Chapter 6
JONAH
“Ineed a favor,” I mutter to my brother as we gather up the trash on the picnic table.
He sighs. “Didn’t I just do you a favor? Taking the kid so you guys could talk?”
I roll my eyes. Like it was really some sacrifice on his part—I saw the way he was looking at Ellie’s cousin. And the feeling seemed mutual—if eye fucking was in the dictionary, it would probably include a picture of the way Trisha was looking at my brother.
“I need you to take my afternoon shift at the bar.”
My twin meets my eyes, studying me. “I believe we just talked about getting in over your head,” he mutters.
“You don’t need to worry about my head,” I tell him. “I just need you to take the damn shift.”
He sighs. “Fine.”
Sawyer says his goodbyes to Ellie, Lucas, and Trisha—who I’m pretty sure slips him her number before he walks off. The three of them then turn to me, and I can see confusion on Ellie’s face. “You aren’t going with your brother?”
I shrug. “He has to work. Figured I’d walk with you guys.”
“Sweet!” Lucas shouts. “I can show you my skateboard! Aunt Leigh found it for me at a garage sale. It has pictures of aliens and skulls on it!”
I grin down at the kid. He really does crack me up. “Sounds good.”
He runs up ahead, apparently too excited about his skateboard to walk at a normal pace, allowing me to fall into step next to Ellie.
Who happens to be glaring at me. “What?”
“I thought we just talked about this,” she snaps.
I go for innocent. “About what?”
She huffs out a breath. She’s freaking adorable when she’s annoyed. “I told you that I’m not interested in a relationship or a one-night stand or whatever you usually do with the girls you hook up with at your bar.”
I hold up my hands. “Jesus, Ellie. I’m walking you home, not asking you out.” From the look on her face, she clearly doesn’t believe me. “Just because you don’t want a relationship right now, that means we can’t be friends?”
“You want to be friends with me?” she asks, sounding dubious.
“Sure. You and Lucas are pretty cool.”
She continues to cast me little glances with narrowed eyes, but she doesn’t argue anymore as we make our way from the park onto a residential street.
She’s right to be skeptical. It’s not that I’m lying—I’m totally fine with being Ellie’s friend.
For now. I have a feeling that the woman might need one.
She can brush over whatever is going on with her ex all she wants—I know there’s more to it.
I saw the look of fear on that kid’s face when he talked about his father finding them.
And I saw how hard Ellie was trying to keep her expression blank when she said her ex wasn’t a good husband or father.
This isn’t just some loser who forgot anniversaries or worked too much and missed the kid’s basketball games.
There’s more to the story, more she isn’t telling me.
And even though it’s really none of my business, I can’t seem to just let it go.
There’s something about Ellie that makes it impossible for me to put her from my mind.
Do I want more than friendship? Hell yes.
I haven’t stopped thinking about the silky feel of this woman’s pussy around my fingers since the night I met her.
I’ve jerked off every damn day—multiple times a day—thinking about her.
What I feel for her is bordering on infatuation, and all of this after only one night in her company.
So, yeah, I’m hoping that this turns into something more.
I’m hoping that I get another chance to get this woman naked and in my arms. In the meantime, though, I can handle being her friend.
Especially if being her friend means I get to look out for her.
Whatever she said about being safe, I’m not buying it.
I know what it looks like when a kid is afraid of his dad. I saw it in the eyes of every one of my brothers growing up. And I’m sure they saw the same in me.
Lucas runs back to us, talking a mile a minute.
He tells me that they live with Trisha at her house and he has a dinosaur bedroom.
This leads him to list out, in painstaking detail, pretty much every single toy he keeps in that room.
His chatter brings us all the way to the house, a tidy little bungalow only a few blocks away from the business district in town.
“Mom, look! A package! Do you think it’s for me? Maybe it’s from Aunt Leigh!”
He darts up to the porch and Ellie sighs. “If she sent him candy, I’m going to lose it,” she mutters.
“I can’t open it,” he complains, digging his fingers around the tape. “Mom, where are the scissors? Do you have scissors, Trisha?”
“Not on me, buddy.”
“Lucas, chill,” Ellie says. “You can wait three seconds until we get into the house.”
I laugh at his crestfallen expression. “Here, we can use my pocket knife.”
“You have a pocket knife?” he gasps, like I just told him I have a million dollars. “Mom, can I get a pocket knife?”
“In about twelve years,” she says as I kneel down next to the kid and pull out my knife.
Later I would thank God that Mrs. Cooper chose that moment to walk by. Her ancient beagle, Charlie, barks when he sees us, causing Lucas to glance up right as I pull the flap of the box open, allowing me to see what’s inside a split second before he does.
I slam it closed, holding out an arm in front of him. “Lucas, go in the house,” I say, amazed I’m able to keep my voice even. I want to start ripping shit apart. Starting with the contents of this box.
“What?” he asks, tearing his attention away from the dog to look at me. “But I want to see—”
“The package isn’t for you,” I say through gritted teeth. “It’s boring grown up stuff.”
“But—”
“Lucas.” The kid must hear the warning in my voice because he freezes, eyes going wide.
Trisha and Ellie hear it too, both of them joining us on the porch.
Trisha meets my eyes and some understanding seems to pass between us.
“Hey, buddy,” she says brightly, wrapping an arm around Lucas. “I was thinking lemonade. You thirsty?”
He makes a face. “Not the pink kind.”
She laughs. “Fine. We’ll make regular old lemonade.” She casts me one more glance before leading the kid into the house. My stomach dips as I turn to Ellie. She’s staring at me, her face white as a ghost.
“What is it?” she whispers.
Everything in me is screaming to protect this woman. “You don’t need to worry about it, sweetheart. Why don’t you go on in with Trisha and Lucas and I’ll take care of this.”
She doesn’t seem to hear me, her fearful gaze drifting to the box. “Who’s it from?”
As far as I could see, there isn’t a return address on the box, but I’d bet my share of the bar it’s from the asshole ex. Who else would send something so vile?
“Let me see,” she says, reaching for the box.
“Ellie, just go—”
She lets out a sudden peal of desperate sounding laughter. “You think there’s anything he could send me in a box that would be more terrifying than a single day of living with him?”
The blood that was already pounding hot in my veins turns to lava. “What did he do to you?” I demand.
She shakes her head, wiping at her eyes. “It doesn’t matter. Now move and let me see.”
“No. You don’t need to look at this. I’ll throw it away.” I move to do just that but the woman is a lot faster than she seems—maybe it’s some mom reflex. She ducks under my arm and pulls open the flap, staring down into the box.
I watch her face, waiting for it to crumple, for her to gasp, anything. Instead she just stares at the bloody thing inside with wide eyes, her entire body seeming frozen.
“It’s not real,” she finally murmurs, her voice cold and strained, practically unrecognizable.
“What?” I move her hands and open the flap wider so I can see into the box.
I’d been so fast to shield Lucas that I hadn’t really taken in what I was seeing.
I registered blood and fur and went right into protective mode.
But now that I’m really looking, I can see that she’s right.
What I had assumed was some kind of small animal is actually a stuffed toy.
A stuffed cat, to be exact, the kind of thing a kid might have.
The blood, though, looks plenty damn real.
“I had a cat,” she says, in that same stilted voice. “When we were first married. He was my grandmother’s before she passed. Boots.” She points at the white feet of the stuffed animal, the only part of the toy not covered in blood. “He had markings just like that.”
My stomach turns. “What happened to him?”
A single tear slips down her face. “He got sick. Cancer. The vet said treatment might work but…Kevin wouldn’t let me.
He said I already paid too much attention to the damned cat.
” Her voice breaks. “I tried anyhow. I used to hide money and…” she trails off, covering her face.
I’m almost relieved to see some reaction from her, anything better than that terrible frozenness she seemed to have a moment ago.
But then a sob shakes her entire body and I think I might be sick.
I pull her into my arms without a second thought. I hate that she’s hurting. I hate that she has these memories, that bad things ever happened to someone like her. More than anything, I hate that there’s nothing I can do to take those awful experiences away.
But I sure as hell can make damn sure that nothing ever hurts her again.
“He found out,” she sobs against my chest. “He was…he was so angry. He had never been like that, not that bad.” Her body shudders and I squeeze her tighter, desperate to take it away. “And then Boots died anyhow because the treatment didn’t work.”
“I’m sorry, darlin’,” I murmur, running my fingers through her hair. “I’m so sorry.” Her shaky sobs pierce me like a knife. Jesus, I hate the sound of her crying. Hate that she’s scared and in pain. I pull her in even tighter. “You’re safe, Ellie. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
She goes rigid then pulls away, her expression almost livid as she glares at me. “Safe? I’m not safe, Jonah. I haven’t been safe in six years.”
That urge to break shit rises up in me again but I force it down, reaching for her instead. My hands encircle her biceps and I want nothing more than to feel her body pressed against mine again. “You’re safe now. I’ll fucking make sure of it.”
She gestures at the box, looking ill. “I appreciate that, Jonah, but all due respect, you have no idea what I’m dealing with here.”
“Tell me then,” I demand. “Tell me what this asshole did.”
She’s shaking her head before I’m even finished talking. “I need to get inside. Lucas—”
“Is with Trisha and he’s fine,” I cut in. “In fact…” before she can stop me, I reach around her and pull her phone from her back pocket.
“Hey!” she squeaks, grabbing for it. I hold it higher as I type out a quick message.
Her cousin’s contact info was easy to find—she’s the first person Ellie has listed in her favorites.
Once I’m done with the message, I rectify that real quick, adding my own number and putting it in the first spot.
By the time I’m done with that, Trisha has responded.
“All right,” I tell Ellie, handing her the phone. “Trisha is going to watch Lucas. You’re coming with me.”
She just gapes at me with wide eyes. “Like hell I am.”
I ignore her, pulling out my own phone this time and typing out another message. With that finished, I turn back to my girl. “Let’s go.”
“Jonah, I’m not leaving.”
I shrug. “Then I guess I’m putting you over my shoulder.”
“Are you insane? Lucas is inside.”
I gesture at her phone. “I just texted Trisha. She’s going to watch him this afternoon. She’s also going to keep him off the porch until my brother can get here to take care of this.”
“What are you talking about?” She seems about two seconds away from losing it entirely. “I don’t need your brother to take care of anything. I’ll just go grab a garbage bag and toss it—”
“You’re not touching it,” I growl, stepping into her space.
I use my body to nudge her back against the door, caging her in.
“This is no longer your problem, do you understand me?” I never want to see that look on her face again—the frozen, pale expression of terror she’d worn when she looked into the box.
I’ll be damned if she so much as looks at the fucking thing again.
Besides, I’m pretty sure that Ellie’s immediate reaction would be to throw it away. Understandable. But that box is evidence, and Mac will make sure the right people see it.
Ellie stares up into my face for a long moment before slumping back against the door. “Fine. Your brother can take care of it. But I’m still not leaving.”
“Ellie—”
“I don’t feel safe, right now, Jonah,” she snaps, exasperated. “Which means I don’t want to leave my kid. Okay?”
I soften. I knew as soon as I saw Ellie and Lucas together that she was a great mom. Hell, she would have to be. The kid is clearly turning out pretty awesome, and there’s no way he got any of that from his piece of shit dad.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” I say, as gently as I possibly can considering the wave of fire still coursing through me.
“You’re going to come with me.” I place a finger over her mouth when she starts to protest. “You’re going to come with me because you’re freaked out, Ellie, and the last thing Lucas needs is to pick up on that. ”
She slumps even more, guilt washing over her face, and I feel like an asshole.
But it’s the truth. She might think she does a good job of hiding her feelings from the kid, but the expression on his face when he told her his dad wouldn’t find them proved he knows a lot more than she gives him credit for.
“But to make sure you don’t have to worry about him, I’m going to send someone by to keep an eye on the house.”
“Keep an eye—”
“He won’t go inside,” I promise. “Lucas won’t even know he’s here. But it will make me feel better.”
I can tell she wants to argue with me, but it seems like all the fight has gone out of her. Probably the aftereffects of shock. All the more reason to get her out of here.
I hold out a hand. “Do you trust me, Ellie?”
She stares at me for so long I’m sure she’s going to say no. When she reaches out to take my hand instead, I feel victorious.
And I know, in that moment, that I would do anything to earn that trust. I would move heaven and earth to keep this woman and her kid safe.
She might technically be a near stranger, but that doesn’t matter.
She hasn’t felt like a stranger since she walked into my bar.
From the very first minute I felt a connection to her, in a way I never have with another woman.
Whatever magnetic pull she seems to have over me, I’m not going to question it.
Ellie needs me, whether she knows it or not. And I have no intention of letting her down.