Her Risk To Take by Toni Anderson Read Free Book Online

Terry. I know you’re pissed. I’d be mad if someone killed my dad, but I never meant to kill him, and I did my time.” He might be out of prison, but he paid the price every day of his whole life, and regretted his actions more than he could ever say.
    Terry swung again and connected with his cheek. Cal gave him that one.
    “You fucking asshole. Did your time? You killed my father! He was a good man.”
    Cal avoided another punch and backed away, hands in the air. “He was an abusive dickwad. If I hadn’t stopped him he’d have killed my mom and probably us too.”
    “Your mother was a crack whore!” Terry screamed.
    And that made it okay?
    Terry’s mother had died in a car accident where Terry’s father had been driving. He was never charged, but everyone knew he’d been drunk at the wheel. He was no angel. Cal’s mother had attached herself to the single dad, and they’d got married shortly after. A match made in Heaven. They’d barely made it through the wedding before the guy started beating her.
    Cal danced away. He’d already inflicted too much damage. He had no desire to ever commit a violent act again, but as Terry started laying into his stomach, Cal suddenly had enough. Enough of apologizing every day of his life. Enough of being the doormat that the cops wiped their feet on. He was lean, but it was all muscle, and he’d learned to fight in the Big House. He ducked away and danced on his toes. Terry swung at him and swiped air. Cal laughed.
    Terry’s eyes grew small and mean. “Gonna go find that cute little blonde with the fine ass when I get outta here.” He cupped his crotch. “Give her a taste of what a real man can offer her.”
    Cal punched Terry in the nose and heard it crack. Then he jabbed him again in the mouth, watched as Terry’s head snapped back and used a one-two to drop him to the cement floor. He stood, breathing hard, as the guy lay coughing on the floor. “Go near that girl or even look at her ass, and I will make you wish you died the same day as your daddy. Got it?” He moved away as the deputies finally rushed in. He stood shaking his head as one of them smacked him hard enough against the bars so his nose gushed with blood. Like he’d ever want to drag a woman like Sarah into the dregs of his world. He spat out blood. Damn . It was gonna be a long night.

Chapter Five

    C al pulled up outside the horse barn. It was eight AM and he’d spent the whole night sitting in a stinking jail cell, worried that as soon as Terry got out he’d gone hunting for Sarah. Cal passed her on the drive back home, already on her way to work. She’d assiduously avoided eye contact.
    Cal had been released without charge as soon as his court appointed lawyer turned up. Apparently the sheriff hadn’t called her until six AM—a “communications error” according to Talbot. The lawyer—a young lady named Deanna Montrose—had urged Cal to file an official complaint, but he’d just wanted to get out of there and make sure Sarah was okay. He’d phoned to apologize and tell her to watch out for his stepbrother, but she wasn’t answering her cell. He’d hurt her yesterday and the look in her eyes when he’d lied and said he didn’t love her? It gutted him. But maybe it was for the best.
    He dragged the first sack of feed off the bed of the truck, hoisted it over his shoulder. Did the same with a second bag. He turned and there stood Nat, staring at him with a wariness in his eyes he’d never seen before.
    “What happened?” asked Nat.
    “I got held up in town.”
    “You go get drunk after you upset my sister?”
    Cal narrowed his gaze. “ Yeah , that’s what I did.”
    Nat knew him better than that. He must have caught sight of the blood on his collar, or maybe the exhaustion in his eyes, and let it go. He grabbed two sacks out of the back of the trunk. “Snow’s coming.”
    Cal looked up at the sky and saw the heaviness in the clouds. He didn’t mind winter. Some days he