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“While that’s understandable, if not expected,” Kaleb continues as if he wasn’t just threatened, “that sound you made wasn’t normal. You’re in pain.”
I nod even though it wasn’t a question.
“Why?” he asks gently.
Unlike his impatiently pacing brother, Kaleb waits quietly as I blink up at him, tears spilling over.
“My shoulder and my chest,” I whisper, tilting my head toward my arm resting above my head.
Kaleb nods, eyeing it thoughtfully. “You didn’t fall on your shoulder earlier.”
“No,” I confirm.
Again, he waits for me to elaborate in my own time. “That sister of yours is a menace.”
Both men freeze.
“She drives like she’s on a race track. We hit the tree coming around the corner, and the seat belt hurt my shoulder. My ribs, too,” I tell him, pointing in the direction we came from.
Kaleb’s body drops at my answer but barely makes contact with mine before Michael hits him.
“Did you just punch me in the ass?” Kaleb shrieks.
Michael ignores the question and instead demands, “Get your body off hers!”
Kaleb doesn’t move. “My brother just punched me in the ass,” he tells me like he still can’t believe it.
“Tiny pieces, Kaleb,” Michael growls.
I don’t understand the words, but Kaleb clearly does as he planks his body over mine, making sure no part of himself touches me.
Back on track, he gestures to my prone arm with his chin. “Can you move it?”
“I’d rather not.”
Tears fill my eyes at the idea of enduring that kind of pain again.
Maybe I can just stay here? Shrivel up and die of humiliation.
Like he can read my mind, Kaleb gives me a reassuring smile. “You’re okay, Lara. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Michael,” he calls out, “you going to let anything happen to Lara?”
“Fuck no!” Michael answers immediately. “Why would you even ask that? Does she think that?” the large man asks, still trying to peer into the car over his brother’s long frame.
“Here is what’s going to happen,” Kaleb says loud enough for the other man to hear but without taking his gray eyes off me. “I’m going to go to the other side and help support your shoulders as you sit up. Michael’s going to bring your arm with me.”
“Nuh-uh,” I hum, shaking my head.
Kaleb raises his brow. “I wasn’t asking, Fawn.”
I frown at the nickname and the sweet way he said it. I thought he tried to insult me with it earlier, but now, with the way he’s looking at me, it feels kind of nice. Like the big brother I never had.
I swallow the lump that forms in my throat. It’s been a long time since someone cared enough to protect me. Maybe that’s why I didn’t freak out earlier when Kaleb joked about Michael stalking me on my runs. Even as a joke—because that’s what it had to have been—it’s nice to pretend someone cares.
Lost in thought, I miss Kaleb exiting the car.
Michael positions himself over me with his knees on either side of my hips. Gently, as if I’m made of glass, he lowers my right arm, tucking it at my side and trapping it with his knee.
“Let’s keep that hand there, shall we?” I feel his hands moving under me to cradle my shoulders, his face hovering just above my own.
