Page 25 of Against The Tide

That makes the tightness in my chest ease a tad. The notion that in some way I have already alleviated her pain warms me. “Good.”

Tilting her head back gently to get a look at her neck, I catch a hint of her clean, sweet scent, and it takes almost all of my control not to breathe her in until my lungs protest.

“We were arguing, and he struck my face.” Avery cups her injured cheek with one hand while keeping the other in my palm. “I think we tussled…maybe, but then I tried to get away and—” A panicked sputter breaks her voice.

Forcing my composure once more, I control the urge to pull her to me. But I’m not sure what happens—it’s as though my restraint undoes her control, and the tears she’s been holding on to rivulet down her cheeks. Drop after fat drop. My lungs burn with her stammered gasp for air as sobs rip from deep in her gut.

I lose my mind. Every rule. Every protocol. Every single thing I have lived by throughout my career goes out of the window in that second, and before I can stop myself, I pull her into me.

“It’s going to be okay, sunshine.” Fuck only knows what’s possessed me, but I can’t stand by and watch her suffer. Not on her own.

Nobody should feel the anguish that’s so clearly consuming her as Avery allows me to hold her.

“We’re going to help you.”

“I can’t let him take my daughter.”

“It’s going to be okay.”

Hands pushing at my chest, Avery gathers herself. “You don’t know that.”

“Yeah, I do. You’ve got every one of us and Callie.”

“And Callie,” she chuckles without an actual smile, but the sound on its own is beautiful. It warms through me.

“She’s a force of nature all on her own, and then you have Rowan too…and me.” I add the latter quietly.

“I didn’t want everyone to see it…how bad it is.”

“Chances are that no matter what you show me, I’ve probably seen something worse. Besides, I’m a great doctor, haven’t you heard?”

The smallest of smiles tips up one side of her face. “I think I have.”

“I already know it’s not great from the way you tense every time you move. You can’t twist your body, and you’re using the left side to compensate for the damage to your other side.”

“He dragged me down the stairs,” Avery murmurs, her hands pulling up the right side of her sweatshirt until her hip comes into view. “I wanted to get Iris and leave, and he pulled me down by my ankle. I didn’t get a chance to catch myself or break my fall.”

Another sob leaves her trembling lips while I crouch in front of her to get a better look.

“Iris is a pretty name.” I’m hoping to distract her and maybe myself. “It’s a flower, right?”

“Yeah, it is, but it also means rainbow in Greek. My dad loved wet, sunny days.”

I listen to her tell me about how her dad loved the rain because it was a good omen. All the while, I try to be as gentle as I can as I examine every inch of mottled skin she allows me to.

My previous statement about having seen something worse comes back to haunt me. It’s impossible to see something as awful as the damage her asshole husband caused her. My blood scorches through my veins like molten lava while my heart pounds viciously in my chest. The bruising rhythm making it the hardest it’s ever been to get my feelings under control.

How could someone hurt anyone like this?

How could anyone hurt her in this way?

“Rhett,” Avery whispers so low that I can barely make out my own name over the sound of my rage pumping through me, whooshing in my ears.

Releasing her sweatshirt, she pulls a phone from the front pocket and hands it to me when I stand. “Could you…I need…”

Taking the phone from her, I watch as she pulls the hem of her sweater up. The higher it goes, the tighter my jaw clenches. Without touching her, I crouch closer to get a better look at her abdomen. It’s not just her hip that’s bruised. The entire right side of her chest, ribs, and belly is marled red and purple.

“You probably think I’m an idiot…”