61. Walker
Chapter 61
Walker
O nce the high of the night wears down, we all pile into the epic hotel shower, Clara a puddle of adorable half-asleep cuddles as Jansen and I take turns cleaning and holding her.
She’s precious.
She’s also brazen and foolish, too damn smart and too damn vulnerable. Every stroke against her skin reminds me she’s here, reminds me that if we keep doing this, one day she might not be.
Tucked into a clean bed, Jansen burrowing his nose against her sternum and passing out almost immediately, I lie there, holding her tight against me, waiting for her to fall asleep too.
Her fingers trace against my arm in idle movement, over and over.
I won’t push. But I should offer .
Talking about things might be new to me, but I always understood that it can help.
“You know, we heard it, all of us.”
Her hand stills on my arm.
“I’m here, if you need someone to talk to. We all are.”
Her fingers settle into a steady tap from pointer to pinky, five beats, then a pause, the next set taken up where the first left off.
I press my nose into the damp mass of her curls, wishing I could take some of the weight of worry from her.
What must it be like to risk exposing your barely scabbed-over trauma to an attempted rape? Even if it was the plan she’d built in her head, hearing that monster whispering in her ear? Had I not been done with that awful forgery, I would have ruined the damn thing, the way my hands clenched and shook.
The look RJ and I shared, our helplessness, blocks away, depending on Trips to take down three guys and get her to safety? I never want to feel like that again.
It had to have been ten times worse to be there. To choose that risk to save a fucking job.
We could’ve found Jansen a way out. We did.
We didn’t need to get the Rubens, too.
But this woman, she saw the game board and decided we should get everything we wanted.
Trading her own safety to get it.
Brave.
Foolish.
It’s a damn fine line to walk .
I just hope I’ll be there to catch her when she stumbles too far off the path. Because no matter what, she’s mine.
I’m not letting go.