Page 258 of Duty and Desire

Mariana paused. “There are degrees, but if you want to see me privately, complete confidentiality would apply. Everything is private, unless I’m afraid you’ll hurt yourself or others.”

What if she told Mariana the full truth? While the woman probably couldn’t help her with the law, it’d be nice to have a confidant. They walked out of the room and down the hallway. “I think I’d like to set up an appointment,” Abby said. MaybeMariana would have an idea or two of what she could do—if the psychiatrist believed her. Most people didn’t, but most knew Monte. “You don’t know my ex-husband, do you?”

Mariana shook her head. “No. I just moved to town a few months ago and haven’t gotten to know many people.”

Rain poured outside, and the clouds had turned a bruised color. “Why?” Abby asked, pausing at the door. “Why did you movehere?”

Mariana laughed and shuffled her case to her other arm. “I inherited a small home down by the river from an elderly aunt I barely knew. And frankly, I was tired of the city. So I figured it’d be a nice place to make a fresh start.” The laugh seemed off, and Mariana looked away, but Abby didn’t have the right to pry.

“I thought that once, too.” Abby pushed open the door, her body chilling from more than the rain. She’d been so clueless.

“Okay. Call my office tomorrow and set up an appointment.” Mariana smiled and turned, ducking her head against the rain and hustling down the sidewalk.

Abby blinked away rain and turned in the opposite direction. She’d parked next to a large oak tree that led to a small and vacant park. She was nearly next to her car when she noticed the back tire was flat. Oh, crap. A quick look around the entire car, and she discovered that all four tires had been slashed. She looked up and down the quiet street. Besides the barely used ex-school, there was a closed church, the park, and then vacant land full of scrub brush on either side. No homes or help.

Vulnerability swamped her. She wiped rain off her cheeks. Monte had taken her cell phone when they’d divorced, and she hadn’t had the money to start a new plan. Who would she call, anyway?

Lightning flashed, and she jumped. The smell of ozone hung heavy in the air.

She shoved wet hair off her face and loped into a jog back toward the school. Maybe she’d get there in time to catch Mariana. She ran past the school and turned into the dilapidated parking lot, where she stopped short in time to see Noah punch Raine so hard that the other man flew across the lot and smashed into the building. Chunks and even a couple of whole bricks tumbled down.

She stopped, her legs freezing.

Raine landed on his feet, ducked his head, and charged. He hit Noah square in the middle, and they rammed into Raine’s truck, denting the back passenger door with a loud crunch of steel. Fists and arms moved so quickly in strikes she couldn’t tell who was hitting and who was bleeding.

What the heck? “Stop it,” she yelled, running for them like a complete moron. But they were going to kill each other with those kinds of hits.

The men, scrapping and scrambling, both froze and stood to face her. Blood poured from a cut above Noah’s eye, and from a split in Raine’s lip.

“What are you doing in this rain?” Noah asked, his voice a dark growl.

She blinked. Once and then again. They were fighting like crazy men, and he wanted to know why she was in the rain? “Are you kidding me?” she whispered.

Raine wiped blood off his lip and looked up at the darkened sky. “Why are you here by yourself?”

What? Now they were in agreement instead of trying to murder each other? She took a step back. They were lunatics. “Forget it. Go back to trying to kill each other.” She lowered her face to keep the rain from hitting her eyes, not surprised when heat suddenly filled the air behind her. Ignoring him, she hurried back to her car. Maybe she could drive far enough to get to a service station.

“What the hell?” Noah grasped her arm, his touch shockingly gentle after his fight, and halted her near the car. Yeah, she’d known it was him behind her.

Raine’s truck roared out of the parking lot and drove in the opposite direction, leaving her alone with Noah. Just how angry was he after the fight?

She pulled away and tried to put some distance between them, her legs trembling. No way could she survive a fight with an angry Noah. Monte was half his size, at least it seemed like it, and she’d never even gotten a chance in a fight with him. Not once. “Um, I’m fine.”

“Abby.” Low and soothing, Noah’s tone wound through the pelting rain. “Look at me.”

She looked up, noting he hadn’t moved from his place near the back rear tire. Rain slashed down over the incredible angles of his hard face and molded his shirt to his broad chest. In the darkened street, with clouds high above, he looked like the most dangerous thing that could be anywhere near them. “What?” she breathed, her legs bunching to run.

“I won’t hurt you.” Blood slid down the side of his face along with rain. “No matter what you say, no matter what you do, I will not harm you.”

She couldn’t breathe. He seemed so sincere and calm, as if he’d stand in the rain forever and not move if she asked him. “I think you should go,” she said quietly. If he was telling her the truth, he’d do it instantly, and then she’d figure out what to do. There was no doubt he was dangerous, and he had anger issues, and he’d just been in a fight. But right now, his concentration was absolute, and it was right on her with the force of a sharp heat. “Just go,” she whispered.

Slowly, surely, he strode around the front of the car toward her. “I can’t leave you alone out here like this. Surely you understand that.”

If life was good or bad, real or fake, then she would’ve understood. But now life was the opposite of what she thought, and she didn’t trust him. Heck. She barely trusted herself, because she wanted nothing more than to let him handle the problem. And she barely knew him. “Leave me alone, Noah.”

Rain plastered his thick hair to his face, somehow making him look even more beautiful. How could a man, one with blood still on his cheek, look beautiful? “I’m not leaving you.”

Every emotion she’d ever had from fear to longing to shock combusted inside her in a second. She reacted, not thinking, just finally losing it. Her punch went right for his gut and hurt like hell. Her entire wrist buckled and pain ricocheted up to her elbow. Ignoring it, forgetting pain once again, she slapped his chest with both hands, sobbing with each hit, no longer even in this moment.