Chapter Ten
Rip
I took Jade back to Haven after the overlook, walked her inside and to her room. She opened her door and turned to me with a genuine smile.
“Thank you, Rip. I couldn’t have done this without you today.”
“I’m always gonna be here for you, honey.”
She stepped into me, wrapping her arms around me. I hugged her back as tightly as I dared, needing to hold her as much as she needed the physical comfort. When she pulled back, I leaned in and kissed her forehead before she went inside and shut the door.
I made my way to the security office and dropped into the chair in front of the monitors.
Since Jade had come here, I’d taken up the security station whenever I wasn’t sleeping or with Jade.
After today at the courthouse, I wanted to sit here and just…
watch the fucking monitors. I needed to keep watch. Over Haven. But most of all, over Jade.
I’d been sitting there maybe forty minutes, working through a cup of coffee, when my phone rang. When I saw Knight’s name on the screen, I picked up on the second ring.
“Yeah, man.”
“We’ve got a problem.” His voice was smooth as always, but I heard the edge under it. Knight didn’t lead with that kind of language unless he meant it. “Eric. He posted a video.”
I set the coffee mug down very carefully. “What kind of video?”
A pause. One beat. That was all. “Goin’ out on a limb and sayin’ it’s the video that bastard threatened to release before.”
“How long has it been up?”
“Couple hours. Maybe three. Long enough to spread. We’re already on it.
I’ve been doing a sweep to try and get as many of them down as I can, but I can’t control the Net.
” I could hear Knight’s frustration. He didn’t like the word impossible but knew when it applied.
“Ethan knows. He’s doing lawyer shit. But Eric already had a plan in place so nothing could come back on him.
” Knight paused. “There’s no way to fully contain it. Not at this point.”
My knuckles had gone white around the phone. I became aware of the pressure only when my hand started to ache. I unclenched my grip and forced myself to relax.
“Eric posted it himself?”
“From an account we can trace, yeah. Which is either stupid or intentional. And he’s not stupid.” Knight’s voice dropped. “This is a message. This is him telling her she can’t outrun him.”
I stared at the parking lot camera feed outside Haven. Nothing moved on the screen. A sodium light at the edge of the lot threw a flat yellow circle onto the asphalt and nothing else.
I thought about Jade on that overlook a couple of hours ago, her face turned up toward mine, the city spread out behind her, the way she’d smiled at me after I assured her I wasn’t going anywhere.
I thought about Eric in the courtroom that morning, the way he’d settled back in his chair like a man watching something he’d already decided the outcome of.
His smirk when the judge read the ruling.
The smirk he’d given Jade made more sense now.
My phone pinged.
Violet: Jade needs you. Now.
“Knight.” I was already on my feet. “I’ve got to go to Jade. Thanks, brother.”
“Go,” he said. “I’ve got this end. I’ll do what I can.”
I ended the call and pocketed the phone and came out of the security office into the corridor at a jog.
Haven was quiet at this hour. Most of the women and children were in their rooms. The low security lighting along the baseboards cast everything in a dim amber strip that ran the length of the hallway without fully illuminating it.
I headed straight to Jade’s room at the end of the short corridor. The carpet muffled my boots to a dull thud. The light underneath her door was on. I stopped outside it and raised my hand and knocked three times. “Jade. Honey, it’s me.”
A few seconds later, Violet opened the door and stepped back. “I’m glad you came, Rip. This is really bad.”
“Yeah.” What else could I say? Bad didn’t even begin to cover the problem.
Mia, surprisingly, sat just outside Jade’s bedroom on the floor next to the closed door. Silent tears tracked down Mia’s face, and I could see she genuinely hurt for Jade.
I leveled a look at Mia. “I know Eric hurt you too. But I need to know that you’re here to support her.” Mia opened her mouth, but I held up a hand. “And, no. I don’t think you’d hurt Jade intentionally. I just need to hear the words from you so there’s no mistake.”
Mia nodded. “I understand. And no. I realize Jade’s the victim here. I only want to help her.”
I gave her a nod, then stepped to the door and pecked softly with the knuckle of one finger.
“Jade, honey. It’s Rip.” When she didn’t respond, I knocked again.
“I’m comin’ in, but I’ll keep my distance, OK?
” I opened the door, stepped inside, then shut it again.
I’d let Mia in after I assessed Jade’s state of mind, but not yet.
Jade sat on the bed. Phone in both hands, the screen still lit against her face. Her gaze was fixed on the screen. Her hands shook so badly the phone trembled visibly, the light from it shifting and moving against her skin.
She still wore the navy dress from this morning. She’d taken her shoes off at some point. That was her only concession to the lateness of the hour. If I’d had to guess, she’d come in from our ride, sat down, and hadn’t moved since. Had I made a bad decision leaving her alone?
I crossed the room, reaching for her phone. She didn’t resist when I took it from her. I turned the screen face-down in my palm and then hit the button on the side until it went dark. Put it on the nightstand face-down and left it there.
Jade looked up at me.
She looked pale, her eyes wide in shock. The trembling in her hands soon spread through the rest of her. Her shoulders shook and she wrapped her arms around herself.
“He posted it.” Her voice cracked. “Everyone can see it.” She looked at me and then looked away fast, her gaze dropping to the floor. “I clicked the link. He texted me and I -- I didn’t know what it was, I just opened it and --”
“Jade.”
Her gaze came back to mine, wet and panicked.
I lowered myself to one knee on the floor in front of her so I didn’t loom over her.
I truly didn’t know how much more the woman could take without falling completely apart.
I wanted to take her in my arms so badly I ached with the need but didn’t dare. Not after that fucking video.
“We’re already working on it, baby,” I said. I kept my voice soft. “Knight’s been running takedowns since before I got to your door. Ethan and Lana are doing legal shit. It’s not stopped. But people are moving on it right now.”
She pressed her lips together, and her chin did a thing where it went rigid as she fought tears. “I shouldn’t have clicked it.”
“Jade, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I opened it.” Her voice dropped to almost nothing. “I saw --” She stopped. Covered her face with both hands and stayed there.
I waited silently, not wanting to hurry her or manage her.
I knew she needed to work through her feelings.
I also thought she needed me, but would be too embarrassed to ask me to hold her and I couldn’t make this decision for her.
She had to ask me to touch her. Her hands came down slowly from her face.
She still didn’t look at me, her eyes focused somewhere at the floor to my left.
“Jade.” I waited until she moved her gaze to my face.
“You opened a text message. That’s it. That’s all you did.
” I held her gaze when I said the next part so there was no chance of her not hearing it clearly.
“What’s in that video is not your fault.
Not what he did. Not the fact that he posted it.
Not the fact that you saw it. None of this is on you.
” She swallowed hard. The trembling in her body hadn’t slowed. “Can I sit with you?” I asked.
She blinked, like the question surprised her. Then she nodded once.
I straightened up from the floor and sat on the edge of the bed beside her, leaving plenty of space between us.
Not because I didn’t want to be closer. But because what she needed right now was to be the one who decided how close was close enough.
I’d learned that about her. She needed the space to choose.
I looked at the nightstand and the face-down phone, and such cold rage filled me, I had to work hard to mask it.
The last thing I wanted was for Jade to think my anger was directed at her.
Eric had sat in a courtroom this morning and listened to a judge issue a permanent restraining order, and he’d come home and done this.
Not in spite of the hearing. Because of it.
Beside me, Jade shifted. Her shoulder came close to mine without quite making contact.
I turned my palm up on the bed between us.
She looked at it for a moment. Then she put her hand in mine and her fingers closed tight around my thumb.
She finally started to cry quietly. Somehow, the lack of those full-bodied sobs she’d had before made this situation feel worse than before.
Like she didn’t have the energy to fight anymore.
“I built something here, Rip,” she said. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “I had my room and my therapy and Violet and Ada and the kids and even Mia. I started to feel like maybe --” She stopped, shook her head. “And now anyone who wants to can see --”
“Stop.” I kept my voice low but firm. “What you’ve built here is still here. Everything you worked for is still standing. He didn’t touch this place or the people in it. I think you’ll find they all want to help you.”
“I didn’t even know the full extent of what had happened.” The words came out small and flat. “And now --”
“And now we make sure he never hurts you again.” I squeezed her hand once. “I can’t promise we can get rid of everything, but I can promise we will protect you and Eric will pay. One way or another.”