Chapter 6: LAW

"Get this piece a shit out of my sight, make sure he doesn't leave here until I've had a chance to question him."

"Uh, Law, he needs the hospital; I'm thinking we need to be heading to Starling General; he looks real bad."

"I give a fuck." I walked over and picked her up out of the chair, and headed for the door.

"We'll continue this later. I gotta go see to her. Kyle, go check on the mother and make sure she's settled in okay. Have someone go get her some groceries from the storage. I don't think there's anything in the cottage."

She was shaking like a fucking leaf again, and I wanted to go back in there and finish the fucker off. It was good to see that my distrust of human scum was well justified.

"It's okay, Dana; you're fine now." She folded herself around me with her arms around my neck and cried silent tears.

Aww fuck, those are the worse kind. I'm not equipped to deal with this shit. I have no compassion left for anyone but my little brother, haven't felt anything remotely resembling an honest-to-goodness emotion since I put my parents in the ground.

I took her back to the house and into the guestroom. Why the fuck didn't I just leave her here in the first place?

"Did he hurt you? Let me see." I checked her arm where the asshole had grabbed her, but there were no new bruises.

She was shook up, yes, but no more banged up than before. I couldn't stay here and babysit her because I wasn't sure when or if her dad was going to do anything to get her back.

"Why don't you go on and take a shower, get cleaned up. I'll be here." She walked slowly out of the room and into the attached bath.

I prowled around the room like a caged animal; I hate inaction when I know there's something that needs doing.

The fuck that had accosted her was new, but that was no excuse, any man that would force himself on a woman, especially one that had already been wounded, wasn't someone I wanted within breathing distance.

I only had to work him over a little more to learn if Royce had sent him before kicking his ass off my place.

The other one was gone too; he didn't try to stop the shit, just stood there yapping like a dead fuck while a young defenseless girl was about to be raped. Nope, not my kind of person at all.

I turned when I heard the door open behind me. I need this shit. If I had a little less control, my mouth would've been hanging down to my chest.

But since I've had lots of practice keeping my feelings well hidden, I didn't give anything away. She's fucking gorgeous.

"You ready to tell me now why your dad worked you over?" I went with the safest topic I could think of in the circumstances.

She was in no shape to deal with my anger at her for throwing this new shit in my lap. Not her situation with her asshole dad, but the fact that she had to be the prettiest fucking thing Starling had ever seen, other than ma and Shelly, of course.

She looked away and wiped the tears from her eyes as she sat on the edge of the bed.

For the first time, I noticed the shape of her body under her clothes. She'd changed into a yellow summer dress with daisies painted on it or some shit with thin straps that left her shoulders bare.

She had a nice rack, a small waist, and slender hips, and legs that were a mile long. This is not good.

Her hair, now that the blood had been washed out of it was a nice strawberry blonde with big fat curls that fell halfway down her back.

I had a bad feeling that she was going to be even more fucking gorgeous when she healed up; around here, that can be a dangerous thing.

The dress wasn't one you'd usually see in these parts. The women here were more into jeans and cowboy boots.

I'd noticed earlier that she was dressed or had been dressed as if she was going to a tea social. That was before she'd dragged her half-broken body three miles to my place.

Now she'd changed into another little eye-catcher, and I could just see the trouble this shit was gonna cause, not least of all to me.

Some of the women that hung around here weren't exactly fit company for a young impressionable girl, and some of them weren't gonna take too kindly to having one as beautiful as she in their midst.

Of course, none of them would dare fuck with me, but women don't always do the expected.

They're a volatile bunch who aren't as easily corralled as their male counterparts.

"I'm still waiting for you to tell me what I want to know." She hadn't said a word, just sat there looking dejected as she pulled at the hem of her dress.

The sun was high in the sky by now, and the rays that fell through the windows highlighted the gold of her hair. Yeah, I need this shit.

"I have people here that depend on me to make sure they're safe. If your fuck of a dad is going to retaliate I'd like to know so I can prepare myself."

That was all bullshit, I had the place covered already, but I needed to know what the fuck was going on with her and her dad.

"I don't think he'd…"

"I didn't ask you what you think; I asked you what the fuck went on between you and your old man."

She jumped out of her fucking skin. What the fuck was up with this girl anyway? She went away to some fancy boarding school and forgot how the fuck to be a country girl?

I hadn't known her before now she's a bit young for me. We wouldn't have moved in the same circles, wouldn't have been in the same grade or any of that shit, since I was a good eight years older than her.

What little I knew I had gathered from the guys after she'd crawled onto my place. I knew about the old man, but since I didn't have too many dealings with my neighbors, he was still a nonentity to me.

Most of the idiots around here were in Royce's pockets, and I didn't trust shit until I knew what was going on. I was walking blind.

"He wanted me to marry someone, and I said no."

"Who'd he want you to marry?" What the fuck am I a marriage counselor now?

"Royce Davis." Now why in the fuck would she wanna go and say that shit? The mere mention of the name made my trigger finger twitch.

"Why would your dad try to marry you off to a man that's got to be older than him?"

"I don't know, I think, I think he sold me to him." She said the last like a whisper, low and full of shame.

That sounded like some shit that Royce would do the fuck. Now a lot of things were starting to make sense. Like how a girl whose family was living on a broken-down ranch could afford to go to some fancy boarding school somewhere up north.

If I was gonna stick my nose in might as well get the whole story once and for all.

"How did your dad pay for that boarding school of yours?"

"I thought it was an aunt, at least that's what he told me when he was sending me away six years ago." She started rocking back and forth and crying again.

"And?"

"This morning, I found out the truth. Royce Davis wanted a cultured wife, I guess.

Someone who could host his fancy dinners and hold a conversation with the governor's wife. At least that's what daddy said."

"Let me get this straight, Royce Davis chose you at the age of twelve to be his future wife. Paid to have you shipped off to a boarding school to what, groom you?" what kinda sick shit did I fall into here?

Every time I think this guy can't sink any fucking lower. Fucking pedophile piece a shit.

"Daddy said he paid him a lot, helped pay off his debts, and kept the place from going under."

Now she was shaking again, and no wonder Royce Davis was an ugly old fuck.

"And when is this wedding supposed to take place?"

"Tomorrow."