“Don’t listen to him,” Kelsey’s dad said to Hunt. “He’s still grouchy the airline lost his bag.”
“Damn right I’m grouchy about that. It still hasn’t shown up yet.”
“How is your head, really?” Kelsey’s mom asked. “That is a nasty bruise.”
“It’s fine.”
“And your leg? Kelsey said you needed stitches.”
This time Kelsey couldn’t keep from glancing back toward the kitchen. Hunt was still watching her, barely even paying attention to the questions from her parents and brother. “My leg’s fine. It was nothing.”
Thomas slipped behind Hunt and tugged the fridge open. “When are we eating? I’m starving already.”
“You’re always starving.” Hannah stepped around her husband and reached for the fridge door while her youngest son dug through the contents. “Thomas, don’t eat that. It’ll ruin your appetite. Rusty, I need you to go start the grill before Thomas devours everything that’s not nailed down.”
“Olives!” Emma jumped to her feet when she spotted the jar in Thomas’s hand and sprinted into the kitchen.
“Emma,” Raegan called, “Only three. Thomas don’t let her eat too many of those. She’ll get sick.”
Chaos was already reigning supreme, just like at every other McClane family get-together, but it didn’t stir Kelsey up, if anything it relaxed her a little more.
Alec moved into the living room and slung his arm over Kelsey’s shoulder. Ethan moved up by his wife’s side and slipped an arm around her waist.
“So tell the truth.” Alec pointed over his shoulder to where Kelsey knew Hunt was still standing in the kitchen. “How relieved are you to get away from that smelly guy? He didn’t try anything on you, did he? Cause if he did, we can kick his ass.”
Kelsey tensed. From the corner of her eye, she didn’t miss the way Rusty’s gaze narrowed across the room and zeroed in on her as he lowered his book.
“Yeah, we’re good at that.” Thomas stopped on her other side, popping an olive in his mouth. He puffed out his chest and pounded his fist against his sternum with a grunt. “Just like cavemen.”
A nervous laugh slipped past Kelsey’s lips, and she quickly shrugged out from under Alec’s arm, not wanting to give anything away. Alec might be teasing, but she could see Rusty was suddenly paying very close attention, and she didn’t want to do or say anything that would set him off. “Why on earth would you think that?”
“Why are you acting so weird?” Alec asked, looking after her. “It was just a question.”
Thankfully, her father pulled her to safety and steered her to the kitchen so she didn’t have to answer. “Back off and give the girl some room so she can breathe. She’s been through a traumatic experience.”
Hell yeah, she had.
Her situation didn’t improve though, because her father brought her to a stop only feet from Hunt. Who was still watching her like a hawk. Only in his familiar brown eyes she didn’t see that same flash of anger she’d seen in the car, she saw a whole lot of guilt.
“Now, you two,” her father said. “Tell us what’s really going on. We saw the news about this man named Foster. How is he linked to what happened in Portland? And what, exactly, happened when you were in California?”
Kelsey’s entire body grew hot, not just from the question but from the look she saw in Hunt’s eyes. A look that told her he knew he’d seriously fucked up.
She just wasn’t sure if that look was because of what had happened in the car, or with Foster, or with their entire relationship.
If Hunt was planning to leave, Kelsey wasn’t sure why he was prolonging the inevitable.
They’d had dinner. Sitting around the table, they’d both rationally told her parents everything that had happened in Portland regarding the bombing and with Julian. They’d also relayed everything they’d learned in California about Foster and Vivienne Armstrong. Avoiding, of course, any discussion about what had happened between them personally.
Kelsey wasn’t exactly sure if she was relieved or pissed off about that fact. She’d let Hunt take the lead talking about California, curious what he would say. Since they really weren’t speaking to each other right now, it was probably a good thing he hadn’t admitted anything. But at the same time, it only made her more anxious for him to leave.
Her brothers and father had immediately launched into a discussion with Hunt about what was best for her after that, and unable to listen to a minute more of the men in her life trying to decide her future, she pushed back from the dining table and looked toward her niece Emma, playing on the floor in the living area with two trucks and a Ken doll she’d dismembered. “Hey, Em. Wanna go downstairs with me and play cards?”
Emma jumped to her feet in her cute little pink dress and yelled, “Yes!” Rushing over to where the adults were sitting, she wrapped her little hand around Kelsey’s and dragged her toward the staircase that led down to the daylight basement. “I know where Thomas keeps his special cards too. I’ll show you. They’re in his room. Some of them have naked boobies on them.”
Alec, Rusty, and Ethan all busted out laughing. From the end of the table, Ethan said to Thomas, “As your former counselor, I can officially diagnose you as seriously screwed.”
“Ethan McClane,” Hannah admonished.
“Sorry, Mom, but it’s true.”
Thomas’s face turned beet red, and he lurched out of his chair, chasing after Kelsey and Emma. “I told you to stay out of my stuff, Em. You’re in big trouble now.”
Kelsey let Emma drag her downstairs while the rest of her family returned to the topic of her psychotic stalker. Since Thomas had taken over the lowest level of her parents’ house, it was a total man cave. There was a small bar area to the left that was never stocked with alcohol since Thomas was only eighteen. A pool table sat in the center of the room, and a couch and chairs on the far side faced a flat-screen TV surrounded by bookshelves filled with Xbox games. Another wall of windows looked out over a covered patio and view of the lake. And what used to be her dad’s exercise room but was now Thomas’s bedroom opened through a doorway to the right.
Emma let go of Kelsey’s hand as soon as they stepped off the bottom stair and raced toward Thomas’s bedroom door with a squeal. “I’ll show you where his cards are.”
Shoving past Kelsey, Thomas rushed after her. “Don’t you dare touch my stuff, Em.”
Kelsey looked after them, crossing her arms over her chest as she shook her head. She’d thought getting away from all the chitchat upstairs would make her feel better, but it hadn’t. All she could think about was the fact Hunt had been in this house for several hours but still hadn’t said a single goddamn thing to her. Was everything in California just a complete lie?
“Kelsey.”
Her heart picked up speed at the sound of Hunt’s voice behind her, and a little thrill shot through her, one that only angered her more because she knew if he touched her she’d probably completely back down like the weak woman she didn’t want to be.
She dropped her arms and faced him. “Just go back up—”
Emma’s high-pitched scream drew both of their heads around.
“I swear to God, Em,” Thomas yelled, “if you don’t get out of my room, I’m not gonna let you play on my Xbox ever again!”
From the staircase above, Alec yelled, “What the hell is going on down there?”
Kelsey took one breath and glanced up, ready to holler back that he should get down here and intervene, but before she could get the words out of her mouth, Hunt lowered his body, wrapped his arms around her legs, and hefted her over his shoulder.
She grunted as the air left her lungs and the room tipped. “What the hell, Hunt?” Pressing her hands against his back, she wiggled against his grip. “Put me down.”
Seconds later she was in the wine cellar—or what used to be the wine cellar before Thomas commandeered the basement and her parents turned it into a downstairs pantry for his snacks—and was
dropped to her feet. Hunt shoved the door closed after them, locking them both in darkness.
“What do you think you’re do—”
His mouth closed over hers, cutting off her words. She didn’t see him move. Couldn’t see a damn thing in the dark. But she felt him. She felt him everywhere as he closed in at her front, wrapped his arms around her waist, pinned her against the shelves, then devoured her until her brain was complete mush.
She was seconds away from kissing him back, from caving and giving him what he wanted. Then she remembered all the times she’d caved with Julian, and it was enough to shore up her strength so she could shove her hands against his chest and push him back.
“You can’t just kiss me and expect that to make everything okay.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.” His breath was hot against her lips. Hot and close and so damn tempting it was all she could do not to grab him and pull him back. “I’m not kissing you to make everything okay. I’m kissing you because I’m an idiot. The biggest idiot on the planet. You have every right to be mad at me for what I said to you in the car. I have no excuse except that it scared me. It scared the shit out of me to know he was that close to you and I didn’t even know. The whole drive down here, all I could think about was what would have happened if he’d had another bomb or if, God forbid, he’d had a gun. I wouldn’t have been able to stop him because through that whole damn conversation with Trey Foster, all I’d been thinking about was getting you back up in my bed.”
Kelsey’s heart raced in the darkness. She wasn’t sure what to say to that. Hadn’t expected him to be so honest with her. Or so open. And the tremble she felt against her confirmed just how scared he still was.
She swallowed hard, knowing he hadn’t meant to upset her, but at the same time knowing she could not let that happen again. “You can’t make my decisions for me.”
“I know that.”
“And I’m not going to let you tell me what to do. My brothers have been doing it for years. They’re upstairs trying to do it now. And Julian used to do that to me all the time. I’m not going back to that kind of relationship.”
“I don’t want you to. And I don’t want to tell you what to do. I promise.”
Her anger ebbed, and she slowly curled her fingers in the fabric of his gray button-down. “It scared me too, you know. We were both in that coffee shop, and you were in just as much danger as I was. If Foster had done something and you were hurt, how do you think that would’ve made me feel? He’s not trying to target you. He wants me. You don’t get to corner the market on fear and guilt.”
“I know.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “Forgive me,” he whispered. “Please forgive me for being a jackass.”
The desperation in his voice pushed aside the last of her anger. Lifting her mouth to his, she kissed him. Maybe it made her weak, but she didn’t care. She didn’t want to fight with him anymore.
He groaned, opened to her kiss, and slid his tongue into her mouth. And as he pressed her harder against the shelf, she wrapped her arm around his neck to pull him closer, lifted to her toes so she could kiss him deeper. But something sharp on the shelf scraped against her back, jerking her back from his lips. “Ouch. Wait.” She tried to twist around to see what had scratched her. “Let go for a second. There’s something—”
The door swung open, and light spilled into the small room, blinding them both. Kelsey immediately slammed her eyes shut and lifted her hand to block the glare. “What the he—”
“You son of a bitch.” Rusty’s voice filled the small room. “I knew you couldn’t be trusted.”
Things happened so fast, Kelsey barely had time to react. One second Rusty was pushing Hunt against the shelves on the opposite side of the pantry, the next his arm was swinging back and his fist was plowing into Hunt’s jaw, cracking Hunt’s skull back against the shelf behind him.
Kelsey screamed and scrambled between her brother and Hunt, eyes wide and completely shocked. “Rusty!” She shoved hard against his chest. “Stop!”
Footsteps sounded on the stairs outside. Voices echoed. Thomas was frantically asking what was going on. Ethan and Alec were hollering at Rusty to calm the hell down and struggling to pull him out of the small closet. But the only thing Kelsey could focus on was Hunt standing in a pile of cracker and candy boxes, swiping at a bloody lip.
“Oh my God, you’re bleeding.” She ripped a paper towel off a roll to her left and held it up to his mouth. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She searched his eyes for any sign he wasn’t. Yes, he was bleeding, but it wasn’t bad. He’d had worse from wrestling with Alec, she was sure. But he didn’t look angry. He didn’t look ready to swing back like Julian would have done in the same situation.
Her temper shot right back up, only this time it was directed at her brother. She whipped around and faced Rusty, standing in the doorway of the pantry, trying to shake off Ethan and Alec’s holds. “What the hell was that?”
Rusty stiffened, his black hair mussed, his obsidian eyes a little less violent, but still entirely too on edge for Kelsey’s liking. “You know exactly what that was. I heard you.”
Alec’s blue eyes narrowed. “Heard what?”
Rusty’s jaw clenched down hard. “I heard her tell this asshole to stop and let her go, then when I opened the door, I saw him pinning her up against the wall as he shoved his tongue down her throat.”
Alec and Ethan both tensed and seemed to grow two inches as they puffed out their chests. Even Thomas, behind them, got all brotherly bent out of shape, which was absolutely not going to help the current situation.
“Holy fuck, O’Donnell.” Alec’s eyes flew wide. “What the hell did you do?”
“Oh for shit’s sake.” What was left of Kelsey’s patience bubbled right up and over. “For your information, I’m a grown woman who can make her own damn choices. I don’t need any of your approval.”
“So what was going on in here?” Ethan asked calmly, ever trying to be the peacemaker.
Kelsey glanced over her shoulder at Hunt. But he didn’t meet her eye. He didn’t look at her brothers either. He just stared down at the floor with a guilty expression. One that told Kelsey loud and clear he did not want to be having this conversation.
She narrowed her eyes, unable to believe he wasn’t going to say anything. Especially after that amazing little speech he’d given her. Was he really just going to keep quiet about them now that they’d been found out?
Hunt finally sighed and scrubbed a hand through the back of his hair. “Kels. Gimme a minute with your brothers, why don’t you?”
Gimme a minute. Which meant, let me take care of this on my own. Without your input.
Her jaw clenched down hard because they’d just had this damn conversation.
Shaking her head, she turned away from him and pushed past her brothers. “Fine, whatever. Kill each other for all I care.”
Her father was standing at the bottom of the stairs with a concerned expression. “What’s going on?”
“Men being idiots.”
Emma rushed up and grabbed Kelsey’s hand. “Way to tell ’em, Aunt Kessey. Wanna go run over Ken with my trucks?”
“Why yes, Em. I think that sounds like more fun than I’ve had all day.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Hunt did not look good when he finally came upstairs almost thirty minutes later.
From Kelsey’s spot on the rug in front of the fireplace where she was sitting with Emma, she glanced toward the stairs. Her brothers each emerged with a frown. Her father had an unreadable expression on his face. And Hunt, climbing the steps at the back of the group, looked pale and completely uncomfortable.
Emma made crashing noises as she rammed her Tonka truck over the top of Ken, but Kelsey barely noticed. Hunt’s lip was no longer bleeding, and there were no other visible marks on him from whatever had happened after she’d left, but his uneasy expression told her loud and clear that whatever he’d said had not
gone over well.
She took little joy in the fact he’d been grilled to within an inch of his life. She looked back at Emma on the floor in front of her. If he hadn’t been so bullheaded and sent her upstairs, she could have helped him with that.
“Oh good.” Kelsey’s mother glanced up from the dishwasher where she was loading plates. “No one needs medical attention. I was starting to worry.”
“I would have called you if it got bloody.” Alec moved into the kitchen and kissed his mother on the cheek. “Hunt knew better than to fight back.”
Ethan chuckled and dropped onto the chaise beside Sam where she was sitting near the windows with a magazine and slid an arm around her shoulder. Thomas moved straight to the fridge and pulled it open as if he hadn’t just eaten an hour before. Rusty, looking a little more chill than he’d been earlier, but not by much, crossed to her father’s favorite leather chair on the far side of the room away from the group and picked up the book he’d been reading earlier in the day.
Kelsey’s father wrapped his arm around his wife and rubbed her arm reassuringly. “It’s all good. Just normal male bonding.”
“Uh-huh,” she answered with a grin. “Why do I not believe you, Michael McClane?”
Hunt cautiously stepped onto the carpet where Kelsey sat, his hands tucked into the pockets of his worn jeans, his shoulders tight. Kelsey continued to play with Emma, not about to ask what had happened down there. He wanted to handle it on his own? Fine, he could handle it all on his own.
Across from Kelsey, Raegan, who’d also been sitting on the carpet, glanced up at Hunt, then pushed to her feet. “I think that’s my cue to go hit my husband over the head with a two-by-four.” She squeezed Hunt’s arm as she stepped past him. “Don’t worry. I’ll talk to him.”
“I already did. Though I’m not opposed to accepting help wherever I can get it.”
Kelsey wasn’t really sure what that meant, but she wasn’t in the mood to ask. And she wasn’t in the mood to argue anymore either.
Voices echoed lowly in the room as she shoved Ken’s arms and legs back onto his torso again and set the doll up on the carpet once more so Emma could crash into it with her trucks and dismember the thing. Long seconds later, Hunt slid to the floor beside Kelsey and leaned back against the couch. But he was careful not to touch her, and she didn’t know how to read that or even if she should.