Truth and Humility (15 page)

“Now do we understand each other?” Brett snarled, then took Danny by the ponytail and dragged her out of the circle of light into the darkness.  The band was ripped from her hair in his efforts and her brown tresses spilled over the asphalt when he finally let go.  Before she could rise, he delivered a stunning kick to her side.

Pain.
  Danny took the full brunt of the blow and coughed as the wind left her lungs.

Brett jerked toward Melanie and her incessant sobbing.  “Shut up!” he roared, making her shrink in fear.  He returned his attention to the form curled at his feet.  “You think you can
humiliate
me, you cunt?  I’ll show you how it’s done!”

  He yanked Danny on her back and sat down heavily, straddled her pelvis, took both her wrists in one f f f hand.  Her tailbone ground into the asphalt.  She cried out in pain and was instantly silenced by a backhanded slap that left her ears ringing.

There was a clanking of chain link followed by a tremendous impact.  Suddenly the crushing weight was off her.  Melanie’s open sobs mingled with the sounds of pounding flesh and grunts of pain.  Gasping for breath, Danny rolled onto her scuffed hands and knees and spat out a mouthful of blood.  Shouts sounded from the private rooms and she looked up through a thick curtain of tangled hair as the gate started to roll open before her.  Men were running toward them, Mac in the lead.  She then turned her head to the awful sounds of bone impacting with bone behind her.

Brett was on the ground, reaching up in a desperate attempt to stop the next blow to his face.  But Austin had him by the shirtfront, lifted the man bodily just as his fist rocketed down again and again.  Only when Brett was non-responsive and bloody did Austin stop and stagger to his feet.  Pumped, he paced over the body, muscles flexing like some modern-day gladiator.  His rage was intense.  Danny was awed by the power of it through her haze of pain.

Running footsteps came closer.  Mac was there.  When his hand brushed the hair back from her face, her eyes were closed again as she sucked in air.

“Oh, Christ, Danny!” he exclaimed.  Suddenly his big arms wrapped around her, lifted her off the ground.

“Take her inside, Mac!” Austin growled fiercely behind them.  “Call the cops and get some paramedics over here.  Better make it for two.”

“Mel...”  Danny mumbled the name when Mac walked her past the woman cowering in the grass.  Unable to halt the man’s hurried progress, she rested her aching head on his shoulder and gave him her full weight as he quickly carried her the distance to the offices.  He carefully maneuvered his load through the open door, then the second.  When he tried to deposit her full length onto Austin’s couch, she resisted gravity and slowly settled into a sitting position.

Mac crouched in front of her and looked her over.  “Was it that prick from the bar?” he asked softly.

Danny touched her cheek and winced.  “Yeah.”  Her voice came out hoarse.  “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“Like hell,” he growled then barked at Torsten to get some water and towels and for Frank to hand him a box of tissues.  The room was getting crowded with onlookers.  Mac took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, slowly turned her face, inspected the damage.  The marks on her cheek were already becoming swollen and angry.  He put a wad of tissues against her bleeding mouth.  “Spit,” he commanded.  She did and they both grimaced at the amount of blood.

Frank bent beside them.  “Damn, but I’d like to ring his bell.”

Mac continued tending to her face.  “Boss did the honors, but we’d form a line if we knew Brett could still feel it.”

“That’s the thing about Boss,” Frank said, winking at her.&nb kng span>

Danny went for light-hearted banter that came out wobbly.  “He sure looked like he knew what he was doing.”

Frank craned his neck trying to see past the people in the doorway.  Where the hell was Torsten with the towels!  “Bet your ass,” he replied absently.  “Four years of cage matches’ll do that to you.”

Danny blinked, temporarily distracted from her pains.  “Cage matches?”  A Cahill in one of those undignified octagonal rings of no-holds-barred brutality?  “No way.”

Mac and Frank grinned at one another.  “Just ask Torsten,” Mac said with humor.  “That’s how they met, back in college.  Boss kicked the shit out of him and they’ve been tight ever since.”

“Left him deaf in one ear.  Took pity on the jerk and gave him a job.”

Her doe-eyed look went from one mustachioed man to the other.  That would explain the spontaneous fisted square-offs in the yard she’d caught the two men engaged in once or twice.  Always finished off with some good-natured, macho backslapping.

“Water and towels coming through!” Torsten barked, parting the crowd in the doorway.  Even he appeared to be struggling with his anger and he began to blot at the scrapes on her exposed knees while grousing about physical abuse.  Who the hell would do something like that?

Danny’s brows creased and it hurt.  Torsten was a mystery, as she vividly remembered her backside taking a sting or two from him as well.

“I got it, Florence Nightingale,” Mac growled and snatched the wet cloth away from him.

A uniformed police officer came in a short time later followed by two paramedics.  Danny groaned when she saw the latter come at her with their duffel bags and gloved hands.  “No!” she commanded with more strength than she felt.  “I don’t need medical attention, I’m fine!”

“Let them look at you, Monkey,” Mac chided.  The couch dipped drastically when he sat down beside her.  “Make sure you don’t have a concussion or anything.”

They asked her questions, took her vitals, shined light in her eyes, asked her to state her name, date and location.  She passed all their tests and was so relieved to see them go, she closed her eyes to wish everyone else away.  When Austin entered with the other policeman, she kept them closed, knew he was there just by the energy that followed him into the room.  He ordered most of the crew out except Mac and when it was quieter, she told the policemen as much as she could.  Austin and Mac piped in with a few details to fill in the blanks about the drugging.  Then she told them about the harassing phone calls and finally how he used Melanie to draw her outside.  She was describing the assault in as much detail as her memory could muster, but she couldn’t look up, not when she knew
he
was watching h kas

When the police officers left, Mac patted her on the leg and stood.  “Do you need some help getting up?”

To prove she didn’t, Danny rose only to stagger.  Austin instinctively moved forward in case she needed more hands, but she managed to do it on her own.  “See?  Right as rain.”

Mac glanced at his boss who gave him the silent signal to leave.  He planted a gentle kiss on Danny’s tousled head.  The gesture was not the least bit awkward.  “Get some rest, Monkey,” he ordered, and left.

Now it was just the two of them.  The situation was awkward enough.  Danny headed for the door and it was pushed shut in front of her, trapping her.

“Why didn’t you tell me about the phone calls?” Austin asked softly.

“It wasn’t your problem.”

“It’s my problem when one of my employees is harassed by an abusive sociopath.”

She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the door.  “You called it,” she admitted humbly.  “You told me he’d do it, but I figured he was too much of a coward.”  Austin said nothing.  “Believe me, nothing like this has ever happened to me before.”

He could sense her embarrassment.  “I believe it,” he reassured her.  Her tangled hair draped forward masking her face, but he wanted to see what Brett Lockton had done to her.

“Here, let me take a look.”  He moved her chin with one hand and brushed her hair away with the other.  Each time his eyes moved to a different wound, a muscle jumped in his jaw.  Other than that he showed no emotion.  “The cop found blood and some hair on the driveway.”

Just at the suggestion, the tender patch on her scalp began to burn.  Her fingers automatically went to the site and rubbed.  “Cavemen generally behave that way.”

She was trying to make light of a very serious situation and Austin wasn’t buying it.  “Take the day off tomorrow,” he ordered, releasing her chin.

Her eyes darted downward and she studied the new scuffs on her white shoes.  “No.  My brothers and I work through our injuries.  It drives my parents crazy because I’m their only daughter, but they know how quickly I bounce back.”  For the first time she noticed the bandage wrapped around his right knuckles.  Tiny spots of blood seeped through the first two, matching the larger spatter of blood on his shirt – Brett’s blood.  “Maybe
you
should take the day off.”

He inspected his hand and the corner of his mouth turned up in a half smile.  “Believe k; mes Neme, that was more therapeutic than damaging.”

Danny’s breath caught at the sight of him.  That self-satisfied smirk did something to his mouth that sent delicious tingles from her head down to her toes.  The sensation was in stark contrast to the physical pain radiating from her face, tailbone and ribs.  An image of him standing over Brett’s body with that gladiator stance, shoulders tensed, arms bowed out, muscles dancing beneath the thin cotton of his undershirt…for a second her heart pumped wildly out of control until she remembered to breathe.

But then another image burst through her reverie that doled out a much-needed dose of reality.  Austin standing over Derek’s body after he’d released the same rage on her brother.  It was the cold splash of reality needed to view him without the stars in her eyes.

She backed up a step.  “You probably imagined it was Derek instead of Brett.”

Austin noticed the shift in her mood, but it was her involuntary shiver that bothered him most.  “I knew exactly whose face was under my fist, Danny.”

In fact, his rage had become almost blinding when he watched Brett on the monitor, landing the sucker punch that took her down.  It was all he could do not to kill the man.

“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?”