"She's my best friend, but you'll see. She's mine."

I nodded and clapped his back, forcing my hand out of a fist. "I got you, man. Come on, let me get you a beer."

As the night wore on, I continued to get closer and closer to where she was. I felt like a creep, trying to be near her, but I couldn't stop it. I wanted to listen to her talk and laugh; I swear she sounded like an angel singing when she laughed. I almost groaned out loud-Angel singing? What the hell is wrong with me?

We were all sitting around the bonfire talking and drinking. I was just a few feet from Cassi when she got up to head over to Jackie. If it hadn't been for what happened immediately after, I would have punched Jake in the face for touching her. With one hand he grazed the front of her thigh, and with the other he grabbed her ass, causing her to stumble and fall right into me, her beer soaking my shirt.

Her big eyes got even wider and she sucked in a quick gasp. "Oh God, I'm so sorry!" The sun was setting and it was getting darker, but I could perfectly see her blush. I'm pretty sure Cassi blushing was my new favorite thing.

I laughed and grabbed her small shoulders to steady her, not caring one bit about my shirt. "You all right?"

Her eyes focused on my lips, her teeth lightly sinking into her bottom one. I wanted to replace her teeth with mine and without realizing it, I started to lean forward. She blinked quickly and glanced up, then looked at Jake on my right. "I'm fine. I'm really sorry about your shirt."

Aw hell, this isn't normal. She's said all of two sentences to me tonight and I was about to kiss her? "Don't worry about it," I murmured as she righted herself and continued toward Jackie, only to be quickly pulled away by Tyler as he spoke in her ear, his arms around her.

"Damn, when you said your cousin was bringing a chick, I wasn't expecting her to be so hot," Jake said.

"Jake, touch her again . . . see what fuckin' happens."

"Whoa, got it bad for your cousin's girl already, huh? You gonna try to get with that?"

I eyed Cassi in Ty's arms and shook my head as I brought my beer up to take another long drink. "Nope." Yes, yes, I am.

"Well, if you're not, I sure as hell am."

"Jake," I growled.

"All right, all right. Chill, Gage. I won't touch her and you heard her . . . she's fine." Jake leaned forward to grab another beer out of the ice chest and settled back into his chair, his eyes already off Cassi and onto Lanie.

After a quick glance to see Cassi and Tyler still quietly talking, I got up and walked back to where all the trucks were parked. I took my wet shirt off and hung it off the bed of my truck before grabbing a clean one out of the backseat. When I turned around, Tyler was walking up to me.

"I'm real glad you're here, bro," I said.

"Me too." He took a long drink out of his can before setting it down on the tailgate. "We couldn't get here fast enough. Cali was really starting to wear on me; I was ready for someplace new. And hey, I know I've said this, but I appreciate you letting us room with you. I know you could've had anyone share your apartment with you, and he probably wouldn't have brought a girl with him."

"Don't worry about it, you're family. To be honest, I was kinda surprised when you said you were coming to Austin to go to school with me. After you started refusing to come to the ranch with Aunt Steph and Uncle Jim the last few years, I just figured you didn't like us much anymore."

"Nah, it had nothing to do with you. I just hated leaving Cassi behind. Sorry I made you think that though."

I took a deep breath, reminding myself Cassi had followed him to Texas. "Really? I don't get it, Ty, you said she was a friend. Then she follows you here, and now you're saying you wouldn't come visit because you didn't want to leave her? How come you never just told me how it really was with y'all?"

"It's complicated; we really were just friends. But she needed me; I couldn't just leave her. And I'm in love with her, man."

Holy hell. I felt like someone had just knocked the air outta me. How was I already so into this girl that it physically hurt to think of her being with Ty? With anyone, for that matter? Seriously. This was not. Fucking. Normal. "What do you mean she needed you?"

Tyler sighed and shook his head. "Like I said, it's complicated."

We both looked up when we heard girls squealing and splashing. Some of the guys were throwing them into the lake, and I couldn't stop myself from going to Jake when he picked Cassi up and threw her over his shoulder. My hands were already balled into fists for when he put her down. Her long hair was hiding her face as she pounded her little hands on his back.

"Put me down! I'm not wearing a suit!" She sounded so determined for a little thing that I almost smiled. Almost. "I'm serious, put me down!"

"Jake, I told you not to touch her. Put her down." I was standing right behind them then. Cassi grabbed the top of his jeans to push herself up and look at me, but Jake turned so he was now facing me. She was trying to kick him as well and his hands high up on her thighs had my hands fisting again.

"Come on, Gage." He sounded annoyed. "All the other girls went in."

"She doesn't want to-" Jake slid her down, causing her shirt to ride up high on her back. I choked on my next words, and at least two other people gasped behind me. WHAT THE HELL?!

Tyler grabbed Cassi and started pulling her away. He looked at her sympathetically, and when his eyes met mine they looked worried. Cassi's face was bright red again and her lips were smashed together tight as she let Tyler lead her to his Jeep.

Jake looked at me like I was insane; if it wasn't for the other guys having the same reaction, I woulda felt like it too. I turned and followed Tyler and Cassi to the Jeep, waiting until I was sure no one could hear us. "What the hell did I just see?"

Tyler helped her into the Jeep before going to the driver's side and opening up his own door. Cassi was looking straight ahead, her jaw still clenched.

"Ty, man, what was that?"

"Nothing. We'll see you whenever you get back to the apartment."

"That wasn't nothing!"

He sighed and stepped away from the door, leaning close so she couldn't hear him. "Look, we were trying to avoid something like this, but since you already saw, I'll explain it later. But this is exactly what I was getting her away from, so I'm going to take her back to the apartment now if you don't mind."

I didn't wait for anything else. I practically ran to my truck, grabbed my wet shirt as I put the tailgate up, hopped in, and drove back with them. A million things went through my mind on the way back to the apartment, and each one had me gripping the steering wheel hard. It was dark enough that I couldn't be sure what I'd seen, but it looked like bruises. Lots of them. I'd heard of people with some illnesses who are covered in them. I tried to think of what it could be and thought about her too-small frame. If her face didn't look so healthy, I would have been sure it was that. But the way Tyler talked about not wanting to leave her behind, I couldn't dismiss it either. I refused to think about the obvious; there was no way someone would hurt her. I'd hunt them down if they did.

Why was I so protective of her? I didn't know her from Eve, and we'd barely said anything to each other all night. I was hardly like this when it came to my sisters, and I loved them more than anything. I didn't know what it was about that girl, but she was already completely under my skin. And I wasn't sure if I liked that or not yet.

The drive took forever, and I let out a long sigh when I finally pulled into my spot. When they pulled up next to me, I jogged over to the passenger door and opened it. Cassi's face made me take a step back. There was absolutely no emotion there, and though she wouldn't meet my eyes, hers looked dead. I held my hand out to help her down, but Tyler pushed through me, glaring at me, and helped her out himself. He kept an arm around her as he led her to our place and took her right into his bedroom. I stood in the living room waiting for them to come out, but thirty minutes passed and the door still hadn't opened. With a heavy sigh, I turned and went to my bathroom to take a shower since I still smelled like the beer Cassi'd spilled on me. Thank God I hadn't gotten pulled over on the way home. When I got back to my room, Tyler was sitting on my bed.

"Sorry, Gage, she didn't want to talk to you when we got here."

"Is she sick, Ty?"

Tyler started. "What? No, she's not sick. Why would you-Oh. No. She's not."

Part of me was relieved, but now that I knew that wasn't it, I felt sick knowing what must've happened. "That why you never wanted to leave her?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, that's why."

"Boyfriend?"

He shook his head.

"Parents?" I gritted my teeth hard when he nodded.

"Hold on a sec." Tyler walked quickly to the other side of the apartment, and I heard his door open and shut twice before he came back to my room, closing the door. "I wanted to make sure she was sleeping; she doesn't want you to know. But since you saw it, I have to tell you-I need to tell someone." He dropped his head into his hands and took a deep breath as his body started shuddering. "I haven't told anyone in eleven years. Do you know what it's been like, knowing what's happening and not being able to say anything?"

"Eleven years?!" I hissed, and made myself lean back against the wall so I wouldn't go after him. "This has been going on for eleven fucking years and you didn't tell anyone? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"She made me promise I wouldn't! She was terrified they would take her away."

"Did you not see that? Her entire back was black and blue!"

Tyler hung his head again. "That's not the worst it's ever been. She'd come over with concussions; a few times I made her agree to stitches. Swear to God, that girl is tougher than most men I know, because without any pain medication she'd let Dad sew her up right there in the kitchen. Then there were times she couldn't even get off the floor. When she was young, sometimes she'd lie there for hours before she could move; when we got older and got her a phone, she'd have to text me and I'd come get her."

I tried to swallow the throw-up that was rising in my throat. "It got that bad and you never said a word. What would you have done if they killed her one of those times, Ty?"

A sob came from where he sat hunched in on himself. "I hate myself for letting her go through that. But every time I tried to confront them, she'd flip out and make me leave, and when I would, that night or the next day would be one of those days where they'd beat her so hard she wouldn't be able to pick herself up."

"That isn't an excuse, you could have taken her away from them. Uncle Jim could have done something!"

"Look, Gage, you can't make me feel any worse than I already do! I'm the one who had to clean the blood off her, I'm the one who had to bandage her up even during the dozens of times when she should have gotten stitches. I had to buy a mini freezer for my room so I could have ice for when she came over!" He pulled his phone out of his pocket, tapped the screen a few times, and stifled another sob as he handed it over to me.

"What is this?" Whatever these fresh bruises were, they definitely weren't done by hands. The small rectangles looked familiar, but I couldn't place what I thought they were.

"Golf club. I didn't even know about this last time. She just told me about it on the way back here, and I took the pictures before I came in here. She said it happened yesterday morning before I came and packed her bags."

"Are there more pictures?"

He raised his head for a second to nod. "Ever since I got my first phone I've taken pictures every time she came over, and I always transfer them to my new phones so I'll have them. They're all backed up too. She wouldn't let me say anything, but I wanted to have photos in case . . ." His voice trailed off. There wasn't a need for him to finish that sentence anyway; I got the message.

Flipping through some of his pictures, I couldn't believe this was the same sweet Cassi I'd just met a few hours ago. Bruises of all shapes, sizes, and colors covered her body and it was killing me to look at them, but I couldn't stop. You could see all the ones that were fading slowly get covered up by new ones, and other pictures showed her back, arms, and face covered in blood. What killed me was that whenever her face was in the picture, she wore the same expression I'd just seen outside. No emotion, dead eyes, and absolutely no tears.

"What would they do to her?"

"You don't want to know."

Like hell I didn't. I was already planning on going to California with my twelve-gauge. "What. Would. They. Do?"

He was quiet for so long I didn't think he was going to answer. "When it first started, it was usually just hitting and kicking. The older she got, the more it turned into whatever they had in their hands or could grab quickly. Once that started, she only came over if it was other objects. She lived for the days when it was only hands."

"So what I saw tonight, you said it isn't the worst?"

"Not even close."

"What was?"

Tyler sighed and looked up at me, tears streaming down his face. "I don't know, there were a few that really stood out, but I couldn't name one that was the worst."

I just kept glaring at him; he needed a beatin' just for letting this go on for so long. She was seventeen or eighteen now, so she had been six or seven when this all started. And he'd known the entire time.

"A couple years ago, the cops showed up one night-"

"I thought you said she wouldn't let you call?"

"I didn't." He sighed and ran his hands through his hair a few times. "The old lady that lived in between us heard her screaming one night, called the cops."

I shoved off the wall and flung my arms out. "You had a perfect opportunity and you still didn't do anything? They didn't do anything?!"

"Gage, I didn't even know the cops were called until she texted me hours after they'd left!"

"What happened?" I demanded, and forced myself back against the wall.

"Cassi opened the door, her mom and stepdad right behind her. None of her bruises were visible then and they all denied the screaming, including Cass."

Seriously? What the fuck?

"When the cops left, her mom took off her high heels, used the pointy heel part to hit her head repeatedly. There was so much blood when I got there, Gage, and she couldn't lay her head even on a pillow for almost a week after that. Another time her stepdad threw a glass of alcohol at her, she ducked, and it shattered against a wall. Since she didn't get hit by it, he grabbed her by the throat, dragged her to where it was, and just kept slicing her forehead, arms, stomach, and back with one of the pieces. She wore a scarf every day 'til the finger marks were gone. That's why she wears her hair with those things, what are they called? Bangs. She got those scars when she was ten and the one on her head isn't very noticeable anymore, but she still tries to hide it. She tries to hide all of them, but some she can't unless she wants to wear jeans and long sleeves in the summer."

I stood there in shock, trying to make the connection between this girl he was telling me about and the girl I'd just met. Even with seeing the pictures it wasn't clicking for me; I couldn't imagine someone touching her, or her being so willing to let it continue. "You're a poor excuse for a man, Tyler." I opened my door and stood next to it, arms crossed over my chest.

He looked like he crumpled in on himself. "You think I don't know that?"

I couldn't say anything else to him. As soon as he was out of my room I slammed the door and fell on my bed. I wanted to make him stay in my room and go to her myself. Hold her and tell her I'd never let anyone else hurt her again. But for whatever reason she wanted him, and we didn't know each other so it would be even creepier than my trying to be close enough to hear her talk tonight.

My whole body shook as I thought about anyone laying a hand on her, let alone sharp objects. Sweet Cassi, she deserved parents and a man who cherished her. Not ones who beat her and a boy who sat back and let it happen. I swallowed back vomit for the third time since I found out what happened and forced myself to stay in my bed.

I closed my eyes and tried to steady my breathing, focusing on her face and honey-colored eyes instead of what I saw on her back and the images that Tyler's phone had seared into my brain. I thought about running my hands through that long, dark hair. Pressing my mouth to her neck, her cheeks, and finally those lips that were full and inviting. Tyler doesn't deserve her. Not at all. I thought about taking her in my arms and taking her to the ranch so I could keep her safe for the rest of her life. But she'd already been living a life she didn't choose, so I wouldn't choose for her either; I would wait for her to leave him and come to me.

Chapter Two.

Cassidy WE HADN'T BEEN in Austin for more than six hours before someone saw the bruises. And not just anyone, Tyler's cousin, our new roommate, and the guy who wouldn't leave my every waking thought. I told Tyler not to tell him-let him make his own assumptions-but of course Tyler didn't listen and told him way more than he should have. I couldn't blame him though; I'd made him keep a secret no kid should have to. I know he thought I was sleeping, but even if I had been, Gage yelling at Tyler, or Tyler coming back into our room to hold me and tell me how sorry he was while he cried, would have woken me up. I'd learned long ago that if I cried, I got hit harder until I finally stopped, so I'd become a master at turning off my emotions. But I knew if I had opened my eyes to watch him cry, it definitely would have broken through that wall and I would have been crying right there with him. So I lay completely still, emotions turned off and eyes shut, while Tyler cried himself to sleep.

Once Tyler got in the shower the next morning, I slipped into the kitchen to start some coffee. We'd spent so many nights without sleeping over the years, we'd both started drinking it early on, and I was glad that now he didn't have to sneak an extra cup for me since his parents hadn't exactly known that I stayed the night all those years.

I shut the door quietly and turned to tiptoe across the hardwood floors when I saw Gage, and my heart instantly picked up its pace. He was dressed only in jersey shorts and shoes, his body still glistening with sweat. God, he looked amazing, and my breath caught at how perfect his body and face were. I'd barely caught a glimpse of him without his shirt on last night before Tyler had caught me staring, and now I couldn't make my eyes look away.

"Morning."

My eyes finally snapped up to meet his. In the light and this close, I could see the gold flecks scattered throughout the green of his eyes. They were the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. "Good morning, Gage."

"How, uh-how are you today?"

I sighed and walked over to the coffeepot. "I know he talked to you, I could hear you guys last night. I don't want you to be awkward around me now because of what you know."

"Cassi, those things should have never happened to you. He should have told someone."

I turned to find him right in front of me again. "I made him promise he wouldn't."

"Well he shouldn't have listened to you."

"You don't get it, Gage. You weren't there. I couldn't let him."

His eyes narrowed. "No, I wasn't there. But if I had been, something would have been done the first time it ever happened. Why didn't you say anything the night the cops showed?"