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What if she had been alone and Dawg hadn’t shown up?
What if she had been attacked again? Or one of her sisters, or her mother?
God, what had she managed to draw back to Somerset and her family?
* * *
Dawg stared at the closed bathroom door before turning his gaze on Jed.
The other man was playing with one of the little glass gems Piper was so fond of. She’d bought a shitload of stuff, evidently, while she had been in Manhattan. Enough that she’d not wanted to carry it all herself to the cab.
She had instead opened her door to some bastard pretending to be a bellhop.
“What do you know, Jed?” he finally questioned the other man.
Listening to Jed’s account of the night the kid had called him, and his arrival at the hospital, Dawg had to admit that his gratitude toward the other man was overwhelming.
There was no doubt in his mind that Piper would not have called him or one of their cousins. She was so wary of their protective tendencies, and so certain, according to Jed, that the attack had been random, that she would have never watched her back.
Fortunately, Jed had been watching it for her.
“Did you suspect she would be followed?” Dawg asked when he finished.
“If I had suspected it, she would have called you long before now,” Jed informed him.
Jed turned his head as the bathroom door opened and Piper walked slowly from the room.
It was then that Dawg saw the expression that transformed Jed’s face.
Hell, he’d hoped it hadn’t gone that far.
No, he’d known it had gone that far, he amended as he watched Piper’s gaze meet her lover’s and saw the unconscious devotion that filled her face and eyes as well.
Those two were already so fucking bonded that he doubted even death would separate them. And he was certain neither of them was even fully aware of how deep it went.
* * *
Jed straightened as Piper moved from the bathroom. Intending to reach out for her, he was more than a little surprised when she moved to him instead.
Snagging his arm around her waist and pulling her to him, Jed ignored Dawg’s dark expression and instead gave Piper the silent security he knew she was reaching out for.
“Do you remember anything the attacker said? Anything he did? Any odd scents, or an accent?” Dawg asked her as Jed felt the subtle tremor that raced up her spine.
“He said something.”
Jed tightened at the admission but didn’t berate her. It was the wrong time to do so, with Dawg standing there watching so closely.
It would hurt her to be embarrassed in such a way in front of her brother. And it would embarrass her, at the very least subconsciously.
“What did he say?” Dawg urged as he pulled his cell phone free and, Jed suspected, hit the record feature.
“That’s just it; I don’t remember what he said.” Frustration filled her voice, thickened it and hinted at her inability to make sense of whatever she remembered. “He was demanding something, and I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.”
Jed rubbed her lower arms gently, forcing himself to hold back the fury burning in his chest.
“You can’t remember a single word?” Dawg questioned her again, his tone smoother than it had been moments ago, less angry, as though he too sensed the effect their anger had on her.
“Something about a car.” She sighed, shaking her head as another tremor raced up her spine. “I just can’t remember, Dawg.”
