Chapter 28 Kolton
Kolton
Something’s not right.
After checking the entire apartment for any signs of intruders, I sent Sloane off to her bedroom to pack, then I plopped down on the corner of my bed, head in my hands.
Something’s not right.
Somewhere in the back of my head, a voice whispered to me that I was a fool. How could you be so stupid? It’s like you don’t even use your brain!
I was supposed to be protecting Sloane, and here I was, too far lost in her to pull my head out of my own ass.
How did I expect this to work? I couldn’t keep my dick in my pants, couldn’t think far enough ahead to realize my behavior was putting her at risk.
I couldn’t see past my own desires to remember Sloane discreetly slipping a pill from her purse every day at noon right up until we got to the safehouse.
If I was too stupid to figure that out, how was I going to keep her safe?
She was going to wind up dead.
Sloane was going to wind up dead, and I was going to lose my job. Then what would I do?
It’s all your fault.
I’d be forced to go back. Back to Kendra. Crawl on my knees and ask for forgiveness. Watch the smug look on her face as she told me I told you so.
I’d have to go back to nursing. Back to…
Back to…
“No.” I let out a groan.
No, I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t go back to that. To the blood. The needles.
I shuddered and my stomach churned.
The same way it did when Kendra would tease me about it when I was a kid. When she’d threaten to give me a shot if I didn’t do what she said or pour a bucket of blood on my head if I didn’t give in to her whims and cater to her twisted games.
You’re such an idiot.
No. I didn’t have to listen to her anymore. And that voice in my head, telling me I was an idiot, sounded exactly like her. She was always trying to control me. Always trying to torture me. Always telling me what to do.
I was done with it. I wouldn’t take it anymore. Ever since Sloane’s song, Brave, went live, and I heard her beautiful voice singing to me those four little words—I’m gonna be brave—I’d decided I was going to stand up for myself and do what I wanted.
And what I wanted was to not be a nurse. What I wanted was a job where I could help people—protect people—without the constant threat of one of my worst fears: needles. I wanted to be where I was valued and trusted, not where I was put down and criticized for not doing what Kendra demanded.
Lee and my coworkers valued me. They trusted me. And I trusted that this was the right path for me, even if it wasn’t the one my sister planned out for my life. I wasn’t put here on this earth to be her personal servant or her dress-up doll, and I was done letting her decide my life for me.
But Sloane. I wiped my hands down my face and let out another groan.
What was I going to do? She was all I could think of. I’d wanted her before I wanted to break free from Kendra’s control. I couldn’t put her life at risk because I was too worried about getting my dick wet.
You know what you have to do.
Fuckity fuck.
Just the thought of her stirred something inside me and I had to force myself off my bed. I dumped my clean laundry out of my bag, grabbed a few more sets of clothes from my drawers, then took a deep breath and steeled myself for what I knew was coming.
Sloane was my client. What mattered most was her health and safety.
I couldn’t focus on her if I was focused on my dick, and I knew this had to end.
If I was ever going to be brave and stand up for what was right, I had to put a stop to this thing between me and Sloane and put my focus where it belonged.
“Hey, baby,” Sloane sang out from behind me, and I spun to find her standing in the doorway to my room. “You about ready?”
“Sloane.” My heart pounded against my chest and the churning in my stomach felt like a thousand rubber bouncy balls taking flight. I itched to touch her, to hold her, to kiss her… But I knew I couldn’t do that. Not now.
Not anymore.
But how could I stop her? She was in front of me before I even thought to move, her hands ghosting up my chest before wrapping around the back of my neck. Her lips brushed mine, once, twice, before she pressed them hard against me, her arms holding me tight.
Without my permission, my hands skimmed over her curves. I gripped her ass and pulled her against me as she slid her tongue past my lips to tangle with my own. It wasn’t until she was in my arms, and I was pressing her against the wall by the door, that I realized what I was doing.
Which was exactly what I’d decided not to do.
But how could I stop?
“Fuck!” I jerked away and gasped for breath, lungs heaving as my heart stampeded in my chest. Sloane cupped my cheek, her gaze soft as it collided with mine. “We can’t keep doing this.”
She grimaced and ducked her chin. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just, you look good enough to eat, and I can’t stop wanting you.”
My chest clenched and my stomach sank. “Diva.”
Bravery meant standing by my decisions and not wavering, didn’t it? Yet here I was, wanting to tell myself to go to hell before I sank my dick so far inside of her, I’d never come out. The only thing stopping me was…
That rolling in my stomach was enough to make bile creep up my throat. In nursing, the only thing worse than needles was blood.
“Are you okay?” Sloane asked as I stumbled and dropped her to her feet, a wave of dizziness hitting me and making me weak. I wobbled over to the bed, nearly landing face first as I clutched my hand to my mouth. “Oh my god, Kolton! What’s wrong?”
“Hem—” I stopped, swallowed down my churning stomach and tried again. “Hemophobia.” It came out quiet as a whisper, but Sloane was beside me, her warm hand sweeping my hair off my cold, sweaty forehead. I knew she’d heard me, the way her fingers paused in their path.
“Hemo… phobia. You’re afraid of… blood?” She peered at me like I was diseased, her eyes widening before dropping them down her front. “But I didn’t… I’m not…”
Call me stupid, but I reached for her hand and took heart when she gripped my fingers with hers. “Not you, Diva.” I cleared my throat, squeezed my eyes closed. “I was thinking of”—I gestured to her, then to myself—“and then…”
“Oh. Oh, baby, no.” She draped her body over me—you know, the body that tempted me and now apparently made me want to hurl—and squeezed me so tight I wondered if she’d ever let me go. “I’m so sorry.”
“Not your fault.” I breathed through the sickness, and somehow, being in Sloane’s embrace actually made me feel better. When I was steady again, she kissed my cheek and edged back, staring down at me.
“Alright?”
With a nod, I took in a shuddering breath, then pushed myself upright. She held my hand, her other palm on my shoulder, steadying me.
Steadying me, when I should have been steading her.
“We should go,” I told her after a moment, my voice stronger now, though still raspy. She nodded, but she waited around, helping me up and ensuring I wasn’t going to fall again. I squeezed her shoulder. “I’m okay. Go get your things.”
I watched her walk away, and pain gripped my chest at the thought of losing her.
At the thought of ending this thing between us when all I’d wanted since the moment I first heard her sing was her.
Shaking my head, I grabbed my bag off the bed and followed after, pulling my phone from my pocket and calling Joss.
Downstairs, with our bags slung over my shoulders and the case holding Sloane’s keyboard under my arm, I stood waiting for Joss’s little black SUV to appear.
The minute it did, I grabbed Sloane’s hand and pulled her out from behind the security desk where I’d forced her to hide.
The crowd of pink-shirted fans were still milling about, some staring at their phones, some sitting on the sidewalk while the two security guards loitered next to the doors, ensuring no uninvited people would get inside.
After glancing at Sloane to make sure she was ready, I took a deep breath, then tugged her along behind me. We rushed through the front doors and dove into the backseat of Joss’s truck.
“Go, go, go!” I yelled before I’d even gotten the door slammed shut. And though I didn’t expect it, because Joss had a lot of trauma around car accidents and always insisted on being safe, she tore off from the curb the instant the latch clicked.
Tires squealing, Joss sped down the street, hanging a right at the corner despite the fact that it wasn’t the direction we needed to go.
I glanced down at Sloane where she lay pressed between me and the seat. Her eyes were glimmering, her smile wide as she lifted her fingers to my mouth.
Then replaced her fingertips with her soft, full lips.
Though the kiss was brief, it left my mind spinning, my body warming, my heartbeat pulsing through every inch of my body.
How could I give this woman up?
I couldn’t.
I knew deep down in the depths of my heart, in the marrow of my bones, that there was no other woman in the world for me. If Sloane would have me, I would do everything in my ability to be with her until the end of eternity.
Our bodies rocked as Joss pulled to a stop. “You two alright back there?”
Blinking, I pulled away from Sloane’s lips.
Maybe the kiss wasn’t as brief as I thought.
Her eyes were blown out, her lips swollen and glossy where the pale pink lipstick she put on before we left her condo was smeared across her mouth.
I smiled, wiped my thumb across the mess to clean it off, then glanced up at the front seat.
Where Joss was staring, wide eyed, back at me.
A horn honked behind us. Joss tore her attention away and glanced out the front window before pulling into the intersection and driving away.
“Yep, we’re good,” Sloane said from beneath me, her hand lifting to wipe at my lips.
“Need me to pull over to let you get situated?” Joss asked, studiously avoiding my gaze in the rear-view mirror.
“Uh, yeah.” I scrubbed my palm over my mouth. “Yeah, that would be great.”
It took only a second, with Joss checking the traffic around us, before she pulled to the curb. I climbed off Sloane. Moved her keyboard and our bags. Then squeezed her hand before I got out and jumped into the front seat.
Joss was off again the minute my seatbelt was buckled.
This time, she drove faster, more like the jump start away from the condo and less like the moment before she caught my wiping Sloane’s lipstick off her face.
“So, um…” she started to say but was interrupted when her phone chimed over the speakers of the car.
My friend jolted in her seat, her gaze darting to me. With her hands white-knuckling the steering wheel, she asked, “Kolton, can you get that for me please?”
“Oh. Sure.” I grabbed her phone from the center console and glanced down at the screen.
Only for my eyes to grow to the size of golf balls.
“Sloane, get down!”
I spun to look behind us, staring out the back window as Joss yelled at me, “What is it? What’s going on?”
“Turn here!” I barked, and I gripped the door and my seat as Joss did what I said, spinning the wheel as she sped around the corner.
“What’s going on?” she repeated, her foot heavy on the gas as we raced down the busy street.
I looked behind us again, holding her phone up so she could see the screen if she dared look, and I read the message that had popped up: “GeoDot has been found following you.”
“What the hell?” Joss turned again, slamming me against the door as she did. In the back seat, Sloane squealed. I reached for her, grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze.
“It’s okay, Diva. We’ll protect you. We’ll keep you safe.”
“Call Lee,” Joss demanded.
“Good idea.” I grabbed my own phone from my pocket and dialed my boss.
I’d filled him in earlier on what we were doing today, and he’d assured me Joss could handle driving us.
As the phone rang in my ear, I realized he was right.
Whatever tactical driving training Joss had taken last month was paying off.
“How’s it going, Kolt—”
“Someone’s following us!” I yelled into the phone before he could finish his greeting. “Joss got an alert on her phone!”
“Shit.” There was a brief pause before he asked, “Can you see anyone?”
“Nothing. Joss is driving and I can’t tell if anyone is with us. Do these notifications go away or chime again if you keep getting followed?”
“Fuck. Not sure.”
“What do we do?” Joss yelled my way, not taking her eyes off the road in front of her.
“Come here,” Lee said, his gruff voice breaking up as something brushed against the phone. “We’ll be waiting when you get here to make sure you’re all safe.”
“Got it. Will do, boss.”
I hung up and relayed his directive. As Joss sped through the city streets, I tried to keep watch out the back window even though the only thing I wanted to do was hold Sloane.