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NATE WATCHED HER WALK across the room, thinking how much he wanted that woman. And not just because of outward appearance. It was the way she breathed fire at him, the way she made him feel, the way she terrified him right out of his tux.
He would always burn for Perci, and he didn’t think that was going to change anytime soon.
Someone bumped him while he was staring at her.
Nate turned. Clint Gunderson was standing too damned close.
Nate tensed immediately. He never personally had had anything against Clive Gunderson’s oldest son. The guy seemed like a decent sort. Joel hadn’t mentioned any problems with the man, either.
As far as Nate knew, Clint stuck to himself, working for the Wyoming Highway Patrol and part-time ranching somewhere in the northeastern part of the county.
“Gunderson, didn’t see you standing there.”
“No problem. Noticed you came with one of the Tyler girls. She doing okay? Healed all right?”
Nate’s attention sharpened. “She’s fine. They all are. We’re seeing to that.”
The other man held up a hand. They’d gone to school together, him and Clint. They hadn’t been friends, but they had known each other. “I meant nothing by it. Just concern. I know those girls didn’t have a damn thing to do with what my idiot brother did. And I’m sorry that I didn’t see it. Not in time to help, anyway. I knew my brother had some problems, but I’d never imagined he would go off the deep end like that. Or be so obsessed with your sister-in-law. I want your family and the Tylers to know that I am genuinely sorry for what he did. Hell, for what I learned my father did to them, too. I wasn’t even living in the county when Jay attacked that girl back then the first time. I didn’t know about any of it. I know it’s not an excuse, but I want you to know that I have no ill will toward those girls at all.”
There was genuine regret in Gunderson’s eyes. Gunderson looked past Nate’s shoulder and cursed. Nate turned to follow his gaze. That’s when he saw two beautiful redheads, practically cornered near the back of the room by none other than Clint’s father.
Both men started across the room. It took all Nate had not to make a scene. He looked for his brother, surprised that Joel wasn’t right there at Phoebe’s side already. Joel took overprotective to the next level.
He found his brother stuck between several local councilmen. Joel was not going anywhere for a while. His brother caught his eye and jerked his head toward Phoebe and Perci. Nate nodded.
He’d get his sister-in-law away from Gunderson as fast as possible. And Perci.
The look Perci sent him when he approached told its own story. He held out a hand to her, while dropping the other on Phoebe’s narrow shoulder. Gunderson was not going to do anything to hurt the women he cared about ever again. “Sweetheart? Gunderson.”
***
PERCI STEPPED IN FRONT of Phoebe without thought. But it wasn’t her older sister that Gunderson had fixated on. It was her. Clive Gunderson looked at her just like he had the night her mother had died, and in the dozens of times he’d pulled her over since.
She would never share the terror that had filled her those late nights when he’d harassed her. Shortly before he’d lost the election to Joel, he’d made her get out of her car and kneel in the mud while he’d searched her car.
Searched her.
After that incident, it had gotten to the point where she’d almost asked her father to pick her up each night.
But if she had, she’d have had to explain why.
Her father wouldn’t have stopped until he’d killed Gunderson for what he was doing to her. Perci had known that without a shadow of a doubt.
Gunderson’s eyes burned with the hatred she had seen before. She was just about to say something to him, when a large male body moved closer. She knew who it was without having to look first.
Nate was there. Just like she had known he would be.
The instant Gunderson had cornered her and Phoebe, Perci had looked for him. And found him. He had already been on his way to her side. The knowledge that he was coming to her had helped strengthen her spine and made it easier for her to look at the man who had flat out told her that her mother had deserved to die. Nate was there. She wasn’t dealing with this alone, even though her sister was right next to her.
She trusted him.
Would always trust him. Even though he irritated her more than any man on earth ever had. She trusted him, and she always would.
That thought hit her like a bullet.
A little thrill of something went straight through her. He held out a hand to her, and she took it without hesitation. Now she could deal with Clive Gunderson. Without the fear that she had hidden from her family for so long.
They all had their nightmares. Clive Gunderson had been in hers for the last four years.