Truth and Humility

by J. A. Dennam

  In other words, she was keeping her distance from him despite the obvious physical attraction they shared. He knew she was struggling with it every bit as much as he was. The denials came easily enough, but dissolved every time he took in her feminine curves beneath the workman’s gear. Danny Bennett was no calendar girl. She earned every taught muscle in those lean shoulders and limbs, the tight rounded ass. She was a fascinating, talented, frustrating woman…one that would always remain out of reach.

  He stood up, too, regretful that their easy banter had become strained once again, knowing he was the cause of i she nt>

  Danny wrapped her robe tighter around her middle and looked at her feet. “So much for the ceasefire.”

  “Dammit, answer me!”

  “It doesn’t matter what the details are, Austin! I will always be on Derek’s side! He’s my brother and I trust him!”

  “Well, he was my brother once, too,” Austin retorted, taking his tone down a notch. “Hell, we sliced our palms open and traded blood to make it official, but that didn’t stop us from falling victim to the same damned patterns of the feud we swore we’d break.”

  “Because this feud will always win. It’s not Derek. It’s not even you. It’s the bad blood between our families, the history behind it. There’s just too much of it and we will never understand or trust each other.”

  “Are you still talking about me and Derek, or me and you?”

  The question knocked her off kilter and she shook her head at the jumble of thoughts that entered her brain. “It’s the same difference. I’m just like him. I’ve learned almost everything I know from him.”

  “Like how to strip cars and climb shit.”

  She blinked. “Partly…”

  “And the rebellious nature. That come from Derek?”

  “A little I guess…”

  “Thought you could cozy up to a Cahill, test your boundaries there, too?”

  Now the blood was rushing into her wounds causing them to pound as her anger built. “Cozy?” she sputtered. “Cozy. That’s just great.” Take a breath, Danny, she thought. Don’t follow the pattern. “The only reason I’m here is because of my...insane quest to seek a higher education that my father didn’t think I needed. So I left home to earn my own way into a college that had already accepted me and your classified ad was too tempting for someone of my rebellious nature to ignore.& s">tAnd thenbsp; But, I am convinced more and more with every passing miserable day that nothing – not even Columbia – is worth all the pain, suffering and rotten luck I’ve had since walking through your gates. Believe me, I am paying for leaving my family where I was plenty cozy and safe and respected and loved and…and...” Oh God, no. Not the tears. Anything but tears.

  Austin stared at her profile when she whirled around, sensed her inner struggle as she toggled back and forth between her desire to face him and her need to hide her weaknesses. She finally finished her sentence over her shoulder, struggling to keep her voice from wavering and the tears from falling.

  “And I can’t help but think… that God is punishing me for the horrible choice I made. For wanting more.”

  Horrified, Danny felt the warm trail streak down her face and bolted for the hall. But Austin took her arm to prevent her retreat, which pulled at tender muscles. Air hissed through her clenched teeth when her ribs protested to the gentle twisting. He immediately released her arm and instead took her by the shoulders.

  “Dammit, Danny, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that, but I do know one thing. Half of your struggle is with yourself. God has no part in that. You’re making things work here, gaining respect from the crew, making friends and you don’t know how to define it. You think if you relax too much, it might somehow be interpreted as a betrayal to your family. You think if you show weakness, I’ll use it against you. But what happens if I don’t? How would you handle that?”

  Her head sank lower, tendrils of soft brown hair falling over the curve of her shoulders. “I just want to go to bed,” she moaned, the nasally tone giving away her tears as they came down in torrents now.

  Austin knew she’d been close to the edge of a dangerous precipice ever since Brett landed the first punch.

  “Come here.” He drew her into his arms and, careful not to hurt her, held on tight. At first she remained stiff and unsure, but then she finally succumbed to the comfort he offered and sank right in. He closed his eyes, stroked her hair and rested his chin on top of it. The need to protect the woman in his arms pumped fiercely through his veins and he cursed Brett Lockton for breaking her.

  A long time passed. He held her and, with some guilt, began to enjoy the roll of comforter a little too much. These possessive urges toward Derek’s sister weren’t exactly settling well with him. Perhaps they wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t have the memory of her tongue down his throat. Hot and demanding, bold and uninhibited. Memories that plagued his every thought despite his st dry of he mood. It wasn’t fair that she wasn’t suffering since she was the one who initiated such a fiery mouth-to-mouth. Maybe she deserved a little payback.

  He caught himself, fisted his hand just as his fingers began to stroke. The woman was a mess and here he was contemplating ways to end eight months of abstinence.

  “Come on,” he whispered, pulled her with him toward the family room before his dick gave him away beneath the flimsy sweatpants. “We’ll watch some TV.”

  Danny nodded against his chest and, wiping gingerly at her face, allowed him to lead her to the adjoining family room. It was the furthest she’d been inside the old Cahill home. The room was dark until the television blinked on, but the scant details it illuminated didn’t interest her. They sank to the couch together and, releasing her inhibitions for one night, she curled under his protective arm and sighed brokenly. “I didn’t really want to go to bed,” she admitted, sniffing loudly.

  “I know,” he replied and handed her the box of tissues from the end table.

  She took it, searched for a place to put it...and caught sight of his bulging erection. “Is that what I think it is?”

  He drew in a big breath, stared blankly at the TV. “Just ignore it. It’ll go away.”

  Danny bit her lip to keep from smiling. So...the man wasn’t as immune as he let on. And she had enough brothers to know how the most coveted male organ could behave independently at times.

  Feeling ornery, she shifted, turned her upper torso deeper into his side. In response, the telltale bulge jumped, expanded.

  Ah. Consolation for all the razzing she’d taken for jumping his bones while heavily medicated.

  He felt her cheeks move against his chest and focused on the lighted screen. “Eyes forward, Bennett.”

  A sound gave away her mirth. “It’s blocking my view.”

  “If you keep looking at it, it’ll only get worse.”

  She heard irritation in his voice, maybe a hint of humor. But he wasn’t embarrassed. And, strangely enough, neither was she. On the other hand, if she were caught in a similar situation with one of her crew members...well, that would be downright uncomfortable.

  Neither one of them was interested in the program, nor in channel surfing to find something better. They just sat.

  And then they slept.

  Later, Austin woke to the sound of heavy breathing. The slight pressure of warm body in his arms felt goo

  d. More than good. He opened his eyes, peered at Danny and realized her robe had come loose when she soosNew Roma’d stretched out in her sleep. Instead of closing it, he very carefully reached around with his other hand and slowly parted it further. The defined details of her sleek body flickered in the light of the television, but he wasn’t in it for a lecherous peek. He carefully pulled up the bottom edge of her camisole. Just as he suspected, a very large purple bruise covered her lower side and ran up to disappear into forbidden territory.

  “Shit,” he ground out, and moved her clothing back into place.

  Chapter 11

  “Where do you want me
, boss?” Danny inquired while the crew filed out of the commons room. Her movements were sluggish while wrapping the tool belt around her waist and securing it. Austin noticed, dropped the clipboard down on the table. He was annoyed to even see her face at morning meeting.

  “You aren’t working today,” he informed riotously and hauled his own tool belt over his shoulder before heading out to the yard.

  Her head shot up in the middle of her first attempt to tie her hair back. “Since when?”

  “Since that cocksucker cleaned your clock. Take the day off and heal.”

  She grabbed her hardhat off the hook and followed him out. “A few bruises are not that big a deal, Austin. You’d let any one of these guys work under the same circumstances.”

  “You’re not any guy and you’re not immune to injury. Deal with it.”

  A small sound of disgust. “Injury. This is nothing. I’ve been hurt a lot worse than this and been back to work the next day.”

  “Really? Been in a lot of accidents, have you?”

  It was a trap. Danny sensed it, proceeded with caution. “Not a lot...one or two.”

  “And the result was what? Pinched fingers, broken nail, boo-boo on the knee?”

  She glared at his back. Boo-boo on the knee... The man had a gait to his walk that was damned distracting. “Okay, I don’t like admitting this, but since you’re being such a jerk...” She reared back to keep from slamming into him when he halted in his tracks and faced her. Waiting. “Aside from your average garden-variety work injuries...I was knocked out once. Nice concussion. Don’t remember a thing, but I was told my clothes got caught on a boom. I went over the side of a two-story building with an air conditioner but then my clothes ripped and I decked-out on the sidewalk.”

  His eyes squinted with a ‘really?’ “Not big on caution, are you?”

  Jerk. voosNe. Thspan> “My boom operator suffered more than I did. He quit. But I was back on that rooftop by eight a.m.”

  “Okay then.” Mac came sauntering up at that moment and Austin took advantage of the other man’s company. “Mac, tell me what you think. Does Wonder Woman here look fit enough to work in the yard today?”

  Mac looked her up and down, scoped out the purple bruise on her left cheek and the one discoloring the left side of her mouth, caught the pleading in her eyes and flipped his hardhat over a tuft of fly-away hair. “Looks good to me, boss.”

  Danny lifted her chin a notch. “You see?”

  Austin cocked his head and proceeded to slip on work gloves. “Now, Mac, you know she can’t work out here with her hair down. It could obstruct her vision or, God forbid, get caught in machinery.”

  “I was going to put it up.”

  Gloves on, Austin put his hands on his hips and waited. “Do it, then,” he prodded when she only stood there defiantly. When she turned to head back to the commons room, he stopped her. “No, Danny, I want to watch you do it. Right here.”

  Her look became wary and she glanced at Mac. It was clear she was getting no help from her partner as he watched her curiously. With sure movements, she took the hardhat off and gritted her teeth when her drawn-up muscles screamed at the simple act of lifting her arms. Now that they were up and her hands were working her hair into a loose ponytail, she attempted to pull the rubber band off her wrist and choked. Taking a deep breath, she tried again, but the muscles she needed to manipulate the rubber band were connected directly to her injured ribs.

  “Hold on,” she said, and paused to breathe before taking the plunge. Mac’s face took on a deep look of suspicion. She bit her lip against the pain and her knees nearly buckled, but the rubber band was finally, if not loosely, in place. “There, you see?” she panted, her face pale, a fresh layer of sweat forming on her upper lip.

  “Yeah, I see,” Austin sneered, meeting Mac’s worried glance, and threw up a hand to indicate the obvious.

  “Ribs?” Mac observed.

  “What were you thinking, Danny?” Austin yelled as she bent over to rest her hands on her knees and recover. “You thought if you didn’t say anything I’d let you work today? Let you gingerly tear shit up until something happens and you or someone else gets hurt because you can’t react fast enough?”

  Still panting, Danny straightened her back and shot him a mean look. Her poor excuse for a ponytail was already sagging loosely behind her neck. “How did you know?”

  Because I can’t take my eyes off of you, he thought sourly. “I’m a {guy,” he said instead. “I know pain when I see it and you’re not stepping foot in my yard today.”

  “I need to earn my pay, Austin. There’s no clause in that contract that says I can’t work through an injury.”

  “Don’t be absurd,” he barked, and addressed Mac to end the conversation. “Looks like you’re on your own today, Mac. Take that load of stainless vats and strip them for recycling.”

  “Sure thing.” The big man ambled on and Austin branched off in a different direction.

  “I’d be working today if I were home!” Danny yelled impudently and her face twisted into a scowl when he abruptly turned, stormed toward her once again.

  “Well you’re not home, are you? You’re in Cahill territory and I don’t tolerate arrogant little fools who’d sooner get themselves killed to save face.”

  Offended, she swiped angrily at a ruthless mosquito. “I’m not ‘saving face,’ I happen to have a large debt to pay!”

  “Well, I’m sorry if this extends your stay by one or two days, Danny, but safety is more important to this salvage company than your desire to leave.”

  “You just want to keep me here as long as you can to rub it in Derek’s face.”

  The truth was, her scathing remark would have carried some weight the prior week. But now he just cared about her...a little too much. And he was quite disgusted with himself for it. “We’re done, Bennett,” he growled thickly and walked away.

  “They aren’t broken,” he heard behind him the next morning while he filled a cup at the breakfast bar. Austin took up his coffee and bagel and walked to the table with his tag-along close behind.

  “Can you put your hair up this morning?” he asked without looking back.

  “Yes.”

  “Lemme see.”

  Danny was getting tired of his blasé attitude, but she was prepared to prove her worth. She felt like a sideshow act as she performed the simple task while he watched. This time, she managed a tight ponytail with only a small wince or two.

  “You can take the vats with Mac,” he conceded, “but you stick to him like glue, understand?” At her nod, he took the offered clipboard from Sue and proceeded with the morning meeting.

  It was all he could do to n {couandot watch her like a hawk the first hour, but she performed well enough. Mac did the heavy work while she managed the tedious job of removing the control panels from the stainless steel vats. The valuable metal was stripped of rubber rings, plastics, worthless metals, foam stripping and insulation until all that was left was a stainless shell ready for recycling. The forklift was down for the day with an oil leak, so Stan moved the readied vats with a modified backhoe since the uni-loader was on location that day. Exhaust plumed from the stack as the machine went back and forth between the waiting vats and the flatbed trailer.

  Stan backed up and turned the hoe with its metal forks toward the last stripped vat as Danny and Mac continued to work on the rest.

  “Got an invoice for the hangar doors, boss,” Sue said, coming at him with a clipboard and pen. “I need your signature and a delivery date.”

  “You sold them already?” he asked her, the pen scrawling across the bottom of the invoice.

  “A friend of a friend knew a guy…”

  Her words trailed off and her eyes widened. Shouts rang out and Austin turned just in time to watch Danny turn too late, disappear behind the forked bucket of the runaway hoe.

  “Danny!” he roared and, dropping the clipboard, began a desperate sprint across the yard. The hoe crashed in
to the remaining pile of un-stripped vats and he saw Mac scramble to avoid the flying debris. The hoe kept going, out of control, and veered sharply to the left. The diesel engine howled in protest and accelerated to a full speed toward the water tower. As he ran, Austin’s eyes frantically searched the spot ahead where Danny was last seen, but the only evidence of her was the abandoned hardhat on the ground.

  Men were scrambling to follow the runaway backhoe as it zigzagged past the water tower and was now on a direct path toward the fence. The forks pierced the chain link. The barrier folded. The hoe swayed forward as the engine quieted for a scant moment, then came back to life again just as the rolling machine was about tip over the edge of the steep embankment. Black smoke shot into the air. Dirt spun as the rear tires began to spin backward, pulsing over the earth in a heart stopping battle between horsepower and gravity. Just as it seemed gravity was winning, the rear shovel curled out and down. Hydraulics moaned as the teeth clawed at the earth, grasped a firm hold and worked with the spinning tires to return the hoe to a safe enough position at the edge. Men gathered around the machine but remained at a safe distance as the stabilizer legs came down to secure the precarious position.

  Austin had been torn between searching the pile of vats for Danny’s body and following the backhoe that was about to carry Stan over the embankment. When the engine was cut, the only sounds left were men’s shouts as his crew went into rescue mode. Mac ran past him and he realized he was frozen to the spot. His feet began to move toward the chaos by the demolished fence.

  The door of the backhoe was yanked open and Frank leaned in, struggled with something, then emerged with the limp form of Stan’s body draped over one shoulder. Men on the gro {en stund grabbed the middle-aged man and Frank disappeared back into the cab. Austin’s feet kept chewing up the distance, but he nearly collapsed with relief when Danny’s small form appeared and she began her shaky descent from the cab.

  Stan was surrounded by crewmembers as he lay on the ground. Austin recognized the signs of diabetic shock and shouted for Sue to get him some juice and call an ambulance.