Page 116 of Love Me Fierce

“It wasn’t a question, sweet girl.” His gaze turns fierce. “I’m taking care of you and Matty, starting now.”

I swat the tears from my cheeks. “What will we tell the boys?”

“Do you really think they’ll object?”

Laughter ignites my ribs with a searing pain, and I wince. “I guess we’ll see.”

“We can call it a trial run, if that makes you feel better.”

It does, though I don’t think he means it. How can he possibly feel so sure about us?

Though isn’t that what my heart is telling me, too?

I close my eyes again. Just to give them a break from the lights.

He strokes my forehead again. “We got the guy who did this to you.”

“Oh,” I say as the memories rush back.

“Does the name Jordy Clarke mean anything to you?”

I shake my head, but it only makes the edges of my vision swim. “Should it?”

“Kent never mentioned him?”

My breath tightens in my chest, sending a hot ache reverberating through me. “That’s what this is about? Kent and this Jordy person are trying to make my life miserable?” I swallow the hard knot in my throat. “How is something like that even possible? Kent’s in L.A.”

“He is,” he says. “Jordy Clarke works for Kent. He and his buddies were convinced you’d divulged their secrets to the FBI.”

Secrets. Tears sting my eyes and I close them. “I didn’t tell anyone.”

His big hand strokes my brow. “So you knew?”

His voice is calm and steady, and so caring. Right now, he’s not a big, tough cop. He’s Everett.My Everett.

I blink my eyes open, and he dries my tears with the edges of histhumbs. I take another slow breath and focus on him and the strength in his gaze. “I never had actual proof, but I suspected. At first, I wasn’t even sure. It started with us having more money all of a sudden. He said it was a raise, but I know what cops make. One time his phone woke me up in the middle of the night. I checked it, thinking it was an emergency, but it was a text thread with two of his close workmates. It was awful. They’d beaten someone up and were going to cover for each other in the report. Little things like that just kept adding up, and I started to get scared.”

Everett closes his eyes and releases a full breath. “Fuck. I’m so sorry.”

“The safest thing was to get away. By then I felt like I barely knew him. He never spent time with Mateo. Hardly paid attention to me. It was like we’d become strangers.”

“When you divorced, it didn’t come out, what you suspected?”

“I never told anyone. I was too scared. You don’t mess with the LAPD. Who would I even trust with something like this? The safest thing was for me to leave. Start over. And not look back.”

“You did the right thing.”

“FBI…do they know?”

“They’ve been watching him. And others in his unit. They’re going to bring charges against them.”

I blink back another wave of hot tears. “That’s why he…came after me. What if Matty had been in the car?”

Everett caresses my forehead again, his touch soothing. “He’s never going to hurt you again. You and Mateo are safe. I’ll make sure of it.”

His words and the sense of shelter they bring washes through me. It’s a feeling better than any drug they could give me right now. “If I had told you, would it have prevented this from happening?”

“I don’t want you thinking like that.” He caresses my cheek. “Would you be willing to share why you didn’t, though?”

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