“I should have known better than to get in his way. I should haveknown…”
“You’re coming with us,” Hank said. The tone in his voice left no room fordebate.
“I can’t,” hermomsaid.
“Why the hell not?” Carolasked.
“A woman’s place is with her man,” her mom said. “I know my place. Known it my whole life. Learned it the first time my daddy hit me withhisbelt.”
“Jesus,” Hankwhispered.
“Now go on. Get lost before he finds you here. He’s got enough shotguns in here to kill you tentimesover.”
“I’m not leaving without you,” Carolinsisted.
“Suit yourself. If he kills you, it’ll be your own damn fault.” With that, her mom stepped inside and slammed the door intheirface.
Carol jerked back, stunned by her mother’s desire to stay. What in the hell was wrong with her? The man was abusing her and sheneededhelp.
As she moved to knock on the door again, Hank grabbed her hand. “Honey, wait. She doesn’t want our help. We need to get the sheriff up here. Maybe he can talk some senseintoher.”
“I can’t leave her. What if Trevor comes back?” sheasked.
The front doorswungopen.
“What are you still doing here?” her mom asked in a terrifiedvoice.
“Come with us, Mom. We canhelpyou.”
“I don’t needyourhelp.”
“You clearly do, ma’am,”Hanksaid.
“Go find someone else to save. I didn’t need you when I had you and I don’t need you now. You’ve caused me nothing but trouble. I wish you’d never been born. I hate you and I hope I never see you again,” sheshrieked.
As Carol swayed, Hank reached out to steady her. A rush of lightheadedness made her feel faint. She clung to his arm to keep fromfalling.
“Now git,” her mom snapped. She slammed the door hard enough to rattle thewindows.
Hank held Carol up as he helped her walk back to the car. Tears flowed down her face to mingle with freshly fallen snowflakes. A searing pain cut through her heart. To hear that her mother wished she’d never been born killedhersoul.
She let Hank lift her into the truck then sat unmoving until he reached across her to put on her seat belt. She grabbed his hand. “I’m notleaving.”
* * *
Damn stubborn woman.Hank snapped the seat belt into the buckle and raced around to the other side before she could have a chance to escape. They needed to go get the sheriffimmediately.
“Stop,” he said gruffly when Carol reached for thebuckle.
“I’m serious. I’m notleaving.”
“Honey, if we don’t get back to town soon, we might not get to the sheriffintime.”
“But if we leave her, Trevor might come back and hurt her again. Maybe even worse this time,”shesaid.
He ran a hand through his hair.Shit.He’d like to grab Trevor by the throat and choke him to death. What right did he have to put his hands on a woman? No man had thatright.
Deep inside his chest, his bear raged. He clawed frantically at Hank’s ribcage trying to escape. He tried to reason with his bear. If he shifted now, he wouldn’t be able to protect Carol as well as he could in his human form. Sure, his bear could rip Trevor to pieces, but he couldn’t drive the truck and Hank wasn’t going to kill in coldblood.
