Page 127 of Stay with Me

Jaw tensed, he inclined his head. “You have nothing to be jealous of, Calla.”

A dry laugh burst from me. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously. And the fact of the matter is all you have to do is trust me. Not her. But me. And if you trusted me, then you wouldn’t be jealous.”

I gaped at him. Part of that made sense. It took two to tango and all that jazz, but seriously?

“And if this is going to work out between us, you’re going to have to trust me,” he continued, and that—theif this is going to work out between us—caused my stomach to drop. “Because your financial aid came through and you’re going back to school in August, there’s gonna be some miles between us, and all we’re going to have is trust. You get what I’m saying?”

I totes-ma-goats got what he was saying. Half of my heart did a little jump and squeal, because he was planning for when I returned to school and that was great, but the other part of my heart was somewhere in my stomach. Trusting him was one thing, but this wasn’t okay. I could trust him all I wanted, but that didn’t mean I had to be cool with him letting the chicks feel him up and chalking it up to me being jealous.

I needed time to think about this.

He sighed. “Calla ...”

Shaking my head, I backed away. “I really need to get back on the floor.”

When I turned away this time, Jax didn’t stop me. I walked back out onto the floor and it took everything in my power not to jump on the back of Aimee’s luminous blond head like a rabid spider monkey.

Yeah, I was jealous.

I was also human.

Jase and Cam were over with the girls, and Brock was with them. Katie was nowhere to be seen and I wondered if Teresa was going to be looking into a new profession. I wanted to chat with them, but when I saw Pearl, she looked like the rabid spider money.

Sending Pearl an apologetic look, I started working tables and running orders from the kitchen out to the floor. Before long, my brain was empty with the exception of drink and food orders, and that was perfect. Even though I needed time to think about what had happened, I didn’t want to think about it then.

I’d just ran an order of fries smothered in cheese and crab meat—what I planned on gorging myself on during break—to a table along the wall near the door, when I turned to head toward the cluster of round tables circling the pool tables and felt a hand curve around my arm, just above my elbow, and then there was a voice I didn’t recognize, right in my ear.

“Cause a scene, and I’m going to light this place up.”

Every molecule in my body turned to ice as I froze. The only thing that moved was my pounding heart.

“Good girl,” the man said, his hand tightening around my arm. “We’re going to walk right out of this bar. Behave and no one gets hurt. Got me?”

My mouth dried, and I jerked as I felt something press into my lower back. A gun? Shock blasted through my system, halting comprehension of what was going on. The man behind me started guiding me toward the door, and I imagined that to anyone around us, we looked like we knew each other. Well, other than what had to be a horrified look on my face, but we were at the door in seconds.

There was a crowd around the bar. Roxy and Nick and Jax were all serving drinks, and there were enough people that I couldn’t even see Aimee or my friends as the man reached around me and opened the door.

No one looked over.

No one stopped us.

Twenty-five

Kidnapped!

I was freaking being kidnapped!

This didn’t happen in real life. Maybe in books and in the movies, but not to real people.

But it was happening unless I was having a full-spectrum hallucination. My heart was working into cardiac territory as I was ushered around the side of Mona’s, toward the back parking lot, which butted up to trees, empty warehouses, and probably where people went to die.

The hand on my arm was harsh, biting into my skin, and I didn’t feel what I suspected had been a gun pressing into my back any longer. My legs were shaking so badly I was surprised I could walk or even stand, but then I saw the dark SUV parked near the Dumpsters, engine running.

The window rolled down on the driver’s side and from deep within the dark recesses, a voice boomed. “Hurry the fuck up, Mo.”

Oh my God, there were two men, and there was a good chance I was going to end up like Rooster.

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