by Decadent
She reached out a hand to him. He grabbed it in a fierce grip, then he used it to pull her out of Luc’s embrace and into his. She crashed against his iron-solid chest, and he hooked a strong arm around her waist. They stood close, body to body. The comforting beats of his heart melted her, and she threw her arms around him, until not even the tiniest bit of air came between them. His solid strength enveloped her, just like his scent, earth and rain and all male.
“Kitten,” he muttered into her hair in a concern-rough voice that rasped across her senses.
Lifting her chin, Luc caught her gaze and diverted her attention from his cousin. “Are you okay?”
Deke stepped back and watched her face with undivided attention.
She nodded. “I’m fine. My dad—”
Kimber couldn’t finish the sentence without falling apart. A fresh batch of tears splashed onto her cheeks, scalding and painful. A sob wrenched up from her gut.
She tried to be strong. Tried hard. But the reality of this situation made her dissolve into tears. Deke enveloped her against the warm breadth of his chest again. Luc stroked her hair and whispered assurances.
“Shh.” Both men soothed her, and she didn’t know exactly who spoke. But it didn’t matter. With them here, she finally began to believe things might be all right.
“I’m so glad you came. Thank you.”
“We wouldn’t be anywhere else,” Luc murmured, then kissed the top of her head.
Deke dragged her to a chair and sat her on his lap. Luc sat beside him. They both looked at her with such tenderness. Joy lightened her burden for a moment, and her heart twisted with something bittersweet. More tears tracked down her face, and Luc wiped them away with his thumb. Deke’s arms tightened around her.
“What happened?” he prompted.
The interrogation. She knew how these military men operated. They wanted answers, needed to assess the situation. Then they’d act accordingly. She wouldn’t get any more emotional responses out of him until he knew what he was dealing with and if everyone was safe. She had to get her head together and answer him.
Kimber drew in a shaky breath. “I don’t know. A-an explosion of some sort . . .”
She hedged, but she wanted answers, damn it! What had happened? And where the hell were the doctors with the news about her father’s condition?
With a soft palm rubbing up and down her back, Deke soothed her. “After Luc heard the explosion on the phone and you didn’t answer anymore, we hauled ass to your dad’s house. One of the firefighters on the scene was an old army buddy of mine. He said you went into the house and got your dad out?”
She nodded.
“Oh my God,” Luc muttered. “The place had to have been engulfed in flames.”
“I had to do it.”
“I know.” Deke’s gravel voice softened, caressed her. “We’re just glad you made it out in one piece. How’s your dad?”
“He—he’s in surgery. They haven’t said anything yet. I don’t know . . .”
“When did you last eat?” Luc asked.
Who could recall? God, the thought of food revolted her. “I’m not hungry.”
Luc frowned. “Soda? Coffee?”
Kimber just shook her head. Not now. She couldn’t take anything on her tumbling, topsy-turvy stomach.
Deke grabbed her face in his hands, snagging her attention again. “Where are your brothers?”
Frowning, she swallowed. Damn, her throat hurt. Inhaling smoke had turned her insides raw, like she’d been drinking turpentine. Her lungs ached, but her pain was minor compared to what her dad was suffering. The doctors had already treated and released her.
“I don’t know. I think Hunter is out of the country on some assignment. Logan . . . He called to ask questions about my engagement a few days ago, but never said where he was.”
Arms tensing, Deke’s grip around her tightened. “Have you called Logan since the explosion?”
No. She’d thought about it. But her father’s life had depended on every tick of the clock. Then once she’d gotten him to safety, the fire department arrived. Then the police. Questions—lots of them—as they stabilized her dad for the ambulance ride. She’d gone along, holding his hand, hoping he knew that, even though they weren’t geographically close, he was still her parent, her only parent, and she loved him dearly. Then at the hospital, forms and questions, then the waiting began, tense moments of brittle fear splintering her composure . . .
“Kitten?” Deke prompted.
“I don’t know where my phone is. Destroyed, I guess. I don’t know . . .”
“Okay. I’ll call Logan. Just relax for me.” He kissed her forehead, then stood and set her in Luc’s lap as if she was more valuable than hundred-year-old china.
Kimber watched as Deke flipped open his phone and spun away.
For a long moment, Luc did nothing but hold her, and she basked in his warmth and caring, even as anxiety tore at her insides. How much longer would the doctors be? She needed news about her father now. Sooner than now, or she’d go insane. God, what if . . . No. She wouldn’t think the worst. Refused to think it.
“We’re so relieved you’re all right,” Luc murmured against her cheek, interrupting her inner turmoil. “My heart stopped when that explosion occurred. I knew you had to be right in the middle of it.”
“I don’t understand . . . I have no idea what happened.”
Deke returned then and sat in the chair beside them again. “Logan will be here in fifteen minutes. He’ll also get in touch with Hunter.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. Thank God. Logan and dad are so close . . .”
With gentle fingers, Luc wiped away new tears she wasn’t even aware had fallen. “I know, sweetheart.”
“Kimber.” Large hands enveloped hers, warm and strong. Deke.
She blinked, stared, drinking in the sight of him, the solid safety he brought.
“I need you to focus,” he demanded. “The fire department told us that explosion was no accident. It wasn’t a gas leak or anything natural.”
Not natural? “What are you saying? It was deliberate?”
“Very deliberate. It was a bomb.”
Kimber’s jaw dropped. A thousand thoughts screamed through her head, but she couldn’t settle on one long enough to speak the words. A bomb? It made no sense. Who? Why? When? What did the asshole who set it want?
You mean besides everyone in the house to die? an acerbic voice in her head whispered.
“When you first visited our place, you mentioned that someone had been after your dad,” Deke prompted.
Stunned mute, she nodded.
“Know why?”
She frowned, trying to recall. “Not exactly. Just that some psycho my dad helped thwart and put away was bitter about missing his daughter growing up.”
“Had he threatened you?”
Hesitating, she paused to think. “Dad told me that this wacko mentioned me. Dad thought the guy would hurt me to hurt him.”
Luc and Deke exchanged a glance full of gravity and instant agreement.
“Once Logan gets here,” Deke began, “you have to go with us.”
“G-go?”
“Away from here. Someplace this twisted asshole who probably blew up your dad’s place won’t suspect. Someplace remote and safe.”
Kimber heard his logic, but . . . “My dad. He needs me here. I can’t just leave.”
“Logan will stay here, keep us posted on his progress, but until we know who and what we’re dealing with—”
“He’s my dad. I have to know if he’s going to make it. I have to talk to the doctors. I can’t . . . just leave. Logan has all the sensitivity of a doorknob, and Dad will need me.”
Deke’s face twisted into grim lines. “He might want you here, but he’d want you safe and alive more. You’re distraught and not thinking straight. That makes you easy prey if this sick bastard wants to kill you. I’m not letting that happen.”
She sag
ged against Luc. Was it possible she was as much a target of this wacko’s terrible plot as her dad? It made so little sense. In all the years her father had been in this business, they’d never had a serious brush with a vengeful criminal. Lots of threats, a few minor incidents. But nothing like this.
But as Dad frequently said, there was always a first.
If her father, who knew how to protect himself and others against nut jobs and stalkers, was on an operating room table fighting to survive, did she stand a chance if this guy came after her? No, but could she just leave her dad in what might be the last moments of his life?
“But—”
“No buts.” Deke looked as if he’d reached the end of his patience. He thrust his fingers into her hair and used his leverage to make her meet his stare. “I’m taking you away from here. Period. It’s not a fucking negotiation. You won’t argue, wheedle, or sweet-talk your way out of this.”
Rebellion rose up inside her hot and eager, jumpy to get a word in. Logic tamped it down. The explosion had been a bomb. Someone had been threatening her father. If this psycho planted the bomb, he was sophisticated and he’d done it when people were home. Which meant he was likely watching the house. And he’d known she was there.
Hell, he’d probably consider killing her a bonus. Or maybe it was his goal. And her dad would never want her to put herself in danger.
Kimber sighed, long and ragged. “Okay.”
Luc wrapped his arms around her and laid his cheek against her back. Deke tensed, fingers pulling at her hair, then he cursed and laid a harsh, possessive kiss on her mouth.
At that moment, the hospital’s double doors opened. Kimber saw Logan prowl inside, scan the room.
When he spotted them, he stopped.
She broke away from Deke’s embrace and jumped up from Luc’s lap. But Logan had seen. Fury didn’t come close to describing the expression that flashed in his eyes.
Swallowing, he approached her and grabbed her arm, dragging her away from Deke and Luc.
“Any word about Dad?” Every word was tight and clipped.
Damn. He was restraining himself and his wild temper. Big-time. But he wouldn’t for long.
Kimber refused to flinch. She wasn’t a child, and he wouldn’t treat her like one anymore. “Nothing. We’re still waiting.”
“How long has he been in surgery?”
She shrugged. Time had been meaningless since the explosion. “Over an hour, I guess.”
“Deke tells me a bomb exploded at the house?”
“According to the fire department, yes.”
“And you pulled Dad out?”
Would it please him or piss him off? This answer could go either way, and Logan was unpredictable at best.
“I did.” Her stare challenged him to give her crap about it.
“Brave. Stupid,” Logan pointed out as he dragged her into a brotherly embrace, “but damn brave. Good going, little sister.”
“I had to. You would have done the same.”
Logan knew he couldn’t argue that point, so he didn’t try. “Has a doctor looked at you yet?”
“I’m fine. I had two stitches in my arm and three in my leg. Just scratches . . .”
“I’m glad you weren’t seriously hurt.”
He glanced at Deke and Luc sitting a few feet away and nodded. Controlled. Restrained. Deceptive. Logan could be a bad son of a bitch when he wanted.
“So,” he went on. “Necessities aside . . . What the fuck are you doing with these two?”
As Logan’s tone exploded with anger, Deke rose and came to stand behind her. Kimber felt his big body envelop her back and give off heat. With a glance over her shoulder, she saw him meet her brother’s enraged gaze. In silent reply, Deke wrapped an arm around her waist. Hell, he might as well have branded her as his like a calf. Logan’s eyes flared again.
A pair of nurses passed in the nearby hall, obviously in the midst of a shift change, and paused to stare at the tableau taking place.
Great. An audience. Before things could erupt, she held up her hands to ward off Logan. “This isn’t the time or place to do this.”
“They weren’t just comforting you, little sister.” He glanced up at Deke. “You want to tell her about the way you fuck women, or should I?”
If they hadn’t had the nurses’ undivided attention before, they surely had it now.
Deke tensed behind her, and Kimber knew she needed to diffuse the situation now.
“Logan, keep your damn voice down. I know.”
Her brother looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Then why the hell are you letting them touch you?”
“Goddamn it,” Deke snarled behind her. “Don’t you—”
“Let me handle this. Please.”
Deke hesitated, then backed off—reluctantly. Kimber sighed. She didn’t want to do this now. Dad’s very survival was up in the air, and she was so damn tired. But she knew better than to think that Logan would be put off.
“I know from experience the way they have sex,” she snapped in low tones. “Not that it’s any of your business. I’m a grown woman, and I make my own choices. You can either live with that or shut up. But I’m not going to hear another word about this.”
Logan looked ready to drop his jaw. “You and . . . both of them?”
His attitude was grating on her last nerve. “Don’t pretend you’ve been an angel your whole life. I’ve heard plenty about you over the years, so let’s consider it even and drop it.”
For a long moment, he didn’t speak. What could he possibly say? She’d heard rumors for years that he was one hell of a dom, particularly gifted in giving the kiss of the whip and making a woman love it. He’d better not say a damn word.
Logan’s jaw tensed. “You were engaged three damn days ago to someone else.”
“Now, I’m not.”
The answer agitated him, but he stopped arguing. Instead, he shot Luc, then Deke, a venom-filled glare. “If you hurt my sister, I swear I’ll peel the flesh off your fucking bones slowly and let you bleed to death.”
“We have no intention of hurting your sister,” Luc soothed as he rose and pulled her from between Logan and Deke, wrapping her in a protective embrace. “Ever.”
“And every minute you stand here yakking off your jaws is another minute she’s in danger,” Deke snarled.
“What the hell does that mean?” Logan demanded.
“There’s a big chance the asshole who blew up the Colonel’s house is trying to hurt your sister. We’re taking her away, getting her under wraps.”
Logan looked ready to protest.
Deke didn’t let him. “You know I can protect her. It’s my goddamn job.”
Her brother took a deep breath, then regarded her with a flat expression. “Is that your choice?”
“Can you stay with Dad and take care of him, keep me posted, until this is over?”
He looked like he wanted to say no. But he didn’t run from the truth. “Yes.”
“Then, yes. I should go with them. This psycho blew up Dad’s house. I think he knew I was there. Given the way he’s been threatening, he’s not going to quit, not until he’s caught.”
After a long moment, Logan gave her a jerky nod, then turned to Deke. “You’ll keep me apprised?”
“Yes.”
“Miss Edgington?”
The sound of her name from across the room startled Kimber. She whirled around. A youngish doctor stood there, shoulders heavy. He looked exhausted. Her belly knotted and flipped. Oh God, oh God, oh God.
She raced across the room. The testosterone posse followed.
“My father . . . Is he going to make it?”
The doctor looked at Luc, Deke, and Logan, then again at her, silently asking if he could speak freely in front of the men.
“Yes,” she said impatiently. “My brother and my . . . boyfriends.” Frankly, she didn’t care what the doctor thought. “Tell us.”
The doctor was momentarily startl
ed, but quickly smoothed his expression. “He’s suffered a lot of head trauma. We stemmed some internal bleeding. We hope that was the extent of the internal damage. He’s strong, and that’s the only reason he came through such a surgery. He hasn’t gone into shock or slipped into a coma, so those are good signs. We’re trying to keep him stable, but the next twenty-four hours will be critical. We’ll know more then.”
“DEKE!”
Startled out of his misery, he stepped out of the little boat at sundown the next day, onto the dimly lit dock, and turned to find Morgan Cole standing there, all fiery red hair and a huge smile.
He mustered up a smile as she neared, then kissed her cheek. “Hiya, doll.”
“Good to see you. Jack told me you have someone to protect? A friend.”
Kimber was way more than that. Racing across a hundred miles of Texas, wondering if she was dead or alive, had slammed that fact into him like a fastball to the stomach.
For Morgan’s benefit, he shrugged. “Something like that. Jack here?”
“Inside turning on the generators and security equipment.” She laid a comforting hand on his arm. “You know Jack’s cabin is one of the safest possible places, right?”
Deke agreed with a slight nod. “Yeah. No one in their right mind travels this deep into the swamp unless they know their way around.”
“Or the gators swallow them up,” Morgan agreed, easing her arms around his neck and giving him her sweet brand of comfort in a gentle squeeze. “It’ll be fine.”
Damn it, he hoped so. Deke didn’t want to think about the alternative, didn’t want to relive the pure cold-sweat terror of wondering if some sick bastard had ended Kimber’s life.
Suffering the painful, gaping hole in his chest at the thought she might be gone forever.
The thought of putting a name to the emotions those symptoms pointed to made him sweat.
“Hey, you pervert,” Jack called, stepping out the rustic cabin’s door. “Get your hands off my wife. You’re not getting the opportunity to fuck her again.”
Behind him, Deke heard Luc help Kimber up on the dock at that moment. And he couldn’t miss Kimber’s little indrawn breath of shock.
Shit! Deke closed his eyes. Something cold and sludgy and dreadful washed over him. Shame. He recognized it for the first time in years. In that moment, knowing that Kimber could see firsthand exactly what his life had become . . . Suddenly, he hated the choices he’d made.