All of You (71 page)

The night before she ended it.

Oh, my God…

“Kat refused to call you or to let me call you. She said it was because she didn’t want to worry you over nothing. I could tell there was more to it than that, but she’s so damn hard to read,” Stella said. “I had no idea that she never intended to tell you…or that she would get so freaked out she’d break up with you over it.”

“What happened, exactly?” he asked.

“Her left leg gave out; she fell and cut the side of her head,” Fi said.

“
What the fuck
,” Danny breathed out, head shaking. “How long was she in the hospital?”

“They only kept her for a few hours. Just long enough to put in some stitches, get her an MRI, and a quick visit with her neurologist,” Stella replied.

“
Stitches?
”

Stella nodded. “Yeah, three.” She touched her fingertips to the side of her head, above her ear. “On the left side, right here.”

Danny racked his brain. “But how could I have missed that? I saw her the next morning…”

His words trailed off as he remembered everything that had gone down that morning.

You missed it because you were so busy being paranoid, insecure, and fucking selfish to notice. So wrapped up in getting your own needs met that you couldn’t see what was going on right in front of your face.

Too immature, idiotic, and pathetic to consider for one minute that something else might be going on…something that had nothing to do with you and your stupid ass baggage. Something huge that had everything to do with the feelings and well-being of the woman you claim you love.

No wonder she doesn’t trust you to take care of her. No wonder she cut you out of her life. Not only are you unworthy of her love, you are too clueless and selfish to be trusted to do the one thing every man is responsible for regarding his woman: protecting her. Keeping her safe. Taking care of her when she cannot take care of herself.

Noticing when her health is failing and – oh, yeah – when she has three fucking stitches in the side of her head.

Maybe slowing down a little on the insane screwing so she can take care of her body properly.

Danny’s mind raced back to a million little things she’d done and said:

All the times she’d said she was tired and worn out.

Her apologizing for not being able to do what other women could do.

Her body giving out at the mall.

Kat telling him he deserved a lifetime of love that was free of burdens.

A hushed story Kat had once shared with him as they’d lain in each other’s arms in the dark…a story about her father’s suicide attempt. All about how her mother would have been devastated to know her death had almost destroyed the man she loved.

Danny grabbed the back of his neck, head shaking as he remembered.

Kat suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere breaking up with him.

The devastation in her eyes as she’d done it.

All those gut-wrenching tears.

The things she’d said to him on Christmas slammed into him like a sucker punch to the gut.

“But I just wanted you so badly…too badly to make myself walk away from you. So badly I couldn’t think of anything other than having you, Danny. Knowing it would hurt you, knowing it would destroy me…knowing it could never last forever.”

“
Son-of-a-bitch
,” he breathed out, the self-loathing nearly choking him. “She pushed me away because she was trying to protect me.” Danny shook his head, one painful, clarifying realization after another washing over him. “Nina is right…I am the blindest motherfucker to ever walk the planet. And the most selfish and stupid, too.”

Nina nodded emphatically. “Exactly.”

Gigi shot Nina a hard look before coming over to pat him on the shoulder. “You couldn’t have known, Danny.” She squeezed gently. “Kat is very good at hiding things, always has been. We didn’t see what was going on with her, either – not until Nathan made some assumptions based on things Kat mentioned to him. Hell, she didn’t even call Nina and me the night she went to the hospital.”

Danny looked at Stella. “Did she call you? Is that how you found out?”

She nodded. “Yeah, she called me on the way to the hospital.”

“She drove
herself
?”

Stella paused, wincing again.

“
What?
”

“Ben drove her,” Stella said.

His hands balled into sweaty fists.

“Ben, huh?” Danny’s slow nods morphed into head shaking, lips curling into a tight smile. “Well, that just fucking figures, doesn’t it?”

Of course
Ben had driven her.

Of course
Ben had been there to take care of her.

Of course
Ben was there with her, bright and early, the next morning when Danny waltzed in like the clueless, useless asshole he’d always been. The jealous idiot who was too blind to see beyond the nose on his face.

Ben is the better man, after all.

Always has been. Always will be.

It was too damn bad for Ben and Kat that Danny no longer gave a flying fuck who the better man was.

Not anymore.

The maelstrom of emotions swirling around inside his brain was too much for him to try to identify, process, and deal with.

And so he acted.

Danny straightened up, pushing back the chair as he stood.

“Where are
you
going?” Nina demanded.

“Where do you think I’m going? I just found out the woman I love, the
only
woman I’ve ever loved and will
ever
love…the woman I thought I’d lost for good – loves me so much she broke her own damn heart to try and save me.” Danny dropped his hands on hips, let his face stretch into a shit-eating grin, and winked at Nina. “I’ve got a pretty little neck to wring…and a hot little ass to set straight.”

Nina’s jaw dropped, Fi’s eyes widened, Gigi grinned, and Stella clapped excitedly.

“Go get her, tiger!” Stella said. “And make it good, ‘cause I’ll be begging her for the details later!”

Danny returned her grin and headed for the door, only to have Nathan open it and walk through first.

He eyed Danny’s shit-eating grin suspiciously. “Where the hell are you going?”

Danny clapped him on the shoulder a few times, raising Nathan’s brows. “It’s all good. The sisters explained everything.” He pulled Nathan into an impulsive, awkward man hug, with Nathan’s arms hanging limply at his sides. “Thank you, brother…for figuring it out,” Danny said quietly, tightening his arms just a little more. “And thank you for marrying Stella – for a bunch of reasons, but mostly because her sister saved my life.” Danny paused before really pushing his luck. “And thank you for everything you’ve done for me since we were eleven years old.” He grinned again. “You never let me say thank you or hug you, so I figured I’d throw that in there since I already have you here.”

Nathan gave him a few stilted, hard pats on the back. “You’re welcome, brother,” he replied gruffly before dropping his arm and pushing Danny away. “Now get the fuck off of me and go take care of your business, fast. Kat is such a broken up mess I hated leaving her there alone.”

“Yeah, well, no worries about that.” Danny released Nathan and pushed open the screen door. “I’ll be fixing her up good. Forever.”

‡

K
at’s phone rang
loudly in her hand, startling her. When she looked down and saw it was Danny calling, another massive surge of epinephrine threw her sympathetic nervous system into overdrive.

Finger shaking, she hit
accept
. “Hello?”

“
Where. Are. You?
”

Her heart pounding fast, her breathing hard and heavy, and every muscle fiber in her body vibrating, Kat cleared her throat. She opened her mouth to answer, but wasn’t able to force any words past the dry tightness in her throat.

“I’m going to ask you one more time. You choose not to answer and I’ll send every available squad car out there to find your ass – and, trust me, you won’t like what I do to it when they do,” Danny breathed out, the husky intensity of his voice sending a hard shiver down her spine. “
Where. Are. You. Kat
?”

Kat swallowed again and managed to eek out, “At your house. In your driveway. In my car.”

Danny exhaled a short laugh. “Oh, yeah? What’re you doing there?”

“I, uh…” Kat picked at the stitching on the steering wheel and lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know…I…”

She cleared her throat, not sure how or where to begin. Danny had already soundly rejected her once today and he was probably going to do it again before the day was done. But Kat had no choice; she had to try again. And she’d keep trying until Danny forgave her, because she now knew her life meant absolutely nothing without him in it.

She cleared her throat again. “I’m not sure…”

He scoffed. “Do you even know how much fucking trouble you are in right now, Kat? Do you have the
slightest
goddamn clue what I’m going to do to you when I get there?”

Kat’s stomach flipped and her thighs clenched at the overtly sexual tone of Danny’s gruff threat. “What-what do you mean?”

“Don’t move a muscle. Do not so much as
look
at that car door until I get there, do you understand me, Kat? I get there and your ass is anywhere but in the driver’s seat of that car and I swear to Christ you won’t be able to sit on it for a week – fucking MS or no fucking MS.”

Kat wrapped her free arm around her midsection, trying to contain the hard shivers wracking her body.

Through chattering teeth, she whispered, “I won’t move, Danny. I promise.”

He scoffed again. “Yeah, we’ll see if you can manage to behave yourself just this once. You know, you haven’t been a very good girl lately, Kat…” Danny paused, voice lowering and tightening. “But that’s okay. I know exactly how to adjust your attitude. I know just what you need, no problem. And I’m coming to give it to you, sweetheart.”

Kat’s hand flew to her mouth as her breath caught on a hard sob.

He called me
sweetheart.

I never thought I would get to hear him say it again.

I never thought I’d hear him speak to me in that sexy, loving way ever again.

Kat squeezed her eyes shut tight, sending tears spilling down her cheeks – the pain, loneliness, and horror of the past week melting away until all that was left was her overwhelming need and love for Danny.

And the now shocking, and seemingly real, possibility that he might actually be considering giving her a second chance after all the damage she’d caused.

“You ready to get adjusted, Kat? ‘Cause I’m turning onto the street right now.” Danny exhaled a soft laugh. “If you’re gonna make a break for it, now’s the time, sweetheart. I’ll catch ya and it’s all gonna turn out the same way in the end, but now you can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Kat caught sight of his car coming down the street and watched in the rear view mirror as Danny pulled into the driveway behind her.

She saw his lips curl into sly grin – phone still in his hand as he stared back at her. “Too late.”

Kat tossed the phone onto the passenger seat without bothering to end the call. A few seconds later, Danny was yanking open her door. He rested his left arm along the top of the open door, braced his right forearm across the top of the car, and leaned in, crowding her. Danny stared down into her eyes – hard and wordlessly – until Kat was squirming in her seat.

“Step back and let me out, Danny,” she finally whispered. “Let’s go in the house and talk, okay?”

He snorted. “I’m not taking so much as one fucking step away from you and nothing we do in the house is going to come anywhere close to talking.” Danny’s lips curled again. “Well, there will be a little talking – ‘cause there’s a thing or two I’ve gotta get straight – but you better believe it’s gonna be brief.” Kat’s breath hitched as his eyes dropped to her lips. When Danny’s eyes rose up to meet hers again, they were smoldering. “And after that, it’s gonna be nothing but pure, fucking filth, Kat. I promise you that.”

Oh, God…

Kat felt a massive surge of blood shoot straight to her labia, swelling them and increasing the dull internal ache she’d had since the moment she’d heard Danny’s gruff voice on the other line.

Before she could respond – assuming she could have responded at all – Danny reached in and grabbed her, sliding one arm around her back and the other beneath her knees. A quick lift and step backwards later, Danny had her out of the car.

Kat tightened her arms around his neck and buried her face there, way too elated to be back in Danny’s arms to be embarrassed by the presumptuousness of her behavior.

The man basically just promised/threatened to screw her silly, anyway. It was probably a decent assumption he had no problem with Kat clinging to him.

She closed her eyes and pressed her nose and lips to his skin, inhaling deeply as more tears of love, gratitude, and joy filled her eyes.