Chapter Twenty-Four #3
“You ordered someone to break into my apartment, trash everything I own, scare the shit out of me, and make me feel unsafe going back there. So now you get to pay first, last, and security on my next place, pay to replace all the shit you broke, and pay a little bit extra to help with some of the emotional trauma you caused me.”
He snorted. “Emotional trauma?”
“Yup. Emotional trauma,” I said, meeting his hard gaze. “Have that check ready by the time I leave.”
Feeling like a gladiator who’d just survived ten rounds in the pit, I turned on my triumphant little heel and marched out of there.
Straight into Jennifer.
She stood just outside the door, and from the look on her face, she heard every last shitty thing I said to her husband.
I nearly cowered. I’d just faced down an enraged Viking giant without flinching, but the thought of her disapproval sapped my bravery.
Because, unlike Liam, I cared what she thought.
I wanted her to like me, but now she probably hated me for what I just did.
I mean, sure, she was pissed at Liam, but the man was still her husband.
I wanted to punch Daniel for being mean to Jakob.
She was probably about to flay me alive for what I just put the man she loved through.
She pressed a finger to her lips, indicating silence, and jerked her head to the left in a command to follow her down the hall. I dragged my feet after her, feeling like a woman walking toward the executioner’s block.
She stopped when we reached the kitchen. I winced, waiting for her slap to land. Lord knew I’d earned one. Instead, she pulled me into a hug.
“Thank you,” she said.
Thank you?
Belatedly, I hugged her back. “Um… you’re welcome?”
She let me go and stepped back. “He needed to hear that. I think he might have even listened to you.”
“You sure I didn’t just make everything worse?”
She shook her head. “Only the fear of losing Jakob could snap him out of this, and I think your comment about Jakob never smiling around him drove that point home.”
“You’re not mad at me?”
She gave me a sad smile. “I can’t like the way you spoke to him, but the hard fact is that someone needed to say it.”
I nodded, feeling like I’d dodged a bullet. “Where’s Gran?”
“Packing. Will she be okay at her sister’s?”
“Yeah. She’ll probably be better there. No offense.”
“None taken,” Jennifer said. “I’m sure all the memories she has of her sister and brother-in-law will help ground her. It was the same with my mam. She always did better when we had family visiting from the old country.”
“Thank you so much for taking care of Gran the past few days,” I said. “I was so worried about so much, but knowing she was here with you helped me more than I can say.”
Jennifer grinned. “You’re a sweet girl underneath that tough shell. Just like my Jakob. Make sure to say goodbye to him before you leave.”
“I will.”
“And give him a chance, will you?”
I smiled back at her. “I’ll think about it.”
Jennifer laughed. “Go ahead and take all the time you think you need.” From the way she said it, it sounded like she thought I was silly for taking any time at all.
She moved past me back down the hall toward Liam’s office.
Pausing, she threw over her shoulder, “And don’t worry.
I’ll make sure Liam signs your check before you go. ”
“I heard that!” he shouted.
Jennifer’s face hardened as she turned back around. “You’re about to hear a lot worse!”
I fled from the sound of their raised voices, down into the basement.
The stairs dropped me in the middle of a wide-open space.
To one side was a living room with big, comfy couches, a huge flat-screen TV, a pool table, foosball, and even a small bar in the corner.
The other side was taken up by a home gym.
Jakob had changed into shorts. The tattoos covering his upper body were slicked in sweat and gleamed in the overhead lighting as he beat the ever-loving shit out of a punching bag.
He hadn’t noticed me yet, so I paused for a few minutes and watched him.
The muscles of his arms and back flexed as he landed a punch, an uppercut, and then a cross.
He stepped back, opening space between him and his imaginary opponent, then spun on his planted foot and aimed a roundhouse kick at the punching bag that hit hard enough to take someone’s head off.
Jesus.
I swallowed back a wave of lust. I must be edging closer toward darkness all on my own because standing here watching him didn’t make me fear him. It made me long to see how much damage this amount of training and power could do to another human.
Of course that’s when he caught sight of me and turned around, and I knew, I knew from the way he sucked in a harsh breath that I was wearing my fuck me in public face.
I shook my head and tried to clear my thoughts. Why had I come down here again? Oh right. “Gran and I are about to take off.”
Jakob stayed where he was, chest heaving, sweat streaming down his big body. Thank God. I didn’t trust myself if he came any closer.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To my great-aunt and -uncle’s place up near Austin.”
“Will you text me the address?”
“Can’t you just follow the GPS tracker on my car?”
He met my gaze. “Not unless there’s another emergency. I’d rather you give me the information on your own.”
I sighed. He didn’t make this any easier by being so goddamn decent. “I’ll text it to you.”
He nodded. “And you’ll call if anything feels off or you run into trouble?”
“They live in a quaint little town in the middle of nowhere. I doubt there’ll be trouble.”
He raised his brows. “With your track record, anything is possible.”
I shook my head. “You just can’t help but push my buttons.”
He lowered his head and looked at me beneath his eyelashes, heat sparking in his eyes. “I like pushing your buttons, remember?”
Oh, I remembered. He liked it because of how I reacted. If I stayed down here much longer, he might even get the reaction out of me he wanted. It was a struggle to keep my eyes on his and not ogle him like the horny teenager he turned me into.
“You have two weeks,” he said.
My confusion helped clear some of the fog from my thoughts. “Two weeks?”
He nodded in response and then went back to beating up the punching bag. I frowned at him. Guess he was done talking. I had two weeks until what? The way he said it sounded like he was threatening me.
I probably should have been afraid.
I wasn’t.
God help me, I was excited to find out what he would do when my two weeks were up.