Theirs to Keep (Tangled Hearts Trilogy #1)(3)

He was a big guy. Mean-looking. He scared normal women who didn’t look like they’d already gone three rounds with some abusive ass**le. He could only imagine how badly he terrified this one. And he hated that. The mere idea of hurting or even frightening a woman put a hole in his gut. Especially this woman who’d already been through so much.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” he said in as soothing a voice as he could manage. “Can you tell us what happened to you?”

Tears filled her eyes again, and she shook her head. At first he thought she was just being cagey, but there was a blankness to her expression that bothered him. It reminded him of fighters who got knocked out and had absolutely no recollection of the event. They woke up and lost the last seconds leading up to the K-O.

She looked…bewildered.

“I don’t know,” she whispered hoarsely. “Please, I’ll leave. I just wanted somewhere warm to stay for the night. I’m so cold…and tired. I wasn’t going to steal anything.”

“I think that’s pretty obvious,” Cade said gently.

Merrick frowned. “What do you mean, you don’t know what happened to you?”

She closed her eyes, turning her battered face away. She was a pretty thing, even with all the bruises, the bedraggled hair and the torn clothing. There was an air of vulnerability about her that immediately riled Merrick’s protective instincts.

There weren’t too many things that could get him all worked up in a short amount of time, but an abused woman would do the trick every single time.

“I can’t remember,” she said, her voice cracking in a low sob.

Merrick and Cade exchanged worried glances.

“Please, just let me go,” she begged. “I won’t cause you any trouble.”

“Where the hell would you go?” Cade demanded.

Merrick sent him a silencing look. Then he turned back to the woman. Before he could say anything, panic filled her eyes.

“You’re not going to have me arrested are you? Are you going to take me to jail?”

There was no faking the terror in her voice and in her eyes.

“Honey, listen to me,” he said, pitching his voice purposely low so he wouldn’t seem threatening. “Nobody’s going to take you to jail. You’re hurt. You’re bleeding. You’re cold, and you look like you’ve missed more than a few meals. Let us take you to the hospital to get you checked out, okay? Then we can call the police and nail whatever ass**le did this to you.”

Her pupils dilated, and she went stock-still until he wasn’t even sure she was breathing anymore. She was already pale, but she went white as a sheet, and if possible, she made herself even smaller than before.

“No,” she choked out. “No, no, no! I won’t go. No hospital. No cops! He’ll find me. He’ll kill me. Oh God, he’ll kill me.”

She finished on a low moan, her hands protectively covering her head. Hands that were bloodied and cut and only made her look even more fragile.

Cade blew his breath out, but Merrick knew he was pissed, and it wasn’t at the woman. Neither man had any tolerance for a guy who’d brutalize a woman, and it was obvious someone had done a number on this lady.

“Please, just let me go. I didn’t steal anything, I swear it. I just wanted someplace warm to sleep. I just needed to rest someplace warm. Someplace he wouldn’t find me.”

Her voice was thick with tears, and the knot in Merrick’s gut grew bigger. He just wanted to take her into his arms and swear to her that nothing would ever hurt her again.

Knowing how intimidating he’d look to a woman like her, he took a huge risk and touched her arm. She immediately flinched as if he’d burned her, and she shrank away, trembling violently.

Her pupils became even larger, and she stared at him like a cornered animal who had no way out.

Son of a bitch but someone had scared the shit out of her, and it was pissing him off more and more with every passing second. She should be in a hospital, warm and dry, eating a hot meal instead of skulking down a dark alley searching for a safe place to get warm.

He glanced at Cade, knew Cade wouldn’t like what he was about to say, but at this point, he’d do damn near anything to get her out of Hank’s store and someplace she could be taken care of.

Making damn sure his voice was soothing, he tried again. “All right. No cops. No hospital. I know a doctor who runs a clinic. He’s a good friend of mine, and he can be trusted. Let us at least take you there so you can have those hands tended to and let him take a look at your other injuries. I swear to you that we won’t do anything you don’t want us to.”

She stared back at him, her blue eyes huge in her thin face. She was scared out of her mind, but she was also desperate and at the very end of her rope. He could sense her need for shelter. Just something as simple as a place to lay her head for an hour or two. It only made him that much more determined to make sure he didn’t leave without her.

“Y-y-you p-promise?”

Cade took over then, his expression one of utter gravity. “We only want to help you. You’re hurt. You need medical attention. Let us help you.”

She closed her eyes, and for a moment, Merrick thought she’d passed out. But then she opened them again, wide and troubled.

“Okay,” she whispered. “My hands hurt.”