“H-how d-did you know?” Asha asked Tate as he replaced the phone in his pocket and looked at her, his eyes running over her body clinically, as though he were looking for injuries.
“Travis texted me,” he answered vaguely.
“Travis?” Asha tried to wrap her mind around the fact that Tate and Travis knew each other, but her whole body was trembling in reaction to her close call with death. “Are you a cop?”
“Friend. And ex-military Special Forces,” Tate answered shortly. “You okay?” His voice became gentler and more concerned. “Your neck is bleeding.”
“Yeah. I think so,” she replied, knowing she was lucky to still be breathing. Considering the alternative, she was all right. She placed her hand to her neck, and it came away smeared with blood. “Just a scratch.”
Tate nodded toward the bathroom. “You better clean it up before—”
“What the fuck happened?” Kade’s roar reverberated through the room.
“—Kade gets here,” Tate finished solemnly.
Asha turned and looked up at Kade, her heart still hammering from the stress of her near-death experience and her body trembling with reaction. Wrapping her arms around herself, she opened her mouth to answer, but Kade pulled her to her feet and started examining her cut before she could get any words out.
“The bastard cut you.” Enraged, Kade tipped her head back gently, looking at the cut and then back at the man who Tate had restrained. “I don’t suppose he’s dead?” Kade asked Tate dangerously.
“Naw. I just coldcocked him. Police are on the way.” Tate shot Kade a dubious glance. “She needs that cut cleaned.”
“Bathroom’s that way. I think you should take her. You know first aid better than I do,” Kade said, his voice alarmingly low and guttural.
“I’m not leaving you alone with him. I promised Travis I wouldn’t. I understand your anger, Kade, but he’ll pay for what he’s done,” Tate answered, applying more weight to Ravi’s back as he woke, babbling in angry Telugu.
Hearing the voice of her ex-husband again had Asha shaking with reaction. “Take me out of here, Kade. Please.” Her whole world was tilting, confusion and fear getting the better of her at the moment.
“Take her. She needs you. Don’t let your anger override everything else. It will ruin you. Taking a life, good or bad, changes a man,” Tate told Kade harshly, his smoky gray eyes slightly haunted. “Make Asha your priority right now.”
Kade scooped Asha up from the couch and wrapped her in his embrace. “She’s always going to be my priority,” Kade said hoarsely.
Tate nodded once in understanding, watching Kade as he picked up Asha to take her shivering form to the bathroom. Kade moved around the sofa, looking down at the man on the floor under Tate’s knee with undisguised hatred. He stepped over his body with one foot, the other landing on the man’s outstretched hand, Kade’s heavily booted foot putting all of his weight down and grinding hard as Ravi screamed with pain. It was more than enough force and weight to crush several bones and break a few fingers.
“That’s for Asha and the other women you raped, you sick bastard,” Kade growled, moving forward with Asha still in his arms.
Tate smirked.
The police stormed the apartment with Ravi still screaming in pain.
His attention all on Asha, Kade never looked back.
Later that night, Asha sat in the middle of Kade’s bed, devouring a sandwich and watching him pace the bedroom floor. He’d been ranting for hours, and he didn’t look like he was the least bit wound down. After he’d brought her back to his house, taken care of her, made sure she had a tray of food and was safe and sound, he’d started rattling off a list of things he was going to do to keep her safe.
“I know you want to heal and be independent, but you can do those things right here with me. I want you under my protection,” Kade continued his reasoning gruffly.
Asha watched him with a lustful eye as she nibbled at her sandwich. Wearing only a pair of pajama bottoms, he looked incredibly hot and one hundred percent stubborn, ornery male. “I’d rather be under you personally,” Asha whispered longingly under her breath. She was wearing the top of his pajamas, and she could smell his tantalizing scent all over the garment.
“Did you say something?” Kade asked impatiently, turning around and pinning her with a sharp glance.
Asha waved her hand. “No, no. Go on.” She covered her mouth with her hand, hiding a smile. She had gotten over her post near-death shock hours ago, and there was no place she felt safer than here in Kade’s bedroom with him stalking around her like a pissed-off big cat.