Truth and Humility

by J. A. Dennam

“You really saved me back there,” Danny said, her demeanor unassuming, distant. “There’s no telling what he would have done if you hadn’t stopped him.”

  Just the thought of what could have happened didn’t sit too well with Austin, either. Before she could complete the awkward “thank you”, he made a suggestion. “You should call someone. I don’t want your family finding out about this from a third party.”

  “I will. But it will be Derek I call and I don’t think it would be wise if you were around.” To her surprise, he nodded in agreement and opened the door for her.

  “Have you eaten?” he asked.

  She moved into the night air and her raw, exposed skin was bathed in warm humidity. “I have food in my room if I get hungry.”

  He followed her. “A banana won’t cut it, Danny.”

  “It’s better than bread and water, Cahill. I’m a big girl, don’t coddle me.” They reached the open door to her room. She turned toward him, held up a hand. “And I’m hitting the showers first, so this is where you quit following me.”

  Austin shrugged, moved toward the kitchen. “Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be close.”

  Her eyes narrowed on his retreating back. “And no eavesdropping, either!”

  Melanie had already gotten to him. By the time Danny made the call after her shower, Derek was on his way to scoop her kto imes Nup and bring her home. “What did she tell you?” she asked him in alarm.

  “She told me enough to know you need to come home.”

  “Did she also tell you that Austin handled it?”

  “Yes,” he hissed into the phone, the sound of screaming engine in the background. “And I’m grateful, but the bastard stole all my glory.”

  “Don’t be like that, Derek.”

  “Like what?”

  “All righteous and alpha male. Save it for your girlfriends. Remember who I am and ask yourself why exactly you are burning up that perfectly sweet Hemi for nothing.”

  A brief silence ensued, then he quietly swore. He pulled the restored black 1970 Challenger into an empty parking lot and the engine settled into a deep growl. “Why do you have to be so difficult?”

  “Because I love you. You’re my favorite brother despite your overprotective tendencies. Besides, Brett is in jail and I’m not any more banged up than I was that time I fell out of the tree house.”

  “You nearly broke your damned neck when you fell out of the tree house!”

  “Okay, then I’m in better shape than that.”

  Derek expelled a huge breath into the phone. “Melanie is beside herself. She thinks she got you killed by mixing you up with that guy.”

  “Tell her not to worry. I know she’s feeling about as foolish as I am right now. How is she? Did he hurt her?”

  “Well, not physically, but he terrorized her in order to get her to lure you out.”

  Danny thought about that for a moment. “Do you think this will make her change her ways?”

  Another long pause. When Derek spoke, he sounded haggard. “She was pretty shaken up, Danny. If this doesn’t change her sleeping habits, I will.”

  Danny smiled knowingly into the phone. “You do that, Derek,” she spoke tenderly. “And in the process it might just change yours, too.”

  Chapter 10

  Sleep eluded her. When she finally found it, Brett crashed through her nightmares, drew back his size 12 and slammed it into her side once more. She screamed and sat up in her bed, in the darkness, and realized the pain in her ribs had manipulated her dreams. The bedroom door flew open and she screamed again. The light came on. Her dilated pupils let out a scream of their own and she squeezed them shut only to gasp at the pain in her facial muscles. Dammit, was there an nto impils ley part of her that didn’t hurt?

  Austin swore when he took in the scene before him. She had just had a bad dream. There was no boogey-man to pummel and now he was looking at her in her sleep camisole and panties as she struggled to slow her heartbeat on top of the rumpled sheets.

  “You scared me more than that awful dream, Austin Cahill!” she railed in a temper. Then she remembered her state of undress. “And close the damned door!”

  Moments later she stepped out into the lighted kitchen wrapped in a light-blue satin bathrobe. Her bare feet enjoyed the cool tile of the floor as she walked to the breakfast nook and sat down across from the man she’d just chewed out for simply caring.

  “Sorry I yelled at you,” she mumbled.

  Austin wasn’t. He had a whole new appreciation for her spunk, the fact she still had it. “That’s okay,” he said, dark eyes flashing. “I got to see you in your undies. It was worth it.” He dodged the plastic saltshaker as it whizzed past his left shoulder.

  “You’re a cad,” she shot back good-naturedly.

  His grin was big. Then he sobered when she involuntarily winced in pain. “And you’re face is swollen. Let me get you something for that.” He stood and walked to the pantry. “Hungry?”

  Danny ran down a mental checklist of her aches and pains when he produced an anti-inflammatory and a glass of water. “Starving,” she admitted, parting the robe to gently probe the scrape on her knee. “What time is it?”

  “Almost one.” The fridge opened and closed. “You like your pizza hot or cold?”

  “Cold.”

  She noted the open mail scattered on the table. “I take it you couldn’t sleep, either?”

  “I don’t sleep well at night.”

  Something about his tone warned her not to go there. Danny, a smart girl, understood that Rena’s death had something to do with it.

  Austin sat down with two plates and placed one under her nose. He paused when she silently bent her head for a second before picking up the slice.

  A quick and habitual prayer. His heart softened another notch.

  Danny took a gentle bite and chewed slowly, testing her limits before taking another, slightly bigger bite. “Mmmm. Good.” She felt his eyes on her, checking out the plump blue bruises that marred her cheek and mouth. Suddenly she was self-conscious of them, knowing they disfigured her slightly, but fully aware they could have been worse. They ate in silence while she contemplated her situation. “I never thought I’d be sitting at a Cahill’s table.”

  “Never thought I’d be serving a Bennett.”

  She swallowed and looked up at him. He was dark and beautiful, clean-shaven and wearing a fresh undershirt that stretched and contoured with his muscular structure. The leather-cord necklace he wore looked tough, like the man, and danced with the sinew of his neck as he chewed. She swallowed again, though not because of the food. “Thank you. For all of this.”

  He glanced up from his plate and seemed unfazed by her gratitude. “How’s your friend?”

  “Melanie? She’ll survive. Derek will take care…” Her voice trailed off and she quickly took another bite of pizza. Suddenly the air felt thicker than the toppings.

  “It’s okay, Danny.” When her eyes met his, he reassured her. “We’ll call a ceasefire for tonight.”

  The thought settled well, but she didn’t know how much to trust it. “Okay,” she said hesitantly, then focused again on her food.

  “So, you’re studying to become an engineer.”

  Her eyes widened on him and she swallowed. “How do you know that?”

  “The flowcharts Laney took from you,” he responded through the last bite, took up a napkin and leaned back in the booth. “And the books in your room.”

  She tilted her head. “You’re a graduate.” It was a statement more than a question since she already knew.

  “Washington University. Degree in economics.”

  As if it weren’t a big deal. Wow. She took a shot in the dark. “Well schooled in the business of running a business yet all you want to do is get your hands dirty.” His eyes held hers as if she’d nailed it. “Did your parents know about the cage fighting?”

  Her knowledge of it surprised him only for a second then he shrugged. “I didn’t lie a
bout it.”

  Danny knew something about parental deception. “But you didn’t tell them, either.”

  “They found out eventually. Weren’t too keen on the idea, but Ruth and I were never accused of fitting the family demographic. Drove the folks nuts.”

  Hmm. Something in common after all. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think Austin Cahill was a pretty down-to-earth guy. “Is that how you got that scar?” she asked, eyeballing the hooked blemish by his eyebrow. At his nod, she went on. “My brother, Landon, watches that stuff all the time. It just looks like guys in a cage wailing on each other to me, but he swears there’s a style and form to it. Martial arts, kickboxing...”

  Austin smiled at her. “In the regulated matches, sure.”

  “Yours weren’t?”

  “Not even close. No commercial names, no five-ounce gloves, no rounds, no limits sds,>o butting, no eye-gouging, no biting, no hair-pulling, no fish-hooking, no groin attacks, et cetera.”

  Fish-hooking? Danny didn’t even want to ask. “And people really like to watch that stuff?” She shuddered, leaned into another bite.

  Amused, Austin watched her eat. “They pay to watch that stuff. People have always liked watching men fight men. It’s a part of human nature, has been since Roman times.”

  She thought about her own personal assessment of Austin in kill-mode. “Kind of like bringing back the old gladiatorial spirit?”

  His look indicated he liked that assessment. “Except now you get lots of dry ice, loud music and plenty of women in bikinis. There’s nothing like hearing a crowd go wild for you. It was sort of addictive for me.”

  “What was? The crowd or the women?”

  “Both,” he admitted unabashedly.

  Danny envisioned Austin covered in someone else’s blood while engaging in a raunchy sex act with some half-naked fight groupie. Time to change the subject. “Okay...so how did you know what I was studying?”

  Her brief look of exasperation had him deliciously curious. “My father was a civil engineer. I’ve seen it all.”

  “Really?” she blurted with incredulity. “I didn’t know that.”

  His broad shoulders moved again. “I guess you wouldn’t.”

  “I thought you all were in the business of tearing things down.”

  “Not all of us. Dad branched off and left salvage and demolition to the rest of the family. He always said he wanted to build things because demolishing them was too easy.”

  Danny nodded in complete agreement. “There is no challenge when gravity does half the work.”

  After a moment, Austin threw back his head and laughed. The sound rattled her so much she almost dropped the thin strip of crust in her hand.

  “You sound like him,” he explained, finding amusement in her doe-eyed expression as well. “So, how long have you had this desire to erect buildings?”

  Danny blinked, recovered. “I think it was when my oldest brother, Marshall, killed the oak tree in a failed attempt to build a tree house. My father put the skids on any attempt to construct. But Derek rebelled and chose to s anin a f try again in this huge black walnut tree by the pond, away from the house. We both contributed to it, but then his efforts slowly tapered off after high school. It was clearly my baby, anyway, and I kept adding to it until it became more desirable than my own bedroom. So I moved in…well practically. I spend more nights there because it’s peaceful...and there’s nothing like falling asleep to soft rain on a tin roof.”

  Austin remembered the small tree house that had perched impossibly high off the ground by the pond. The tree he remembered had been huge, it’s tall base devoid of any low-lying branches or ladders. “I always wondered how anyone could get up there,” he thought out loud.

  “That’s what made it so great,” she responded with a smile. “I’ve added a rope ladder since then, but Derek and I were the only ones who knew how to get up there…at least without a cherry picker.”

  Her not-so-candid reminder of her disastrous first day of work brought a smile to his own lips. “See? Cocky.”

  “See these fingers, Cahill?” she demanded, holding up all ten digits. “Long and strong. Cocky has nothing to do with it.”

  It was something he’d noticed before, how her long fingers resembled Derek’s. It was disturbing how similar the two siblings were considering he despised the one and was growing uncomfortably fond of the other.

  “Okay,” he concluded, “So you like to build. But if you don’t like busting things apart – and I don’t know how you can’t – how come you’re so good at it?”

  She smiled stoically across the table. “I’m a Bennett. I don’t know any different. I parted out my first car when I was five. By the time I was eight, it had already become a monotonous job.”

  That had him peering at her under thick winged brows. “Your family put you to work that young?”

  “We all started out young. It wasn’t because we were forced to, we wanted to. My brothers were all big and strong and full of energy and I was on a personal quest to measure up. Of course, at that age, nature doesn’t tell you what your limitations are until you hit puberty.”

  “Which is why you were running around half-naked in the middle of the night to throw stones at the Cahill in your pond.”

  Her mouth drew up in a lopsided smile of fond remembrance. “Good times,” she said whimsically and pushed her empty plate aside. As she did, her body jerked at the pain in her ribs and she slowly sat back. “And they were acorns. Remember?”

  Austin noticed her reaction and his eyes narrowed suspiciously on her middle. “They hurt just the same. And I know something about pain.”

  “I always wondered how you managed to s s mat pain.neak over to Bennett land when we live so far apart.”

  The memories came up fast, memories he’d buried deep when Rena was killed. Austin didn’t want to remember the good times he shared with Derek, but it was like burying the best part of his childhood. And so he fed the conversation to suit his changing mood.

  “I stole the car and drove.”

  Her mouth fell open. “You were twelve!”

  “If not, I would have found another way. You see I connected with Derek more than anyone else I knew. We told each other everything and I needed that chance to purge. I confided in him most about Rena.” Austin held her startled gaze for a moment, then his shoulders relaxed in the retelling. “She was the biggest source of my problems back then. Awkward. Clumsy. Suffocating. And she had this terrible crush on me since kindergarten. I couldn’t even pass another girl in the halls at school without her throwing a fit. It was cramping my social life. She even faked injuries in order to get my attention, it was embarrassing; the lengths this girl would go to.” Austin suppressed a laugh, almost forgetting himself. “But all I wanted was for her to go away…and then one day she did.” He fiddled with the napkin and focused on it instead of the woman sitting in rapt attention across from him. “Her family moved to Washington. When she moved back, she was a grown woman, filled out and stunningly gorgeous. By that time I’d sewn my wild oats...been through college.

  “But Rena wouldn’t have anything to do with me. Drove me nuts. Here she was, tall and slender, a perfect face, creamy white skin, silky black hair… huge boobs.” When Danny choked on a scandalized laugh, he laughed with her. “I mean they were the kind of boobs every young man dreams of before a woman’s character becomes important. Man, she was a knock-out, just how I liked my women…and completely out of reach.”

  “Was she with someone else?”

  “Yes. But even when she broke it off, she still ignored me. I took a date to one of those beach parties at the lake and we happened to pass her as we walked along the water. I found myself hoping that Rena would throw a fit just like old times. But she barely glanced at us with those sapphire eyes and a polite smile…and strolled on her merry way. All I could think about was that I’d rather be walking with her, getting to know her again, discovering what kind of woman she’d become. W
hy the hell she wasn’t attracted to me anymore.”

  “Your ego was bruised.”

  “Oh, yeah,” he agreed without pause. “She had thoroughly crushed it. But I eventually wore her down, got her to agree to lunch.” He swallowed and the memories became intense. “Danny, you can’t imagine the difference.  sfer the lake; She was funny and intelligent, charming, warm… We laughed about how she used to behave and she was adorably embarrassed.” When he focused again, the napkin was worn sheer. “I knew then I’d never want another woman. I was hooked, heart and soul. And she loved me the way every man wants to be loved. She was supportive. Sensual. Faithful. And when I asked her to marry me…she was finally mine.”

  Silence fell when his eyes took on a distant look.

  “I’m so sorry, Austin,” Danny breathed, feeling positively wretched. When she spoke, his eyes shifted to hers and changed.

  For a moment, he’d forgotten where he was. He’d opened up as if he were twelve again, confiding in his best friend about his problems. “Like I said. I don’t want an apology from you.”

  “I’m still sorry. I had no idea you had such a long history with her.”

  “I figured you would since you and Derek are so close. But…wait a minute. He doesn’t tell you everything.”

  Danny sensed the turbulence. “He didn’t talk about you. He was afraid to.”

  “He didn’t talk about you, either.” His eyes darted down to her chest to emphasize his point.

  She shifted uneasily. “The men in our family have always shielded us women from the feud. I’m sure it wasn’t anything personal.”

  “At the time, you mean.”

  The conversation was falling down a slippery slope. And fast. “I’m not sure I feel comfortable talking about Derek with you.”

  “Why not? I just told you all about Rena. Don’t you want me to understand how good and noble your brother is? How he couldn’t possibly have it in him to hurt a woman?”

  Her big brown eyes locked with his intense stare. “Yes. I want you to understand,” she said carefully, then stood up and faced him from higher ground. “But I don’t need you to.”