I fall apart in another puddle of tears. Jack must realize the pain I’m in, the pain that seeing those motorcycles causes, because he kisses me hard on the mouth, shocking me with the passion he evokes even when I’m at my lowest.
“Then we have to go,” he says, without hesitation. “We have to get you somewhere safe.”
“You think they could get in here?” I ask. “Into your apartment?”
“You tell me, Tess. I don’t know these people, I don’t know why you’re running from them, what they might do. I just know you’re shaking; you’re terrified.”
I remember seeing caches of guns on the compound. I remember the look of hatred in the eyes of the men I lived with. They lived for vengeance.
And my mother’s blood is on my hands.
The woman my father loved above all else—certainly more than he loved me.
“They’re going to try to do one of two things,” I tell him. “Kill me, or kidnap me. And I honestly don’t know what would be worse.”
“Fuck this.” Jack grabs his phone, calls Kirby on speakerphone. “I need a plane. And a helicopter to my building. And, Kirby, I need it now. I’ll explain later.”
“Where are you going?” Kirby asks.
“Not now, damn it. It’s an emergency.”
“Is this about the girl?”
“Yes,” Jack says. “We’re going to my parents’. It’s the safest place I know.”
“Okay. Can you get to the top of the building securely?”
“The security guys are still here. They’ll be my backup.”
“Should I call the cops?” Kirby asks.
Jack looks at me. I shake my head wildly.
“No,” Jack says. “I’ll call you when we get to Washington.”
“You call me sooner than that,” Kirby insists. “I want an update when you get in the air. Understood?”
“Will do.” Jack ends the call. “I’m going to pack a bag. You don’t have anything, do you?”
“We’re really going to go, just like that?” I ask, still shocked that he’s manning up and taking care of me, of everything.
“Do we have a choice?” he asks.
“No.”
“Then yes, we’re going.”
He kisses me, harder this time. As if the kiss is promising something.
But I’m too scared to ask what the promise might be.
JACK
Her dark eyes tell me there’s a hell of a lot she isn’t saying, and that scares me. Fuck, there must be a reason she ran away, why she’s shaking, why she has transformed from a woman with bright eyes and a big smile into someone on the verge of collapse.
It doesn’t take much for me to come to a decision. I don’t have a show for a few weeks—and, damn it, even if I did this is more important. I’ve screwed Tess over with the article and then the fucking sex tape. She can’t go home to get her shit, can’t go to work. Can’t leave my sight.
I owe her this much.
And, damn, maybe I just want to be the hero, fucking wrap my arms around her and tell her I got this. Maybe I just want to be the man she needs.
Is wanting that so fucking bad?
“My parents live on a small island in Washington State,” I tell her. “You have to take a ferry to get there. No one will be able to hurt you, I swear.”
She swallows, wiping her tears, catching her breath.
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Shut up, Jack,” she says, tears in her eyes. “Right now, it’s everything.”
I pack a duffle bag, and take her hand. The security guys flank us as we take the stairs to the rooftop landing pad.
“I can’t believe your apartment has a landing pad,” Tess says, dazed.
The discrepancy between our lives surfaces again, but I know once she’s in my mom’s comfortable kitchen, fishing on my dad’s boat, she’ll feel at ease.
“Do you want to give us intel on the situation?” the head security guard asks as the copter lands.
I glance over at Tess, hoping she’ll say something so I don’t overshare.
She doesn’t speak; the question alone causes her eye to fill with tears once more. I hate seeing her emotional, but at the same time I’m getting a little frustrated that she won’t talk and tell me the reason this fucking posse is after her.
“It’s the bike gang that’s been cruising around the premises. They’re looking for Tess. I don’t know their intentions or how fast they want to move, but I need a detail following them as closely as possible.”
“We’re on it. Do you want to involve the police?”
“No,” Tess says emphatically. “Do not call the cops. Swear to me you won’t.”