Page 21 of The Hunt

He suspected Guthrie didn’t have a clue.

“Your friend Justin, that was who!” Genny said, heatedly. She already had a first aid kit with everything they’d need to tend to the worst of the injuries laid out on the counter. “That stupid jerk.”

Whoever had grabbed Aubrey had dug in deeply—and yanked. Enough to make an almost half-inch deep laceration where the thumb would have been. And two of the other crescents were deep enough to reach the dermal layer. The force required to do that… “When did this happen?”

“About two hours ago. I can’t get the bleeding to stop,” Genny said. “We’ve tried.”

“How did it happen and why?” Guthrie’s fury was hard to miss. No wonder. It had to hurt like hell.

Never would he have expected to see it on a colleague, in the middle of Guthrie’s family’s living room.

“Why? I’ll tell you why—” Genny started.

“Gen, I’m okay. And I can talk for myself. I promise,” Aubrey said, quietly. Calming Genny almost instantly. Now Chad understood it—Aubrey was the calm, Genny was the storm.

Aubrey met Chad’s eyes, carefully avoiding Guthrie’s.

Those two were like fire and oil at times.

No surprise, considering Guthrie’s history with female physicians. Especially gorgeous blue-eyed blonde ones like this one. Aubrey Fisher looked exactly like the kind of woman who was designed to get beneath Guthrie’s skin.

“Justin Michaels?”

“Yes. Genny and I were recruited by Caine and his wife to attend that fundraising dinner at the Barratt this afternoon, with the Carrington Group. We went together. Justin and a friend of his wanted our attention. When we refused and left—” She looked out the window and winced when Guthrie examined the worst of the wounds. Three were deep enough to need stitches. Anything deeper than a quarter of an inch could require stitches, especially with this prolonged bleeding. He had seen fingernail injuries before. Child abuse, spousal abuse, physical altercations. To need stitches from fingernails—that bastard had to have really had a good hold of her. And dug in deeply.

Justin Michaels was Chad’s size, but heavier. He’d had no business putting his hands on this woman. “Then what?”

“I took her home. I’d driven. I was going to pick up Greer at Aub’s—she and Ayla are good friends. They helped us get ready for tonight. Hala was there with them, too. She wascoming home with Greer. She’s moving back to town next week to teach at the school,” Genny said. She waved a hand toward the younger sisters. All of the women were watching everything Chad and Guthrie were doing like curious beautiful little ducklings.

So were Gene and Gunn and Grady, for that matter. Well—they were watching the women watching. Chad understood the fascination.

This was the grown-up version of his every teenage fantasy. Six beautiful women. Right here. Now, if he could just chuck Chantal out the window for a few hours, along with the Hiller brothers, so he could have the gorgeous women all to himself—he would be in heaven.

Chad forced himself to grow up a bit in that moment. He was slipping back into teenager territory here. He was better than that.

Mostly.

He’d settle for just having Genny all to himself, instead.

“Get to the point, Genesis,” Guthrie said, numbing the area with a lidocaine wipe. “Why would Justin Michaels do this?”

“He didn’t get what he wanted, obviously,” Giavonna had to add, drily. “Big surprise. Some guys just don’t take no for an answer. And they can get cranky when they don’t get what they want. We’ve all been there before.”

All of the women—including his sister—agreed verbally, almost unanimously. As if it was a given that men could be dogs. Just who in the hell had they all been dating lately that they thought this was a given? Real men didn’t do this kind of thing. Ever.

He told them all that. He didn’t think they believed him. He looked at Chantal. “That’s it; you’re not allowed to date ever again, unless I get to chaperone. Every minute. Period.”

His sister just laughed in his face.

He was only half joking.

“Anyway…” Genny said. “He followed us back to Aubrey and Ayla’s house. When we told him to leave, he got angry. He was obviously very angry. But I don’t think he was that drunk. Just ticked off that he didn’t get Aubrey to go home with him like he’d wanted. It was like he thought that was what she had planned, or something. We’d told him repeatedly to leave us alone, but he just kept pushing.”

“And he just grabbed you?” Guthrie asked. “Just like that? Because you said no.”

“Exactly like that. We all saw it happen,” Greer said, fury in her tone now, too. “We were on the porch, watching. And he was saying horrible things to her. That she’d regret telling him no. Calling her all sorts of rude names. He shoved Genny out of his way when she tried to get between them. I thought he was going to go right at Genny after that. Then Aubrey got between him and Genny instead, and he did this.”

“Did he hurt you?” Chad demanded, wrapping his hands around Genny’s waist and lifting her onto the counter, despite the bruises on his own hand, until she was focused right on him. He inspected her quickly. Her girly little feet were bare, she wore thin pink sweatpants and a Mamaw’s Place T-shirt that was soft and faded and clung in intriguing places.