Chapter 14 #2
Her hand clenches around the envelope, crumpling it slightly. “Does Jonah know about this?” From my expression she must be able to tell that he doesn’t, because she groans. “Damn it, Ellie!”
There’s only one thing in the world that could tear my attention away from the letter in her grasp. And it happens at the moment.
“Yes, Lucas!” Jonah suddenly shouts, and I tear my eyes back to the court.
“Oh my gosh,” I gasp, standing. “Go, Lucas!”
My kid has the ball and has somehow managed to get close to the basket without anyone catching up to him.
I watch as he faces the basket, his tongue sticking out the way it does when he’s concentrating, and lobs the ball into the air right as the buzzer sounds.
Trisha jumps up too, grabbing my hand, and we both watch as the ball sails through the air and right into the basket.
Our side of the gym lets out a cheer and it’s everything I can do not to burst into tears when I see the prideful joy on my little boy’s face. He finds me in the stand, waving happily, and I wave back so hard I practically sprain my wrist.
Then Jonah is on the court, congratulating his team. When he gets to Lucas, my son throws himself into his arms and Jonah’s grin is a mile wide as he lifts him into the air, both of them looking about as happy as I’ve ever seen them.
It should be a perfect moment, full of pride and joy. But even watching my kid celebrating with the man I love isn’t enough to dispel the growing fear deep in my gut.
The feeling doesn’t dissipate when we go to the Low Bar for a celebratory dinner.
Not when Lawson announces to the entire bar that Lucas scored the game winning basket and the whole room erupts in cheers for him.
Not when Mac and Jonah take him over to the pool table and try to teach him the basics—even though the pool cue is about a foot taller than the little boy.
Not even when Sawyer brings out a celebratory Triple Fudge Caramel Blaster sundae, complete with a sparkler stuck in the middle, and Lucas grins bigger than Christmas morning.
I just can’t seem to shake the feeling in my stomach that something bad is coming.
My cousin’s face looks about as stony as I feel. She doesn’t even respond when Sawyer flirts with her. Instead she spends most of the dinner glaring at me.
“You need to tell Jonah about the letters,” she says when the guys are over at the pool table.
“He doesn’t need to worry for nothing.”
“For nothing?” she snaps. “Ellie, this is not nothing.”
“I showed my lawyer,” I say through gritted teeth, hating that she’s insisting on having this conversation here. “He sent it to the police back in Georgia—”
She scoffs. “Where half the force is still made up of Kevin’s buddies!”
“What do you want from me, Trisha?” I snap.
“I want you to tell Jonah.”
“So he can have one more thing to be pissed about? One more thing to feel sorry for me about?”
“So he can protect you!”
“Protect her from what?”
I freeze at the sound of the voice over my shoulder. Jonah.
“Nothing,” I say quickly, turning around and trying to force a smile on my face. “It’s nothing—”
But before I can even finish the sentence, I see something—someone—on the other side of the bar that has my blood turning cold.
“Ellie, what were you guys talking—hey.” Jonah catches sight of my face. “What’s wrong?”
When I can’t bring myself to do anything other than stare across the bar is frozen horror he takes my shoulders and gets right up in my face.
“Jesus, Ellie, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. What the hell is wrong?”
“I don’t…it might not be…” but it is him. I would know Jake anywhere. How many times did that man sit in my kitchen, drinking beer and playing cards, laughing while my husband, his brother, berated me into waiting on them hand and foot?
Jonah’s hands move from my shoulders to my face. “You’re scaring me, darlin’. I need you to tell me what’s wrong.”
“I know him,” I finally whisper. “That man at the table by the jukebox. He’s…he’s my brother-in-law.”
Jonah spins, his eyes locking on the exact spot where I indicated. I take a deep breath, trying to drum up the courage to look over his shoulder.
Jake is sitting right there, his arms spread out casually over the top of the booth, a smirk on his face, looking as comfortable as if he owns the place.
“Stay here,” Jonah says, his voice deadly cold.
I grab his arm. “No. Jonah. Let me talk to him.”
“He spins back to me. “Are you insane? I’m not letting you within ten feet of that guy.”
“He never hurt me—”
“But his brother did,” Jonah bites out. “And from the way you’re looking at him, I’m pretty sure he knew about it.” His jaw tightens as he looks me over. “You’re fucking terrified by this asshole.”
“I’m scared because it was a shock,” I argue. “And because…”
“Because,” Trisha cuts in, looking every bit as deadly as Jonah in her anger. “You’re afraid Kevin sent him here to threaten you. Or check up on you. Or—”
“Stop,” I whimper, every word she says sending fresh fear into my stomach.
“Stay here,” Jonah says firmly. He looks over my head at Trisha and makes a jerking motion with his chin.
She grabs my arm, pulling me back into my seat at the table.
A moment later, Lawson and Sawyer show up, flanking us on either side.
I watch as Nick and Mac join Jonah in the middle of the bar.
They converse briefly then all walk over to Jake’s table.
“Do you guys have a secret code or something?” Trisha asks. “What, Jonah pats his ear and you all come running?”
“Naw,” Sawyer says, reaching for a pitcher of beer in the center of the table. “We just have a lot of experience with Jonah’s murderous rage expression.”
I bite my lip, looking over to where the three men stand around Jake’s booth.
“Hey,” Sawyer says softly, touching my arm. “Don’t worry about it. Jonah and the guys will take care of it.” He tilts his head over to Lucas, who’s helping Lawson build a miniature structure out of toothpicks and sugar packets. His message is clear—no sense in upsetting the kid.
A few moments later, Jonah, Nick, and Mac return to the table.
A glance over their shoulders tells me Jake is no longer sitting at the booth.
Mac and Nick both look concerned, but Jonah’s eyes are murderous.
Before I can ask him what happened, Trisha jumps up and grabs his arm, leaning up to mutter something in his ear.
The expression on his face turns from fiery with anger to ice cold.
That little traitor, I think, glaring at my cousin in outrage. She doesn’t look the slightest bit abashed or guilty, not even when Jonah comes up and takes my arm, tugging me right out of my seat.
“We’ll be back,” he says to his twin. “Keep an eye on the kid.”
“Jonah—”
“You don’t want me saying what I have to say in public, Ellie,” he mutters in my ear, and I bite my lip, allowing myself to be guided to the back hallway. We bypass the familiar restroom where all of this started—God, that seems like ages ago now—and walk into a small, cluttered office.
“What did he say?” I ask, before Jonah can lay into me about the letters.
“He said he’s recently unemployed and looking to interview with the local police force.”
My mouth drops open. “He was on the force in Georgia. He was one of the guys who got fired after Kevin was arrested and the new chief found out how much they’d been covering for him.” Cold fear runs through me. “You don’t think they’d hire him, do you?”
Jonah’s grip on my arm gentles. “Not gonna happen sweetheart. He was clearly just trying to freak you out.”
“And get info to send back to Kevin,” I say, closing my eyes.
Jonah pulls me into his arms. “You’re safe here, Ellie. I’m not going to let anything happen. You know that, right?”
I nod against his chest. Just the feel of his strong arms around me, the warmth of his body pressed into mine, makes me feel better. But then his hold gets more rigid, like he’s struggling to hold onto his control.
“How many letters have there been?” he asks in a low, tense voice.
For a split second I think about lying to him—he’s going to be so pissed off. “Three,” I finally whisper.
“God damn it.”
“I gave them to my lawyer,” I say quickly.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”
I can’t help but shrink back at the anger in his voice. I know that Jonah would die before he hurt me, but I’ve heard that anger from a man too many times, usually followed by the feel of his fists.
Jonah’s face falls when he sees my reaction and I watch as he takes a deep breath, visibly getting his emotions back under control.
When he does, he reaches for me again, this time placing his hands on either side of my face.
His touch is unbelievably gentle and I feel the sting of tears hit my eyes at his efforts to make me comfortable.
“I can’t protect you if I don’t know what’s going on,” he says softly. “And protecting you is the most important thing in this world to me. Do you understand?”
I nod, unable to speak, and he leans down to press a kiss to my lips.
“You’re everything, Ellie. You and that kid out there.
You mean everything.” His voice catches.
“I need you to be safe. I need you to let me take care of you. Please. I can’t…
” he cuts off, burying his face into my hair.
“I can’t risk you, darlin. Not for anything. ”
I wrap my arms around his middle, hugging him tightly. “I’m sorry. I just…everything has been so good, you know? And I’m so damn tired of feeling like this broken, pathetic mess.”
He growls into my hair. “You’re not allowed to say that shit about the woman I love.”
In spite of the shittiness of the last few hours, I can’t help but smile into his chest.
“I’m so tired of letting him ruin everything for me. I just wanted to enjoy this.”
He pulls back to look down into my eyes, his brown irises intense and dark. “We’re going to enjoy this. He doesn’t get to take shit away from us. But in order to guarantee that, I need you to tell me when stuff like this happens.”
“Okay.”
His eyes dart around my face, studying me. “You promise?”
“I promise.”
He nods, his determined expression making me feel better than I have since Trisha pulled out that letter. “Good. Now let’s go help Lucas finish that sundae.”