JARED-1(Lane Brothers, Book 4)(51)

“Baby, I want you to take a deep breath and take your pills before we talk about this,” he says quietly and I throw him a dirty look to let him know how little I appreciate his coddling right now.

I take the pills with a sigh and realize belatedly that I’m in my bed and we’re alone.

“Where is everyone?”

“They all went to bed again. Ronny’s here, incidentally, along with Bronx.”

I giggle at his grimace and want to clap in glee. I send up a prayer right then and there that Ronny and the big, mean-looking soldier end up together because he seems gaga for her and Lord knows the girl needs more than her fair share of love after the life she’s had.

“Jared.”

He scowls and runs a hand through his hair before sighing and just spilling it all.

“They came for you, Cupcake. The guy I caught in the cottage shot for your side of the bed first and then mine. His mission was you and you, alone, and I…I took care of him for that,” he admits gruffly, turning his face away as if ashamed.

I pull him back and stroke his cheeks with all the love I feel, smiling at him through the shock that’s hitting me.

“You did what you had to do and don’t ever think I could turn away from you for protecting me, Sugar. I’m just glad to have you back instead of a body.”

That declaration gets me a kiss and he pulls away moments later and takes my hands in his.

“It was her.”

“What? You mean Lynn? Nuh-uh, baby, Lynn may be kooky beans, but the woman has no gripe with me,” I assure him, shaking my head in disagreement.

He clears his throat and looks back with a sigh.

“Not Lynn. We have her covered, remember? It was Cleo.”

I swear I feel every drop of blood that drains from my head as the words settle in and my bottom drops out from under me. This is all wrong, for so many reasons, and my first instinct is to find a hiding place and settle in for the long haul.

No one but Ronny will understand this fear, because only she has ever been on the receiving end of it, but the emotions are almost overwhelming in their intensity as I struggle to reel myself back in and stop another attack from assaulting me so soon after the last one.

“Baby, don’t be afraid. I will never let that viper or any of her people get near you. Please believe that. Believe in me.”

I do. I know that Jared would take on an army for me and die to protect me before they ever breathed near me. My fear isn’t for me, though, and I know it. It’s for him and the family if they should try to keep Cleo away from me.

“I guess Jerry was right after all,” I whisper.

“Jerry was not right. Killing just for the sake of killing is wrong, baby. Even Miah knows that and he’s the coldest bastard on the face of the earth. He spared Lynn, too.”

“Yeah and look where all this humanity got us. Lynn, if she gets to her people, will destroy anything in her path to get to us, and Cleo is just plain evil.”

“True. But it’s our humanity that separates us from people like them, and I, for one, love that sweet, soft center you have,” he purrs, pushing me back onto the bed and coming up over me with a growl of need. “I’d really like to explore that soft center again if you’re feeling up to it.”

My heart starts beating again, this time with the hottest throb of joy and arousal and I bite my lips, looking up at him seductively.

“It’s not me who has to be up, buster,” I purr, pulling his mouth down to mine with a giggle.

Jared chuckles and gives me a deep kiss that only whets my desire.

“Love you, Cupcake.”

“Love you, too, Sugar Bear. Now make love to me, would you? It’s been hours.”





Epilogue


Melissa

If I have to stay in this fucking cabin another day, I think I’ll go stark-raving mad and that’s just the clam part of me talking here. I haven’t slept properly since Roman left me, and I can’t eat without my food upchucking at all hours of the day.

I’m pregnant. And right now my nerves are so high that I’m terrified the stress will make me miscarry. I want to leave and go looking for him.

I need to be with him to know that my asshole of a father is holding up his end of the bargain and looking out for my guy. And yet here I am, pacing like a caged animal because I can’t bring myself to break the promise I made to him.

If it were just me, if all I had to worry about is me surviving a beating or a bullet if that evil nest of scum-sucking dick bags finds me, I would be okay. I’d live.

But I have a kid to think about now—a child that is my only connection to the man I love.

When this all started and I first met him, you could see the sparks flying every time we clashed. Roman and I are those people who love to hate each other, and hate to love each other, and yet we work somehow—something I still denied to him the last time I saw his smarmy face.