Chapter 45 #2
What did I tell you?
My mind caught them and dropped them just as quickly. My shoulder hurt. My wrist hurt. My legs wouldn’t stop trembling.
And Jasper was here.
That was the only thing my mind seemed willing to hold on to.
Jasper caught the man’s jacket again and hauled him upright. “What part of stay the fuck away from her didn’t you understand the first fucking time? Did I need to use smaller words?”
He struck him again, and the man doubled over.
“I gave you one fucking chance.”
“You’re fucking crazy,” the man gasped.
Jasper’s answer was a laugh that sounded nothing like him. “You have no fucking idea.”
Then the man looked at me.
Jasper followed his gaze.
Everything changed.
The rage was still there. I could see it in the tight line of his jaw, the rigid set of his shoulders, the fist still curled at his side. But he looked at me, and suddenly none of that mattered as much as whatever he saw.
“Fiona.”
The way he said my name broke something inside me.
My knees gave.
Jasper hit the man again and reached me before I hit the ground.
I heard footsteps running somewhere behind him. Felt Jasper turn slightly as if the sound pulled at him, but I grabbed the front of his cut and whatever decision he might have made disappeared.
His arms closed around me.
“I’ve got you.”
I buried my face against his chest.
The shaking that had started in my legs spread through the rest of me so violently I couldn’t control it. My fingers twisted into his shirt, holding too tightly, but Jasper didn’t try to loosen them.
“I’ve got you, Ma Belle,” he murmured into my hair. “You’re okay. I’m right here.”
I couldn’t answer.
I wasn’t okay.
I didn’t know what I was.
My body seemed to understand the danger was gone before my mind did, and instead of relief, everything simply collapsed. My teeth started chattering. Tears burned my eyes. Every time I tried to pull in a full breath, it caught somewhere too high in my chest.
Jasper never told me to calm down.
He didn’t ask questions.
He simply held me.
His hand moved slowly up and down my back, the same path over and over, while his other arm kept me tight against him. Beneath my cheek, his heart was beating nearly as hard as mine, but his voice stayed low whenever he spoke.
“I’m here, baby.”
I listened to that instead of the echoes in my head.
I’m here, baby.
Leather beneath my cheek. His hand in my hair. The smell of cold air and road clinging to him.
Road.
The thought rose slowly through everything else.
I lifted my head enough to look at him.
“You’re here.”
His expression softened in a way that almost undid me again.
“Yeah, baby.”
“How?”
A shadow of his normal smile touched his mouth. “I was gonna surprise you.”
For one second, I simply stared at him.
Then a sound escaped me that might have been a laugh if it hadn’t broken halfway through.
Jasper’s face tightened.
His fingers slid gently along my cheek, pushing hair away from my face as his eyes moved over me. “Did he hurt you?”
“I’m okay.”
The lie sounded weak even to me.
His thumb stopped against my cheek. “Fiona.”
“My shoulder.” I swallowed. “And my wrist. I think. I don’t know.”
His jaw clenched.
I could see the anger return beneath the gentleness, buried there every time he looked at the places I touched, but when his hand settled over mine, it barely seemed to weigh anything.
“Did he—”
Jasper stopped before finishing.
I knew what he meant.
“No.” My throat tightened again. “He would have if you hadn’t been here.”
His eyes closed.
Just for a second.
Then he pulled me back against him.
I didn’t know how long we stayed that way.
Time had become impossible to measure. The parking lot slowly returned around me in pieces. The cold against the backs of my legs. The faint buzz of the security light. The rough fabric of Jasper’s shirt beneath my fingers. His hand moving over my back whenever another tremor went through me.
Eventually my breathing stopped hurting.
The shaking didn’t disappear completely, but it faded enough that I became aware of how tightly I was still holding him.
I loosened my fingers.
Jasper didn’t let go.
“You with me?” he asked softly.
I nodded against his chest.
His hand stilled. “Words, Fiona.”
“Yes.”
Only then did he ease back enough to see my face.
My keys were still somewhere on the pavement. Jasper found them without moving more than a few feet away from me, and even that small distance made every muscle in my body tense until he was back.
He noticed.
Of course he did.
His expression changed, but he didn’t mention it. He simply wrapped my fingers around the keys and covered my hand with his.
“Think you can drive?”
I looked toward my car.
The thought of staying behind the shop made my stomach twist harder than the thought of getting behind the wheel.
“Yes.”
Jasper studied me long enough that I knew he was considering arguing. “Granny’s house?”
“Less than ten minutes.”
His gaze dropped to my hands. They were still trembling, but not enough that I couldn’t hold the keys.
“I’ll be right behind you.” His thumb rubbed once across my knuckles. “If you feel dizzy, if your hands start shaking worse, if anything feels wrong, you pull over. Don’t try to tough it out.”
The edge of something familiar in his voice steadied me more than the instructions themselves.
“Yes, Jasper.”
He walked me to my car, opened the door, then waited while I got inside and locked it. I watched him cross back to his motorcycle, unable to stop tracking every step he took until he swung onto the seat.
The engine started.
For the first time since he pulled into the parking lot, the sight of the bike made sense.
He had ridden here.
To surprise me.
The thought should have made me smile.
Instead, tears blurred the rearview mirror.
I wiped them away and pulled out.
Jasper’s headlight stayed behind me the entire drive to Granny’s.
I checked it too often.
Every time I saw it, something inside me eased. I didn’t care where he had come from or how long he had ridden or why he had decided to surprise me tonight of all nights.
He was there.
That was enough.
By the time I turned into Granny’s driveway, I had stopped shaking badly enough to manage the steering wheel, but the moment I shut off the car, the quiet rushed back in.
Jasper parked behind me.
I was out of the car before I realized I had been waiting for him to stop moving.
He reached me without saying anything and slid his hand against the small of my back. The touch was light, but I leaned into it anyway as we walked toward the porch.
The front door opened before we reached the steps.
Granny took one look at me and froze.
Her gaze moved immediately to Jasper. “What happened?”
The suspicion in her voice made me grab his hand.
“Not him.” The words came too fast. “Granny, Jasper saved me.”
Her face changed. “Saved you from what?”
I opened my mouth.
The brick wall came back.
Hands.
Breath against my face.
Nothing came out.
Jasper stepped closer—not enough to crowd me, just enough that his shoulder touched mine. “A man attacked her behind the shop,” he said.
Granny went pale.