Chapter 45 #3
Her hand reached for me immediately, and the moment her fingers closed around my arm, I wanted to fold into her the way I had Jasper. Instead, I stood between them, still holding Jasper’s hand because letting go felt impossible.
“What man?” Granny asked.
“I don’t know his name.” My voice sounded far away. “The man from the gas station. The one I told you about.”
Granny’s mouth hardened.
I knew that expression.
Her fear lasted less than a second before it turned into something else.
“I’m calling Georgie.” She turned toward the house.
“Granny—”
“And Frank. They can get the Sons over here.”
Beside me, Jasper went still.
Not dramatically. If I hadn’t been holding his hand, I might not have felt the sudden tension move through him.
“Don’t call them,” he said.
Granny turned back slowly. “Excuse me?”
Jasper’s fingers closed around mine before he answered. His voice stayed quiet, but the softness he had used with me in the parking lot had changed. “I’ll take care of it.”
My stomach dropped and I looked at him.
Until that moment, it hadn’t occurred to me that Jasper was going anywhere.
He’d just gotten here.
He’d held me behind the shop until I could breathe again. Followed me home. Walked me to the porch. I’d assumed he was coming inside.
“Jasper?”
His eyes came to me. The hardness disappeared so quickly that I almost wondered if I’d imagined it. “Baby.”
I tightened my grip on his hand. “You’re staying?”
It came out more like a question than I wanted.
His expression shifted.
That was enough. “No.”
I grabbed his hand with both of mine. “No, Jasper. Please.”
“Fiona—”
“I don’t want you to go.”
My voice cracked, and I hated it. Hated the tears rushing back when I had only just managed to stop them. Hated that my body was betraying me all over again despite being home safe.
But the thought of Jasper walking away from me made the dark beyond Granny’s porch feel too close.
I stepped nearer and caught the front of his cut. “Please stay.”
His face changed completely. “Ma Belle.”
“Please.”
Jasper lifted his hand to my cheek. The warmth of his palm made my eyes close before I meant them to, and for a few seconds, I leaned into him because standing upright suddenly felt like work again.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
I opened my eyes. “No.”
“I have to.”
“You don’t,” I pleaded.
I didn’t care what he had to do. Didn’t care about the man from the gas station, the Sons, Georgie, Frank—any of it. Somebody else could handle tonight.
I needed Jasper. “I’m scared.”
The admission slipped out so quietly I almost didn’t hear it myself.
Jasper did.
His eyes closed for a second, and his forehead came down against mine. “I know.”
“Then don’t leave me.”
His hand slid around the back of my neck, holding me there. I felt his breath against my face and the effort in the silence before he answered, “I don’t want to.”
“Then stay.”
For a moment, hope lifted inside me.
Then Jasper pulled back just enough to look at me. “I already told that motherfucker to stay away from you once.”
The words barely made sense through the fog in my head. Something from the parking lot brushed against my memory—his voice asking what part the man hadn’t understood.
I couldn’t follow it.
Not tonight.
Jasper’s thumb moved slowly along my cheek. “He didn’t listen. I can’t leave him out there knowing where you work.”
“Call the club,” I whispered. “Let them deal with it.”
His jaw tightened. “I’ll handle it.”
That was the voice again.
Not the one he used with me.
The one he was keeping behind his teeth because Granny was standing beside us and I was hanging onto him like letting go might make the world tilt again.
I shook my head. “Please.”
Jasper looked wrecked for half a second.
Then he pulled me against him.
I buried my face against his chest and held on while he kissed the top of my head.
“I’m coming back,” he murmured.
“When?”
“As soon as I can.”
“That’s not an answer.”
A faint breath of laughter moved through his chest, so small I almost missed it. “I know.”
I pulled back enough to see him. “Promise me.”
His gaze held mine.
Whatever else Jasper was capable of, he had never lied to me. “I promise I’m coming back to you.”
The words settled somewhere deeper than the fear.
Granny’s arm came around my waist from the side. “She won’t be alone.”
Jasper looked at her over my head.
I didn’t know what passed between them. I didn’t care.
All I cared about was the fact that his hand was already starting to loosen from mine.
“Jasper.”
His attention came back immediately. “I’ll be back, Ma Belle.”
He bent and kissed my forehead.
I held onto the front of his cut until I couldn’t anymore.
Then he stepped away.
Granny drew me against her side while Jasper walked down the steps toward his motorcycle. I watched every movement because I couldn’t make myself look anywhere else. His hand on the handlebar. The swing of his leg over the seat. The red glow of the taillight when the engine came alive.
He looked back once.
I lifted my hand and he dipped his chin.
Then he rode away.
The sound of the motorcycle faded into the dark while Granny pulled me toward the warmth of the house.
I held onto one thing.
Jasper promised he was coming back.