The Billionaire's Final Stand (34 page)

              “Why don’t we walk up to the house together? You can talk to whoever has upset you,” she tried to reason.

              “Why would you want to do that for me?” he asked, looking at her suspiciously. He was so drunk, he couldn’t properly reason.

              “Because you look like you need to talk. It sounds like whatever they did, really upset you.”              “Yeah, yeah they did me wrong. I was just trying to make some extra money, that’s all. They have themselves tons of money. Way more than one family needs or deserves. Why’d they have to fire me over a few lousy bucks! It didn’t hurt them any,” he slurred, his words jumbled and hard to understand.

              “Yes, too much money. Let’s fix this,” she urged.

              “Okay,” he agreed. As he released her, she felt a shooting pain in her arm, where the blood rushed back through. It hurt almost worse than his grip had. She couldn’t focus on that, though. She had to get away from him before he changed his mind. She had to get to the house and warn the family he was there.

              Kinsey took off running, not taking even a second to turn around and check on him. She knew that giving him any advantage could cost her, her life.

              “Stop!” he shouted, his voice sounding too close. Her vision blurred as tears welled up in her eyes, then spilled over. How was he moving so fast? He could barely even walk, but he was right behind her.

              Kinsey screamed out in pain as his fingers gripped the back of her hair, quickly halting her forward motion as her neck snapped backward.

              “You whore!” he shouted, spinning her around. His eyes were wide, bulging from their sockets, his mouth opening and closing. If he’d been angry before, it was nothing to what he was now.

              He raised his arm and then she only saw stars, moments before she blacked out. Her last thought was that she’d thought
seeing stars
was only an expression.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

              Austin stepped into the yard and looked around. His aunt had said Kinsey had been gone an hour. Katherine was worried because Kinsey said she’d only be thirty minutes.

              He picked up his pace as he looked around the yard. The light was quickly fading and he wanted to spot her before his visibility was gone.

              Katherine said Kinsey often walked down to the beach. That was his first place to look. He was taking the familiar path down when he heard something.

              He stopped for a moment and strained his ears. It sounded like a man’s voice, but he couldn’t hear what he was saying. He picked up his pace, wondering who’d be out there. It was private property and no one was supposed to be on this section of beach except them.

              As he got closer, he heard the male voice shout for someone to stop, then he heard a female scream. Terror seized him as he realized Kinsey was in trouble.

              He started sprinting down the path, hoping he wasn’t too late. As he rounded the corner, he saw a large man grab the back of Kinsey’s hair and whip her around, then slam his hand into her face.

              Austin saw red. He charged forward as Kinsey fell to the ground and the man lifted his leg as if he were going to kick her. What kind of beast would do that to a woman?

              Austin dived into the guy’s chest a second before his foot connected, sending the two of them flying several feet in the air before they landed on the ground with a hard thud.

              Austin didn’t waste any time. He slammed his fist into the guy’s jaw, then his cheek. The man went still beneath him. It was only then that Austin realized it was his fired employee, Jack. He jumped off him, grabbing his phone and calling for an ambulance as he raced back to Kinsey.

              He felt her pulse, breathing a sigh of relief that it was beating strong. She started to stir as he rubbed his hands along her arms and legs, checking for any other wounds.

              “Ouch,” she cried when his fingers brushed over her upper arm. He moved her shirt out of the way, then swore when he saw the angry red flesh. He wanted to go over and pound on Jack a few more times. The idiot deserved it.

              Instead, he cradled Kinsey’s head on his lap while he placed a quick call to the house and told his cousin to bring a blanket.

              “Kinsey, are you okay? Can you talk?”

              “My head hurts,” she mumbled as her eyes opened a slit.

              “I’m sorry, Kinsey. I’m so sorry. What did he do to you?”

              “He was really mad at your family. He thought maybe I was a part of it. I don’t know. He was very drunk,” she murmured.

              “It’s okay, Kinsey. We’ll talk later. Just close your eyes and rest. The ambulance is on the way,” he reassured her.

              For the first time ever, she did as he asked and closed her eyes. If he wasn’t so panicked, he may have even smiled.

              “What in the hell is going on?” Lucas asked as he came skidding to a stop in front of them. He quickly placed the blanket around Kinsey before looking over at Jack.

              “An ex - employee, who wasn’t happy about being fired, I don’t know much right now. Kinsey said he was drunk and looking for a fight. I think she just happened to be in his way,” Austin explained.

              “You knock him out?”

              “Damn right,” Austin said, feeling the rage boil up again. He didn’t think he’d ever get the image of her falling to the ground out of his head. Her terrified scream would surely haunt him for years to come.

              “Good. You carry her up to the house. I’ll stay with this piece of crap.”

              “Thanks, Lucas.” Austin stood, easily lifting Kinsey into his arms. He walked up the hill to the gravel service road, then followed it toward the house. He could hear the sirens in the distance, so he picked up his pace.

              He reached the back door at the same time they pulled into the driveway. He quickly went through the house and met them out front. The paramedics took over, getting her on the gurney and taking her vitals. He stood back watching, overwhelmed with helplessness.

              “Are you allergic to anything, ma’am.”

              “No,” she mumbled. “My head hurts. My arm does, too, but my head feels like it’s going to burst, the pain is so bad.”

              “We can give you a shot in just a moment. I need to ask a couple more questions first,” he reassured her.

              When the police arrived, Austin reluctantly left Kinsey in the care of the paramedics and approached the deputy to explain where Jack was knocked out. After giving a brief statement, he went back to Kinsey to find her sleeping on the gurney as they loaded her in the ambulance.

              “You can either ride with us or follow, but she won’t know the difference. She’ll be out for a few hours,” the man said. Austin didn’t want to be separated from her, but knew he’d need his car.

              “I’ll follow, thanks,” he replied, then watched as they shut the door.

              Austin didn’t waste any time in jumping in his car and catching up to the emergency vehicle. He didn’t want her out of his sight, not until he was assured she was okay. Especially, since it was his fault she was in that condition.

              He’d never had an employee attack before. Yes, there were threats on his life, on all their lives, but never before had a disgruntled employee actually carried out one of those threats. He’d learned a valuable lesson that night, and it wasn’t fair that Kinsey had to pay the price.

              Anger still coursed through his veins. He tried to calm himself down as he followed behind the flashing lights, their red and blue pattern somehow soothing, at least giving him something else to focus on.

              Austin sat in the waiting room for hours. Not what seemed like hours, but literally hours. He was getting ready to haul a doctor against a wall if he didn’t hear anything soon. He wasn’t a patient man on a normal day, and his day so far had been anything but normal.

              “Mr. Anderson?”

              “Yes. That’s me,” he said as he faced the approaching doctor.

              “Sorry about the wait. I understand you’re the one who came in with Ms. Shelton?”

              “Yes.”

              “Are you family?”

              “Well, it’s complicated,” he hedged.

              The doctor looked at him for a few moments as if trying to decide on what he should or shouldn’t say. Being that Austin was the one who’d come in with her, the doctor conceded, “She has deep bruising on her arm. It’s going to be sore for a while. From my understanding, her attacker hit her in the face. She has a slight crack in her cheekbone, but it will heal. Until then, she’s going to have swelling and it’s bruised pretty deep. She’s going to be sore for a few days. At this time we don’t see any brain damage or anything else wrong.”

              Austin wanted to punch something, as rage boiled. He knew that piece of crap was somewhere in the hospital and he wanted nothing more than to hunt him down and do some major damage.

              “Ms. Shelton has agreed to press charges, which is good. We have the cops with her attacker now. He’ll go from here to jail. I’m not supposed to say this, but you broke his jaw,” the doctor said. He didn’t look heartbroken over it.

              “Thank you,” Austin told him, feeling a bit better that Jack wasn’t getting off pain free.

              “She’s being moved to a room for the night. We’d like to keep an eye on her in case there was something we initially missed.”

              With that, the doctor left and Austin walked to the front desk, receiving directions to her room. He walked the long hallway, then hesitated outside her door. He didn’t know what kind of reaction he was going to get from her. He knew he couldn’t go in there showing the anger he was feeling. Of course, it wasn’t projected at her, but she still didn’t need to see it.

              He stepped inside to find her sitting up in bed. Her head turned when he came through the doorway, and their eyes locked together. Fury once again overwhelmed him at the bruising on her arm and the deep purple overtaking the left side of her face.

              “Hey,” he lamely said.

              “Thank you, Austin,” she whispered.

              “I’m so sorry, Kinsey. I should’ve been there sooner.”

              “I’m glad you got there when you did. I have a feeling I’d be a whole lot worse off, otherwise,” she said as a tremble racked her body. He wanted to take her pain away, to hold her.

              He walked to her bed and sat down with her watching him warily.

              “I can’t believe he touched you,” Austin growled.

              “I’m fine, Austin. Really, I am. My face and arm are a bit sore, but I’m fine,” she promised.

              “When I saw him hit you, I…”

              “I know. I’m just glad you happened to be around,” she interrupted. He should be grateful she was admitting she was happy to see him, even if it had taken her getting attacked first.

              His hand came up and gently caressed the uninjured side of her face. Her eyes grew wider as she took in a deep breath and watched him.

              “Kinsey,” he practically begged her.

              “I can’t…”

              “I just… I need…”

              Austin stopped trying to vocalize how he was feeling and he leaned in and gently took her lips with his. She didn’t try to stop him. He didn’t want to hurt her any further, but he needed to taste her lips, needed to reassure himself she was really okay, that she was there with him. If something worse would’ve happened, he didn’t know what he’d do. He couldn’t let himself even think about it.

              He leaned closer, his hand moving to stroke the back of her neck, his touch on her lips careful as he slid his tongue along her bottom lip. It wasn’t about passion or fulfillment, it was about reassuring himself she was real, she was there, she was his.

              He felt heat rush through him, a warmth that seemed to focus on his heart, and enlarge it ten times its normal size.

              Finally, he pulled back and slowly opened his eyes to look at her face. She opened her own eyes as if she were in a trance, gazing at him with such wonder and awe in her expression, that if he hadn’t been sitting already, her look would’ve knocked him to his knees.

              “Let me stay here with you, Kinsey. Let me hold you.”

              She looked at him as the fog started to clear. Her eyes filled with tears - pain, need, confusion all mixed in her expression. He knew the answer before she uttered the word. He was tempted to kiss her again, to prevent her from saying it.

              “No.”

              “Why? Why do we have to make this complicated? It’s just one night,” he asked. He’d never before begged a woman for anything, but she was causing all kinds of firsts for him, it seemed.

              “It’s just too… complicated. One night won’t fix or change anything.”

              “We want each other, Kinsey. We care about each other. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that,” he said. He felt a glimmer of hope at the hesitation in her eyes.