“If you remember, we spent the night together on the dock talking and kissing before I even knew who you were. I liked you then and I like you now. And to answer your question about my hero complex, I’ve rescued over a hundred women from far more dangerous circumstances than this. I didn’t kiss a single one of them. I didn’t hold them all night as we talked. I didn’t sleep with a single one of them. And I sure as hell didn’t bring them home and pull every resource and favor I have to keep them safe.”
Evie felt her head snap up to look Jackson in the eyes. His eyes were flaring in anger and something more—hurt. She’d hurt his feelings by questioning his motives. He hadn’t yelled. Instead, he’d said his piece slowly and barely above a whisper. At no time did Evie think Jackson was anything but in total control of himself. However, the effect was the same as if he had yelled at her.
“But I’m sorry if I read the situation incorrectly. I’ll back off. Technically, you’re Ryan’s witness. He can take over from here on out. He’ll find a safe house for you and will assign some agents to protect you,” Jackson told her as he took a step away from her. Evie sucked in a breath. The farther he stepped back, the more her heart hurt. The thought of him leaving her was more frightening than she could have imagined.
“No,” Evie said quickly. “I want you.”
“In what way, Evie?”
Jackson asked his question and then turned back toward the apartment and began to walk away. Evie stood there watching him. In what way? In every way. Evie felt her heart race as the thought of him walking out of her life forever entered her mind and derailed the runaway train. Or maybe it just added momentum to it?
Evie ran to catch up to Jackson as they walked in front of his mother’s shop. She didn’t reply to him. Instead her thoughts picked up steam. She knew what she had to do because Jackson was right. He was risking everything to protect her and what he should be doing was protecting his family. Someday he’d see that what she was doing wasn’t running away, but showing him and the town that she wasn’t going to put them at risk. She was protecting them.
They climbed up the stairs to the apartment as her mind finally calmed. She had a plan. Evie would leave as soon as Jackson fell asleep. He unlocked the door and tossed his keys on the kitchen table. Evie eyed them. She’d take his truck to Lexington and steal a car there. She could be in Ohio, Tennessee, or West Virginia in two hours. She’d disappear. Hide in the mountains and stay off the grid so Jon couldn’t find her.
The authorities knew about him now and the fewer people she involved, the better. She needed to keep innocent people safe.
“Why don’t you take a shower to help you relax,” Jackson suggested as he turned to face her. It was a good idea. She didn’t know the next time she’d be able to get one.
Evie gave a weak smile to Jackson as she walked past him before turning around to look at him. “Thank you for always taking care of me. I won’t be a burden much longer.” Evie swallowed hard as she almost gave her plan away. “Since Jon will be captured and you can get your life back.”
“Everyone will sleep better once Jon is caught. I’ll watch the door. Enjoy your shower.”
Evie turned to walk away as she felt her heart breaking. Walking away from Jackson was going to be one of the hardest things she’d ever done, but protecting him was the easiest.
* * *
Evie groaned as she rested her head against the shower wall. The hot water ran over her skin as she breathed in deeply. She knew smell triggered memories, but the smell of Jackson’s body wash was triggering something besides memories. The times they kissed and the way his body felt against hers all flashed in her mind as she let the water rinse the soap from her body.
Evie thought about her past boyfriends and laughed out loud. She’d thought she’d known lust. She’d thought she’d known trust. But standing in Jackson’s shower showed her she knew nothing because right then she knew a wanting unlike anything she’d ever experienced.
If only things were different. If only the man who was causing the desire wasn’t in danger because of her presence. If only . . .
Evie turned off the water and at the last minute grabbed the body wash and shoved it into the bag she’d brought into the bathroom with her. She’d take a little of Jackson with her when she left.
Evie hurried through drying her hair, brushing her teeth, and getting dressed. It was selfish, but she wanted as much time with Jackson as possible to remember him. Then when this was all over and her brother and all of AR were caught, she’d find Jackson again and hope that he’d forgive her for leaving him.
Evie shoved all the belongings she’d need into her bag and then carried it out to where she heard the television in the living room. She quietly placed her bag down in a dark corner before putting a smile on her face. “All clean.”
Jackson looked behind him and nodded. She walked around and took a seat on the couch next to him. Taking a deep breath, she moved toward him. Instantly, he lifted his arm so that she could lean against him. She took a deep breath and took in the aroma of his body wash as well as his own smell. She was going to miss Jackson so much.
“What’s the matter?” Jackson asked, sensing her sadness at leaving him behind.
“I don’t want you to think I don’t care about you, Jackson,” Evie admitted as she let her fingers pick at the button on his flannel shirt that lay over his stomach. She kept her eyes locked on it as she thought about just sliding the button through the hole, but now was the time for talking. Evie had to tell Jackson so he’d know when she left he hadn’t done anything wrong.
She felt Jackson let out a sigh as his hand came to rest on her head momentarily before running it down over her hair and then slowly over each vertebra until it rested on her hip. “I know, Evie.”
“No, Jackson,” Evie said as she plucked at that damn button again. “I don’t think you do. I’ve had boyfriends before but I knew the second I sat down next to you on the dock that you were different. If only I weren’t . . . me.”
“If you weren’t you, I wouldn’t be feeling what I am. I don’t care about Jonathan. I don’t care about the threat he poses. Evie,” Jackson said, commanding her to look up at him. When she did, she swallowed hard. Gone was the impassive cop face and in its place was just Jackson. And Evie could read every emotion he was feeling. “I know you’re scared of him. I know you think it’s your fault others got hurt. I know you think you’re putting us in danger. But you need to know we choose to be a part of this. The town could pack up and clear out in minutes if we wanted. This isn’t a big town. We could disappear into the woods, onto the farms, or just go to a UK game for the night if we needed to get away. But you notice no one did. Everyone accepts the danger because we help those who need it. And the Rose sisters really dislike men with bad manners.”
Evie returned Jackson’s smile and took a deep breath. She still needed to go. It was the only way to keep them safe. She’d post a picture of herself online from the road someplace where no one would be hurt to draw Jon away from these innocent people. Then she’d just vanish.
“If Jonathan wasn’t an issue, what would you be doing right now?” Jackson asked. His voice deepened as he lowered his forehead to rest on hers. His fingers began to slowly move along the waistband of her jeans, making her know exactly what she’d do.
“I’d be spending the night with the man I like,” Evie admitted. “I wouldn’t be worried about anyone busting in and killing us. I would only be worried about getting to know you better and hoping that you’d kiss me again.”
Evie felt Jackson’s finger dip below the waistband along her hip as he gently rubbed little circles against her sensitive skin.
Evie’s whole body flushed in response as she tightened her grip on his shirt, causing it to bunch up enough to see a little trail of dark brown hair disappearing under the waist of his jeans.
“What would you like to know about me?” Jackson asked, his voice a little tighter and deeper than it was just s
econds ago.
“Twenty questions?” Evie asked as she looked up. His eyes were bright and shone like polished silver. Jackson lowered his chin in a quick bob of agreement. “Okay. Question one. When was your last serious relationship?”
“A year ago.”
“How did it end?” Evie asked wondering who the woman was he’d been with.
Jackson smiled slowly. “That’s a separate question. It’s my turn. Question one. What makes you happy?”
Evie stopped playing with his shirt and turned wide eyes up to his. “That’s a huge question. Happy in life? Happy with a boyfriend? Movies that make me happy?”
“All of the above since they all encompass happiness.”
“Oh, you’re good at this.”
“I do question people for a living.”
Evie wrinkled her nose before laughing. She’d thought to get to know him better, but he was going to pry every secret from her. Evie stopped laughing because then she’d leave him and that didn’t make her happy.
“Animals. But I could never have one since I’ve always lived in an apartment and my mother would have sold it for drug money. I like disaster movies. The bigger, more over the top, no way it could happen, action-packed disaster the better. Books with happy endings and chocolate cake for breakfast,” Evie answered after a minute of thinking. “My turn. What scares you?”
Jackson didn’t even tense up, but his eyes darkened just a shade. “Failing. That’s why it’s not an option. Two, where are all the places you could see yourself living?”
“That’s a good one.” Evie began playing with his shirt again as she thought about all the ads she had seen on social media for these faraway places where her troubles would never find her. “I don’t really have a deep connection to Seattle. I was born there, but it holds a lot of bad memories for me so I could live anywhere that was different from there. Somewhere with less rain! And I’ve always wanted to visit a warm beach, but I don’t know if I’d want to worry about hurricanes so living there might be out. I want someplace with four seasons. Someplace friendly. Like Shadows Landing. I loved it there.”
Jackson nodded. “Shadows Landing is an even more Southern version than Keeneston,” he said with a chuckle. “I like it there too.“
“Three,” Evie said, determined to outdo Jackson on hard to answer questions. But the more questions she asked the less they began to keep track of the number. It became them both answering each question. They were laughing and joking by the time they got to twenty and Evie was right back to the feeling when they were sitting on the dock in the middle of the night. No worries, only the feeling that her life was going to change because of this one conversation.
“Okay, okay,” Evie laughed as Jackson told her about the time he, Dylan, and Abby snuck out during high school. They were almost busted at a field party by Abby’s dad, Ahmed. He was tracking Abby down with a drone and they ended up in a freezing cold pond to hide from the drone. But they never got caught. “My last question. Number twenty. Will you kiss me again?”
Evie held her breath as she looked up at Jackson. He didn’t bother answering with words, but with his lips. His hands wrapped around her waist as he brought her across his lap so she was straddling him. Evie had never felt so complete and yet incomplete at the same time. She kissed Jackson with every ounce of regret she had, knowing she was leaving as soon as he fell asleep.
Jackson’s hand ran up the side of her ribcage and stopped under her breast. His thumb brushed the underside of her breast in time with the stroking of his tongue against hers. The simultaneous sensations sent sparks of wanting through her and straight to where she was grinding against him.
Tonight had been perfect. She’d been right. Jackson was special and her heart was tumbling toward love. She’d thought the night they’d spent on the dock was fun, but this had been even better. It was going to be so hard to leave him behind.
One of Jackson’s hands moved from her hip, down her thigh and then disappeared. Evie felt the loss as the other hand moved from under her breast to skim the side of it, which caused her to moan into his mouth. His fingers teased a path up to her shoulder, down her arm, and then there was a cold snap against her wrist. Evie pulled back in surprise and looked down at the handcuff in shock.
“Twenty,” Jackson said, snapping the other end of his handcuff to his wrist. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you getting ready to run?”
19
Jackson saw the moment Evie understood that he’d just handcuffed her. At first, she’d looked at her wrist not understanding, then her eyes went round in surprise, and then they swung accusingly at him as he snapped the other bracelet to his own wrist.
“What the hell, Jackson?” Evie hollered as she tried to scramble off his lap.
Jackson used his free arm to hold her against him as she fought. He didn’t stop her when she tried to hit him. He didn’t stop her from doing everything she could to break free. The only thing he didn’t let her do was leave his lap or hurt herself. After a minute of struggling, Evie’s fight left her and the tears started.
“How did you know?” she asked as she used her free hand to swipe at her eyes. Jackson dropped his arm from around her and this time she didn’t try to take off.
“You know what I do for a living, right? I’m trained to notice every little thing. Like the way your body stiffened when you got the idea to run and then the way your body and mind calmed when you accepted the idea. Then there’s the bag you tucked away before sitting on the couch.”
“I was behind you. There was no way you could have seen it.”
“I didn’t see it. I heard it. I heard the break in your gait and the pause in your breathing as you set the bag down.”
“No way, that’s impossible,” Evie challenged.
“Sweetheart, with me nothing is impossible.” Jackson shot her a cocky grin and then used one finger to barely graze the side of her breast. Evie sucked in a breath and held it for a second. She didn’t even realize she’d done it. “That’s how I learned that this was your favorite place to be touched when teasing you.”
Jackson leaned forward so that her breasts were pressed against his chest as he placed his lips a millimeter from her ear and whispered, “Wait until you see what I can notice when we’re in bed together. Every hitch of your breath, every time you hold your breath, every sound you make will give me a road map to your body . . . I’ll know things before you do.”
He felt the shiver of anticipation that ran through Evie’s body at his words and placed a delicate kiss on her neck by her ear, earning another shiver from her.
Evie gulped and then took a deep breath. She was getting ready to argue. “There’s no arguing this with me, Evie. You were going to run and you promised to help us find Jonathan. I told you we’d have a plan by tomorrow night. But you were going to leave anyway.”
“I didn’t want to,” Evie admitted, her voice sounding small as the tension left her body and she slumped forward. She rested her cuffed hand on his chest with his hand holding her wrist. His other arm hugged her against him as she pressed her cheek to his shoulder. Jackson didn’t need training to know she was crying.
“Then why did you try to?”
“I wanted to protect you. I wanted to protect your family. I wanted to protect the town. Everyone is so nice and made me feel as if I belonged here. But what if he attacks during Aniyah’s wedding? It would be my fault. I couldn’t take the chance that anyone would get hurt.”
Jackson ran his hand slowly up and down her spine trying to soothe her. “What was your plan?”
“I was going to borrow your car and drive to Lexington where I would drop it off and steal another car. I was thinking of taking my picture in the woods and posting it with the locator tag on so Jon would see I wasn’t here and wouldn’t hurt you all. Then I would drop the phone and run for my life. I was going to hide off the grid until he was caught now that the FBI was looking for the right person.”
Jack
son used his free hand to push back her hair that had fallen over her face. “If you had trusted me, you would have heard that my plan was similar. But I wanted to run some points by my team before I shared it.”
Evie shot up, almost clipping her head on his chin. “Similar how?”
Jackson grinned at her. “Wouldn’t you like to know? But you’ll have to wait till tomorrow like everyone else.”
Evie sniffed, but she was now smiling. Jackson was about to kiss her again when he heard someone on the stairs outside. His eyes shot to the door and he cursed as he realized he hadn’t locked it after Evie had followed him in.
The door handle turned and Jackson flipped Evie onto her back on the couch with his body covering hers and the gun from the small of his back aimed at the door before Evie could even open her mouth.
“There’s a gun pointed at you and if you open that door, I’ll shoot you,” Jackson called out in a steady and commanding voice.
“It’s me!”
The door opened and there stood Aniyah with a large pink and black leopard print purse in one hand and an axe in the other. Jackson blinked while taking in her appearance and lowering the gun.
“Ohhh,” Aniyah said with a grin as she continued to walk in. “DeAndre and I like to play that game too. I have some oils that will really spice things up when you get to the sexual interrogation.”
Jackson felt Evie moving underneath him and lifted himself from her only to find her laughing. “I wish it was that kind of game. This is punishment for me trying to run away,” Evie told her as they both moved to stand up.
“Girl, that’s kinky. Was he about to spank you? I read this book where—”
“Aniyah, I’m not spanking her,” Jackson cut in, although he might need to widen his reading list.
“Your loss. I’d bet Jackson would be real good at that stuff. Look at that face! I mean, that’s sexy. You can practically hear the dirty things he’s thinking. I’m going to have to tell DeAndre about this game, and I’ll drop off that spanking book tomorrow. You’d be one hot alpha dom. You should hear what the man does with his tie. He’s a vampire. I bet Jackson could bite you to stay in character.”
Forever Freed Page 14
