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Another searching glance my way as my sister set the two shopping bags she’d carried in onto the counter. “So, what are you doing here?”
“Did you come over for dinner?” Nolan shouted it right behind Raven’s question, the kid completely missing the implications swirling through the room.
“I was going to?—”
“Yeah, she is staying for dinner, Nolan. So why don’t you guys hang out for a bit, and I’m going to do a quick errand, then I’ll bring dinner back. How’s that sound?”
“It sounds like you’ve got a smart plan, Daddy-O.”
Nah, was probably the biggest fool who lived with the things I was planning to do, but I knew I’d do whatever it took to give Charleigh the life she deserved.
The one she was begging for.
Uncertainty pulled through Charleigh’s expression, and I knew if we were in private, she would demand to know where I was going.I reached out and touched her hand, the girl the flame that licked through my senses.
“Gotta handle something. I’ll be back soon. Chill with my sister and Nolan.”
“Yeah, you should probably go. It seems Charleigh and I need to catch up.” Raven pulled a bottle of wine from a reusable bag and waved it in the air. Unquestionably, Charleigh was about to get the third degree.
But what Charleigh wanted to divulge to her was between them, and I didn’t want to stand in the middle of it.
A small smile tweaked Charleigh’s mouth, and she whispered, “I could definitely use one of those.”
“Good.” I started across the kitchen, ruffling my fingers through Nolan’s hair and tilting my head at Raven’s questioning expression as I passed.
“I’m going to set the alarm tostay,” I told her, which wasn’t exactly that rare since I always wanted them to have extra protection whenever I was away, but I could see it only conjured more questions.
“Okay,” she said.
I dipped out into the garage, opting to take my SUV. The second I pulled out of the driveway, I reached out to the screen and pushed the button to dial Otto’s number.
Knew he was going to be in a stir over what had happened.
It took all of one ring for him to answer. “You want to tell me what the fuck that was about?”
His voice was hard as it filtered through the speakers. Blowing out a sigh, I came up to the stop sign at Vista View, attention darting both ways to make sure it was clear before I made the left and headed in the direction of town.
“Charleigh thought someone was following her.” The words were gravel, aggression coming back on the second I addressed it.
“Yeah, it was clear she was freaking the fuck out. Suffering a full-blown panic attack. Thing I want to know about is why it sent you bolting out the door like a beast ready to tear someone limb from limb right out in the light of day and with an audience. Looked to mea whole lot like you already knew she was in trouble. Want to tell me why that is?”
Otto was always as cool as they came. He wasn’t acting socoolright then.
A harsh sigh raked from my lungs, and my hands clenched down on the steering wheel as I fought the wave of violence that threatened to suck me under. “When I went after her that Saturday night a couple weeks ago?”
“Yeah?”
Roughing a palm over my face, I let go of a heavy expulsion of air. “It wasn’t because I was lookin’ to get my dick sucked like the rest of you assholes were implying. Followed her because I could tell that something had her spooked.”
Okay, it was only partially a lie. Because I wanted that girl’s mouth wrapped around my cock almost as badly as I wanted to sink it into her pussy. Wanted it as badly as I wanted to go on a rampage to hunt down whoever was causing her this threat.
Wanted it more than I’d probably wanted anything in my life, which was so fuckin’ twisted I knew I was teetering on a quickly crumbling cliff.
No chance was I letting that on to Otto.
“She’d frozen right in the middle of a spin out on the dance floor,” I continued. “Like she’d run smack into a ghost. Then she’d panicked and taken off. Think you and I have seen that kind of fear enough times to know what it means, so I followed her home.”
“Ah, shit,” Otto muttered. Dude was instantly on guard, ready to step in. I knew he’d be. The whole crew would be.
