Page 80 of The Heartbreaker (Chandler Brothers 3)
“And withdrew from life.” Sloane understood him now. Understood everything about him and why he’d turned into a recluse.
“It was easier not to be around folks in this town.” He slashed his hand through the air, as if cutting people out of his life. “But they persisted. Pearl brought brownies by and Izzy and Norman sent food after my mother died. But I didn’t want their sympathy. And when polite manners didn’t do the trick, I started turning them away with gruff, rude talking.” He jutted out his chin. “It worked too. Pretty soon, everyone left me alone.”
Despite the pride in his voice, Sloane sensed how false his words sounded, how hurt he must have been to have lost Jacqueline first, then his entire family.
“You must have been lonely.” She tipped her head to one side, waiting for him to protest his independence and need for no one and nobody.
The man was a recluse who didn’t want emotion given to him, nor did he desire to provide any in return. But his next words surprised her. “It was a life I wouldn’t wish on anybody,” he muttered, and stood pacing just past the window. “But I got by and I’m fine. Damned if I’m not.” He straightened his shoulders, ever the solitary man he presented to the outside world.
“I know you’re fine, but at least admit you could be better.” Sloane followed his lead and rose to her knees, grateful for the excuse to move and get her circulation flowing again. “You’ve got family now and you’re stuck with me,” she said, echoing his earlier words.
He would learn Sloane Carlisle wasn’t a woman easily deterred. Samson might not want tender emotion, but he was going to get some anyway. Sloane was his daughter, the only flesh-and-blood person he was connected to in this world. It was time he acknowledged her in an embrace. And she intended to enjoy her first real father-daughter hug.
Standing, she moved forward, past the open window, and turned to reach for Samson at the same moment a loud noise sounded from outside and a burning sensation seared through her left shoulder. The impact propelled her against the wall as she cried out in surprise. She grabbed for her shoulder while white flashes and bursts of light circled around her.
“Damn, girl.” Samson reached for her, easing her to a sitting position before kneeling beside her. “Easy.” He moved her hand so he could check her shoulder.
Sloane glanced down. Was that her blood on her hands?
“You’ve been shot,” Samson said in a shaking voice.
Sloane’s vision blurred badly. She thought Samson was pulling off his jacket. Thought he muttered, “Gotta stop the bleeding.” She couldn’t be sure.
But when he put pressure against her shoulder with that jacket, a searing, burning, unbearable pain shot straight through to her heart. She rolled her head to one side and shut her eyes to escape the agony, but there was no getting away from her own body.
Other outside noises intruded. … Footsteps, maybe? Voices, definitely. Without a doubt, she heard Samson speaking.
She wished Chase were beside her, doing his white-knight bit, but he was with his family. His primary obligation. She’d walked out of his life. Or had he walked out of hers? Nausea threatened to overwhelm her along with the disorienting sensation of losing her balance.
Go with it, she told herself. If she did, she’d escape the pain and nothing mattered more, she thought as she allowed herself to fall into the oblivion that beckoned.
* * *
“You should have let me drive,” Chase muttered.
“You’re too upset,” Rick said, slowing down for a yield sign.
Chase glared at Rick, who, after hearing Samson had disappeared, had snatched his car keys and ordered his brothers around like the cop he was. He didn’t want the man wandering around town alone, unprotected.
He hadn’t turned on Chase for not going after Sloane when he had the chance, but that was fine since Chase had enough self-recrimination without his brother’s lecture. His gut feeling told him father and daughter were together and the end result couldn’t be good.
“Step on it, will you?” he told his brother.
Rick ignored him, while Roman reached out from the back-seat and put one hand on Chase’s shoulder for support. “We’ll be at the McKeevers’ house soon enough.”
The old tree house, where Sloane had met Samson for the first time, was the only place Chase could think of that Sloane would go to be alone. Lord knew she wouldn’t return to Chase’s house. He’d done his best to freeze her out and drive her far away from him.
Finally, after what seemed like half an hour but in reality wasn’t more than five minutes, Rick pulled up to the curb in front of the sprawling Colonial. No car in the driveway told him the McKeevers still weren’t home, which he’d figured since they hadn’t answered the phone when Chase had called from the car on the way over.
