Wicked Ties(113)
Jack knew that too damn well. While he didn’t like Deke touching her, he had no one
to blame but himself for running out on her. So he let it go…this time.
“Morgan is like a soft stroke to the cock and a kick in the teeth all at once,” Jack
muttered.
“You’re not the only man who loves her. She’s got a fiancé back in Houston, right?”
Brandon. Son of a bitch! As if he needed the complication of that pansy-assed
bastard.
“Yes.”
“What are you going to do about him? With him in the picture, she’s not yours to
keep.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” he grunted sarcastically.
Taking Morgan from Brandon would be the best revenge of all, way better than
simply emailing video footage of them fucking to her esteemed fiancé. But that wasn’t
the reason Jack was determined to win her. Not even close.
He just wanted her all to himself. Today, tomorrow, every morning, every night. His.
Deke rose with a quirk of a smile. “What are friends for?”
Indeed, he thought, watching Deke amble down the steps, get into his boat and push
away from the dock.
For a endless moments, he sat there. And damn it, he couldn’t even manage to get
drunk. Instead, he tried to sort through the tangle of shit swirling in his gut: fear, anger, possessiveness, jealousy, determination, concern, need…love.
When his feet finally turned to ice, his stomach started growling, and he thought
Morgan might have rested sufficiently to talk, he stalked into the house, threw his empty
beer bottle away, and headed for the bedroom.
Only he didn’t find Morgan.
Her scent lingering in the room told him she hadn’t been gone long. The ruby
pendant he’d given her lay abandoned on his pillow and told him more effectively than
words that she’d left.
He’d lost her before he had her.
And that if he didn’t find her fucking fast, he could lose her to a stalker’s jealous rage
for good.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“You can stop hiding now,” Deke said, laughter lilting his voice.
Morgan stiffened under the tarp on the floor of the little boat. Deke was talking to
her. Crap! How on earth had he known she was here?
His rhythmic paddling ceased, and now the boat sat stationary, the thick waters of the
swamp splatting against the side of his small metal vessel. Had they arrived at the little
dock outside Lafayette?
“I know you’re there, Morgan,” Deke said as he lifted the tarp off of her.
The night’s cold breeze suddenly swept across her halfdressed form as she looked up
—way, way up—at Deke. The silvery moon backlit his towering frame, shadowing his
angled cheekbones and strong, square chin. Amusement played across his grayed
features.
“How did you know?”
“I had to step over you to get into the boat.” He laughed. “The tarp hid you, but the
displacement of the boat made it obvious someone was on board…and not a big
someone. That left you as my only suspect.”
Damn it, she’d tried so hard to get away from Jack, from the tangled morass her life
had become, without anyone knowing.
With a chuckle, Deke bent down and helped her to her feet. “You look adorably
frustrated, doll. Don’t feel bad. We Special Forces types pay attention to the small
details. You never know when it will keep you alive.” He shrugged. “Jack would have
heard you sneaking out the bedroom window if he hadn’t been sitting on the porch and
drowning his thoughts in beer.”
The wind whipped around her again, and Morgan shivered. A pair of Jack’s overlarge
sweatpants, a cotton shirt with the tails tied at her belly and a thin pair of socks were no
match for the cold slice of the humid breeze in forty-degree temperatures.
“I’m not going back.”
“You don’t have to.”
Morgan wrapped her arms around herself, trying to ward off both the cold and a
suspicion that Deke’s answer was intended to mislead.
“Good. I just want to get my purse, find my car, and get as far away from here as
possible.”
“You mean as far away from Jack?”
“You’re going to blab to him, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “Only if he’s too drunk to figure it out himself. As it is, I expect to hear
from him shortly, so I won’t have to say a word.”
“Drunk or sober, he’s not coming after me.”
“Give him an hour, two tops.” He glanced at his watch. “My guess is more like forty-
five minutes.”
That didn’t seem possible. Was Deke blind? Stupid? “The man walked out on me
after I shocked the hell out of him.”