CHAPTER TEN
LIAM
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Despite Jessie mentioning she had friends to hang out with, I swing past Warner Bros to see if the girls were done with their tour.
I have no luck finding them.
So, after waiting twenty minutes, phoning both of them repeatedly and pissing a lot of people off by taking up a car park, I head off.
My phone rings.
Jayden.
“I miss you, too, buddy, but honestly, you don’t need to call me every few hours.” I say, grinning, as I answer.
“Is Jessie with you?” His tone is terse.
My smile fades. “No. Savannah took her on a tour.” He’s quiet, and I go on full alert. “Jay?”
“Mom phoned looking for Jessie.”
What?
“Today?”
“No. Well, yes. She said Jessie took off. Never told anyone she was coming to LA.”
I change lanes and wait for him to explain as I try to piece that bit of information together with what we know.
Jessie isn’t super close with her mom, but she most certainly would tell her parents if she was making a big change like moving states.
Or visiting.
I’m still not clear on her plans.
“That is weird. You told her she was staying with us, right? That she’s safe.”
Jayden sighs. “Yeah, but apparently her boss was trying to reach her. That’s how Mom knew she’d left the state. She gave her roomie three days’ notice, and just up and left.”
“Jesus.”
That gets my attention. Jessie may act like she’s a free spirit, but she’s very meticulous and organized. I figured she had this planned and landed on our doorstep so we couldn’t turn her away.
So she could see me.
What an arrogant fuck I am.
To be fair, it’s the sort of thing she does.
“Has she been acting weird?” Jayden asks. “You don’t think it's drugs or a guy?”
I rub my forehead as I drive down the highway.
Define weird.
Running down the hall naked after wearing a stupid duvet dress to breakfast and getting stuck under my kitchen table isn’t normal.
Falling into my arms while nearly peeing herself? That likely fits in the weird category.
“No,” I say instead.
But honestly, they are probably Class Jess. It’s the bruises I keep thinking about.
“I don’t even know if she was dating anyone. Do you think some guy hurt her?” Jayden asks, and my temper ramps up.
Did she leave Texas because some boyfriend was being too rough with her? Rubbing the scruff on my jaw, I twist my neck, trying to release the tension.
“You know something? Fucking tell me if you do,” Jayden growls through the phone.
I can’t tell him what I’m thinking.
I need to deal with this.
If he learns what I think might’ve happened, he’ll fly to Texas and start shooting. Then ask questions later.
“Sorry, I’m driving and some jerks just cut me off.”
“Oh.”
Shit.
“Let me talk to her, Jay. It’s probably a phase, you know what Jessie is like.”
I hate talking about her this way. She’s right, we do treat her like a kid when she is a grown woman and has been for a long time. Being protective doesn’t mean we should discredit her feelings.
It’s her feelings I’m trying not to hurt and trying not to acknowledge at the same time.
A flash of her naked body comes back, with those bruises front and center.
There’s no way I can explain to Jayden how I saw them, even if I wanted to. Stupid duvet moment aside, knowing she ran down my hallway naked into my arms would spin him out.
Oh, and by the way, your sister has a blue and black bruise right by her pussy. I’ll investigate.
Not happening.
“I should come home,” Jayden says, and for some reason I don’t want him to.
“Nah, man, let me talk to her. Do your work stuff. If it’s anything serious, I’ll call you straight away. She probably just wants to see Hollywood and stick around for a few weeks.”
He lets out a sigh.
“Yeah and didn’t know I was heading away. Okay, just tell her to ring Mom. She’s upset.”
First things first, I need to find Jessie.
Then I’ll need to get her to forgive me for what I said this morning and buy back her trust.
I need to know what caused those bruises.
––––––––
IT TAKES ME an hour to reach Savannah, via Ryder, and find out she dropped Jessie at Santa Monica Pier. Hardly narrowing down the search, but at least I have a starting point.
“That was two hours ago, Liam. She might be home by now,” Savannah says.
“Thanks, Sav. See you this weekend.”
“If these babies don’t fall out before then.”
Thanks for that nice visual.
“Make sure you bring Jessie. She’s gorgeous,” Savannah sings.
I roll my eyes with a smile. She is gorgeous, but Savannah sort of loves everyone. Not only that, but any female that enters our lives, the girl-gang adopts them. Trina, Savannah, Briar, Cassy, Caylee, Scarlett...all of them.
“They’re growing in numbers. It’s dangerous,” Josh said one day, while winking at his wife, Cassy.
“That’s my man, a Navy SEAL, threatened by a pack of women.” She patted his chest.
“He should be.” Scarlett crossed her legs and pouted. “We are dangerous.”
“Fuck SEAL Team Six, send in Scarlett,” Aidan joked.
“You laugh but try living with her,” Cole, her fiancé deadpanned, then ducked for cover.
“You want to try living without me and your daughter, Cole Zimbardo?”
“No, ma’am.” He chuckled.
It’s never been a dull day with these people in my life. I’m so grateful I met them. Jay and I have been tight friends for a long time, and while I had a lot of buddies in the Air Force, it’s only now that I’m really forming stronger friendships with anyone other than him.
Jake and I really bonded on the trafficking case, for example. I’m glad he’s part of the team now.
I tell Savannah I’ll bring Jessie to the event this weekend and then head home to see if she has returned.
She hasn’t.
I turn the Jeep around and head to the beach.
After a short drive around, I park up and stand on the beach, looking around. Fucking hell, talk about a needle in a haystack.
But I know she’s not in a good frame of mind.
Not with those bruises.
And our conversation earlier.
I call her phone again, and she sends me straight to voicemail.
“Jessie. Pick up. Call me back. I need to speak to you.”
I walk down the beach, using my training to identify my sexy target, and she’s not here. When I get to the store where we got our ice-creams the day before, I glance around.
That’s when I see the bar.
If I were Jessie, that’s where I’d go. Whether she is upset with me or running away from something in Texas, I’d go there.
I cross the road and walk inside the establishment, letting my eyes adjust to the light.
I spot her profile and flowing blonde hair immediately. Along with a group of buff guys standing around her, flirting their asses off.
I wait for no more than thirty seconds, and her stunning blue eyes lock with mine. As they always do when we’re in the same room.
Then she does something she’s never done.
The fuck?
Jessie turns her back on me.
Oh, hell no!
You belong to me, young lady—
Not mine. My friend.
Fuck that, she hasn’t been a friend or Jay’s little sister for a long time and perhaps it’s time to get honest with myself.
Not since the Fourth of July eight years ago.
“Hey, Squirt. You avoiding me?” I asked her three years after joining the Air Force.
The party was at her parents’ house that year, and I remember how everyone was watching the fireworks, Fourth of July paraphernalia everywhere. Cups on the ground, summer in full swing, all our parents and their friends along with neighbors staring up at the sky.
I’d chosen that moment because there would be less witnesses. I needed to have just a moment with her.
Craved it.
“I’m not a kid, Liam. Stop calling me that stupid, damn name.” She hissed as my eyes dipped down her tanned cleavage, which was a little bigger than the last time I’d seen her.
No, she wasn’t a kid, not at fucking all.
I hadn’t been able to stop looking at her all night. The short red dress she wore, the way her long blonde waves covered her tits, her full glossy lips.
She was every man’s wet dream.
But I also knew she was upset with me and thought I’d lied to her. I needed to clear it up. Make her understand.
“To me, you’ll always be Squirt,” I taunted her, waiting for her to melt as she always did.
“Whatever. How’s the death squad?” Jessie glared, and I cringed.
She never was one to mince words, but at least we got straight to the topic.
“So that’s why you are upset.”
“I’m not upset.”
“You’re upset.” I brushed her hair from her shoulder, forcing her eyes up to mine. “You shouldn’t be.”
I shouldn’t have been touching her.
“Why? Because, let me guess, you’re allowed to do whatever you want.”
“Yes.”
“Fine. Good. Go kill yourself. I don’t care,” Jessie said childishly.
“You said not to join the army. I agreed.”
Goddamn it. I hadn’t meant to say that.
Jessie blinked, looking confused and stupid me, I’d opened my mouth and kept talking.
“I kept my promise to you, Jess. I’m a pilot, safe up in the air.” My voice was a low rumble.
“You did that for me?” she whispered, her lips parting.
Wary of losing myself in her beautiful blue eyes, I nodded. When I turned back, I rasped, “Yeah, Jess. I kept my promise. That’s all I can say.”
Then my eyes dipped to her mouth as her tongue swept out and wet her tempting lips. She leaned in at the same damn time my body responded. Inches away from her mouth, I remembered where the fuck we were.
“Walk away, Jess,” I rasped.
She blinked, a flicker of rejection filling her eyes.
“What?”
“Walk away now,” I begged, aching for this woman.
“Liam—”
“I will only hurt you if I kiss you. I need you to turn around and walk away. Right now.”
I could hear the need in my voice—in her voice—and hated what I was doing. I shouldn’t have told her. Should have let her keep hating me for breaking my promise.
But I couldn’t.
So many times, I nearly called or wrote to her explaining, but that was dangerous and impossible to explain should anyone find out.
Before anything more could be said that night, Jayden appeared between us, diluting the chemistry in an instant.
“Jesus, did you see that firework? Goddamn, it went high. Here’s your beer.” Jay handed me the bottle.
“Thanks.” I took it, turning away from Jessie as if she meant nothing.
So, I couldn’t see her pain, and so she couldn’t see how much it hurt me to not have her in my arms.
She was sixteen.
Way too young.
And my best friend’s sister.
Now?
She was still Jayden’s sister but was I really going to spend the rest of my life rejecting this woman and letting men hurt her?
Use her.
Right in this moment my fingers itched to pull the weapon out of my waistband and tell the men surrounding her to step the fuck away or get a bullet in their goddamn skulls.
For the crime of being attracted to my Jessie.
“Captain Rutherford,” Jessie drawls drunkenly over the heads of her surrounding fans. “Look who found me.”
Jesus.
“This your brother?” One of the guys, dressed in a Hawaiian style shirt, asks.
I step closer, deciding how best to deal with this. How to deal with her. I’ve never seen Jessie this drunk or with such a sassy attitude aimed at me.
“If I were her brother, you’d be on your ass, counting stars right now,” I warn.
It’s their one and only warning.
“Ooh, tough guy,” Hawaii guy laughs.
“Captain aye? Of a tugboat.”
All his friends erupt into laughter.
Bad move.
When it comes to Jessie, I don’t mess around and have no time for fuckheads who want to take the piss out of any position in the US military.
I can see in her eyes that Jessie realizes she’s created a tricky situation for her groupies. She knows me. She knows my mood and how, when it comes to her, I have zero tolerance.
This is not our first rodeo.
My eyes haven’t left hers, but I’m aware of every movement around her. It would be good to have backup, but that’s what my weapon is for.
I’m not the only one packing.
One guy has a knife in his sock.
Another is armed, but it’s tucked under his shirt in the back of his waistband. Fucking novice. It would take far too long to withdraw.
The final guy isn’t armed and looks more entertained than a threat.
“Water, thanks.” I glance at the bartender and lean on the bar.
None of the men know what to do with themselves. They glance at one another, unsure why I’m not responding or moving in.
Jessie drops her eyes and takes a sip of her drink as the men resume their flirting and banter.
She shoots me an annoyed look.
I smirk.
Her look darkens.
Gotcha.
I know her every nuance and how she reacts in any given moment. I know not to push her. I know she will come to me.
She always has.
These men have no hope. Jessie belongs to me and always will. Even if I can never do anything about it.
I’m sorry if that makes me an asshole, but it's true.
My water arrives, and I’m halfway through it when she slides off her stool, nudges a couple of the guys out of her way—such a little spitfire—and storms over.
“Lim!” she uses my nickname, and I want to tug her against me and kiss her until she’s breathless.
“Jess.”
“Go home!”
“Okay,” I drop my glass and take her hand. She tugs it out of my grip.
“No. I’m not going with you. I don’t want to be around you. I hate you.” The last words are slurred.
“No, you don’t, darlin’.” My Texas drawl is heavy as I take her hips, pulling her closer, and gaze down into her pretty eyes.
Who hurt her?
I’m going to fucking find out.
And if it takes distracting her from other men and buying some undeserved trust—to protect her—then I will do it.
She lets out a little huff. “I’m not your darlin’.”
Oh, yes, she is.
I lean into her hair. “Let’s pretend you are. I want to take you home, sober you up and talk.”
Big eyes lift to mine, and I feel like an asshole lying to her. Deceiving her. But I am not leaving Jessie in this bar, drunk and vulnerable, with this pack of vultures around her. I’ll sit at the end of the fucking bar and stare at them all night if I have to.
“Talking is not what you want to do,” Jess scoffs.
No lies detected.
I’m going to be crossing boundaries with her I never have before. I just hope my conscience and willpower stay on the same team.
“Let’s go find out, shall we?”