“Oh, no, you don’t, Talon. Don’t just stand there. Go get him an ice pack for his nose.”

Talon hesitated for a minute but then walked to the kitchen. A few seconds later, he came back with a plastic bag filled with ice. I held it to Colin’s nose.

“Does he need an ambulance?” Talon asked.

Colin coughed. “Of course I don’t need a damned ambulance, you Neanderthal. I can take as much as you can dish out.”

“Oh, yeah?” Talon’s eyes lit with fire again.

“You two stop this right now.” I stood and faced Talon, my hands on my hips. “You owe Colin an apology.”

“The hell I do.”

“I don’t need a goddamned apology from him.” Colin stood, holding the ice bag to his nose. “I’m staying at the Hotel Coronado in Grand Junction. I want to take you to dinner tonight.”

“Over my dead body,” Talon said.

“Talon, I will decide who I have dinner with, got it?” I helped Colin up and over to a chair in the living room. “You sure you don’t want me to call someone?”

He shook his head. “Just give me a few minutes to collect myself. I’ll be fine. I’ve been in worse shape than this.”

Back in the foyer, Talon seethed. I looked away from him. What I had just witnessed disgusted me…and unnerved me. I did not want to see him right now.

After about fifteen minutes, I walked with Colin to his car. “Text me when you get Grand Junction safely.”

He nodded. “I still hope you’ll meet me for dinner tonight.”

I shook my head. “No, Colin. That’s not going to happen. I’m sorry.”

He drove away.

I walked back into the house. Talon was in the kitchen, sitting at the table with that goddamned glass of water again. He looked up at me when I walked in.

“What the hell was that all about?” I said.

“He was kissing you.”

“Why is it any of your business who I kiss?”

“Well…he walked out on your wedding, so he shouldn’t be—”

I clenched my hands into fists. “For God’s sake, Talon, do you have feelings for me or not? How did it make you feel to see him kissing me?”

“I don’t know…”

“You don’t know? You nearly beat him to death. I can’t believe you got so violent.”

“I…don’t know why either.”

“Were you jealous?”

“Of course not.”

“Just as well”—anger boiled within me—“because whatever this little thing was between us, it’s over. I mean really over. I don’t want anything to do with you. I’m going to talk to Marj about moving out.”

“Marj is out at the orchard. And she wants you here.”

“Either I’m leaving or you are, and I don’t think you are.”

“But what about…?”

“What about what? We shared a few kisses, a few romps in bed. It was beyond great. But you are so screwed up that I can’t get through to you. I just witnessed you nearly beat the life out of a man. Frankly, Talon, you scare me.”

I walked back to my bedroom. Leaving was my only alternative. There was no getting around it. Something lived inside Talon, something poisonous, something I might never understand, and as long as he kept himself closed off from me and everyone else, I couldn’t risk being around him.

I refused to lose my heart to someone who was incapable of giving me his.

Chapter Fourteen

Talon

I wanted to go after her. I wanted to with everything in my body and soul. I wanted to grab her, kiss her, make her forget how angry she was.

God… When I saw that man with his hands on her, something in me snapped. Green rage boiled through me. I had to get him off of her, off of my woman.

But she would never be my woman. I had nothing to offer. Nothing but a few midnight kisses and romps, as she called them.

I would still be beating the guy if she hadn’t stopped me. I’d been crazy, unable to stop. I wasn’t even thinking, and my hands and feet were acting of their own accord. A primordial need to pummel him into soup had consumed me, and all logic had fled.

I could’ve done serious damage to him. He deserved it, for humiliating Jade the way he had, but I knew better. Knowing better hadn’t stopped me though. It never did.

Icy chills gripped the back of my neck.

This couldn’t go on.

I wasn’t ready to give up. I wanted to live.

I stood abruptly, grabbed the keys to my truck, went out the back way, and drove over to the ranch office where Jonah would be. I stormed into the office, past the office manager to Joe’s office.

“Talon”—my older brother looked up from some documents he was reading—“what are you doing out here?”

“I’m ready, Joe. I’m ready to get some help.”

* * *

Joe had handed me a business card of a psychologist in Grand Junction, Dr. Melanie Carmichael. He didn’t know much about her other than she was supposed to be tops in her field and that she’d had a lot of success treating patients with histories similar to mine. He had even offered to go with me and to get Ryan and have him go as well. But no, this was something I had to do alone.

I called the number right away, and even though it was a Saturday, Dr. Carmichael agreed to meet me in her office.

I pulled up into the Heritage Medical Group offices and parked my car. She said she’d leave word with the security guard to let me in, since the doors were locked on weekends.

I stood at the door, my palms leaving sweat marks on the glass. Had this been a huge mistake? A security guard sat at his desk inside. I knocked on the door. The man looked up and came to the door.

“Mr. Steel?”

I nodded.

He opened the door and let me in. “Dr. C’s up on five, Suite 524. I’ll have to key in the elevator for you. They’re locked on weekends.”

I nodded again and followed him to the elevator. He keyed in a code.

“Good luck,” he said.

Good luck? I warmed all over. Of course, he knew what field Dr. Carmichael was in. This shouldn’t be a surprise to me. But I wanted to disappear.

As the elevator moved up five floors, I kept thinking of an excuse not to go and see Dr. Carmichael. I could go home and tell Jonah I’d gone. I could make up some kind of psychobabble jargon. He wouldn’t know the difference.