“I said, I know. There will be consequences for the person responsible.”
Kayden stepped toward his brother, but Tilly grabbed his arm with one hand and touched her temple with her other. “Kayden…can you just take me home? I’m tired.”
His eyes shifted back to her, and whatever he saw made his anger shift to concern. “Yeah, let’s go, honey.”
Kayden pacedaround Tilly’s kitchen. She’d been quiet the entire drive home, but then, so had he. The fury was so fucking fierce that he’d wanted to storm back into the station, find the officer responsible for her treatment, and drive his fist into their face.
They’dhurther. Not only that, but she’d been a second away from passing out. Dehydrated. Tired.
A vein throbbed in his temple as he glanced at her half-closed bedroom door.
He’d kept that rage inside him, locked away, because she hadn’t needed that. She’d needed comfort. Someone to be by her side and make sure she was looked after.
His brother had called to tell him that the officer had been reprimanded. It wasn’t enough. But then, nothing would be.
He tried to hold off going into her bedroom, to give her space, but every minute that ticked by felt like ten. He’d already given her some water and painkillers, but he wanted to do more.
Fuck it.
He pushed off the counter and walked to the bedroom, knocking on the door. When there was no answer, he stepped inside to see the room empty. Was she in the bathroom? The shower didn’t sound like it was on.
He moved to the bathroom door and knocked.
There was a short silence before her quiet response. “Yes?”
“Can I come in, honey?”
Another pause, this one longer. “I’m a mess.”
He cracked the door open to see her sitting on the edge of the bathtub in her bra and panties. Her eyes were red-rimmed and so sad he could have drowned in them. Had she even showered yet?
His heart cracked, and he crossed the space between them and crouched in front of her. “Tell me what’s going on in your head, Till.”
If she said one word about that damn officer, Kayden didn’t fucking care that the guy was a deputy, he was going down there and laying into him.
Her chin dipped and she stared at her hands in her lap. “I keep telling myself I’m strong enough to do this. To be here. But today…it just kicked my ass and made me question whether that’s true.” A single tear slipped down her cheek, but it may as well have been a hundred.
He reached up and swiped it away with the pad of his thumb. “You’re the strongest person I know. Anyone else would have packed up and left by now.”
She slid a finger over the red marks on her wrists. “Someone tried to frame me for murder, Kayden.”
The anger in his chest expanded, threatening to tear him in two. He covered her hand with his own. “They did. And I swear to you that we will find the person responsible and make them pay.”
Her brows drew together, her gaze finally rising to his, shifting between his eyes. “You fought for me to get out of there.”
“Of course I did.” God, the very thought of her sitting in an interrogation room, being treated like shit, hurt like a fist around his heart.
“Even when all the evidence was stacked against me.”
He reached up and slipped a lock of hair behind her ear. “I told you—I trust you. There is no evidence that could ever make me believe you were involved in murder.”
Another tear fell, but this time, before he could swipe it away, she leaned her head forward so her temple touched his shoulder and let her tears soak his shirt. “Thank you.”
Without missing a beat, he stood, lifting her into his arms. Her legs wrapped around him and she fit so perfectly in his hold.
He wanted to tear down this town. Make every person who’d hurt her pay, including himself. But for now, he needed to be her comfort. Her sanctuary.
He turned on the shower. When steam began to billow in the room, he lowered her to her feet and tugged off his shirt, then pushed down his jeans and briefs. She didn’t move as he reached behind her and unhooked her bra. Or when he slid down her panties.
