by Stacey Lynn
I pictured blond hair, girly hair shit in his hair, khaki pants. Or maybe pink and gray plaid golf shorts. A rich, entitled asshole, willing to pay to have shit done, but didn’t have a big enough cock to do it himself.
Part of me was pissed that Jules had settled for some asshole who beat her and tried to kidnap her kid.
The other part knew that was what she deserved—country clubs, fancy lobster dinners, and designer clothes.
I couldn’t give that to her. Didn’t fucking want to give that to her.
But I was also past the point of caring. Or running. If anything, Sophie missing today had told me exactly what I wanted.
And I was done fucking it up intentionally.
With that, I slammed my hand on the hood of the truck and waved a goodbye to the assholes still standing around, cleaning shit up.
I caught Jules and Finn sitting on the wood steps leading up to my apartment as soon as I pulled my truck into the parking lot.
I could have had Finn take Jules back to her apartment, but I didn’t trust the safety of it—not until we had a chance to make sure Rob wasn’t sending more men after her. I wanted her far away from where he could find her easily.
Besides that, I just fuckin’ wanted Jules and Sophie in my apartment.
She saw my truck as soon as I pulled in. Before I had slammed the gear shifter into park, Jules was at the passenger side of the door, ripping it open, frantically untangling and unhooking Sophie from her car seat.
“Oh my God.” She chanted the words over and over as tears fell down her cheeks and her shaky fingers worked the locks and buckles.
As soon as Sophie was unhooked, she pulled Sophie’s still sleeping frame in to her body and rocked her frantically.
Something expanded inside my chest when Jules’s eyes locked with mine. Tears fell down her cheeks shamelessly. My hands froze on the steering wheel.
“Thank you.”
The words fell from her raw throat, and for not the first time that day, anger clawed at me, wanting its release. Not having the satisfaction of killing the man who had caused Jules this amount of pain didn’t help shit.
“Let’s get you inside.” I climbed out of the truck, knowing questions would come soon, and knowing even more that she wouldn’t like the answers I had to give her.
Finn met us at the stairs, extended a hand to me, and clasped it tightly. “Did good today, mate.”
Something haunted his eyes as he watched Jules still rocking Sophie, tears still rolling down her cheeks, which she didn’t bother to wipe away.
“Daemon will fill you in when he gets back to the club, but this ain’t over.”
“What?” Jules gasped, her large eyes on me.
“Inside, Jules.”
She took a step away from me, and I gritted my teeth at her small movement.
It wasn’t about me, but ever since finding Sophie—fuck, ever since Daemon had made the smartass comment about me playing the daddy role—I’d fought that urge to wrap Sophie in my arms and protect her from harm.
I had failed her today. Jules’s terrified eyes hit my gut as if I’d been punched.
“I want to know,” she said, taking another step back.
Finn caught my eye, and even though he was closer, knew that small movement ate at me so he stepped back at the same time I stepped up.
“Jules,” I said. My hand cupped her chin firmly. “Let’s get you inside, and I’ll fill you in, babe.”
Something sparked in her eyes. Something I liked.
She nodded and turned toward the stairs that creaked under the weight of our footsteps.
“Jules?” Finn called as we reached the top. We both turned, watched him shove his hands into the pockets of jeans and he nodded toward Sophie. “Glad she’s in your arms, Jules.”
Her voice choked. “Thanks, Finn.”
He nodded once, turned and headed toward his truck.
“C’mon,” I told her, my hand at her back. “Up you go before Sophie wakes up. She’s had a long day.”
“Haven’t we all.”
I locked the door after she entered and headed straight toward the couch. In one fluid movement, she had her back propped up against the back of the couch, Sophie in her lap, and one hand running through Sophie’s blond hair.
My stomach tightened.
“Need a drink?”
Jules kept her eyes on Sophie and shook her head. “I’m okay.”
Okay. Jules wouldn’t be okay for a long time, I figured. If I was as terrified and angry at the thought of Sophie being taken, ending up with God-knows-who in God-knows-where and having God-knows-what happen to her, Jules had to be a fucking wreck.
But besides her trembling fingers and the tears that still fell sporadically, she looked tough as nails.
I poured myself a drink and met her in the living room. I only had the one couch, so I sat at the opposite end of the small, tattered piece of furniture and stared at Sophie’s bare feet. One over the other, toes curled in, I could see every wrinkle line along the soles.
I wanted to run a finger along every crease, but resisted.
“What happened?” Jules finally asked.
I hesitated, unsure of how much she really wanted to know. Debated how much she truly needed to know.
But then she pierced me with her bloodshot eyes, her blue eyes looking damaged yet fierce, but still showing more red than blue.
“Rob hired someone to take her back to Arizona. Figured by the time they took her at the daycare, he’d be hours on the road before cops would be behind them. Fuckin’ dumbass he hired was dressed as an air and cooling maintenance man.”
I shook my head. So fucking stupid. So damn cliché. I’d spent hours throughout the day rehearsing the hell I wanted to unleash on the daycare workers who let someone into their building.
“I don’t know if Rob got cocky, figuring they were safe enough by the time the guy had Sophie, or if he thought you were too stupid to figure out what he meant when he called you, but either way, his fuck-up probably saved her.”
Jules sucked in a shaky breath. I hadn’t taken my eyes off her, even though it felt like she was looking through me and not at me. I had a feeling she hadn’t been seeing shit all day long. Not since that phone call.
I couldn’t keep the small distance between us anymore. I wanted to be there for her—had to be there for her. Whatever shit that had gone down with us before today had changed the second she crawled into my lap, sunk into my hold, and cried her damn eyes out.
I moved closer, shifting on the couch. My one leg bent, Sophie’s feet rested on the inside of my knee. My other leg propped on my stained, chipped wood coffee table I’d picked up on the side of the road five years ago. My arm went to the back of the couch and my fingers ran over Jules’s shoulder.
She stiffened, looked at my fingers and then up at me—then through me.
I let her, but I wouldn’t let her continue not seeing me for long.
“Jules, Rob is still back in Arizona. Xbox is tracking him and we got men on it, but it’s gonna take some to figure out his next move, or what he intended to have happen with this last play, but we’ll take care of it.”
Her eyes dropped to the top of Sophie’s head. I watched her wrestle with her emotions; too many flickered through her eyes for me to be able to name.
My hand tightened on her shoulder. The firm movement caught her attention and she looked at me, inhaling a breath as she did.
“I swear to you. He’ll pay for this.”
She shook her head, her eyes dazed. “I don’t even understand why he’d do this. Why…”
“Doesn’t matter why. What matters is that she’s safe and the fucker who took her is buried six feet under and unrecognizable.”
Her lips parted on another quick gasp. “You guys?”
“You want specifics, I’ll tell you. But I’m thinkin’ it’s better you don’t know.”
“No.” Her eyes glossed over with more tears and she sniffed. “I
don’t want to know.”
“Okay, then.” I moved my hand from her shoulder to the back of her head, cupping it and digging my fingers into her scalp slightly. I couldn’t help it; I had to be closer. Needed Jules to know she wasn’t alone in this, that the club—that I—would fight for her. How that all changed, I didn’t know. Didn’t care anymore, either. “Why don’t you two get to bed? We can talk about the rest in the morning after you’ve had some sleep.”
Her eyes darted from mine to the small living space. “Where?”
I felt a small grin tug at my lips. “Come on.”
Uncurling my legs from the couch, I stood in front of Jules and offered her a hand. I tugged her gently as she fought to keep her arms around Sophie and not lose her balance.
Then I moved her down the hallway. My heartbeat pounded inside my rib cage, because what in the hell would she think when she saw my second bedroom—the room I’d always kept for storing shit, but I’d recently cleaned out?
Opening the bedroom door, I bit down on my bottom lip and cast a quick glance at Jules.
She had Sophie propped on one hip, hands wrapped around the little girl’s butt. She frowned at me as I pushed open the door so she could see inside.
Breath got stuck in my lungs.
“Here.” I swallowed, stepped out of the way, and watched Jules duck her head in the doorway as if she was afraid I’d sent her into a room filled with snakes.
She gasped, her head whipped around to face me. Her pale blond hair snapped her in the cheek when her eyes flew wide open.
“You did this? Why?”
Frustration replaced nerves as she shot me a glare—of confusion or anger, I didn’t know. Suddenly didn’t want to take the risk of knowing either.
“Go to bed, Jules. We’ll talk in the morning.”
I left her there and marched back to the living room, back to my drink, and didn’t look back.
There was only the quiet sound of the door clicking shut as Jules and Sophie entered the room I’d made for the little girl.
All that fucking pink. I’d felt like a fool at the store. Felt like a bigger fool now as I sat alone in my living room, drink in hand, while Jules was in the room with Sophie.
I huffed a breath, sank lower into the couch cushion, and took a large swallow from my glass half-filled with whiskey. Hell, she’d been through enough today. The last thing she probably expected to see was a room decked out for Sophie. ‘Decked out’ might be exaggerating: a bed with a pink comforter and a small buckets of toys and books was all I got. At the time it had felt like a ton. At the time, I didn’t know why I did it except I’d been drawn to the toy side of the store instead of buying the food I’d gone there intending to get.
Now I just felt like an asshole, knowing I’d probably given Jules whiplash in the hallway with my constant mood swings.
“You’re such a dick,” I muttered to a dark, silent room.
I stared at the bed—the pink bed—and readjusted Sophie in my arms.
For the first time since Rob had called me at the salon, I finally felt as if my lungs could exhale full breath.
Sophie was safe, and in my arms. God, I never wanted to let her go again. Never wanted her out of my sight again.
How Rob could find us was no big secret. Where else would I have gone except head for home? That he could find out where Sophie’s daycare was, only weeks after her starting, and find out where I worked, scared the hell out of me.
And why he was so obsessed with getting us back terrified me even more.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him. I saw his twisted lips as he backhanded me. His furrowed brow as he hit me in the ribs.
I had thought I was free of him, for good. Knowing he could get to us so easily left me feeling paralyzed.
Marginally, I felt better in Jaden’s apartment for the first time in months. Something about knowing he probably not only kept a gun tucked beneath his vest, but that there undoubtedly had to be weapons stashed in this very apartment, had a slight calm permeating my terrified shell.
But I’d think about all of that tomorrow.
“Come on, pumpkin,” I whispered, my lips pressed against the top of Sophie’s head. “Let’s get you to bed.”
I moved hesitantly to the pink bed. There wasn’t much in the room, and even with only the street lights shining through the open window blinds, the comforter seemed too bright. Pulling down the covers, I gently laid Sophie on the bed and began removing her shoes and her clothing.
My pulse increased as my eyes roamed her skin. It was the first time since I’d gotten her back that I was able to examine her.
Bile rose in my throat. Oh God, if that asshole hurt her… touched her—
Stop.
My fingers trailed her pale, soft skin, seeking any abrasion or scratch—any mark that would show me she was hurt—but after several minutes of my trembling fingers roaming her skin, I found nothing.
Safe. She was safe. I was safe for now, and all I wanted to do was hold her. I climbed into the small bed, trying to ignore what it meant that Jaden had done this for Sophie when he’d spent the last two weeks ignoring and avoiding us.
Sophie curled into a ball next to me. She seemed so unaffected by what had happened, sleeping so peacefully and calmly next to me just like she always did.
I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep for weeks.
At least I wouldn’t tonight. I had no idea how long I lay in bed next to her, my hands moving from her hair to her head to her heart just to feel it beneath my fingertips. But no matter how long I lay there, my mind wouldn’t settle.
I couldn’t close my eyes and stop the nightmares I’d thought about all day from invading the darkness behind my eyes.
Reluctantly, too afraid my continued touching or restless shifting in the bed would wake Sophie, I climbed out from behind her in the bed, careful not to disturb her.
The apartment was dark when I closed the bedroom behind me, all except for the muted sound and light coming from the television in the living room.
My feet moved slowly, as if I was invading someone’s personal space—which in effect, I had—as I headed toward the living room.
When I reached the end of the small hallway, feeling as if the six-foot trip had taken me hours, my breath again caught in my throat.
Jaden sat on the couch, an empty drink on the table in front of him, his arms spread wide along the back of the couch and his now bare feet on the floor—knees spread wide and open.
He looked like a god commanding his throne. Even if his throne was a threadbare, ugly couch, he still consumed the space in a way that spoke of power and force.
“Hey,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat and the sudden warmth that rushed my body.
Jaden tilted his head, took his eyes off the TV, and slid them to me. He nodded once but didn’t say anything.
Nerves flooded my blood at his silent but heated inspection.
“You okay?”
My hand went to my hair. My fingers ran through it, fidgeting as my feet felt glued to the worn carpet beneath them. “No,” I admitted, shaking my head. “I’m really not.”
Jaden said nothing, but kept watching me. Slowly, he pushed off the couch and headed to the kitchen.
My feet became unstuck and I followed him.
“Have this,” he said, sliding me a glass of whiskey.
I scrunched my nose, already smelling the liquor that would burn my throat. “Got anything else?”
A silent laugh fell from his lips and he turned, opening the fridge. “Just beer.”
“Beer’s good.” I hated beer, but one would hopefully make me drowsy enough to sleep and wouldn’t burn my vocal chords in the process.
I heard the hiss of him popping the top before he slid a metal can in my direction.
“Sophie sleeping?”
“Yeah, she’s totally out.” My eyes squished close as the cold, bubbly, and nasty-tasting beer hit my throat. “Amazing… considering.”
Jaden walked around the counter and stood in front of me. I only had a split second to take him in before his arm reached out, tugged my hand, and I tripped, smacking my head straight into his chest.
“Uh.”
“Shut up, Jules.”
His voice was tight, as if stretched like a rubber band and could snap at any moment. But I listened and kept my mouth shut—mostly because one of his arms wrapped around my waist, and the other arm wrapped around my shoulder. His hand made its home at the nape of my neck, his fingers entangled in my hair.
I forgot how to speak—how to ask him what he was doing—but he seemed to need it, and frankly, I needed it too. Needed to know there was something stronger and braver than the hell I’d faced today.
I relaxed into him almost instantly. My head turned so my ear felt his heart beating through his chest.
Seemingly on their own accord, my hands wrapped around his waist. I didn’t know if I pulled him to me or he pulled me to him, but we pressed closer to one another and the only thing I heard in the room was the mixture of our hearts beating.
“Jaden?” I murmured.
His head dipped and his temple rubbed across the top of my head, brushing back and forth lightly. It sent the strangest tingling sensation across my skin.
“Shh.” His arms squeezed tighter.
“But.” I tried to push away, feeling something I probably shouldn’t have been feeling when I had just gone through a wrecking ball of emotions over the course of the day. My body, strung tight with fear all day long, suddenly released a new course of adrenaline through my veins.
Jaden didn’t allow it. His arm muscles coiled until he pulled me against him so tight I could barely breathe.
“You can let me go now.”
He squeezed tight and then listened. As soon as I could, I took a step away and reached for my beer, hoping like hell he couldn’t see or hear me gasping for breath.
“What was that?” I asked. “And the crap with the room?”
Jaden scowled at me, pressing his lips together. “Maybe I just wanted to do something nice for Sophie.”
I swallowed. That sounded… nice. And strange. “I don’t get it—not after you spent the last two weeks ignoring us.” My hand went to my hair and I messed with it, wondering if shaking my hair would make my jumbled thoughts make sense.
