Theirs to Keep (17 page)

C H A P T E R     T H I R T Y - O N E

CADE TURNED ON THEIR STREET and accelerated before slowing for the one stop sign before the house. He frowned when he saw a myriad of cop cars with flashing lights and two ambulances parked in what looked like
his
yard.

What the fuck?

He automatically checked his phone, wondering if he’d missed anything, but there were no missed calls or texts. He floored the accelerator and raced down the street, his pulse pounding in his ears.

He’d assumed when he’d gotten to the office and no one was there that Merrick and Elle had just gone home after his training session. He’d driven straight to the house thinking they could have a late lunch together.

As he pulled up, he saw Merrick’s Hummer parked to the side, and to further his what-the-fuck reaction, two paramedics were loading a strange guy into the back of the ambulance. Even from a distance, Cade could see the blood on the man’s face.

He slammed on the brakes and slid out, engine still running. As soon as he got to the edge of the driveway, he was held up by two cops.

“I live here,” Cade bit out. “What the fuck is going on?”

One of them looked relieved. “Thank God. Maybe you can help us with her.”

Cade froze at the mention of
her
.

“We can’t get near her. She’s out of it. She called 911 saying she’d killed a guy.”

The cop jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward the ambulance the stranger had been loaded onto.

“That guy over there. When we got here, she was barely conscious and lying next to the guy on the floor of the garage. She took a crowbar to him. But as soon as we tried to touch her, she went ballistic. No one can get near her. Right now, someone’s trying to get close enough to sedate her so we can take her to the hospital. She’s pretty banged up. Looks like the guy worked her over before she got ahold of him with the crowbar.”

“Where the fuck is Merrick?” Cade exploded.

The policeman’s brow wrinkled. “There’s no one here but her and the dude she beat the shit out of.”

Not waiting to hear anything more, Cade broke and ran for the garage. What he saw made his stomach bottom out.

Elle was hunched in a protective posture, her legs drawn up as close to her body as she could get them. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her legs, and her head was buried between her knees.

A female police officer and one of the paramedics were a short distance away trying to talk her down. The police officer reached out to touch her arm, and Elle reacted violently, jerking away and sliding back in panic.

Cade pushed his way through and dropped to his knees beside her. He gathered her tightly in his arms, ignoring the way she went tense from head to toe.

“Elle, it’s me, Cade. It’s me, honey. I’ve got you.”

For a long moment, he thought he hadn’t been able to penetrate her consciousness, but then she went utterly limp and wrapped herself around his much bigger body so there wasn’t a breath between them.

He kissed her head, his mind a whirl of confusion. What the hell had happened?

“Make them go away,” she whispered. “Please, Cade, just make them all go away.”

Cade stared at the sea of police officers and medical personnel. His heart sank. He knew how terrified she was of policemen, but he couldn’t make them go away. Not even for her. “I can’t do that, honey, I’m sorry.”

She buried her face in his neck and clung like a burr to him. He shifted his weight so he could push up from the hard concrete. It couldn’t be comfortable for her to be on the ground, and he needed to see the extent of her injuries.

“Talk to me, Elle,” he gently coaxed. “How bad is it? Can you stand? Where are you hurt? Hold onto me, honey. I won’t let you fall.”

He rose, taking her with him before he allowed her to put her feet down. His arm stayed firmly around her because she was wobbly as a newborn colt, and he worried if he let go, she’d face plant right in front of him.

He was about to motion to the paramedic to bring the damn stretcher because she wasn’t going to make it, when Merrick and Dakota shoved their way into the garage, their brows drawn in confusion and concern.

Dakota paled and rubbed his hands uneasily down his pants when he got a look at Elle.

Merrick promptly lost his mind. “What the fuck happened here? What the hell happened to Elle?” There was rage and fear in the big man’s eyes. His hands were curled into tight fists at his sides, but Cade knew that look. Merrick was about to kick some serious ass, and if Cade didn’t get a handle on this quickly, they’d all end up in jail.

Cade held up his free hand to stop the flow of Merrick’s tirade.

“I don’t know yet, man. I just got here. I don’t know what the hell is going on. I’m hoping the police will fill me in, but first I need to make sure Elle is taken care of.”

“Why the hell did you leave the gym?” Merrick demanded. “You should have never left on your own. We’ve been over this, Elle!”

Cade could hear the worry in Merrick’s voice and knew he was reacting to the same gut-wrenching fear that had gripped Cade when he’d first arrived. But Elle went stiff next to him and then pushed away from his body. Her eyes filled with tears as she stared at Merrick and Dakota with so much hurt in her gaze that it took Cade’s breath away. What the ever-loving fuck was going on here? Then she simply turned and slowly and painfully walked away, pushing into the house and slamming the door behind her.

He turned on Merrick. “Have you lost your goddamn mind? What the hell were you yelling at her for?”

Merrick was pale, and his fists still curled tight at his sides. “I didn’t mean to yell at her, for God’s sake. She scared the piss out of me. I just don’t understand why she left the gym and came here alone. She’s never supposed to go
anywhere
alone!”

Dakota looked like he was going to puke, but Cade didn’t have time to figure out what the hell his problem was.

Two of the police officers stepped forward, and one spoke up. “We’re going to need a statement from her, and she really needs to be looked at. When we arrived on scene, there was a lot of blood on her, and she was having a hard time breathing.”

“Just give me a minute,” Cade said holding out his hand. “I’ll go in after her.”

The officer put his hand out over Cade’s. “With all due respect, sir, this is a crime scene. I’ll be coming with you inside.”

Cade looked at him like he was crazy. “You don’t think she’s committed a crime. Are you insane? Did you see her?”

The officer sighed. “I have to take her statement, and I’d like to do it as soon as possible. If she’s well enough not to be transported to the hospital, then we can do it here. Otherwise we’ll swing by the ER and talk to her there.”

Cade blew out his breath, called back the torrent of curses and then stalked toward the door, determined to get to Elle and sort out this nightmare.

Merrick was on his heels, and the two burst through the kitchen and into the living room. Finding it empty, Cade headed to the bedroom they shared only to find it empty as well. He walked down the hall to the room Elle had first stayed in, and when he opened the door, he couldn’t control his reaction to the sight before him.

Elle was sitting on the bed, her shirt pulled up to bare her ribcage which was already purple with bruising. One hand was pressed to her side and it was obvious she was struggling for breaths. Tears ran unchecked down her cheeks, mixing with the blood from her nose and mouth.

“Dear God,” Merrick said in a horrified voice.

Her gaze yanked upward, hurt crowding her eyes once more as she looked at the two men. She pulled her shirt down and immediately covered herself protectively as he and Merrick surged forward.

Cade dropped to his knees in front of her, his hands immediately going to her shirt so he could pull it back up.

“What the hell happened, Elle?”

“He punched me,” she said in a choked voice. “Twice. And then he kicked me. It hurts to breathe.”

“She needs to get to the hospital,” the police officer said in a terse voice. He’d followed Cade and Merrick inside, and his expression was grim as he took in the bruising on Elle’s side and abdomen.

“Fuck yeah,” Merrick growled.

Merrick strode forward, his intention clear as he reached for Elle. To Cade’s surprise, she turned into him, huddling into his arms. She turned her face away from Merrick, and hot tears slid onto Cade’s collarbone.

Merrick took a step back, shock and confusion etched in his expression. For now, Cade had to ignore whatever the hell was going on because Elle needed immediate care, and this time Dallas’s clinic wasn’t going to cover it.

With infinite care, he stood, cradling Elle in his arms, and then he walked out of the bedroom, leaving the cop and Merrick to follow.

When he got outside, he saw that a stretcher had been pulled into the garage, and he carefully lowered Elle onto it. Dakota pushed off the wall of the garage, his face ashen.

“Is she okay?” Dakota asked.

“We don’t know yet,” Cade said grimly.

Elle slid her hand into his, her grip so tight that his fingers were bloodless.

“Don’t leave me,” she whispered. “I don’t want to go alone.”

He leaned down and kissed her forehead as the paramedic began to push her toward the waiting ambulance.

“I’m not going anywhere, honey. I’ll be right by your side the entire time.”

C H A P T E R     T H I R T Y - T W O

MERRICK PACED THE WAITING ROOM of the ER about to go insane waiting for someone to come out and let them know how Elle was.

They’d given her name as Elle Walker and listed their address. When prompted for other identifying information, they’d simply said in the confusion and the rush to get her to the hospital that they hadn’t gotten her wallet.

Until Dallas came through with her Social Security number and birth certificate, she was still…
nobody
.

God, he just wanted to hurry up and be able to see her so he could apologize for being such an asshole. He had no excuse. He’d seen her there, bloody and clothing torn, and he’d reacted emotionally in his terror.

Cade was in no better shape. He stood across the room staring out the window, his hands shoved into his pockets. But his foot tapped anxiously against the floor, and tension rolled off him in waves.

What surprised Merrick was how strung out Dakota looked. The man looked ill. His face was ashen and he sat in a chair away from Cade and Merrick with his head down, hands clasped over his nape.

“Son of a bitch, what’s taking so long?” Cade burst out.

“I wish to hell I knew,” Merrick said tightly. “I was a complete dick to her. She was attacked and injured, and I yelled at her for leaving the gym. God, I’m an asshole.”

Dakota lurched to his feet and looked like he’d vomit.

“Merrick,” he began in an uneasy voice. “I have to tell you what I did. I can’t let you think… Jesus…” He broke off and ran his hand wearily through his hair. “God, I’m sorry, man.”

Merrick’s stomach coiled into a knot as he stared at his longtime friend and trainer. At the guilt brimming in his eyes. “What the fuck did you
do
?” he asked in a low, menacing voice.

“Dakota?” Catherine asked in a worried tone from the doorway to the waiting room.

Dakota glanced in his wife’s direction, shame dulling his features.

Merrick advanced. “What. Did. You.
Do
?”

“I told her to leave,” Dakota choked out. “I was pissed because the sparring session wasn’t going well and your concentration was shot to shit and you kept looking over at her and I knew you were distracted. So when you went to the locker room, I tossed her the keys and told her to split.”

“You did
what
?” Cade yelled.

Merrick couldn’t even respond. He was too dumfounded. Too rattled by the fact that someone he trusted so implicitly had placed Elle in a dangerous situation. She could have been killed. As it was, some asshole had beaten the hell out of her, and she’d had to defend herself with a crowbar. And now she was carrying the weight of nearly killing another man. And hell, he may die yet. He was in critical condition with a brain bleed. They were taking him to surgery right now.

“I never imagined something like this would happen,” Dakota said, closing his eyes. His entire posture was defeated, his shoulders sagging. “I just thought it would be a good idea if she went home so you could get your head back into the game. We have four weeks until this fight, and I want you at the top of your game.”

“So you sent the woman I love into a dangerous situation—a situation you were well aware of, Dakota. Hell, she just got caught in an office building after being shot at and the building torched. You knew we weren’t sending her anywhere without one of us at all times. Why the fuck would you take it upon yourself to send her home behind my back?”

“I was doing what I thought was best for you,” Dakota said in a frustrated voice. “You don’t see it, Merrick, but the rest of us do. Your edge is slipping. You aren’t as sharp as you were even a month ago. You’re going to fuck up the
one
shot you have at the big time. If you won’t think about yourself, then at least think of the rest of us who’ve spent years supporting you and building you up and making sacrifices because we believed in you.”

A garbled sound of rage bubbled from Cade’s throat, but Merrick held up his hand. He had this.

“You placed a woman in a position of danger and vulnerability. How exactly did you expect she’d defend herself if something like this happened? You didn’t tell me what you’d done. You could have picked up the phone and called Cade to let him know. You could have called Dallas. Cade’s dad. There’s a hell of a lot you could have done, and you didn’t do shit. This is on you, Dakota, and I’m not going to forget it. You’re fired.”

Catherine made a sound of pain, and when he looked at her, her eyes were wounded.

“I’m sorry, Cathy,” Merrick said quietly.

Catherine walked forward, tentatively touching Merrick on the arm. “Think about it, Merrick. Don’t make any hasty decisions. Dakota was a dickhead, but he’s a dickhead who loves you and is loyal to a fault. Maybe too loyal. He’s not used to having to share you with others, but he’ll learn. Sleep on it please, and we can talk when emotions aren’t so high.”

Merrick kissed her cheek. “I can’t guarantee anything, Cathy. He betrayed my trust. He betrayed Elle.”

“I’m sorry, man,” Dakota said, sadness so deep in his eyes that it made Merrick’s gut clench. “I fucked up. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I don’t want to throw away the years we have together over this.”

“
You
did this,” Merrick pointed out.

“Yeah, I know,” Dakota said quietly. He turned to his wife. “Come on, Cathy. Let’s leave them to see to Elle.”

With an unhappy frown and one last look in Merrick’s direction, Catherine followed her husband out of the waiting room.

“Son of a bitch, I fucked up,” Merrick swore when Dakota and Catherine had gone. “I was such a bastard to her. And fuck it all, I’ll never forget that look in her eyes when I yelled at her about leaving when Dakota was the one who kicked her out. I can only imagine how she felt and how embarrassing it was for her when Dakota acted like a dickhead and tossed her out of the gym. And then I blame her for what happened to her. Jesus, but when I fuck up, I fuck up big.”

“We still don’t even know what happened,” Cade said wearily. “It’s all very bizarre. It’s pissing me off that they kicked us out of her room and won’t let us be in there with her.”

“That’s bullshit,” Merrick fumed. “They can’t keep us away from her, and you know what? I’m tired of this crap. I’m going in to see her, and they’re going to have to arrest me to keep me out.”

Cade grinned. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Merrick pushed through the door leading to the exam rooms,Cade on his heels, and he went down the hall, peeking into every single one until finally he came to where Elle was.

His heart squeezed nearly out of his chest when he saw her lying in the hospital bed curled into a small ball. A police officer sat next to the bed, and it appeared that he was questioning her in a gentle voice. But Elle was terrified, her face so ashen that she looked close to passing out.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Cade demanded, his voice cracking like a whip through the room.

The officer jerked around, his brows drawn into angry slashes. “I’m questioning Miss Walker. Get the hell out.”

Cade advanced menacingly. “I was very explicit that no one, and I mean
no one,
was to be in this room unless Merrick or I were with her. She’s scared shitless, and you’re going to intimidate her into answering your questions?”

“I wasn’t intimidating her,” the officer snapped. “I was trying to get her side of the story. There’s a man in ICU, and she looks like a bus ran over her. And there’s blood all over her garage floor. I’m just doing my job, so chill out.”

“You don’t say
jack
to her without us present,” Merrick snarled. “And only if she consents. Did you even ask her if she felt well enough to talk to you?”

The officer remained silent.

“I didn’t think so,” Cade bit out.

Cade plopped into the chair on the opposite side of the bed, staring challengingly at the police officer. “We aren’t leaving.”

The police officer turned to Elle. “If you’d prefer they not be here, I’ll make sure they’re escorted out.”

One part of Merrick appreciated that the cop was looking out for Elle. The other part wanted to ask him and what
army
would be escorting them out?

“They can stay. I want them to stay. They need to hear what happened. The threat was to them,” she said, her voice still shaking.

She fingered the sheet covering her nervously, the tips white from her grip. She was obviously terrified of the cop and trying valiantly to hold it together.

Cade leaned forward, his frown dark. “I’m more concerned with whether you’ve been taken care of first. Have they treated you? Are you in any pain? Your statement can damn well wait until after you’re more comfortable.”

She smiled faintly. “They did x-rays already, and they gave me a shot of pain medicine.” She lifted her wrist where the IV was inserted to show him. “Just waiting on the doctor to come back with the report.”

“She was nearly hysterical. She
was
hysterical,” the cop said grimly. “They had to give her something to calm her before she hurt herself.”

“Ever occur to you that you could be part of the problem?” Cade said rudely. “No one should have so much as looked at her until we were allowed to see her. She’s been brutalized by some creep, and then she was surrounded by strangers.”

The officer nodded. “I understand. I apologize, Miss Walker, if I frightened you in any way. I only want to help you, and in order to do that, I have to get to the bottom of this.”

She nodded hesitantly, but the fear was still there in her eyes.

Merrick sat on the end of the bed, anxious to be rid of the cop so he could make things right with Elle. It was killing him not to touch her or hold her in his arms.

The officer cleared his throat. “If I can get back to the matter at hand. Can you tell me exactly what occurred when you arrived at your home?”

Elle swallowed and grew paler. It was automatic for Merrick to place his hand over her sheet-covered leg. Just so she’d know that he was there and that things were okay now.

“Will I…” She drew in a big breath and then grimaced and put her hand to her ribcage, flinching in pain caused by the deep inhalation. “Will I be arrested for what I did?” she asked in a small voice.

“What the fuck?” Cade exploded. “Over my dead body! Is that what they’ve been telling you, Elle?”

The officer held his hand up. “No one has said anything of the sort. Preliminary evidence shows this to be a matter of self-defense. The sooner I can get her statement, the sooner we can be done with this. I don’t see any reason that any action will be taken against her unless we find evidence that contradicts her statement.”

Merrick’s lips twisted as he tried to control his anger.

“Now, if you can start from the beginning,” the officer said patiently.

He shot Cade and Merrick a quelling look before directing his attention back to Elle.

“I got out of the truck and went through the garage to the kitchen door. Before I could unlock it, he grabbed me from behind. He wrapped his hand around my neck and squeezed so hard I couldn’t breathe.”

As she spoke, her hand fluttered to her throat where bruises had already appeared. It pissed Merrick off all the more that she’d been there alone and unprotected when she damn well should have been with him at the gym. He was going to take Dakota apart over this.

“He yanked me backwards, and when I tried to fight, he punched me in the side.”

Cade balled both hands into fists, and his entire body vibrated with rage.

“I don’t remember a whole lot more,” she confessed. “He told me that he had a message for ‘my boys’ and that if they didn’t drop the charges, he would come back and ‘fuck me up.’”

The officer was steadily jotting down her every word, and he frowned as she said the last. Then he turned in Cade and Merrick’s direction.

“Drop what charges?”

Cade sighed. “I can’t be one hundred percent sure, but I’m at least ninety-nine that this is retaliation for the guy we had arrested a while back for trying to steal a car from a client’s car lot. Our office was shot up and torched the very next day and now this.”

Merrick shook his head, sick at heart that Elle was being targeted because of him and Cade.

To Cade and Merrick he said, “I’ll need to know more about what happened after I’ve spoken to Miss Walker.” Then the officer turned back to Elle. “So what happened after that?”

“He punched me again in the side and then he turned me and hit me in the face. He let me fall, and I remember lying on the floor of the garage thinking that I couldn’t allow it to happen again.”

The police officer frowned. “Again? What do you mean by that?”

Elle immediately went silent. Her gaze skittered toward Cade, fear making her eyes large against her pale face.

“Someone hurt her before,” Cade said shortly.

Before the officer could pursue the matter, Elle stammered on, trying to cover what she’d let slip.

“I just knew I had to get away. I didn’t know what he planned to d-do to m-me. I thought that he wouldn’t expect me to do anything but lie there, so I lunged for a crowbar that was a short distance away and…I hit him,” she finished quietly.

“Good for you,” Merrick said fiercely.

Even the cop looked approving.

“I hit him more than once,” she said in an almost apologetic tone. “I was so scared. I thought he would kill me.”

The officer put his hand over Elle’s and squeezed soothingly. “You did fine, Miss Walker. I don’t think there’s any doubt you acted in self-defense. Hell, if you had killed him, I don’t think anyone would hold it against you.”

Elle went quiet, eyeing the officer’s hand, but she was still. Oddly so. Whatever panic she was feeling, she controlled it well.

“Son of a bitch needs killing,” Cade growled. “He has a beef with us so he roughs up a woman?”

The officer muttered his agreement.

Elle carefully extricated her hand from the officer’s grasp before continuing on. “After he went down, I fell and then I called 911. I don’t remember anything else. Just so many people showing up and all the noise and questions.”