Calder Pride (Calder Saga 5)

The conversation was taking a turn she didn’t like. “I’m not listening to any more of this.” Turning with an impatient swing of her shoulders, Cat started toward the door. “There isn’t going to be any wedding, shotgun or otherwise. And that’s final.”

Her father’s hard voice came after her. “You will marry him, or I will seek custody of Quint myself.”

She wheeled around, her heart catapulting into her throat. “What does that mean?”

“Precisely what I said—I’ll take Quint away from you myself,” he replied.

“On what grounds?” Cat demanded.

“Does it matter?” her father countered. “I can claim anything—that you are an unfit parent or emotionally unstable, whatever I choose. Then it’s simply a matter of bringing in a bunch of expert witnesses to back it up.”

“But it wouldn’t be true,” she protested.

“I never said it would be,” he reminded her. “I only said I would do it. And there isn’t a judge in this whole state that doesn’t owe me something. I would win, Cat. We both know it.”

“How could you do that to me? You’re my father.”

Regret clouded his eyes. “I don’t want to do it, Cat. But if that’s what it will take to force you to do the right thing for your son, I’ll do it.”

“No.” The small cry was wrenched from her.

“You’re going too far, Calder,” Logan declared, a telling roughness in his voice.

Chase flicked a dark glance at his daughter. “Tell me a better one.”

Cat stared at Logan, stunned that he would come to her defense. He turned to her, an unexpected gentleness in his eyes. She felt inexplicably safe.

“One year of marriage is hardly a life sentence,” he told her. “If it doesn’t work at the end of it, we’ll part company—maybe not as friends, but certainly not as enemies.”

“Take it, Cat,” her father warned. “You know that I will do exactly what I said.”

“A year,” she whispered.

Logan held out his hand to seal the bargain. The instant she placed her hand in his and felt the warm, solid grip of his fingers, Cat wondered what she had done.

PART 4

How could he betray you

And force you to be his bride?

You have given your word to do it,

Though it tests that stiff Calder pride.

EIGHTEEN

Silence reigned for a moment. The solid and heavy pound of her heartbeat sounded loud in it. Pulling her hand back, Cat looked up into Logan’s hard, virile face. The gentleness was gone from his eyes; something else was in them now. Confused and uneasy, nerves jumping, Cat retreated a step.

“I promised Quint I would be up to see him before he went to sleep. If you’ll excuse me.” The polite phrase came automatically.

Without waiting for a response, Cat walked from the room, fighting the panic that kept pushing her to run. At the bottom of the oak staircase, she paused, still tasting the fear of her father’s threat, still confused by the way Logan had sided with her against her father, and still numbed by the agreement she made.

As every thought led her back to Quint, she climbed the stairs. When she reached his bedroom, Jessy was just coming out. She saw Cat and smiled. “He fell asleep while I was reading to him.”

“Oh.” Cat had a moment’s regret, then decided it was just as well. Quint was much too observant for his years, and she had too many emotions tangling together too close to the surface. “I’ll just look in on him.”

When she reached for the doorknob, Jessy laid a detaining hand on her arm, her head tilting to one side as her hazel eyes closely examined Cat’s face. “Cat, are you all right?”