The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy #2) - Tijan by Tijan

Kash would not react well to this.

“I’m sorry, I—”

Calhoun took one step, reaching for me. “My dear, I can see why my grandson is so taken with you. You’re very beautiful. I can see the kindness.”

Kindness?

Fitz shoved farther forward through the crowd, but Calhoun wasn’t deterred.

He stepped to the side, where Fitz couldn’t block him. An almost sad look came to him as he stared at me, his hands clasped together in front of him. “The kindness must come from your mother.”

My chest pinched.

He added, “Chrissy Hayes.”

He said her name.

My heart ceased.

He knew about my mom.

He kept on, knowing these words would affect me. He was choosing them with purpose. “She had such hardships growing up, the rift in the family, Peter seducing her, and she had to drop out of school to have a child at such a young age.”

Rift?

But I knew there were issues. And the rest, including Peter’s “seduction.”

He was speaking about me as if I weren’t that “child.”

He had investigated my life and he was letting me know this.

I started to step forward.

It was my turn to address him, but another surge in the crowd happened at that moment. A buzz rose up, and suddenly Kash was in front of me. He was blocking me, and he clipped at Fitz, “Get her out of here. Now.”

Fitz took my arm. “Yes, sir.”

He began pulling me away.

I dug in, waiting. Needing.

Kash was face-to-face with his grandfather once more. He couldn’t do that alone. I needed to be there for him. Kash didn’t let anyone close to him, not for this stuff. And as I pulled my arm free from Fitz, we were three people into the crowd. I couldn’t look away from where Kash was facing off with his grandfather.

Almost nose-to-nose, he towered over Calhoun.

Both had dark looks, but Kash was so much darker.

There was a calmness to Calhoun, a calm that only years of superiority and authority and power could settle and make so blatant. He stood without moving a muscle, not even an eyelid twitch.

The air around Kash was anything but that calm.

A storm rippled from him, and the crowd felt it, veering away and giving them extra space, but then I noticed, one by one, guards slipped through the crowd. They began to form a circle around Kash and his grandfather. Their backs were to the two and they held their hands up, moving a slow step forward. They were guiding the crowd away, giving the grandson and grandfather privacy, though Busich and the two other staff members were still there. Their eyes were wide, glued to the confrontation.

Busich tore her gaze away to find where I was still standing. Her eyebrows furrowed and she returned to the two, her throat moving as she swallowed visibly.

I couldn’t hear what Kash was saying, but I could see his lips barely moving. He was talking and his grandfather was listening, but Calhoun had found me in the crowd. He was watching me at the same time. My skin started crawling again. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

As if sensing my discomfort, Fitz moved so he was between Calhoun and me, and he began walking me backward. “Kash will worry. Let’s get you to your building.”

Calhoun couldn’t do anything to Kash. Not there. Not then. There were too many witnesses. Only because of that fact, I went with Fitz.

Hoda, Melissa, and Liam were waiting for us.

Hoda looked sick. Her cheeks had an unnatural pallor to them, and she was holding her hand over her mouth.

Liam seemed only slightly concerned.

Melissa’s hand was pressed to her chest. It dropped and she hurried closer to me. “Was that about you?”

Hoda snorted. “Of course that was about her. Did you not see who that was?”

Melissa had no time to respond.

The door opened and Kash swept in. His eyes were blazing. His jaw tight. His face stone.

He was furious.

He didn’t say anything. His gaze locked on me, walking to me.

He stopped in front of me.

I didn’t notice anyone else’s reaction, because he bent forward, wrapped an arm around my waist, and lifted back up with me over his shoulder.

“Kash!” I yelped.

He wasn’t waiting. He strode forward, through the building. The door was being held open for him and he breezed right through. I saw Fitz coming behind, fighting a grin and failing. He took the door from whoever was holding it, and I could only guess the other one was Erik. The door to Kash’s sports car was opened. He deposited me in it, putting my seat belt in place and striding around to the driver’s side.

Erik spoke over my door. “Let us drive you.”

He was speaking to Kash.

Kash was ignoring him. He motioned to my door, opening his own. “Close her door. I need to drive myself right now.”

His mouth tightened, but Erik shut my door.

A split second. That’s all it took before he had the engine going and was pulling away from the curb.

Fitz and Erik hurried into their SUV and they were following us.

I was too shocked to start, but Kash wasn’t. He so wasn’t.

He began, speaking low, fury riddling every word, sending awareness through me.

“He showed up.”

The venom was almost shocking, but I waited.

“If he had hurt you. If he had touched you.” He jerked the wheel and we were merging with traffic and still Kash didn’t slow. He swung between lanes, and it would’ve been reckless if it hadn’t been him. Erik and Fitz couldn’t keep up. They were two lanes over and three cars behind.