“I’m okay.”
Jesus. “No, you’re not. But I’m gonna see what I can do ’bout that.” I wrapped an arm around her for support and she instantly leaned into me.
I walked her across the street to the surf shop I owned and led her into my office in back. For once, Kendall kept her head down and her mouth shut.
When I set Nic in a chair, she winced and the leg she’d been favoring stayed straight out in front of her. “Thank you.”
Enough with this bullshit. “Where else are you hurt?” I demanded.
“My wrist.”
I stared at her. Blonde hair tossed by the wind, her clothes a mess, her face beaten to hell, she was still beautiful. I caved. “All right. I’ll play this your way.”
I squatted next to her and my training took over. I inspected the swelling on her cheek and gently pushed at the surrounding bone. She didn’t flinch but that didn’t mean it wasn’t fractured. I pulled her wrist toward me and turned her hand over in mine and she sucked in a stilted breath. “Tell me what happened.”
She gave me the one-shoulder shrug again.
I felt my way up the rest of her arm. “Where’s Randy?”
“At the apartment. I think.”
Nothing else seemed injured. “Was he breathing when you left?” I gently placed her wrist back in her lap. It was broken.
She slowly exhaled. “I don’t know.”
I stood and crossed my arms, leaning on my desk. “But you think he’s dead?”
“He didn’t really look like he was breathing.” Her voice was soft and breathy but the words were emotionally detached.
“Did you kill him?”
Her eyes met mine but her expression gave nothing away. “No.”
“What’s your end game?” If I was going to do anything beyond dumping her at the ER, I needed to know what I was getting myself into.
“What do you mean?”
I lost my patience. “C’mon, darlin’. I don’t have time for this shit. You show up on my doorstep half beaten to death, sayin’ you didn’t know where else to go. That tells me two things. One, you’re in deep shit and two, you think I can help. So, I ask again, what’s your plan? And don’t tell me it’s to go back when he calms the fuck down. Dead or alive, you’re done with that worthless prick. I ain’t a battered women’s shelter you can check in and out of.”
“Randy told me you were a doctor in the Navy,” she said in that quiet voice that was beginning to make me wonder if she ever got pissed off.
I sighed. “SARC, Marines.”
“What?”
“Not a doctor. Trauma medic. Answer my question.”
“I don’t want to go back there.” Nothing changed in her expression.
I pushed off the desk, hoping like hell she was telling the truth. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Her shoulder stiffened. “Where?”
“ER. X-rays. Your wrist’s broken and I want your cheek looked at. Not to mention the leg you’re favorin’ that you won’t tell me about.”
“It doesn’t hurt as much as my wrist.”
“Thank God for small favors. Up.” I held my hand out, gentleman that I am.
She stared at my hand a moment.
Then she reached for me and her entire story fell to shit.
I GRABBED HER HAND, LOOKED pointedly at her busted-up knuckles then at her. “Defensive wounds are a game changer.”
She tried to pull her hand back but I held firm. “Let go.” No change in her tone, there was a surprising amount of force behind her words.
I dropped her hand but crossed my arms menacingly. “How ’bout we try this again. From the beginnin’.” Self-defense was one thing. Premeditated murder was a whole different animal. Anger, disappointment, pride that she’d hit him, I didn’t know what the fuck I was feeling but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t helping a cold-blooded murderer no matter how hot she was.
Her face, swollen parts and all, tensed up in anger. “I didn’t kill him.”
So she was capable of getting pissed off. “Good, because cops in my store are bad for business.”
“Forget it, I don’t need your help.” She pushed up with her good arm and rose out of the chair with effort.
“Save the drama. It doesn’t affect me.”
She took a step and her face twisted in pain. “All of you Marines are the same.”
My lips curved up in a vicious smile. “You think I’m like him?” I leaned in close and dropped my voice. “I don’t give a shit enough about women to beat them after I fuck them.”
She didn’t even flinch.
I laid it out. “Let’s get somethin’ straight. This once, I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt because you don’t know me. So listen up. I don’t get off on beatin’ women. I don’t drink till I piss myself. I don’t run my mouth when I can’t back it up and I sure as shit never left a woman lookin’ like you look now. I may be an asshole but I am nothing like Randy fucking Carter.”