Tied With a Bow

oddly after Isabelle had told them what her family had done. Her father’s anger seemed to have especially upset both girls.
    “Everything’s obviously not okay,” Liza spoke up at that point, her red-rimmed eyes full of not just pain, but anger as she turned back to Malachi. “Isabelle is like a sister to me, Malachi. She’s the best friend I have in this world. And when she told us last night what happened, I had a feeling I knew exactly who had done it, and I was right.”
    His gaze flicked to Terran. The other man looked grief- stricken, and filled with rage. He turned back to Liza.
    “Are you going to tell me who it was?” he asked, his eyes narrowing on her.
    Her lips trembled for a brief second before she steadied them, lifted her chin and said, “The man who attacked her in her own home and nearly raped her. If Chelsea and I hadn’t come home when we did, he would have raped her in her own living room.”
    Tears spilled from the girl’s eyes again, but she continued bravely. “My dad had given me a gun. I pulled it from the closet and hit him in the back of the head with it. It gave her time to get away from him. When she jerked it from me, Chelsea and I kept her from filling his ass with buckshot. We should have let her do it. But all I could imagine was him suing the three of us and getting away with it.”
    It had been known to happen. Which was neither here nor there. It didn’t matter in the end. Once he had the identity of the man, the three women wouldn’t have to worry about being sued, they would only have to worry about what color to wear to his funeral. Black for grief, though he doubted they would choose such a respectable, somber color for the event. Perhaps red, he thought, for the blood the son of a bitch was going to shed.
    “Liza, I want that name.”
    “You’ll kill him,” Chelsea cried out as she swung around to face him. “Then Isabelle will be pissed with us. And God forbid you be arrested for it, because she would kill us. You don’t know what she’s like when she’s pissed, Malachi.”
    “Obviously, courageous and daring,” he stated with no small amount of pride. “But, I prefer she not have to be courageous and daring again with this particular individual, and there’s no doubt he won’t attempt it again.” He glanced to Terran. “It’s the same man that called you?”
    “She’s my daughter,” Terran rasped. “I’ll take vengeance.”
    “God save me from all this familial guilt and self- punishment,” he snapped, growing more furious by the moment. “I’ll have his name and I’ll have it now. If I don’t, I promise the two of you I’ll take Isabelle as far as possible from this place and you’ll be lucky if she can convince me to visit once every five years.” He turned to her father. “And if that’s the case, then you can forget knowing any grandchildren she’ll have because my faith in your ability to tell us anything that could endanger that child would be nil. Now one of you had better fucking open your mouths.” His voice rose with the last words, his anger beginning to slip past the calm he always forced upon himself.
    Chelsea and Liza stared back at him in shock.
    “Holden Mayhew.” Terran gave him the name he wanted. “He’s the manager . . .”
    “Of the Tri-Bar Ranch bordering yours.” Malachi nodded as his fists clenched, his body tightening with rage.
    The man had fists like anvils. Not that he was any match for a Breed, but for a woman as delicate and fragile as Isabelle, it would have been like being mauled by a grizzly.
    “I’ll take care of it . . .” A piercing phone alarm began emanating from both Rule and Malachi’s phones.
    Malachi’s eyes widened as he jerked it from his belt activated the display.
    “He has her, Mal.” Emma’s face was already swelling while blood oozed from her nose and split lips. “Ashley’s down . . . Ash . . .” The phone fell.
    Malachi was racing for the door the second the words made sense and running the short distance down the hall. He was aware of Rule behind him, shouting orders and pulling in the team being kept on a lower floor. The Martinez family was running behind, the father on the phone now, shouting orders as well as they all raced to Malachi’s room.
    Stygian was slamming from the door further up the hall as Malachi made the turn down the wing where his, Ashley and Emma’s rooms were and skidded to a halt at the opened door of his room.
    Ashley was down.