43. Jack
43
JACK
O h, fuck . My spirits sink as I read the texts. “Goddammit, Bunny,” I mutter. I hurriedly text him as I try to drive faster, dodging around a slow-moving sedan with the heel of my hand pressed into the horn. I hit the voice-to-text button telling him to go back and wait for me where I dropped him off.
Of course , he forgot to text me like he said he would, but I was able to look up the event hours online. I planned to be there when it got out, but traffic was heavy, so I’m still a little ways away. Too far, apparently.
Fuck everything. I told him to wait until I got there and not go wandering. The blocks immediately around the convention center are sketchy even in broad daylight. Bunny might be capable of navigating the woods at night —even at a run —but these broken city streets with their barren, cracked sidewalks are a whole different animal.
I try to call him. He doesn’t pick up. A sick feeling of worry settles in my guts as I gun the engine, fearing the worst.
When I finally see the convention center in sight, I break about every traffic rule on the planet to get to the turn-off. Approaching a green light at the last cross street, I punch the gas.
A figure cuts across the intersection and I hit on the brakes so hard that they screech, making the truck fishtail. Fuck. I see blond hair and my heart stops when I realize it’s Bunny, hauling ass away from a second figure that cuts in front of my headlights.
As soon as I clear the turn, I can make out two figures under the skybridge. Bunny’s pursuer is so close on his heels that my heart leaps into my throat.
I close the distance between us and slam on the brakes when I’m roughly abreast of them. Throwing the truck in park, I leap out without bothering to shut the door.
At first, I only register how skinny the punk is as I fling an arm around his neck, taking his feet out from under him. He squirms and tries to spin around, swinging his fists behind him in the hope of landing a blow.
I’m not fucking around with this shithead. I don’t know what happened just yet, but he was chasing Bunny. That’s all I need to know.
“Get off me!” he hollers, still trying to swing at me while craning his neck behind him. “I don’t know who the fuck you are!” He curses when my fist makes solid contact with his eye.
“I don’t know who the fuck you are, either, asshole,” I snarl. “But you fucked with the wrong guy tonight.”
His lip curls as I hear the sound of footsteps. I take my eyes off him long enough to see Bunny dashing up, his face flushed. No, wait —fuck, that’s not a flush. This asshole must’ve hit him.
I grab the drawstrings of his hoodie and yank as hard as I can. He makes a strangled sound as I haul him up and take two more shots to his face. I hear his nose go on the second one. Serves the motherfucker right.
“Jack!” Bunny is panting as he reaches me, his eyes huge and wild.
“What happened to your face?” There’s definitely a red mark on one cheek, and his hair is disheveled.
“I don’t care about my face! The asshole took my tablet!” He looks near tears.
I look down at the guy whose neck is now between my hands. His eyelids flutter. “This dickhead?”
“No! There were two of them. The other guy grabbed my tablet and took off that way.”
Well, then. I discard the punk, slinging his limp body against a graffitied retaining wall. He should be out for a bit.
“What’d he look like?”
“Gray hoodie, white ball cap.”
I can work with that. “Get in the truck and lock the doors. I’ll handle this.” I turn in the direction of my quarry as Bunny starts to say something. I whirl around and glare at him.
“Just stay in the fucking truck!” I snap. I don’t have time to argue. If these two assholes approached him together, odds are the one who’s still conscious is lingering somewhere nearby, probably waiting for his scumbag buddy to take out Bunny and steal his wallet and phone, as well.
I quickly pull out my phone, glad I thought to add the locator app so I could track down Bunny’s devices. Of course, I was just figuring it would come in handy if he left his tablet out on the deck or something. But now, it’s going to lead me right to the fucking fuckface who stole it from him. I wish I knew which one of them left that mark on his face. Guess both of them are going to pay for it.
The instant the blue dot lights up on my screen, I take off at a run. I stay in the shadows, hoping the guy hears my pounding footsteps and assumes I’m his fellow thief. A flash of something white across the street catches my eye.
White ball cap . I stay hidden as long as I can. When I cross beneath the one flickering streetlight on the opposite curb, I hear a couple of curses followed by quick footfalls on concrete.
I give chase and draw close enough to see him fling his arm out to the side. Probably ditching Bunny’s tablet, maybe in the hope that I’ll grab it instead of continuing to pursue him.
He’s not getting that lucky, because I’m determined to catch this piece of shit. When the sound of his footsteps changes, I realize he’s left the sidewalk. That’s fine by me. I’d much rather knock someone’s teeth out in the darkness of a vacant lot than in front of potential witnesses or security cameras out in the open.
I hear him break into a sprint, likely heading for the shell of a building in the next lot. Motherfucker. The image of Bunny’s reddened cheek fills my mind, and my anger propels me forward until I’m hot on the guy’s heels again.
I take him down hard as he’s trying to wheel around and face me. The sharp-edged gravel tears through my jeans, then the skin of my knee. Son-of-a-bitch.
Yanking his hat off, I grab him by the hair so I can smack his face into the ground. He yells, and I realize I need to shut him up in case any more of his lowlife buddies are hanging around. I wrap an arm around his neck and squeeze, ignoring a flurry of kicks to my legs as he tries to twist his body around beneath me to give himself some leverage. Bracing myself on my injured knee so I can put my weight into him, I grit my teeth against the pain.
I wait until he’s nearly unconscious and his limbs are loose when I spin him around. He’s bleeding from the mouth. Maybe I took out a tooth when I smacked his face into the gravel. Good. Leave the motherfucker with a souvenir. I haul off and finish knocking him out with two solid punches to his face and then one on the side of the head. Don’t need him waking up until I’m back in my truck and well out of reach.
It feels almost anticlimactic to scoop up Bunny’s tablet —I’m glad I insisted on getting him a heavy-duty case that withstood the tumble into the gutter —and jog back to the truck. I keep an eye out for the skinny one, although I’m betting that even if he’s conscious, he’ll be less-than-eager to tangle with me again.
I hear the truck unlock as I draw near. Opening the driver’s side door, I toss Bunny his tablet. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
O nce we get to a less-dicey area, I pull over and turn on the light in the cabin. Bunny lets out a squeak and puts his hands to his mouth. “You’re bleeding!”
“Am I? Oh —” I look down at my leg. Yep, these jeans are definitely ruined, but the blood looks like it’s mostly coming from abrasions. That’s a relief. I didn’t feel the pain right away over the adrenaline, but it started to bark at me in the last couple of blocks.
“No, your face!” His eyes are wide with fear. I flip down the visor and look in the mirror.
“Nah,” I reassure him. “Not my blood.” I open the center console and dig out a bandana to wipe it off. “See?”
His expression calms a little. I reach over and catch him gently by the chin. “I mostly wanted to see how yours looked.”
He’s still got a red mark on the side of his face. It doesn’t look as bad as I feared at first glance, though. “We’ll get home and get some ice on that,” I tell him.
Bunny frowns. “Are we —did you still want to go ahead with things tonight?”
I sigh. “I know it’s too late to cancel the hotel at this point, but I figured you wouldn’t feel like getting roughed up tonight, since you almost got mugged and took a shot to the face.”
He frowns a little and touches the mark on his cheek, wincing a little as he does. I can’t tell what he’s thinking when he darts his eyes away. “Um,” he says in a small voice before bringing his eyes back to mine. “I still want it.” He looks a little embarrassed.
“And you’ll get it. But I don’t think tonight is a good idea.”
His shoulders slump. “Yeah, I’m sorry. You could’ve gotten hurt.”
“ I could’ve? No, you could’ve gotten hurt — hurt worse, I mean. And just the thought of anything bad happening to you…” I shake my head and try to not think about it. “I just got you. You’re mine, Bunny —every sweet, bright thing about you. And I’m not going to let anyone take that away from me.”
Bunny blinks at me, his face registering surprise. I kind of don’t blame him. That didn’t sound like me. But I meant it, dammit. I force my lips into a smirk. “But maybe you could not make it easy for them, huh? I’m glad I showed up when I did —maybe pay attention next time when I tell you a place isn’t safe? I know you think I’m just being overbearing, but sometimes I do know what the fuck I’m talking about.”
He drops his eyes. “Sorry,” he mumbles. He takes a couple of quick, shaky breaths like he might start crying. Shit . I quickly reach over and push his hair out of his face as I huff out a laugh.
“Unless you were trying to give me a fucking heart attack, that is. Or get me sent to prison for murder if they’d really hurt you. Was that it? You trying to get rid of me?” I narrow my eyes in mock suspicion.
“No!” Bunny shakes his head. “Wanna keep you around forever.” I glance at him, expecting to see a hint that he’s joking in his face. But his expression looks sincere.
My heartbeat had returned to normal from the chase. It picks back up again. “Gimme a break. You don’t like me enough to want me around forever.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Bunny says, sounding thoughtful. I have a flash of relief before he adds with a little bit of a sly smile, “I love you enough.”
He’s definitely trying to give me a goddamn heart attack. I roll my eyes with a snort to mask the inescapable sense that I’m teetering on the edge of something dangerous. “You’re twenty-two. What the hell do you know about forever?”
Bunny gives me a poke in the ribs. “ I’m the one who spends all my free time reading about happily-ever-afters.”
“Exactly. You’ve got all this unrealistic shit in your head. And they’re werewolves,” I add with a smirk. I feel like I’m back in control of the situation when Bunny folds his arms and wrinkles his nose at me. I’ve steered him away from this forever nonsense. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.
He touches the red mark on his cheek lightly and grimaces. “Yeah, maybe home is better tonight. I’m sorry about the hotel,” he says in a small voice.
“I’m not upset at you. Just annoyed at those two assholes.”
“Maybe they’d make an exception.”
“What?”
“The hotel. You know, maybe if you called and explained that there were extenuating circumstances.”
“ Pfft .” I shake my head. I appreciate the kid’s optimism sometimes. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“Let me try. I’ll give them a call. The worst they can say is no, right?”
He’s setting himself up for failure, but if he’s determined to try, I guess I can’t stop him. “Sure.” I shrug and hand him my phone. “The reservation’s in there.”
I don’t say anything but I pay attention as I get us the fuck out of the city. Bunny sounds sweetly apologetic and friendly without seeming fake. I glance over and he’s smiling, even though whoever’s on the other end obviously can’t see him. I roll my eyes and let out a snort.
He hangs up a few minutes later and pokes me in the ribs again. “See, I told you. They said they can’t refund the charge but when I told them what happened, they said they’d credit it to a future stay. So we could do your kinky dungeon night some other time.”
“How the fuck did you do that?”
He grins at my surprise. “You know, just being nice can go a long way to getting you what you want.” I know he sees me scowl but he goads me anyway. “Might not kill you to try it sometime.”
I reach over and tousle his hair. “Why should I bother when you’re so good at it?”
He rolls his eyes but, to my intense relief, doesn’t say much for the rest of the drive back. I’m glad for the quiet because I need the time to corral my racing thoughts. The idea that he could’ve gotten badly hurt —or worse —makes my chest tight with fear. That fear is multiplied by the other, deeper truth that’s solidified itself into the core of my being:
If I thought for one hot minute that Bunny completely, literally meant what he said about forever , he could have it. I would be his forever — in a heartbeat. But even though he’s seen the very darkest parts of me and issomehow, incredibly, still sitting here next to me, there’s just no way he’d want that. I repeat that thought to myself. No way in hell.