Chapter 17
Kendra's
Zoe was in her crib right beside me. I hadn't been able to let her get too far away from me, even though I knew David was gone.
I had seen the fear in his eyes. He was probably never going to contact me again. It was one thing to berate me in private, to hurt me where no one could see. But it was a different story when that same woman's mate could burn you alive.
I flopped around. I was thinking about Jaceon. Was he okay?
I hated the fact that David had gotten him out of character. Or, Kendra, maybe it revealed his character. He had been telling you he was an enforcer. He never hid his true nature.
It wasn't that I was afraid. It was that he had been using his whole life. Carved into something other people wanted him to be.
And I didn't want him for anything except to be what he had shown me in the last few days.
I got up and walked to the bathroom. The house was quiet. No traffic. No one outside in the neighborhood is revving up their car or speeding past.
When I got back to the room, I walked by the window. And then I saw him leaning against a tree.
"Are you serious? What is he doing out there?" I said as I went to the window.
He was sitting there looking directly at me.
I slid the window up and waved him over.
I felt like I was a teenager sneaking a boy in, which was wild, because it was something I had never done.
Jay stood up and walked over like he had been waiting. He crawled through the window and wrapped his arms around me.
"Are you okay?" he asked as he stroked my cheek.
"I'm fine," I said, whispering.
His eyes glowed as he looked down at me. "Your stepfather is a bear. He smells me, Kendra. If he knows I'm in the house, your mother does too."
I laughed and put my head against him. "Why were you out there? Why didn't you just knock on the door?"
He shrugged. “I didn’t know. I thought maybe you needed a break. You saw some hard things tonight.”
“Jay, a man breaking into my house, trying to attack me, is a hard thing. That thing with David was his own consequences catching up with him.”
Zoe whined, and Jay looked past me. I walked over and rubbed her side. She went right back to sleep. He never took his eyes off of me.
"You can meet her in the morning. Properly. If you want."
He took a step toward the crib and looked down, but he kept his distance. His head tilted. Then he walked back over to me.
"I will burn all her enemies."
I shook my head and laughed. "Jay, she doesn't have any enemies. And when the kids start biting in pre-K, you can't go around just tossing out flames. I don't need you to do any of that."
He reached out, grabbed my hand, and pulled me to him.
This unhinged man had just promised his devotion to not just me, but my daughter. It was the safest I had ever felt. He could burn the world down if he wanted to. But I had just snuck him through my window and shown him the most important thing in the world to me, and I knew he would protect it.
He was the safest thing in my life.
Even if he did have to kidnap me to prove it.