Carolina Man Read Online Free

with your safety plan,” she told Libby. “The act of taking legal action can spur—”
    “
You bitch!”
    Kate braced. Turned.
    Will Brown looked ready to bust the seams of the shirt and tie his lawyer had almost certainly ordered him to wear to court. His fists were clenched, his face dark with anger.
    Kate almost flinched before she got a grip on her emotions. Contrary to popular belief, most abusers
could
control their actions. They didn’t blow up at their bosses. They beat their spouses instead.
    Kate moved to put Libby and the child behind her. Brown would not hit her. Probably. Not in front of witnesses. She hoped.
    “You’ve got no right to interfere between a man and his wife. His property,” Brown said, his voice thick with violence. “Them’s my kids. That’s my house.”
    Kate’s heart rate kicked up. She stood her ground, her armpits damp, her stomach cramping with tension. “You heard the judge, Mr. Brown. For the next twelve months, you are barred from the house and ordered to stay away from Elizabeth and the children.”
    “I’ll make her sorry. I’ll make you sorry, too, you interfering bitch.”
    Behind Kate, Libby made a choked sound, as if her husband’s hands were already around her throat.
    Where the
hell
was a deputy?
    “Don’t you threaten me. One more word, and I’ll have your ass arrested,” Kate snapped. “Mr. Reynolds.”
    Brown’s lawyer hurried over, hovering ineffectually around the big man like a cocker spaniel with a pit bull.
    “Control your client.” Kate stepped away, lowering her voice so that the children would not hear. “Mrs. Brown hasn’t pressed assault charges against him, but I will.”
     • • • 
     
    A LL IN ALL, a good day’s work, Kate thought later as she walked back to her office, two blocks from the courthouse.
    Her heart still raced. Raised voices still had the power to make her sick inside. But she wasn’t a cringing child any longer. She had learned to fight back, to channel her fear into action.
    Five cases, she thought with satisfaction. Five successful outcomes that she and her clients could live with. She couldn’t save every battered or betrayed woman, every bruised or abused child who came through her doors. But that only made today’s victories all the sweeter.
    Kate liked helping people. It made up for all the years that she felt helpless.
    She unlocked the front door of her house, a 1930s bungalow she’d converted into an office with an apartment upstairs. Quiet enveloped her. The air was chill and stale. No point in wasting heat when she was gone all day.
    After graduating from law school, Kate had done her time as an associate in a big Charlotte firm. But protecting the rights and privileges of the powerful wasn’t her idea of the law. She wanted her own practice. The freedom to choose her own cases, to control her own schedule, to order her own life, was worth the financial risk. No partners to placate. No egos to manage. She
liked
living alone. Her home was her castle, defended against all invaders.
    Still, on days like today, she missed having someone to share her successes with. Sometimes castle life was lonely.
    She adjusted the thermostat. Maybe she should look into getting some fish for the moat. Except she didn’t have a moat. Maybe a cat?
    The truth was, she missed Dawn. She hadn’t noticed the silence so much when Dawn came in every day with her cupcakes and holiday sweaters, her kitten videos and constant stories about her daughter.
    A yellowing philodendron drooped from the mantel of the bricked-up fireplace. Kate sighed and picked a leaf off the beige carpet.
    She had never been particularly great at making friends. Not close friends, anyway. By the time she was eighteen, she’d moved six times and attended eight different schools. Always adjusting, always being the new kid on the block, always having to prove herself, had made her cautious about letting people in. Her home life had choked off any attempts