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Did he often treat her like this?
And if so, how had Teague and Lincoln never seen this? Never done anything?
Do I have this all wrong? Could it be someone other than her father?
I didn’t know because I’d given up that right a long time ago.
It wasn’t fear in her expression when her father called her. It was anger. Annoyance. Nothing like the terror I saw in her expression last night.
What was going on? She was close to Teague. Surely he would have noticed . . .
Beau huddled in my sweatshirt on the sofa. She pulled a blanket around her as I rifled through my wallet for money to order Chinese takeout.
She didn’t seem to notice the incessant calls. Maybe she was just used to them.
Beau had always been larger than life. Now, she seemed small. Her presence was still a force unlike any other, but there was a vulnerability I’d never seen. I’d had glimpses when she gave herself to me. My touch could soften her like nothing else. But this woman?
I hated the circumstances, but I liked that she needed me. Liked that when she was in trouble, she’d called me. Because when we’d been together, the hard truth was, shedidn’tneed me.
I was always the one who needed her.
Not so long ago, I’d been worried about bringing her to my apartment. It was old, but what I could afford. She didn’t seem uncomfortable on the hand-me-down sofa.
Last night, I’d acted on instinct. It hadn’t occurred to me not to bring her into my space. To be concerned over what she might think. Of how dangerous it would be for me once she was gone.
Because her presence would linger.
But getting her healthy was all that mattered. I’d deal with the fallout later.
“Still Kung Pao shrimp for you?” I held up a menu to the restaurant down the street.
Her brow shot up.
Yeah. I remember everything about you.
She nodded, and I ordered.
Once I joined her on the couch, I discreetly tried to examine her wounds. There were two bruises on her jaw that were darker than the others.
Anger filled me all over again.
“You don’t have to pretend you’re not checking out my bruises.”
I touched a faint purple mark. “I was trying not to remind you they’re there.”
“Like I could forget,” she whispered.
“Hey,” I said softly, hating her pain. “You will. I’m not gonna let you remember.”
The first sign of that familiar fire flashed in her eyes. “Oh no? Are you planning to stick around?”
I never really went anywhere.
“Are you?”
It wasn’t a fair question. This right here was more than we could ever have. She had another life half a world away. Even if she stayed in New York, it might as well be another planet. Her stay in this part of the city was temporary.
She belonged in a penthouse on the park. Not some shithole with a fireman who scraped by.
