Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
MACK
G race sleeps peacefully beside me. I haven’t slept a wink all night. I glance over at the clock.
3:07 AM
Jesus, today is gonna be shit. I can just feel it.
Grace’s phone vibrates on the nightstand on her side of the bed. What the fuck?
Who . The fuck . . .
I reach over and glance at the screen.
The name glaring back at me, burning out my retinas with the brightness turned way up, dumps a rock into the pit of my gut.
Joel.
Sweet fuckin’ Christ. Doesn’t this loser know when to give up?
As if on cue, Grace starts murmuring in her sleep. Torn between letting her rest and moving across the bed to burn the fucker’s existence out of her phone, I stay where I am and do nothing.
A small whimper slips through her lips.
I lean back, straining to gauge the expression on her face in the darkness. She’s asleep, but her face wars with emotion. I lay back down and pull her into my arms, hoping that by being wrapped around her I will protect her from whatever is plaguing her dreams. I’m no stranger to nightmares I would rather escape. And I would walk into hers if I knew I could save her from that particular torture.
“No, please... sto—” A small sob keens from her throat.
Fuck.
I hold her tighter. Brushing the hair from her face. “You’re okay, gorgeous. Just wake up.”
She writhes in my hold, and I release her, leaving my arms wide to give her room to move. Her hand curls around my wrist. Her breathing is shallow and rapid. “Nooo. Don’t.”
She jerks and then stills.
A tear runs down her temple, soaking into the sheet beneath us.
That’s it.
“Wake up, Gracie.”
I grip her shoulders and gently shake her. But her eyes stay shut. Her face breaks. She’s crying. Sobbing. I sit up and lift her into my chest. “Gracie. Wake up. Come on.”
My voice is a harsh rasp.
Her hands move in front of her and shrink to fists. Like she’s... protecting herself?
Goddammit, Grace.
I shake her again. “Gracie, open your eyes. Enough!”
The words snap in the quiet of the early morning. She jerks awake, a cry tumbling from her lips as she cowers away from me.
Sitting on the bed, the sight of her afraid of me twists my gut into knots and shreds my heart. Sweet Jesus. I open my mouth to say something. Nothing comes.
I extend a hand to her but retract it faster than I mean to.
She hugs her arms around her body and swallows. Tears flow, flooding down her face. Her hair, a tangled mess that spills over her shoulders, is stuck to the tears wetting the sides of her cheeks. She’s dazed. As if she has no idea where she is.
“What happened?” I ask. The crack in my voice takes me by surprise.
“Mack?”
“Yeah, Gracie,” I force out.
Her face twists with something like regret as she searches my face. “I’m—” A sob chokes her words out. I’m desperate to hold her. To know the look of terror on her face wasn’t from me.
“Did I hurt you?” I rasp. My hands fist the sheet by my sides.
Her head shakes. She’s still disoriented.
What the hell did she live out in that damn dream?
“You—you’re okay?” She sobs, her hand lifting as if trying to touch me but not able to get there.
“Of course, gorgeous. I’m good. What’s happening?”
She’s scaring me now. I glance at the phone. Has that asshole been harassing her all this time? Is that what had her stuck in a goddamn nightmare with no way out?
“I need—” She tilts her head, her face breaks.
“Come here.”
The flood gates open. She sobs, crawling into my lap and curling up against my chest like a little kid. Fuck me. I run a hand over her hair, brushing the wet, matted strands away from her face and smoothing out the chaos her tossing and turning created. Tears slide down my skin as she chugs through sobs. I wrap myself around her, like I can shield her from any fucking thing that could ever hurt her.
A muffled request finally reverberates over my pecs, and I loosen my hold. She sniffs, wiping her face before looking up at me with those stunning blue eyes, and sits on the mattress. Something like sadness and fear laces through her eyes. My gut sinks. Shaking my head, I ask, “What, Gracie?”
“He was . . .” She closes her eyes.
“Who?”
“Joel.”
Motherfucker.
“He been harassing you?”
“I don’t—I mean, I’m not sure. The dream, it felt so real.”
“What happened?”
Jesus, I’m repeating myself, but fuck ... I need to know.
“He was hurting you. You were...” She runs her bottom lip through her teeth, her eyes tightening with devastation.
“You’re okay, we’re both okay.”
She sniffs again, setting her shoulders back. Tears start again, and she lets them fall. I have an idea of what is coming.
“We were here. But I went out to feed the horses. I came back and he had you tied down. And—” She chokes through a breath, but her eyes stay on mine. “He was hurting you, with a knife. As well as the poker from the hearth. Over and over again. I was helpless. I couldn’t help you. Save you. I was watching him kill you slowly. An—all I could think of—” A sob cracks through her words, but she wrangles it back. “We never even had a chance at a life together.”
“Fuckin’ hell. Come here, gorgeous.” She sinks into my lap, clawing at my neck, sobbing into my chest. “Shhhh. It’s okay, we will have everything we want together, okay? I promise you. That fucker isn’t taking a single damn thing from you ever again. I promise he won’t ever hurt you again.”
“I’m not worried about me, Mackinlay.”
I huff a strangled chuckle into her hair. “Of course you’re not. You’re the sweetest, most caring woman who ever lived. And I will spend the rest of my life making sure you’re never alone or scared again. You hear me?”
I cup her face with my hands and tilt her head back so she meets my gaze. She nods and I plant a kiss on her forehead. Her fingers trace patterns over my chest, and my cock swells. I ignore it, pulling her into a hug and laying her down on the pillow. She rolls over, pulling my arms around her. Her ass grinds into my hard cock and I moan her name into her neck before pulling her tighter still. “Get some sleep. I’ll keep watch. Promise to wake you up sooner if it happens again.”
“Always protecting me, Mackinlay.”
“Where would I be without you, gorgeous?”
“Still sulking in a mountain of laundry detergent, probably,” she says with a giggle.
Brat.
I dig my cock into her ass cheek and bite her neck playfully.
She laughs. “Hey!”
“Sweet dreams only this time, okay?”
“Keep up that boner, and I’ll be having wet dreams.”
“Sounds like an upgrade, if you ask me.”
“Absolutely,” she breathes.
I hold her until she relaxes and is sound asleep. Wide awake, I lay and watch the sun come up with the love of my life in my arms. I have never been so damn grateful I made it home than right now.
I toss Grace’s phone onto the floor. My heel comes down on the cracked iPhone screen a second later. Her eyes grow wide in horror as I destroy the only way that asshole has to infiltrate her life from afar.
“Mackinlay,” she whispers, brows knotted low. “Shit.”
“Nope. He doesn’t get the chance to make your life hell. You’re done with the asshole, Grace.”
“That’s my phone. My only means of communication. With the world. With you .” She runs a hand over her head. “With work!”
“I’ll buy you another one. This one is trash.” I bend down and swipe up the smashed phone and toss it in the kitchen bin to drive my point home. She stares at me, her bottom lip worrying through her teeth as she folds her arms over her chest.
“I’ll drive you to town for work, grab you a new iPhone, okay?”
“Sure.”
I can’t read her expression. She’s not mad. Not upset. She’s emotionless. Far too quiet. I usher her to the kitchen counter, and she settles on a stool. Pouring both of us coffee, I slide hers across the bench to where she sits. She can be angry at me as much as she likes. I will always do what it takes to keep her safe and loved.
“Need me to run any errands after I drop you off and pick up the phone?” I ask, sipping the hot, earthy brown liquid. She blows over her mug, cooling it before testing a sip.
“I’m not sorry for taking care of you, Grace. If anything, I’m annoyed you didn’t tell me this was an ongoing thing. Could’ve smashed it sooner.”
I can’t help the small cheeky smile popping up one corner of my mouth.
Finally, her mug meets the counter, and she holds my gaze. “I wish you had let me figure this out for myself. I understand you’re trying to look out for me, and I appreciate it. I do...” She glances away, sucking in a breath. “I was totally dependent on Joel. That’s where I went wrong last time. I won’t do that again, even if I know—which I do—you’re a good man. It’s something I have to do for myself.”
Stunned, I grip the mug with both hands.
This girl will never cease to impress me. A lesser person would take the first chance to hand their problems over to someone else. Not our Gracie. Head on, she stares down the ugliest situations in the eye and learns from them. Fuck me.
Not even I have the right to say that much of myself.
“I get it. I’ll butt out.” I put the coffee down. “But?—”
She cackles a laugh and turns the mug in her hands as it sits on the counter. “But?”
“If that waste of oxygen so much as lays a fingertip, says one word outta place. I will step in, gorgeous girl.”
Now she stands and rounds the counter, placing her mug beside mine. “No. You will let me handle this, Mackinlay. Whatever the outcome. I’m done being dependent. Period.”
“Yes ma’am.” It’s all I can say.
The fire in her eyes renders me appropriately subdued. Good girl, Gracie. Don’t take anyone’s shit, least of all mine. She walks toward the hallway, heading to ready herself for work, I assume. Her retreating back has me mesmerized. I have no doubt she will handle this just fine.
Now, to rein in my overprotectiveness of her.
Because the last thing I will ever do is make her feel less than.
That was his mistake.