Page 21 of Untouchable

“All right,” he said softly. “I’ll leave. Take care of yourself.”

Kelly blinked as if he’d surprised her, then she nodded. “You too.”

She wouldn’t move until Caleb had turned around and started walking away from her.

His back to her, Caleb headed in the direction of his building. He felt irrationally angry at being dismissed by her this way. No one had treated him like that in years.

He had almost made it half a block when he heard her scream.

Whirling around, he automatically assessed the situation. Saw two figures next to Kelly’s car, apparently pulling her out of the driver’s seat.

“Hey!” he shouted, sprinting back down the block.

It was an instinctive response. He hadn’t thought it through and then decided on the best option. He’d simply seen danger and reverted into crisis mode.

He ran toward her at full speed. Didn’t think. Adrenaline coursed through his body as his feet pounded on the sidewalk.

She was struggling with one of the men now, clearly trying to free herself from the attackers.

Caleb shouted again as he approached them, knowing that something as harmless as noise could sometimes scare muggers off. He was close enough now that he was able to see distinct movements, and he saw her clobber one of the men on the jaw. She pulled away and kneed the second man in the groin as he reached out to seize her again.

But she hadn’t gotten far enough away when the first one made another grab for her. Caleb watched as the man brutally slammed Kelly into the side of the car.

And Caleb was washed with waves of rage. White-hot, blinding rage. He had no idea where the violent emotion had come from, except that it was one of his primal instincts that he’d done his best to stamp out.

But he’d never been able to completely erase the raw, primitive side of himself, and it took him over at that moment, as he watched Kelly slump limply to the pavement. He didn’t know her. Didn’t owe her anything.

Yet he was fiercely enraged by seeing her attacked.

As he reached the two men, they were trying to pull her up, and Caleb grabbed one of them and rammed his fist into the man’s face.

The impact from the blow shook him, and the jolt of pain shot all the way up his arm. The second man knocked Caleb aside, using his elbow in a hard blow on the side of his mouth.

But by this point there were other voices from down the street as people saw what was happening. The two men ran away, and Caleb had no choice but to let them since Kelly somehow, as she was trying to rise, had ended up slumped on his feet.

Giving up on catching the attackers for now, Caleb knelt down beside Kelly, waving away the couple who had started over to help. As he did, his hand moved to his mouth, and he realized that he was bleeding from a cut on his lip.

Kelly was blinking up at him, clearly dazed and in pain, one of her hands blindly groping at his knee.

“Are you all right?” he asked softly, holding her by the shoulder.

“Yeah.” Her voice was choked, and she groaned helplessly as she tried to sit up. One of her hands moved to her head and the other to her stomach, as she plainly tried to fight both dizziness and nausea.

“You need a doctor,” Caleb said, his mind working quickly now that the crisis was over.

“No,” she objected weakly. “I’m fine. Just help me up.” She made a few attempts to stand but wasn’t able to do so yet.

“You are not fine. I’ll take you to the emergency room, and then we’ll have to report the attack. Could you tell what they were trying to do? Mug you? A carjacking?” It hadn’t really looked like either of those, but he wanted to know if she would take the offered suggestions.

“They weren’t muggers or carjackers,” Kelly muttered. Her face was pale, and her eyes were still dazed, but she grabbed for his shoulder in an attempt to rise. “I know who they were.”

“Kelly,” Caleb began urgently, feeling the dull anger return at the knowledge that she was hiding this from him, along with a renewed feeling of powerlessness. “What is going on?”

“It’s my business,” she said despite her obvious weakness. “Just help me up.”

“I’m not going to let you try to drive yourself away,” Caleb gritted through clenched teeth. In her struggle to rise, her neckline had shifted, and his eyes were drawn once more to the lush crease and shadow at the top of her breasts.

He was an asshole for focusing on her cleavage when she was obviously in pain, so he made himself look away.