Total pages in book: 183
Estimated words: 174715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 174715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 874(@200wpm)___ 699(@250wpm)___ 582(@300wpm)
“Savage needs to go with you.”
“Smith is going with us,” he says. “I want Savage with you.”
I have no idea when this was decided, but I don’t like it. “I saw what Savage did in that bathroom. He needs to go with you.”
Savage clears his throat. “Smith is a badass,” he says. “He’ll kick ass if he needs to.”
“Can I see you alone?” I ask Cole.
“I need to go do this,” Cole says. “Let me go and just get back.”
“Please, Cole. I need to see you.”
His jaw sets hard and he takes my hand, leading me down the hallway, past Reese and Cat, guiding me through the living room and into the kitchen. The minute we’re inside, alone, I whirl on him, grabbing his belt buckle. “Talk to me.”
“What does that mean, Lori?”
“Exactly. You are not you right now. You weren’t you in our final moments in Paris last night. You’re out of your own head.”
His hands slide under my hair, to my neck. “My wife was just attacked. Right now, the only place my head is, is making sure that man never gets close to you again.”
“I know, but—”
“No buts. I need you to stay here and do what Savage says. He’ll let you know the minute his man has your mother in his sights. They won’t approach her and freak her out. They’ll just watch.”
“Cole—”
His mouth comes down on mine, and suddenly I’m pressed against the refrigerator, his big body framing mine, and he is kissing me, a deep passionate, tormented kiss that is darker than any kiss I’ve ever experienced with this man. It’s pain and torment that didn’t just happen today. It’s more, it’s something he’s never let me see and I don’t understand.
“I love you,” he says when he tears his mouth from mine. “I’ll be back soon.” And then he’s gone, exiting the kitchen and leaving me staring after him.
Chapter fifty-nine
Lori
I’m still standing in the kitchen staring after Cole, my heart in my throat, when Cat appears in the doorway. “Hey,” she says, walking into the room and standing in front of me. “I’d hug you, but I see that look in your eyes. You’re in fight mode. How about some coffee?”
“How do you know me well enough to see that?”
“We’ve worked together and spent a lot of hours talking in between that work,” she says walking to the pot and holding up a pod. “Chocolate, right?”
“Yes,” I say, smiling with the warmth of this friendship that I so needed in my life. Like I needed Cole, and Cat and our connection led me to him.
I walk to the fridge, grab my favorite creamer, which is hers as well, and sit down. She places my brewed coffee in front of me and starts her own. “What’s going on?” she asks. “Well, aside from a crazy person attacking you in a bathroom, because I don’t think that’s what’s on your mind right now.”
I pour creamer in my cup. “Cole is worrying me. He’s not handling this well.”
“He’s worried about his wife.” She grabs her cup and sits down across from me. “That’s called love,” she adds, taking her turn with the creamer.
“I know,” I say. “But this is not the Cole I know. He’s tormented. He was tormented before we left Paris with just the idea of trouble and yet he says the threats and picketing are normal with one of these high-profile, controversial cases.”
“Oh it is,” she says. “You should have seen the insanity at the trial Reese was on when we met. It was nuts.”
“And yet Cole is going out of his mind. He seems calm, but he’s not. And he sent my mother away.”
“That was for you. He knows how you worry about her.”
“He’s not good, Cat. He will lose his mind if anything else happens.”
“Men like Reese and Cole are protective,” she says. “It’s not a bad thing. They both know how to balance that out in the right way.”
“You’re telling me that Reese loses his mind over picketers?”
“This is more than picketers.”
“He was like this before the attack,” I remind her.
She sips her coffee, her expression thoughtful. “Reese has siblings and family. They’re a mess, but he has that family unit. Cole doesn’t. His father doesn’t count. They had no relationship at all. Just throwing this out there, but Cole has been alone a long time. He cut himself off and then fell for you in a big way. He went all in, all walls down.”
“I know he did,” I say, my heart squeezing. “Even when I didn’t because I was scared.”
“Well, it’s his turn to be scared. Sometimes we think that alone is better. We can’t get hurt. Then we discover alone isn’t better, but losing the person who made you see that, is terrifying. I feel it sometimes. Reese puts himself on the line and I want to pull him back and keep him just for me.”