Collateral Damage by Kaylea Cross

father shook with rage. “You know how fragile she is. You knew it would drive her to this!”
    “No I didn’t!” she burst out. Her angry show of defiance had predictable results. Her father’s brows crashed together and he took a menacing step forward, his mouth a tight slash in his face.
    “John, no .” Her mother grabbed his arm again, freezing him in place, though he never took his eyes off Honor. Then her mother’s gaze shot over Honor’s shoulder and the sudden flare of dread there made Honor brace for the worst.
    Whirling around, she saw Liam stalking toward them, wearing his game face. He was in full protective mode and had obviously seen her and her father arguing.
    “Oh, shit,” she breathed and shook her head at him, raising her hands to ward him off. Not now. He would only make things so much worse.
    Liam ignored her and kept on coming, not stopping until he was close enough to wrap an arm around her shoulders and lock her against his side. She could feel how taut his muscles were, his body braced for battle. Together they faced her parents, the brittle tension seething between them.
    Her father stared at him. “You would dare come here at a time like this? After what you’ve done?”
    Liam didn’t blink, meeting that furious gaze head on. “I’m here for Honor.”
    “She doesn’t need you here, we’re her family.”
    “So am I,” he fired back.
    “You’ll never be her family , and you’d best get out of my sight.” The threat seemed to reverberate off the walls.
    As they stared each other down, Honor scrambled to figure out how to diffuse the situation. “Dad, look—”
    His bloodshot gaze shot to her, the raw fury there cutting her words off as effectively as a knife. “How dare you? How dare you do this to us, your family, then bring him here?”
    To her horror, her eyes began to tear up. This wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t meant for any of this to happen. “I didn’t—”
    “Honor hasn’t done anything wrong,” Liam cut in, holding her tight to him. Normally his touch and body heat would have comforted her but she was so keyed up she was barely aware of it.
    Her father leveled his gaze on Liam. “You’ve both broken God’s law,” he snarled, nostrils flaring. “You’ve defiled His word and committed a mortal sin by breaking His commandments.”
    Honor’s head snapped back at the hate-filled words. He sounded and was acting like he was crazy. “What are you talking about?”
    “ Honor thy father and thy mother ,” he said coldly. “And Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife .” His voice shook, his chest rising and falling in a rapid rhythm.
    The Fifth and Tenth Commandments? Honor shook her head in disbelief, realizing for the first time just how severe this breach between her and her parents really was. He was literally twisting the Bible to suit his purposes.
    Not for the first time, she wondered if Charity wasn’t the only one in the family to suffer from mental illness. “I haven’t dishonored anyone, and the last accusation is ridiculous. Charity and Liam only went out a handful of times over the period of a few weeks, and none of that matters right now because we should be focused on her—”
    It was the wrong thing to say.
    Her father’s hand shot out to grab her upper arm, his fingers digging in hard enough to bruise as he shook her once. “You took what belonged to your sister, consented to be joined to him for all eternity, and your sister suffered for it.”
    Liam grabbed her father’s arm and wrenched it away from her, his expression livid. “You don’t touch her like that. Ever.” His voice was so cold it sent a shiver of dread up Honor’s spine.
    Her father slapped Liam’s hand away. “I’ll touch her anyway I damn well please, and you can get the hell out of here because you’re just as much at fault in this as she is!”
    Blood roared in her ears as the tension kept mounting. Liam and her father were going to come to blows,