Page 87 of Hold Me Until Morning

“You can’t get involved in this. He’s…” She trailed off, gnawing at that plump bottom lip, eyes dropping as she bit back whatever she’d been going to say. Rage made a rebound, and my bones rattled with the overwhelming need to hunt the cocksucker down.

My hand tightened on her face, words close to a snarl. “I want you to finish that sentence, Hailey.”

I needed to know.

Needed her to admit it.

Her brow dented in a pain that was scarred somewhere deep, and she blinked like she might be able to hide the horror that swam in the depths of those crystalline eyes.

“He’s what?” I demanded, voice grating. I hated that I was probably coming off as a prick, too, but I couldn’t handle it. The wave of protectiveness that was spinning me into chaos.

Because I knew what she’d been getting ready to say.

He was dangerous.

Volatile.

“He’s nothing,” she said instead, lifting her fierce chin like she could make it so.

“But he doesn’t think so, does he?”

She hesitated, wary, before she barely shook her head with the admission. “No. He thinks I belong to him.”

I forced myself to swallow some of the intensity, and I backed away like I wasn’t rattled to the bone. Like I didn’t want to gather her up and hold her close and promise her I would never let that asshole touch her again.

Instead, I played it as blasé. “Well, I guess I’ll have to stick around for a while until he gets the clue that you don’t.”

I turned and moved deeper into her house. The match to mine except there were toys littered everywhere. The space warm and cozy and singing of life.

Hailey seemed pinned to the spot where I’d left her before she suddenly flew into action. “Wait, what?”

I tossed my bag onto the floor next to the couch. “I just think it would be a good idea for me to hang out for a couple days, that’s all.”

“Oh, no, no, no, that’s not necessary.” Hailey rambled it, her hands flying all over the place. “We’ll be just fine.”

I spun to find her right there. I took her by both wrists, and I gently pressed them together between us. “I told you I won’t stand aside and watch someone I care about get hurt, Hailey. No matter the cost. I meant it.”

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. “I can’t ask you to get involved.”

“You didn’t.”

“Cody…”

I tugged her a little closer by those wrists, bodies drawn, needing to get deeper into her space.

God, she was so damned pretty.

Heart-stopping.

Mind-bending.

Shout at the heavens kind of gorgeous.

But none of that had any bearing right then.

“I’m not going anywhere, Hailey.”

“It’s only going to enrage him further if he thinks you’re staying here.”

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