

  Madison stood stoic and Reyes was thankfully silent as he paced.

  Bernard held a metal bowl...which clinked when the man dropped something into it. “Bullet’s out. Let me make sure there’s no other damage.”

  “X-ray?” Bernard asked.

  Cade’s father peered down at him. “Are you hurt anywhere else? And don’t hold back.”

  Sounding disgusted, Cade said, “No.”

  “A few stitches, then.” He turned to Sterling. “You’re not sterile, so please remove yourself.”

  Of all the...! That sounded like a truly terrible insult. Reyes and Madison—were they sterile? Or Bernard?

  But he must have meant them all because Reyes went to Madison and, with an arm around her shoulders, led her to the door. Bernard stepped away.

  And that left only her.

  “Bernard?” Cade called out, still looking at her.

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t let her leave.”

  His father rolled his eyes, dismissed them all and began a thorough cleaning that, to Sterling, looked worse than what had come before it.

  Feeling a little sick, she told Cade, “I’ll be right outside the door.”

  “You’ll wait in the kitchen,” his father said without looking up. “Since my son has quite a bit of explaining to do, you may as well get something to drink.”

  “Come along,” Bernard said gently. “I’ll get you settled.”

  She didn’t want to. But damn. These people were daunting, far more so than Mattox with a gun.

  * * *

  THE SECOND THEY were alone, his father gave up even the slightest pretense of politeness. “What the hell were you thinking?”

  “That I make my own decisions? That I want her with me? That you don’t run my life?”

  A deep growl crawled up his throat, but his hands were steady and competent as he numbed the area. “You could have been
killed.”

  Without Star to focus on, Cade stared up at his father. “No more so than on any other job.”

  He paused. “We cover every possible scenario.”

  “Best we can, I know. I did the same tonight. That’s why I convinced Reyes to tag along.” He felt the tug of the first stitch going in, but no pain. “When you explode, don’t include him. Against his better judgment, he did it for me.”

  Instead of doing some of that exploding that Cade expected, his father sighed. “Is the girl truly that important to you?”

  Cade didn’t doubt that his father had already surmised much of what had happened. Pesky details were only finer points of an overall view. “You already know the answer to that.”

  He finished stitching in silence. Once he was done, he treated the area with something and applied a light bandage. “You’ll stay here tonight and tomorrow so I can keep an eye on this.”

  “Not without Star.”

  Moving away to wash his hands, his father remarked, “You shouldn’t call her that. I’ve read your sister’s report, you realize. Sterling Parson has good reason for having shed that name, and you endanger her by using it.”

  Cautiously, Cade sat up. His head swam a little, but he’d suffered worse injuries and he had a good grasp on what his body could and couldn’t do. He took stock, flexed each arm and surmised that he’d walk out of the lab on his own. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”

  With a sound of exasperation, Parrish turned back to him. His face was pinched. His eyes were narrowed. He looked pissed, but he said, “I suppose we should get to know her.”

  It was that concession more than anything else that allowed the residual aches and pains to swamp back in on Cade. Until he’d known if he had to fight his own family, which had been his presumption, he hadn’t allowed himself to feel much of the discomfort.

  The others would follow Parrish’s lead, and he’d just offered an olive branch. Surprising, and very much appreciated.

  Resigned, his father said, “I’ll take you to your room so you can wash up and change clothes. Then we’ll have a little talk with our guest.”

  Each of them had their own living quarters in the main house, for situations of this type. They were used when necessary, kept prepped otherwise.

  Cade had his own house nearer to his bar, Reyes lived nearer to his gym and Madison had insisted on the separate cottage.

  It was times like this that made having the quarters so convenient. He hated to admit to his own limitations, and he could make it back to Star’s place if he needed to, but he didn’t relish the idea of bouncing along the rough roads again.

  Nodding, he carefully let his feet touch the floor. His head spun, but not too badly. “It was Mattox,” he admitted. “And he had Star once before. He’s the one who started her on this path of vengeance.”

  “You don’t say? Hmm.” Again with his arm around Cade, Parrish started them forward.

  His father was not known for an excess of sympathy, and he definitely didn’t indulge coddling. Cade had never wanted or needed either, and Reyes pretended he didn’t care. But Madison? He and Reyes tried to make up for his father’s lacks, but Cade wasn’t sure if they’d succeeded or not. He understood Reyes, but his sister was often a mystery to him.

  Right now, though, Cade was glad his father didn’t fuss with him, trying to insist that he rest. Not yet. Not until he convinced Star that she needed to spend a few days with him.

  Here, where it would be safer.

  Where they could come up with a better plan—to end Mattox, once and for all.

  * * *

  STERLING HAD LEFT that home surgery center feeling pretty numb. Passing the powder room reminded her of the blood, and she detoured in there to wash her hands and face but couldn’t do anything about her shirt. She still wore the bulletproof vest, but with Cade hurt, she hadn’t even thought about it.

  A knock at the door got her moving again. “Hold on.” She smoothed back her hair, made a face at herself and stepped out.

  Bernard smiled gently. “Come to the kitchen and rest. I’ll get you something to drink while I prepare food.”

  She didn’t need rest; she needed Cade.

  No, she didn’t need anything. Certainly not a guy. But she would stick around for a bit just to talk to him again.

  It wasn’t until she sat down at the kitchen table that Sterling realized how badly her leg thumped and her finger throbbed. Even her scalp hurt now, from where the goon had pulled her hair. And that damn vest nearly suffocated her. With Cade safe in the bosom of his lunatic family, all the discomforts settled in and made themselves known.

  She wasn’t sure what to think about these people yet. Cade’s father was obviously wealthy. His sister tall, slim and beautiful. His brother still a raging pain in the butt.

  But anyone could see that they loved one another.

  Even the stuffy Bernard, who was trying so hard to look unconcerned as he prepared food, couldn’t adequately hide how much he cared.

  They were a family in every way that mattered. Blood related. Loyal to one another. Comfortable with heckling—and confident in assistance when needed.

  And here she was, stuck in the middle of them, feeling like a mutt Cade had dragged home.

  It didn’t help that Reyes hadn’t stopped staring at her with the same fascination he’d give a cockroach.

  She tried to ignore him, she really did, but waiting to know how Cade had fared sent her temper spiraling and she couldn’t grapple it back under control. Glaring at Reyes, she snapped, “What?”

  Lifting his chin, Reyes said, “Just trying to figure it out.”

  Honestly confused by that answer, Sterling asked again, this time with less animus, “What?”

  “You got my brother shot.”

  Hands fisting, Sterling bolted to her feet and leaned over the table. “I’ve had just about enough of you.”

  He eyed her up and down without concern, still showing only curiosity.

  It unnerved her, damn it. “In case you failed to notice, Cade is a big boy and he makes his own damn decisions. Do you honestly think I could’ve stopped him from going along? For your information, I tried.”

  “And failed,” Reyes said.

  “But don’t you see?” Madison said. “That’s the lure.”

  They planned to verbally dissect her? Screw that.

  Sterling pivoted to Madison. At least this sibling was calm and apparently not that interested in provoking her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  It was Reyes who answered, “All that.” He gestured at her rigid posture. “Apparently Cade likes them fiery.”

  Madison gave him a quelling look, saving Sterling the trouble. “I think Cade likes her because she’s as strong as he is.”

  One side of Reyes’s mouth quirked in a way that was so familiar to Cade’s smile that Sterling’s heart clenched.

  Then he ruined it by saying, “Since she’s standing while he’s on a table bleeding, maybe she’s even stronger?”

  “You’re an asshole,” Sterling accused, choking out the words around the lump in her throat. She strode away before she did something truly appalling. Like cry.

  Silence throbbed behind her, until Reyes ordered, “You can’t leave. You heard what big brother said.”

  Like she would without first seeing that Cade was okay? She wouldn’t, but she replied, “Don’t plan to, but I don’t have to stay in the same room with a jackass!”

  She’d take a turn around this mausoleum and hopefully get herself in check before returning to the kitchen.

  But first...she headed out the front door and to the van.

  Madison came trotting behind her, then just fell into step with her. Pretending she wasn’t there, Sterling opened the door of the van, yanked off her shirts, then ripped open the fastenings on th
e vest and tossed the heavy thing inside.

  Madison said not a single word while Sterling stripped down to her bra. In fact, she got comfortable against the side of the van, watching as Sterling pulled back on her T-shirt. Madison held out her button-up shirt, her expression enigmatic.

  Shrugging it on, Sterling slammed the van door and walked away without thanking her. She went back inside the open front door of the house, aware of Madison trailing her.

  The silence dragged out until Sterling wanted to scream, but she clamped her lips together and managed to keep quiet. Where to go? She couldn’t imagine traipsing through the house without an invite. Besides, it was so damn immense she might get lost. From the great room she spotted doors that led to a deck and darted that way.

  Naturally, Madison followed.

  Outside, gulping in the damp evening air, Sterling leaned on the railing. Being here like this, in the quiet night, the majestic mountains barely discernible in the moonlight, she felt incredibly small. Insignificant.

  Then Madison shoulder-bumped her. “This is better than leaving, right? You had me concerned for a minute there. I wasn’t keen on tackling you.”

  Tackling her? Though her eyes narrowed, Sterling kept her gaze trained ahead, doing her utmost not to react.

  “By the way, you shouldn’t let Reyes rile you. He does it on purpose, you know, but if he doesn’t get a reaction, he loses interest.”

  Damn it, that deserved a response, and she heard herself say, “What if I reacted with a fist to his face?”

  Madison went still—then burst out laughing. “Oh, I’d love to see that. But you should be forewarned, we’re all excellent at fighting. Dad made sure we studied a wide variety of disciplines. The only one I know who can best Reyes is Cade. My guess is that if you tried to punch him, you’d probably end up in some ridiculously undignified hold that would only infuriate you more, and then Cade would be angry with him and he’d pulverize Reyes, and then Dad would be upset. Me, too, I guess. I love my brothers, even though they’re far too alpha and bossy. It’s always distressing when they go at each other.”