Page 30 of Need

I reached out and brushed my index finger lightly against the still slightly red flesh. “Sore?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“I’ll put some salve on it after you shower. It doesn’t look like the bruising will be too bad.”

She nodded.

“Are you hurting anywhere else?”

“No,” she answered. Brianna didn’t comment further on her injury as she finished eating. After all she’d experienced with Ian, I doubted a little bruising on her neck was something she’d consider a big deal.

She took her bowls into the kitchen when she had finished, and returned to where I sat. I opened my arms, and she took a seat in my lap. There was not as much room here as in the living room chair, but it would do for now. Her body leaned against mine. I wrapped my arms around her and tucked her head under my chin.

“Tell me what happened with Karl. How did this happen?” I said, once again touching the angry mark he’d left on her neck.

It seemed very innocent, she and Lily going to the bathroom. It would have been had it not been for Karl. As she told me what had happened, I still couldn’t believe he had the nerve to try something like that with her at all, let alone in a very public setting. The man was either all about risk, or he was looking to be caught.

Brianna finished off the tale by saying how Cal pulled Karl off her, and then made sure she was all right.

“Cal Ross seems to have been in the right place at the right time.” She shrugged. I could tell by the way she was reacting that she didn’t wish me to pursue the line of conversation further, but we needed to talk about this. “Cal Ross knew you. You knew him.”

Reluctantly, she nodded.

Her hesitancy made me more curious. “How do you know him, Brianna?”

She pressed her face into my shoulder, as she did when she wanted to hide herself for some reason. I wasn’t letting this go.

Her voice filtered up through a mixture of skin and clothing. “His dad and... my dad...” I heard a sharp intake of breath. “They... used to be best friends.”

I’d been right. They did know each other from her past. It wasn’t what I’d wanted to hear, but it was better that I knew. “Used to be?”

Hands took hold of my shirt as if anchoring her to me. “Cal and his dad moved to St. Paul when I was ten.”

“So you haven’t seen him in years?”

“No,” she answered, shaking her head. “Not since they moved.”

“And he recognized you?”

She shook her head. “I told him my name.”

As much as I didn’t want to continue talking about Jonathan Reeves since I knew how much it upset her, I thought it would be best under the circumstances. The more I knew, the better I could protect her. “Do you think they are still in contact with your father?”

“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I... I asked him not to tell anyone he’d seen me. Not his dad. Not... John.”

“Do you think he’ll do as you asked?”

“I... think so?”

She wasn’t sure. That didn’t bode well. Then again, they’d not seen each other for eight years.

I leaned back and took her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me. Her blue eyes were full of worry. “Even if your father should find you somehow, Brianna, you don’t have to go with him. You don’t have to leave here if you don’t want to. I won’t let him take you against your will.”

“Do you promise?” she asked. Her voice was almost childlike.

“I promise,” I answered, and pressed a soft kiss to her nose. She released a small sigh at the contact, and I felt some of the tension within her release itself. “Better?” I asked.

“Yes.”

---