Stone Cold Cowboy(26)
Sadie turned to face him. “Oh God, Rory, I’m so sorry. Then you found me out there nearly frozen to death.” She closed her eyes for a moment, imagining what that must have done to him. “I can’t imagine what went through your mind.”
“Murder.”
“You thought I was dead? Great. Add that to the list of things I have to make up to you.”
Rory shook his head. “No. I wanted to murder whoever did those heinous things to you.”
“Yeah, well, get in line behind me.”
“You do realize it’s only a matter of time before the cops find your brother and put him in jail.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m going to be the one who puts him there.” She raised her shaking hand to her head and pressed on her forehead above her eye where the stress headache gathered strength.
Rory took her shaking hand in his and held it. “Are you afraid to go home?”
Yes. No. Yes. “I don’t have a choice.” She stood beside the bed, but didn’t step away. She couldn’t.
Rory held firm to her hand. He didn’t hurt her, just gently tugged to get her attention. “He’d be stupid to come after you again, knowing I’m coming after him.”
She met his steady gaze. “Don’t you think that’s a bit arrogant?”
“It’s the truth. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She cocked her head, wondering how he planned to do anything once she was back home, back to her mundane life.
“If you need me, I’m there.”
CHAPTER 6
Rory stopped the truck outside Sadie’s home. Once she got dressed—and put a light blue sweater over the black tank top that hugged her curves and drove him nuts—she dragged her feet getting ready to leave. He hated the way her hands trembled, the lost look in her eyes as they drove, the quiet that grew thick inside the truck, and most especially the unnatural distance she kept between them, her side pressed to the door.
“Do I make you nervous?”
Her head snapped toward him. “No. Why?”
“Do I scare you?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
The front door to her house opened, drawing her attention. He reached over to touch her shoulder just to see what she’d do. She jumped, turned, and smacked his hand away. He held his hand up to let her know he didn’t mean to harm her. Something died inside him, knowing she really did fear him.
“Rory, I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s the matter with me.” She raked both hands through her hair and held it at the back of her head, staring out the window at her home with the sagging steps, weathered white paint, and cracked front window.
“You’re scared.”
“I don’t have time to be scared.”
“You’ve got no cause to be scared of me.”
“It’s not you. It’s me. I can’t get what happened out of my head. What he did to me. Why?” She let out a heavy sigh. “I’m just sore and tired and . . .”
“And?”
“I don’t know if I have it in me to keep doing this.”
“You do.”
“How do you know that? Up until you found me the other day, the only other time we met is when my brother was stupid enough to take a swing at Colt.”
“Going up against one Kendrick is stupid. Taking on all three of us is suicide.”
She smiled. Not a lot, just enough to tilt her pretty lips up at the corner and put a little spark back in her eyes. Those eyes swept over him.
“I see your point. The three of you together is a whole lot of muscle. I appreciate you letting him go that night.”
“If you hadn’t stepped in—”
“And nearly gotten decked myself.”
“We’d have taught your brother a lesson about being stupid.”
“You let him go for me?”
Rory pressed his lips together and nodded. “You’ve got guts to put yourself in front of your brother and in between us. You’ve been holding this place and your family together for years. You need some rest, time to let what happened settle, and you’ll bounce back.”
“Right. Back to work. See if I can dig myself out of this hole.” Sadie pulled the handle on the truck door and pushed it open.
“Hold it. Let me help you out. You’re still recovering.”
She turned back and looked him right in the eye. “You’ve helped more than I deserve. Thank you, Rory. You don’t know what it means to me that you not only saved my life, but stayed with me. I can promise you, I’ll try my best to pay you back.”
“Sadie . . .”
She slipped from the car with her bag slung over her shoulder and headed for her father up on the porch. He held his arms out to her and she walked right into them.