Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (Cactus Creek #3)(31)

“My parents were shot at close range in our kitchen…a few minutes before the second shooter aimed his matching Glock 33 at me.”



*



HUDSON HAD NO words.

And even if he had been able to formulate some horribly inadequate sentence or two to provide her comfort, he would’ve shut himself up the second he saw that supremely grounded strength of hers wash over her.

What he’d thought were her best holy-shit self-defense moves back in the gym was nothing compared to the fighting she was doing now.

This fight he was witnessing before his eyes was that of grit. Of heart.

He watched her fight back invisible demons with everything she had.

And win.

The pain in her expression eased, and the gentle lines of acceptance softening her features soon declared her victorious. Because it was a victory. Hudson knew from experience that it took far more courage to bend than break, to seek peace when everything inside of you felt at war.

To choose not to harden your heart to anything that could make it vulnerable again.

And when the life returned to her eyes, along with hope and other emotions he wasn’t strong enough to dare name, she placed her hand over his right one and said, “Answer your phone. Tell whoever it is that I’m fine. Really.”

Wait, what?

All at once, he heard it—the clamoring sounds of three cell phones and one landline ringing, text messages chirping, instant messages pinging, and an incessant number of email notifications beeping in from the computer at the speed of Morse code.

Simultaneously erupting at the same time.

What the hell?

“The ‘Lia Alert System’ has been triggered,” she said drily as she double-fisted her personal and business cell phones while heading over to her laptop. “Remember my wrist watch with Gabe’s thoughtful enhancements? Let’s calm my brothers down first and then I’ll tell you about my parents.”

An incoming text message came in just as she started speaking into her two cell phones, held up to both ears.

>>> ANSWER YOUR DAMN PHONE.

Grouchiest alert system he’d ever encountered.

Looking down at his cell phone screen and seeing GABE SPENCER flashing in time with his now ringing phone, Hudson puzzled over how Gabe’s name was showing up as a saved contact on his phone and not a caller ID listing.

He hadn’t input any Spencers into his phone.

“Hello?” he answered on the next ring.

“Is she okay? What’s going on?” came the worried reply, followed by a whole lot of keyboard clacking and then a relieved sigh. “Oh wait, I just got the all-clear from Caine. Shit, man. Pick up your phone next time. I’ve been calling for three minutes.”

“Hello to you too, Gabe.”

“Oh, yeah. Hi. So is she really okay, or is she just trying to get Caine and Max off her back? Should I call her?”

Hudson looked over at Lia, who was currently texting on one hand, typing on her laptop with the other, and talking to someone on her landline via speaker. “I think she’s okay. We were just watching TV and she got startled awake. But she seems fine now.” She really did.

“Okay, well let me know if anything changes. All our numbers are programmed into your phone now. And our emails are input in your safe list now too.”

Uh, thanks? What exactly does one say for such a gross violation of one’s privacy?

Though he didn’t blame them.

Remembering how alarmed Gabe had been a minute ago, Hudson reassured him, “Next time, I’ll answer the phone.” Looking up and seeing Lia still talking to whichever brother she was on the landline with, he added, “But just so we’re clear. If I’m here, I’m going to be the one to make sure she’s okay, to listen if she needs to talk, to make her feel safe if she doesn’t. I’ll call or text you guys back to let you know she’s okay, but I’m not going to pass any of that over to you. Not anymore. If I’m with her when your alert system goes off, the task of comforting her or providing whatever she needs is no longer yours, or Max’s, or Caine’s. Are we clear on that?”

There was a brief pause and then a rumbling grunt that sounded remarkably like, “‘Ballsy Prick.’”

Hudson figured that was the closest thing he was going to get to a ‘yes.’

But of course Gabe couldn’t just leave it at that.

“Dude, the way I see it, that’s fine by me if you’re the one she chooses to turn to. But you said ‘if’ twice just now. Not ‘when.’ So if you’re not planning on sticking around anyway, what you’re asking is a moot point. So it’s no skin off my balls.”

The line went dead immediately after, leaving Hudson to realize that was why his ‘if’s’ earlier had left a foul taste in his mouth.



*



AFTER LIA GAVE Caine two more reassurances that she was fine, which she echoed in her texts to Max, she rejoined Hudson on the couch.

It occurred to her as she sat down that he wasn’t giving her the ‘you-poor-dear’ look that most folks did when they found out about her parents’ murders. There was concern there, yes. But not pity. He’d been like that weeks back when she told him about Leo, too. He simply didn’t react the way everyone else in her life did when they learned the stories behind her emotional scars.