The Hunt for Summer (NSC Industries) (33 page)

“What the fuck….”

She shook me off and
turned back to the machine but I grabbed her arm again “Who the hell did this?”

“I’m fine.” She
barked out and I grit my teeth at her evasiveness.

“Will you bloody
talk to me?”

She twisted round
then, her angry glare fixed on me. “Why should I? You have made it pretty clear
you don’t want anything to do with me. Just leave it, Lucas. I’m fine.”

“Like hell you are,
Red. Look at the state of you, your face is a mess and you can’t even bend down
without being in obvious pain. I want to know who hurt you.”

Her eyebrows rose
high. “You think this is pain Lucas?” she shook her head in anger, “I’ll tell
you what pain and hurt is. Pain is being fucked angrily against a wall then
just left there to be made to feel like a whore. Being made to feel like a slag
is worse than any physical pain, Lucas. You
made me feel like a fucking
whore, so don’t you dare try and make out your my fucking knight in shining armour.
You
hurt me worse than this ever could.” She bellowed at me as she swept
a hand over her body to emphasize her injuries.

“No, no, no Red, oh
God, I… No, you are not a whore, I never… I wouldn’t ever….”

Shit, I was making a
right fucking mess of everything.

She gave me a pained
look then slammed my coffee down on my desk, its contents swilling all over my
desk. “Don’t bother Lucas. I get it. You needed a fuck, I was there. Simple. I
would prefer it if we could forget about it. We work together, we just need to
get past it and establish a professional relationship. You love your job; I
need the money so it’s best if we could just get on.”

I nodded, there was
nothing I could say now that would stop the hurt, but I still wanted to know
who the hell had beaten her so bad. She now couldn’t see through her right eye.
The bridge of her nose was stitched, bruises covered her beautiful face and it
was obvious she had injuries elsewhere if her stiff movements were anything to
go by.

“By the way, we have
another lunch appointment with Mason and I have synced your diary. Mr Travis
made a complete hash of everything in your absence, but I’ve managed to rectify
most things. Just let me know if you come across anything that doesn’t seem
right, Mr Hunt and I’ll sort it out. The exec meeting that should have been
held a few weeks ago has been rescheduled for tomorrow and the France trip is
hopefully going ahead next Monday… hopefully.”

I snorted.

Third time lucky.

Red swallowed
heavily and I knew my jibe had brought her guilt forward; after all, both
previous trips had been cancelled because of her. Well, actually because of
Diablo, but I knew Red blamed herself.

“Okay, that’s fine.
Anything else?”

She shook her head.
“I don’t think so but I’ll let you know if I remember anything else.”

I nodded simply and
sighed. She actually lifted her gaze to me then and I saw her desolation and
agony through her one good eye.

I wanted to reach
out to her, grab her and pull her soft little body against mine and filter all
my love for her through every single pore on my body and into her.

She looked utterly
broken and I knew I was guilty for a lot of that, but I just couldn’t get the
image of her sobbing over Diablo’s body out of my head.

It was still too
damn painful and until I accepted that, I couldn’t… I wouldn’t be with her so I
just lowered my gaze to the floor whilst she walked past me and started her
daily work routine.

I was hurting myself
at causing her so much pain but I just couldn’t find a way through it. It was
slowly burning me up inside; my hatred, anger, hurt and pain slowly consuming
me and it was so damn difficult to breathe at times.

All I could see was
Red drop to her knees in front of the man that had tortured her and stalked
her. A man so crazy, he had fucked her so roughly he had torn her up inside,
but she had still dropped to her fucking knees before him and fucking grieved
like a distraught widow for him.

Taking a large
breath, I plonked my arse in my chair and got to work, pulling up the previous
three weeks work notes to see how much of a hash the temp had made.

Fuck me. Brilliant.

He hadn’t just made
a hash; he had turned everything on its bloody head.

Well at least it
would take my attention from Red for the rest of the day.

***

The drive to La
Roche was outright torture. I was battling with the urge to shake information
out of her, pull the car over and pull her onto my stiff cock or just plain
growl at her for her nonchalant behaviour.

She smiled tightly
and shook her head as I tried to help her from the car. “God damn it Red, just
let me help you” I growled at her.

She sighed then gave
me a genuine smile and took my hand.

My heart stuttered
as her tiny hand slid into mine and I curled my fingers around hers. The simple
touch brought my body to life and I smiled back at her.

“Mr Fox.” She told
the maître d’, who showed us to Mason’s table.

“I always seem to be
waiting for you two” Mason growled with mock seriousness.

“Stop whinging you
miserable bastard.” She retorted and he narrowed his eyes playfully.

“You wanna watch who
you’re talking to Willow, remember who’s cooking tonight? Soup for you now.”

What the hell?

“If you’re cooking,
then I think I’d rather have soup.” She grinned.

He chucked out a bark
of laughter then I frowned when he stiffened considerably as he spotted
something behind me.

He completely
morphed into something sinister; his eyes glazed with a white haze, his jaw
clenched to the extreme that his teeth cracked and his chest heaved with his
intense breaths.

Red looked behind me
as I did.

A black haired man
was stood staring at Mason, his eyes just as dark and venomous.

“Shit” Red hissed as
she flung herself from her chair and scurried round the table to Mason’s side.

“Mason. Calm down.
Think of what Ava will do if you hurt him.”

The man must have
had a death wish because he strode over to us. Mason snarled, literally snarled
like an animal, low and fierce and I knew something was gonna go down.

“Mason” the guy
smirked.

“Kade, fuck off” Red
spat at him and I just sat and watched it all unfold.

“Look, sweetheart.
No offence or anything but this is between Mason and me.”

Red barked a laugh
at him. “I’ll let go of him then shall I?”

He shrugged and
Mason slowly lifted from his chair and I noticed how white his knuckles were,
as if he was preparing them for battle.

All the air seemed
to disappear around us; like Mason was absorbing it all in his wrath and an
iciness settled over us. My bones felt like they were going to shatter with the
sensation.

“What do you want
Kade?”

“Just enquiring
after you both, Mason. How is Ava?”

Red rolled her eyes
and grabbed hold of Mason as he took a step towards Kade. “Ava is thoroughly
enjoying life without you. As was I, until you reared your ugly fucking face.
She’s still screaming in ecstasy at everything I give her. And you know Ava,
Kade; she takes pretty much anything I give her and gives it all back even
better.” Mason smirked as Kade now growled low.

“Yeah, she gave it
fucking good all right.”

“Oh fuck!” Red
whined.

She flew backwards
on her arse as Mason launched himself at Kade, her head flew backwards and she
knocked it against a table leg.

Her eyes blinked
rapidly at the pain that exploded through her head and I rushed over to her.

“You okay?” I asked
over the din in the room as the two men pounded each other.

Security, managers
and staff attempted to pull the men apart but as I risked a glance at Mason, he
was gonna get sent down for murder the way he was pounding into Kade.

 “You need to get
Mase off him Lucas, he’ll kill him.”

I glanced at a
murderous Mason then at Red, trying to establish who needed my attention most.

I gave Red a little
nod. “Wait here.”

She nodded as I made
my way over to the battle. “Mason, come on. I think he’s bleeding enough” I
urged as I pulled on Mason’s arms.

He was in a world of
his own, completely zoned out and I was starting to panic when Kade looked
unconscious.

“MASON!” I bellowed
in his ear.

He flinched, blinked
then looked up at me before returning to look at Kade.

He finished his
pounding with a final punch, then stood, brushed himself off and smiled at the
restaurant owner.

“I’ll get Sam to
fetch him.” he told him as he pulled out his phone.

I shook my head in
bewilderment at how everybody just stood and let Mason walk casually back over
to his table, whilst a broken and beaten Kade lay on the floor groaning.

My heart stammered
to a stop as I saw Red. She was slumped on the floor, unconscious and barely
breathing.

“Fuck!” I hissed as
I dashed over to her limp body.

“Call an ambulance”
I shouted out as Mason dropped beside me and rolled her over into the recovery
position.

“Shit” he murmured.

“You did this to her
you fucking twat.” I pushed at him, knocking him on his arse; my anger at him
giving me strength to push him over.

His wide eyes
darkened but he didn’t retaliate, just pulled himself up and stood back whilst
I pulled her onto my lap.

“Red, baby. Come on
Red, open your eyes.” I choked out “Please, please, Red.”

She didn’t.

She couldn’t.

She was barely even
breathing.

Chapter 39

Layla

“Christ, Lucas. I’m
fine, stop fussing.”

He was driving me
insane. He’d been flapping by my side since I had woken in the hospital yesterday
with a severe concussion.

Mason had been pale
and terrified when I came round, his guilt ate him up but I had shook him off
and assured him it wasn’t his fault, just one of those things. Apparently Ava
was ignoring him and refusing to speak to him, so that was punishment enough.

I rolled my eyes as
Lucas leant across me to click in my seatbelt. He grinned at me as I slapped
him away before walking round to his side of the car.

“I’m going to Mase’s.”
I told him before he took the wrong turn out of the hospital.

He turned and
frowned at me and I huffed.

Such a curious man.

“Sara and I had a… disagreement,
so I’m staying at Mase’s for a while.”

He was silent for a
while then glanced at me again “What about?”

I looked through the
window, “Because she hates me and I don’t blame her.” I shrugged.

“Will you just tell
me what is going on” he demanded.

Such a dominant man.

“Three of Diablo’s men
raped her when they took her. Now she’s pregnant and it’s my entire fault. She hammered
me and kicked me out” I told him bluntly.

“Fuck! So it was
Sara who did that to you?” he hissed and I nodded.

“Yeah. She’s all
over the place at the moment but who wouldn’t be. I just wish she’d have told
me, but she let it build and build until it’s sent her crazy.”

I flicked a quick
glance at Lucas; the innuendo in my words wasn’t missed by him as he squirmed
uncomfortably.

“Yeah, people tend
to do that Red.” He said stiffly and I nodded sadly.

He was silent and
moody again for the rest of our journey and I felt his mood shift again as he
pulled up at Mason’s.

His eyes narrowed on
somebody stood in front of Mase’s front door, the house obviously empty as they
were both out, and I squinted to see who it was.

“Holy Hell” I
stammered as my heart beat wildly against my chest.

“You know him?”
Lucas asked and I was so stunned I didn’t even nod at him.