It wasn’t a damned party, and she was hurt, but her blue eyes pleaded with him. He wasn’t a big enough dick to insist when she’d obviously been looking forward to a day out.
Against his better judgment, he said, “You’ll tell me if you start to feel sick, if your head hurts or if you get dizzy?”
“Yes, I promise.”
He blew out a breath. “I do trust you, so if you say you’re not hurt that bad, I’ll take your word for it.”
“Thank you.” She smiled now that she’d gotten her way. “I actually have a first aid kit in the trunk. I just need a bandage or something.”
Or something. “Remember, if you start to feel bad in any way, we’re going.”
“Sure. Whatever.”
Thrusting a hand into his hair, he growled with impotent frustration. She was the most infuriating, unique, incredible woman...
Just then Justice came around the corner, saw them and pulled up at the side of the road.
He whistled when he got out. “Damn, Sahara. You okay?”
Happy now that she’d gotten her way, she all but sang, “Yes, of course,” and went around to the passenger side to get the tissues while Brand opened the trunk.
“She bumped her head,” Brand explained to Justice, watching as Fallon hurried to join Sahara. “I wanted to take her to the hospital—”
“And she refused.” Justice nodded. “Yeah, Sahara isn’t a wimp, but she is god-awful stubborn. It’d probably require a severed limb for her to willingly go.”
Another surge of anger cut through him. “Probably. Help me keep an eye on her, okay?”
“You bet.”
“Did you see the truck?” Brand found the kit and went around to the passenger side.
“Driving like a bat out of hell, one tire blown. I’d have given chase but—”
“You have Fallon with you.”
“Yeah.” Justice added, “Plus I wasn’t sure what had happened with you two, whether or not you needed help.”
While Brand used a premoistened antiseptic swab to clean away the blood from her face, Sahara detailed the “adventure” with enthusiasm. “I was so impressed with Brand’s driving. He’s as good as I am, and you know I don’t give that compliment lightly.”
Justice snorted. “You’re a lunatic. I’m still traumatized from the time you decided we were being chased.”
She grinned. “I thought we were.”
“Bull. You just wanted to show off.”
Her grin widened even more. “You could be right.”
Brand had difficulty breathing, so he sure as hell couldn’t grin. She was hurt, bruised and bleeding. The attacks were adding up. No one knew when the next might happen, or how much worse it might be.
How could she keep joking?
Fallon, Justice’s fiancée, joined them, her soft eyes concerned. “At least you didn’t get much blood in your hair.”
“True. Good thing I’d put it in a braid.” She looked down at herself. “Unfortunately, I did get some on my shirt, but it’s dark so I should be able to rinse it out.”
Already the bleeding had stopped, but Brand saw that the swelling was worse. “We need to get some ice on this.”
“We’re not far from the house,” she said. “I’ll take care of it then.” She stared up at Brand. “Is it colorful?”
“Very.”
“Is that why you look so grim?”
The urge to chase down the bastards and annihilate them scorched any efforts at being pleasant. “We were damn near T-boned on purpose, driven off the road and you got hurt. What do you think would have happened if they’d gotten to you?”
With a small butterfly bandage now on her head, she snuggled against him, saying soothingly, “I knew you wouldn’t let that happen.”
Did she really have that much faith in him—or was it that nothing ever truly rattled her? He couldn’t say, but he crushed her close, uncaring that Justice rolled his eyes and Fallon smiled.
Against his chest, Sahara asked, “Is my car hurt?”
“Yeah, but it can be repaired.”
“I know.” She patted his back. “You recognized them, too?”
“The same bozos I stomped when I—”
“Rescued me.” She leaned back to grin at him. “And this time was no less daring.”
“Sahara,” he said with exasperation. The last thing he wanted was for her to romanticize the whole thing.
She turned to Justice. “I wish you could have seen him step out to the middle of the road, legs braced apart, arms straight as he took aim. Very Dirty-Harryish.” She shivered dramatically. “Made my heart pound, it was so sexy.”
“Yeah,” Justice said, giving Brand a hard whack on the shoulder. “I bet that’s exactly how he wants you to describe it.”
The irony in his tone made Brand’s ears hot. “Fuck off, Justice.”
Both Sahara and Fallon laughed.
With everyone being ridiculous, it was another fifteen minutes before they finally arrived at the house.
Fall was especially in evidence here. Maxi had inherited a small house on a beautiful piece of land, surrounded by an assortment of trees now displaying various shades of red, orange and yellow. Sunlight glittered through the leaves and off the large pond. Dozens of feral cats perched around the property, watching their arrival.
Justice had obviously called ahead because the crew had congregated to greet them. Miles already had an ice pack ready, and his fiancée, Maxi, led Sahara directly to a full lounge chair where she and Catalina, Leese’s wife, insisted she sit.
Good luck with that, Brand wanted to say. He’d be willing to bet Sahara wouldn’t stay down for more than a minute or two. The woman didn’t understand her own lack of strength.
Catalina served Sahara a tall, cool drink. Together, the women huddled around her. They were a mix of styles, with Catalina’s long light brown hair, blue eyes and casual flair for sloppy comfort, Fallon’s shoulder-length dark hair and darker eyes with more tailored clothes, and Maxi’s long blond hair and cutting-edge fashion.
And then there was Sahara, different from each of them, a self-proclaimed shark—who at the moment appeared overwhelmed.
Brand noticed the slightly dumbfounded expression on her face, and found his first smile. To Leese, he asked, “Was this your idea?”
Leese nodded in satisfaction. “I might’ve given the women a nudge, but you know how they are. It didn’t take much.”
“Nurturing,” Miles said. “Every one of them.”
All but Sahara. She was a caring person, but she wasn’t much of a coddler.
He wondered how she’d be with kids. He recalled the assignment she’d had early on protecting the little girl. She’d kill for a child, no problem, and he knew she’d raise a daughter or son to be strong and independent. That was a lot, whether she was into kissing boo-boos or not.
“She’ll tell any one of us to back off,” Leese said, “but she tries to be nicer to the ladies.”
Justice laughed. “I hadn’t noticed that before, but you’re right. Look at her taking aspirin from Fallon! If I tried that, she’d tell me to take them.”
“Or ask you, in a very condescending voice, if you’d managed to hurt yourself,” Miles said.
Brand watched her, how carefully she reacted with the women, how stoic she was about her injury, and he knew he couldn’t fight the inevitable.
He was in love.
It didn’t surprise him; Sahara had been stealing his heart little by little ever since he’d met her.
The big question was what to do about it.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SAHARA FELT...NUMB. If the guys were trying to pin her down, she’d have already, gleefully, rebelled.
But it was the women, and she liked them all so much that she didn’t want to inadvertently offend any of them by telling them to buzz off.
So while Brand and the other men were rapidly building a beautiful gazebo, she sat there like a useless lump in the lounge chair, cats all around her, an ice pack on her head, her drink constantly refilled, even a cushion under her feet...until she couldn’t take it a second longer.
It was almost laughable that when she sat up and tossed aside the ice, all three women jumped toward her.