Page 12 of Claim Me Forever

Her blonde hair is spread out across my pillow. Fuck me, she’s really here. I thought I would never find her, but fate had other plans. I only wish I’d found her sooner. She’s been living in hell. Thankfully my girl is strong. You have to be to survive what she did.

It’s hard to look at her and not become enraged. Her lip is swollen, but the cut isn’t as red and irritated. I keep rubbing her leg, knowing I should let go, but I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s irrational, but I have this fear that if I let her too far from my reach, she’ll up and disappear on me again.

Still, I need to be mindful not to come off as too overbearing. That might spook her, and I’m sure she’s lived with enough overbearing men in her life.

I force myself to remove my hands from her soft skin. I grab the throw blanket from the end of my bed and cover her before forcing myself to get out of bed. I go to my safe room and take some of the rest of my gear off, keeping a few items on me.

I know I’m being overly cautious. If there had been someone following us, Short would have noticed. He trailed us the whole way back. Before I put the drone away, I made sure it loaded all the data it collected from Heaven's Temple onto my computer.

Make no mistake about it: Heaven’s Temple is going to have to be handled one way or another. Now that we have two of the girls out of there, we can see about calling in more higher-ups. I just worry about some Waco shit happening. That raid was a shitshow, but technically, it is different now. I think an ops mission would be better. Libby cares about some of the people still there. I could see it when she talked about them and said they weren’t all bad.

Fuck, her mother probably isn’t all bad, or at least she may not have been born that way. Who knows what you’d turn into if you grew up in the shit she did? The mind learns to adapt and survive. It would take deep deprogramming, and they would have to want it. Yet something tells me her mother isn’t going to see the light. I think it’s been too long, and she’s too far gone based on my first impression of her.

I let myself get lost in research, going over everything. An alert appears, bearing my brother's name.

“The fuck?” I mutter, pulling it up as I reach for my phone at the same time. “Well, shit.” I guess there is no other option now. The higher authorities will be involved. Just as I’m about to call my brother, the twin shit must kick in because he’s calling me.

“You killed three people?” I say when I answer the phone. “I don’t think I killed even one.”

“Don’t think?”

“They might have frozen to death. Not sure, but Mother Nature will get that kill,” I half-tease. It’s often easier to make light out of heavy shit, even if some of those fuckers are better off not walking this earth. He lets out a low chuckle.

“Garrett.” I hear a soft voice in the background.

“I know, sorry, sweetheart.” Damn, it’s weird as shit to hear him talk this way. His whole tone is different. “My woman wants to know about her sister.”

“She’s asleep, but I’ll give it to you.” Garrett puts me on speakerphone, and I give them a play-by-play of what all happened. Winter lets out a few gasps here and there.

“But she’s okay?” Winter asks for reassurance.

“Yeah.” I push back from my desk, stepping out of the safe room when I think I hear movement. When I arrive in the bedroom, Libby is sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes until they move to me and a smile forms on her lips. My chest grows tight.

I swear the emotions she provokes in me make me feel like a stranger in my own skin. I have never experienced a mix of them all at once. Especially not since my mom died. Hell, I’ve never experienced some of them at all before.

“Hi.” Her eyes land on me. My shirt slides off one of her shoulders; her hair is a tousled mess. Libby appears to be sex personified.

“Libby!” Winter shouts through the phone.

“Winter!” Libby tries to spring up from the bed to come to the phone. I swear I’m more aware of what is about to happen than she is. I’m already in motion, sprinting across the room as she comes to her feet. A small yelp leaves her right before her leg starts to give out, but I’m there before she can hit the floor this time. I wrap my arm around her, pulling her to me. I lift her off her feet a few inches so there is no weight on her legs.

Her hands come to my chest. “You’re fast.”

“And you’re going to give me a heart attack.”

“I just would have fallen.” The bare shoulder gives a shrug. I spot a freckle on it. I have to fight the urge to kiss it.

“I don’t want you to fall if I can prevent it.” My hold on her tightens. Damn, she feels good pressed against me. She belongs here, and I hate that I’m going to have to let her go here in a second.

“You can’t always be around, and I’m used to it.” I grunt my response because she isn’t ready to hear what I have to say when it comes to all that.

“Hello!” We both turn our heads toward the bed at the muffled shouts. I dropped my phone there when I was catching Libby.

“Ope!” Libby wiggles, rubbing against my dick. I release her back onto the bed, thankful she doesn’t notice. She grabs the phone, putting it to her ear upside down. “Winter.” I flip it around for her. Libby erupts into a flurry of conversation. Then she suddenly stops. “Okay, let me see.” Libby pulls the phone back. “They are calling with a camera?”

The phone starts to go off again. “Yeah, it’s called FaceTime.” I click it on for her. Winter’s face comes into view. Both girls burst into tears.

“Shit.” I stand there feeling the most useless I've ever felt in my life. I want to wrap myself around her. Hold her closer to reassure her everything is okay, but I don’t want to spook her.

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