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Jed could have told her the mistake she was making, if he had had a chance.
What he saw instead was Dawg’s face.
The widening of his eyes, the paling of his flesh, the immediate awareness that one side of his sister’s face wasn’t shadow, but swollen and obviously bruised.
Just as quickly, Piper saw the reaction as well, if her sharply indrawn breath and the tension invading her body was any indication.
“No. ” The harsh order that left her lips as Dawg stepped forward surprisingly had him stopping in his tracks. “It’s none of your business, Dawg. ”
Rowdy and Natches were quick to move around them, their reactions no less as shocked as Dawg’s.
“None of my business?” Dawg all but wheezed, his expression tortured, as his cousins, positioned for a much better view, stared at her in horror as the sensors on the motion lights caught the movement and flipped on overhead.
“Oh, my God, Piper . . . ” Agonized, Dawg’s voice roughed to a harsh, gut-clenching rasp.
Anguish filled the three men’s gazes and tightened their expressions as they stared down at her, obviously fighting to process the bruised condition of her face.
As though in one movement, their heads jerked to Jed, their gazes piercing as they stared at him.
Hell, his face was likely to take the brunt of six fists pounding on it before the night was over, because he was damned if he could give them what he knew they were silently demanding.
An explanation.
Now.
“She’s your sister,” he told Dawg, his gaze connecting with the other man’s, knowing he could make an enemy of him in this second. “You want answers, you’ll have to get them from her. ”
“Let me down. ” Piper struggled in his arms.
Put her down? Was she insane? The second Dawg saw her limping, he’d go damned ballistic.
“Fuck! I’ll be damned if I will. ” Tightening his hold on her, he moved forward, more than surprised as the Mackays parted and allowed him to pass.
Pulling her keys from where he’d tucked them into his jeans at the hospital, he called back to the three men following them, “Her bags are in the truck, if you want to make yourselves useful and bring them in. ”
At least one set of footsteps paused behind them.
“Like hell,” Dawg growled. “She can have them later. ”
Jed shrugged.
“I should have stayed where I was,” she whispered. “Why didn’t I stay where I was?”
“They would have found out,” he warned her. “Want me to tell you how many contacts Timothy has on the police force there?”
“Where?” Dawg snapped behind him. “I thought you were just the fucking chauffeur?”
Holding her securely as he unlocked her door, Jed glimpsed her expression from the corner of his eye and restrained a sigh. She was shutting down fast. He could feel it, and he hated it. When Piper shut down, her rational and logic went out the fucking window, especially if she was dealing with her brother. She didn’t do confrontations well, though he knew she would never admit to it. She buried her fear instead and faced the world with a brutal ice that sliced her deeper than it did those she was facing, once she had time to think and consider what she said during those moments.
Stepping into her bedroom, he strode to the bed in the center of the small suite, laid her on it, then watched in resignation as she jumped from the mattress to face the three men entering the room behind them, the moment he placed her on it.
“Go home, Dawg. ”
The lights flipped on, and for the first time Dawg had a full, unobstructed view of her face.
“God, Piper. ” It was Natches who breathed out the protest. “Sweetheart, what the hell happened to you?”
Dawg looked like he had taken a blow to the balls and was having trouble catching enough breath to even fold to the floor.
