I pressed my fingertips to my heated eyelids with a muttered curse. “I’ve seen it, but they’re not going to get anywhere near her. We’ve got Noah now.” I nodded toward the intimidating bodyguard seated across the lobby. “They’ve beefed up our security. Now, we just wait for another scandal to break so we can go back to normal.”
A small part of me considered the possibility that things might never be normal again, but I wouldn’t give voice to the fear.
He sighed and shook his head, watching the screens with barely concealed disgust. “I don’t think it’s that simple. Tristan was involved with the same people who control the media. Have you noticed how they’re not reporting on the senators who bought underaged girls or the women still unaccounted for? These are fanatics who just lost their savior and want someone to blame.”
My jaw tightened, and I squeezed the water bottle, wanting to launch it at the wall. And yet, I knew it wouldn’t change a damn thing.
When I remained silent, he continued, “You think it’s bad now, just wait until the trial in a year—”
“A year?” I echoed, my stomach sinking at the thought.
My father lifted the paper coffee cup to his lips and took a sip. “With these charges, they need an ironclad case to ensure he doesn’t walk. It’s going to take some time—” He suddenly lost his grip on the cup, the color draining from his face.
“Dad?” I snagged it in my hand before it spilled and placed it on a small table nearby before reaching for him. “What’s wrong?”
“That woman,” he whispered, pointing to one of the televisions with a trembling hand. “That’s the woman I saw—the one I told you about—I was drunk, and she was there.”
I looked up and studied the photograph of a much younger Tristan on his wedding day with a bride who could have been Ari’s twin, before reading the headline from the ticker below.
Officials are reopening a case involving the death of Tristan James’ first wife, Colleen James. The mother of the disgraced pastor’s six children died suddenly in 2010 of an intracerebral hemorrhage. Authorities claim they have new evidence that indicates the death certificate was altered. An exhumation for further forensic examination is planned.
“Ari’s mama?” I asked, my wide eyes bouncing between the screen and him.
His nostrils flared, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he stood up and began pacing.
I scratched the stubble on my jaw with my thumbnail, trying to recall our conversation the night he drove me home from the bar. “Wait—you’re telling me you went to Tristan James’ house?”
His expression hardened. “The one and only. I never got her name—hell, once I sobered up, I barely remembered her face. Never in a million years would I have imagined there was a connection with Ari, but seeing her picture, the resemblance between the two is uncanny.”
There were no coincidences in life. Just two women who shared a mother-daughter bond and a fondness for saving the Reed men when we’d needed it the most. The realization left me feeling hollow and desolate because it was a debt I’d never be able to repay.
She’d put everything on the line for me twice now, risking her very life for mine, and I couldn’t even keep her name out of the press.
“Her mama saved you, and she saved me.” I shook my head. “What the fuck did we ever do to deserve it, though?”
My father stopped moving, his stony exterior softening into a look of reflection. “There’s always a purpose for the bullshit, even when it doesn’t seem like it. Maybe that purpose is to bring this full circle. If so, then the question becomes, what are we willing to do to keep Colleen’s daughter safe?”
It was my job, and mine alone, to care for Ari. I wanted to be the one to protect her and keep her safe.
No one else. Me.
The elevator announced its arrival, pulling me from my thoughts. In the time it took me to turn my head, Noah had already reached Ari’s side and was leading her across the lobby toward us.
My father stepped up beside me and squeezed the back of my neck. “Just because she knows how to fight doesn’t mean she should have to keep doing it.” His eyes lingered on mine before he went to meet her.
He didn’t say a word before pulling Ari into his arms for a long hug, although he looked suspiciously close to tears. She met my gaze with pursed lips and a lifted brow, clearly taken aback by the rare emotional display.
“Dad.” No response. “Dad!”
“Right.” He cleared his throat and took a step back. “Let’s get you two home. I was thinking your mama and I might cook tonight. How’s that sound?”
“Sounds good to me.” Ari pressed a quick kiss of greeting against my jaw.
I cupped her cheek, letting my eyes take a field trip down to her lips. The tension she’d been carrying in her shoulders fled, and she relaxed into my body in a beautiful surrender.
The proximity left me painfully hard and aching with the need to get her alone. Unfortunately, polite society frowned upon me stripping my woman down in the lobby of a federal building.
I wanted to tease her with my tongue until she made those guttural moans that seemed to come from the back of her throat. I wanted to go back to this morning. In the minutes before the alarm had gone off, her body had been clenched around mine like a fist.
There was no better way to wake up.
I’d questioned myself initially on whether I might have been rushing things by asking her to move in, but it had felt right. Necessary even. Being with Ari just made sense, making me wonder how I’d functioned twenty-six years without her.
Her eyes grew hazy as if she knew where my thoughts were. When the corner of her mouth lifted in a lopsided grin, I took it as an open invitation to continue my lustful fantasizing.
“So, I was wondering if we could stop somewhere first,” she said, her gaze hopeful. “When I was upstairs, I saw this giant Christmas tree from the window. It has lights and everything. Hang on, I think it was—”
Ari scanned the row of elevators, chewing on her bottom lip. “Out the front door and to the right? Maybe?”
I grinned at her, before cocking my head to the side. “You heard the lady, Noah. Can we make a stop?”
He gave me a solemn nod in return. “The car is on its way. We’ll lose the press and then circle back around.”
The hopeful look spread into a full-blown grin, and she began clapping her hands in excitement. I decided then and there that I didn’t want any gifts this year. All I needed was to see her happy. Although, I wouldn’t necessarily turn down wrapping her up in ribbons and bows and making love to her under the tree either.
Ari rose onto her tiptoes and slid her arms around my neck to press light kisses along my jaw, her lips parting on a soft sigh. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, kiss me.”
At that moment, she could have asked for anything. I would have done my damnedest to deliver.
I placed a tender kiss against her nose and the arch of her lips before capturing her mouth fully with mine. My eyes remained open, fixed on her beautiful face, silently telling her she was safe. Loved. Desired. Worshiped.
My brave girl.
We pulled apart just as the car arrived, and I shrugged out of my jacket, draping it around Ari’s neck to shield her from the wolves waiting just outside the front doors. I refused to give those assholes any more material.
Keeping one hand on her shoulder and the other around her waist, we followed Noah through the doors and into a sea of reporters. My father positioned himself against Ari’s left side, keeping his arm extended to prevent anyone from getting too close.
“Ariana, have you spoken with your father?” A disembodied voice called out.
“Are you still engaged to Brad Phillips?” yelled another.
“Killian, is there any truth to the rumors that you bought girls from Trident Holdings?”
Jesus Christ.
“No comment,” I clipped out impatiently, moving faster.
The shutters clicked in
tandem, filling the gray sky with blinding flashes of white that left me disoriented. At some point, this had become our routine, dodging photographs and questions that were growing more ridiculous by the day while scurrying toward the safety of hired cars.
I never felt like we were in danger. If anything, the daily trek through Dante’s fifth circle of hell just left me annoyed and in need of a shower.
That all changed when I heard the shouts. I lifted my head to find a group of picketers gathered across the street, calling for the death of the mother of prostitutes.
“‘You must take them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—” one man bellowed, holding up a sign depicting Ari as something of a demon, complete with horns and glowing red eyes. “The young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you!’”
Stoning.
Brain injury.
“Noah!” I roared, tightening my grip on Ari until my knuckles went white. My heart thundered against my ribs like a bomb counting down to explosion as I scanned their faces, trying to identify the threat.
“I’ve got eyes on them,” he confirmed calmly as if they were a troop of Girl Scouts selling cookies.
A woman raised her fist, shrieking, “Whore of Babylon!”
“God hates whores!”
Convinced we were seconds away from an attack, adrenaline spiked through my body and prepared my muscles for battle. I’d throw her over my shoulder and run for the car if I had to, weight limits be damned.
Ari’s spine went stiff beneath my hand, her green eyes wide with terror. My father saw it at the same moment I did and leaned down to whisper, “We’ve got you, Ariana. You’re safe.”
She gave a jerky nod in response, mashing her lips together to stop them from quivering. Something about seeing her frightened stoked my rage and made my blood pump harder and faster, urging me to eliminate the danger myself.
What are we willing to do to keep Colleen’s daughter safe?
I was willing to plow through a line of religious zealots using only my fists.
When we reached the curb, Noah hustled us into the backseat of the waiting SUV and slammed the doors. I slid across the middle seat and clutched Ari to the front of my body, close enough that I could feel her racing heart.
Just as fast as a jackrabbit’s.
“Hey. I’ve got you now,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. “I’ve got you now.”
She tipped her chin up and patted my bicep with a weak smile. “I’m fine, really. It only hurts if you let it, and I won’t.”
“Yeah, well, I might,” I grumbled, glaring a hole in the back of Noah’s head. “Because, apparently, I’m the only one who sees a problem with what happened back there.”
Until now, my biggest concern had been the media attention. I never imagined that Tristan would still be calling the shots from the inside of a cell, and there wasn’t a single doubt in my mind his fingerprints were all over this.
“Freedom of assembly,” Noah sighed, lifting his eyes to the rearview mirror. “As long as they’re not obstructing traffic or attacking—”
“Did you hear them?” I blurted, immediately lowering my voice when Ari flinched in my arms. “They were threatening to stone her, and I don’t know about you, but I’m not big on the idea of waiting to see if they follow through. If even one of those assholes thinks about throwing a rock, I’m putting them down. End of story.”
My father cleared his throat from behind me. “He’s right, son. This is how these groups work. It’s going to be hard to prove a threat based on Bible verses and a badly photoshopped poster. Law enforcement can’t charge them with anything until they break the law.”
A shudder worked its way from the base of my skull down my spine. Every cell in my body was against the idea of waiting until she got hurt to do something.
“I want to go home now,” Ari mumbled against my chest. Her eyes were glassy, unfocused.
“Don’t you want to go see the tree, baby?” I asked, tucking her hair behind one ear. “You were so excited.”
She gave a subtle shake of her head and pulled away to look out the window. “I think I’d rather just go home.”
I debated over what to say, wanting to argue with the decision because I’d seen the way her entire face had lit up over that damn tree. In the end, I gave her what I thought she needed the most.
“We’ll go wherever you want to go.” I kept my voice calm and soothing. Inside, I was anything but.
“Home,” she said, covering my hand with hers.
Tristan might have been the one locked inside a cell, but she was the prisoner. My breath hitched with the realization that I’d been wrong before.
This was helplessness.
Just because she knows how to fight doesn’t mean she should have to keep doing it.
After exchanging another look with my dad, I was forced to accept that the city I loved had become a war zone. Ari was no longer safe here.
* * *
I sat in a chair near the bed with my chin resting against my fist, watching Ari sleep. She’d left the closet light on again and a sliver cut across the room, illuminating her relaxed features.
Her fear of the dark had never come from a monster who lived under the bed, but the one who slept down the hall.
My building had a doorman and security cameras. A keycard was required to access my floor. It was why I’d chosen to live here, knowing it would always be the one place I could go to escape the world. Right now, it was easy to believe there was no place safer for her than in my bed, tucked under the blankets.
Ari exhaled a soft sigh in her sleep. I leaned forward, still on high alert, prepared to do whatever necessary to protect my woman.
Maybe that was why my mind was such a mess. Because ‘whatever necessary’ didn’t exactly fit in with my future plans. It didn’t take into consideration my feelings and what I needed.
I would have given her anything she wanted, but she’d never ask for this. A woman who’d been brought up inside a cage would never ask for freedom. If I quarantined her to the condo under some guise of love, was I any better than the man who’d raised her? Did I want to be the reason her spark fizzled out? Become her keeper, instead of her lover?
My version of safety would ultimately destroy her.
“You’re kinda creepy,” Ari said, her voice scratchy with sleep.
I smirked and watched her stretch, the blankets falling away from her body and baring one of her perfect breasts. “Just admiring the view, girl.”
With a yawn, she patted the empty spot beside her. “The view’s better over here, superstar. Come snuggle me.”
As I stood, I was struck with a sudden need to propose. There was this fear that if I didn’t, I’d lose her forever. But I refused to pledge the rest of my life to a woman in panic. This was about what was best for her, not me.
Maybe if I repeated it enough, I’d believe it.
I slipped under the sheets and wrapped my body around hers until the noise in my head died away.
She exhaled a soft laugh and ground her hips lightly against mine. “Were you naked the entire time you were watching me sleep?”
“Just got out of the shower,” I lied, before pressing my lips to her shoulder blade. Technically, I’d been out of the shower for hours, but found myself too wired to relax. So, I’d kept vigil over her.
Ari craned her neck to peer up at me. “What’s wrong?”
I swallowed, resisting the urge to lie and say nothing—fighting against my selfish need to hold on. “I’m worried about you.”
She laced her fingers through mine with a frown. “Why? Because of today? Look at me, I’m fine. I mean, clearly, I’m not losing any sleep over it.”
“You know, I initially thought I was going to have to move across the country to find a team that would take me. But, as much as I wanted to, I knew I couldn’t ask you to uproot your entire life to
be with me.”
Her gaze softened as she stroked the back of my hand with her thumb. “Hey, I would have gone with you in a heartbeat.”
“I know,” I admitted. “And that’s why I’m getting you out of here—just until the trial’s over.”
She released my hand and rolled to face me. “What do you mean? Where are we going?”
I brushed the hair away from her forehead with my fingertips, praying for a divine intervention like never before. “Do you remember Georgia’s trip around the world? Well, we thought—”
“Who is ‘we?’”
“Uh—” I managed weakly. Shit. “Tsega and Dean.”
She glared up at me, saying nothing.
“Slugger, I was just trying to do the right thing. They were talking about stoning you, and I’m not allowing you to stay here so they can make good on that promise,” I hissed, instantly regretting my choice of words.
“You’re not going to allow me?” Ari challenged, the sheet sliding down both our bodies as she moved into a sitting position. “And what if I refuse to leave? What will you do then?”
I’ll force you.
I shifted my jaw back and forth and swallowed my pride until I felt in control again.
“Ultimately, it’s your decision,” I responded carefully. “I was just trying to do what I thought was best, but you’re right. I should have come to you first with this. I’m sorry.”
She leaned down to press a kiss against the corner of my mouth, before sighing, “No, I’m sorry. I thought you were telling me what I could and couldn’t do. It annoyed me.”
“Jesus, baby,” I laughed. “If that’s you annoyed, remind me to never piss you off. Look, you don’t have to decide tonight, just promise me you’ll at least think about it.”
“What about you? Are you coming too?”
“Yes,” I blurted, before catching myself with a wince. “I mean, no. Fuck!” I massaged my temples and lifted my eyes to the ceiling. “With spring training and my PT appointments, I don’t know if I can right away.”
Through The Water: Fairest Series Book Two Page 37
