Rand leads me out of the living room and to the front door, Lorelei following behind us. Food sounds good, but a hot shower sounds better as I can’t get the smell of hot dogs and beer out of my head.
Twisting the knob, Rand pulls the door open and I see both Jake and Bridger standing at the bottom of the porch talking to Detective Blanton. Both their heads turn our way, Jake’s eyes going to Lorelei’s, where he does a quick up and down to ensure she’s fine and then gives her a transparent look that says, I’m so proud of you, glad you’re safe, and I’m going to kill that asshole if I find him for even coming on to my property, but before that, I’m going to take you inside and fuck you because I love you so much.
Bridger looks straight at me, his eyes also roaming over me quickly and coming to stop at the bandage on my neck. His lips flatten out in a grimace, his eyes coming back to mine where he gives me a sad look. He turns back to Jake, claps him on the shoulder, and then turns to Rand as he leads me down the porch steps.
When my feet hit the bottom, Bridger reaches a hand out and grips my chin. “You okay?”
“Yeah… I’m fine.”
He nods and then looks to Rand, nodding upward to his apartment. “We need to talk.”
Chapter 21
Rand
I didn’t think I could be strung any tighter.
Cat was attacked on the doorstep of our home and it was nothing more than a fortuitous moment that Lorelei happened to come home at that exact time. I shudder thinking about the alternative because that means I’d have to imagine Cat laying broken, raped, and dead for us to find when we got home later, and that’s not something I can handle.
But when Bridger says we need to talk, my body tightens even more and my teeth slam together so hard I think they may have cracked.
“Come on up,” I tell Bridger as I grip Cat’s hand tighter and lead her to the stairwell. Bridger follows behind, and we easily navigate our way as the police have a large ground lamp set up on the driveway as they look at footprints and comb the area for anything that can assist them in the investigation. I’m assuming that whoever attacked Cat knocked out the security light because it’s not on.
The wooden porch at the top of the stairs is empty, but there were some technicians up there when I arrived a bit ago dusting for prints on the door. They had confirmed it was still locked and the apartment was secure, but they figured the attacker could have tried to get inside first before Cat arrived. Black dust smudges the doorknob, but I ignore it as I release Cat’s hand to pull my keys out and open the door.
We’re all silent as we walk in, and I quickly turn on lights in the living room and kitchen. Cat goes to the couch and sits on it with a sigh. Her plaid blouse is still open, the white camisole underneath demurely hiding everything, but I don’t miss the fact the buttons are missing with pieces of thread hanging from the places they were once secured.
My teeth clamp down harder and my jaw starts to hurt from the force of it. I want to kill someone… well, Kevin to be exact because I know damn well he’s behind this. Then I want just a few minutes with the guy who dared to attack Cat because he’s going to regret the day his sorry, piece-of-shit mother ever gave birth to him because he’d rather have not been born than what I intend to do to him.
I go to the cabinet to the right of the sink and pull out a can of chicken noodle soup. It’s the best I can manage for Cat at this moment, and I go about making it silently because I’m afraid if I open my mouth to talk about the events of the last hour I’m going to lose my shit. Bridger comes into the kitchen, takes a seat at the table, and watches me silently. He said we need to talk and I’m not sure what he’s waiting for, but I wait all the same. Not sure if he means he wants to talk to me privately or if he’s just waiting until I can feed Cat.
While the soup heats, I pull an open bottle of white wine from the fridge that Cat had put there. I also grab two beers for Bridger and me. Cat gets up from the couch, walks into the kitchen, and accepts a glass of wine from me as she sits down at the other chair I have at my tiny table.
“Why are you here?” she asks Bridger bluntly after taking a sip of the wine and setting it down before her. “How did you know this was going on?”
“I didn’t,” he says. “Shocked the shit out of me when I pulled up and saw the circus. Jake and that cop filled me in.”