Page 70 of Protecting Jess

Finn, Kevlar, Oak, and the rest of Kevlar’s team were surrounding the perimeter of the house, should the guy decide to jump through a window or go out the back door.

Shouting from the SWAT team, as well as the asshole who took Jess, filled the air and his impatience was at an all-time high.

He wanted to get inside.

Kevlar tapped his shoulder. “It’s go time.”

Finn didn’t need to be told twice. He sprinted to the front of the house. He skidded onto the porch, stepped over the broken door, and gasped at the inside of the place.

The outside might have looked like a normal neighborhood house. The inside, however, revealed no one had lived there for a while. Dust covered every surface. There wasn’t a lot of furniture—only a couple of chairs and a couch. A horrid-looking couch, but it had the most important person to him perched on the end.

On the floor to the right, there were two officers holding Daiken Nicholas down while another one cuffed him.

Daiken was screaming, but Finn blocked it all out. His focus was on the woman who held his heart. The woman who was his whole world. The woman he’d gladly give up his career for.

Nothing mattered to him more than Jessica Killian.

Finn rushed to her and fell to his knees. “Jess!” Anything else wouldn’t get past the lump in his throat. He brushed a hand down her cheek, noting the abrasions and redness around her mouth, indications of tape burn. Long, severed zip ties lay nearby. That bastard must’ve had her wrists and legs bound. One of the SWAT team must have cut them off.

“Finn!” Jess winced as she reached for him.

Carefully, Finn wrapped his arms around her and lifted her from the couch.

She snuggled into his hold, sobs wracking her body.

His own eyes filled with tears, the relief that he had his woman in his arms overwhelming.

Someone—he didn’t know who—guided them over to one of the large lounge chairs and Finn sank into it, never letting Jess go.

Around them, movement happened.

Daiken was taken away, yelling that he’d done nothing wrong.

Finn blocked it all out. All his attention was on Jess, helping her through this moment, listening to the release of emotions that formed in the mass of sobs still coming from her.

“You’re safe, Jess. I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I’m sorry you had to go through this. I won’t let you go.” He murmured the words over and over, knowing that the reality of them was impossible, but he meant them from the bottom of his soul.

He didn’t know how long it was, but finally her tears subsided, and only the odd shudder swept through her.

Slick and his dad were standing a few feet from them. The look of utter fear on Slick’s face was one Finn could relate to.

The threat may have been gone, but that didn’t mean the fear could be taken away as easily as escorting Daiken Nicholas out of the building was.

Finn should let Jess go, so Slick could reassure himself that his daughter was okay, but he couldn’t. Not yet. He needed to tell Jess how he felt. Tell her what he should’ve told her years ago.

Hooking a finger under her chin, he lifted it so that their gazes met. Her blue eyes were glossy with tears.

“Jessica Killian, I love you more than anything in this world. I should’ve told you years ago how I felt, but I was a coward. Not anymore. Not a day is going to go by where I don’t tell you that I love you. That you are my world. My everything.”

Jess squeaked. “I love you, too. I don’t want to go another day without you. I haven’t lived fully until I stepped out of my dressing room at the theatre and saw you waiting. Since then, life has been brighter. You’re my everything, too.”

Finn kissed his woman, gently and hyperaware of her injuries, but pouring all his love into the kiss.

Jess gave back to him, and he should’ve been embarrassed that his dad and Jess’s dad were watching this, but he didn’t care.

All he cared about was the woman in his arms and the future the two of them were going to have. He pulled away and smiled. “I’m going to marry you soon.”

Jess smiled, then grimaced when she tried to move. “I’ll hold you to that, but I need to go to the hospital. My shoulder is killing me.”

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