Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 233(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 233(@200wpm)___ 186(@250wpm)___ 155(@300wpm)
When we parted, she was panting, her chest heaving with the effort to catch her breath. “That answer your question?”
Speechless, she nodded.
When we got to the safe house, Alejandro quickly turned around and left. I carried Jessie inside and locked the doors. After setting her on the couch, I double-checked that all the windows were locked, shades were drawn, and curtains were closed. After confirming all of that, I walked back into the sitting room.
I held my hand out to Jessie. “Let me take care of you, my girl.”
Trustingly, she placed her hand in mine and stood from the couch. I led her to the room I normally stayed in when I was here. She stood quietly as I stripped her out of her clothes. Once we were both naked, I led her into the bathroom. After turning the water on in the shower, I let it heat up before I tugged her in after me.
She continued to be mute as I washed her hair and bathed her body, taking in the bruises that lingered on her skin. It didn’t look like they had beat the shit out of her, but they had definitely man-handled her.
I pressed my lips to the bruise on her cheek before kissing her red, bruising wrists. Then, I lowered my lips to the bruise across her abdomen, where it looked like she’d been thrown over someone’s shoulder multiple times.
“I’m sorry, Jessie,” I rasped, self-hatred clogging my throat. I hated that I had let her down. I hated that I hadn’t protected her better. I thought she would have been safe in that closet, but I couldn’t have been more fucking wrong.
I had let her down in one of the worst fucking ways possible.
I sat down on the seat in the corner, but surprising me, she sat down on my lap and wrapped her arms and legs around me. I curled my massive arms around her, burying my face in the curve of her neck.
“Just hold me,” she pleaded. “Please just hold me. I can never hate you, Ink. You saved me, and not just today.” She grabbed my face in her hands. “You saved my soul, baby.” My tears clogged my throat. She kissed me softly, so fucking tenderly that my soul wept. “You’ll always be my hero. I will always only love you, no matter what happens. So, please, just hold me.”
So, I did. I held her until the water turned cold, and then, I carried her naked body to bed, and I continued holding her there, never letting her out of my hold.
22
Jessie was chopping onions to distract her mind, and I was sitting on a bar stool watching her and keeping her company, a beer dangling between my fingers when Alejandro showed up with Elaina and Antonio.
“Joey?” I asked him. I’d put my phone on airplane mode and turned it off when we got to the safe house. It was a normal thing we did when any of us had to stay here.
“Stayed back,” Alejandro informed me. He pressed a kiss to Elaina’s temple before quietly telling her to go get settled in just as one of his men walked in carrying two bags. I assumed one of those bags was formula, bottles, diapers, and other shit Antonio might have needed.
“Need to talk to you,” Alejandro told me.
I shrugged. I knew he wanted to talk to me away from Jessie, but fuck that. I was glued to her. “So, talk. My woman was kidnapped. I’m not leaving her goddamn side. Whatever you have to say to me can be said in front of her.”
Jessie looked at me, wonder in her eyes. She knew women weren’t really allowed to know this shit. Adelaide, when she was Joey’s woman, had been an exception, but even Joey had kept boundaries that she wasn’t allowed to cross.
“I can step out,” she quietly told me.
I shrugged. “Step out if you want to, my girl, but my ass is gonna be right behind you.”
A small smile tugged at her lips that eased some of the anxiety tightening my chest. Without another word, she resumed chopping onions, and I looked up at Alejandro. “What’s going on?”
“Hellistic Saints MC were the ones who shot you in Mexico.” I gritted my teeth. “They found out you’re alive.”
“Fuck,” I swore. I shook my head. “I have no fucking clue why . . .” my voice trailed off as I thought about who I had killed or injured in the past for the club. I knew they wanted revenge for Charles, but why target just me now?
Alejandro waited patiently, handing Jessie a bell pepper when she finished chopping the onion and tossed it into a pan with some butter.
“Fuck,” I finally swore. Alejandro looked over at me expectantly. “The man that shot Gloria, when I retaliated, he was wearing a Hellistic Saints MC cut. Would explain why their club has it out for me now instead of the entire Sons of Hell.”