Page 72 of Fight for You
I placed the backpack under the seat and dropped the plastic bag with the teddy bear beside my long legs next to an ice chest. We spoke at the same time; I asked, “What’s with the ice—?” While Enzo said, “Got him?”
“Got ‘em.” I pulled my hair into a man bun.
“The ice chest has champagne for you and your girl. And—” The smile on Enzo’s face vanished. Flashes of red and blue lights exploded behind him. Next came the sirens.
27
BIG BEAR
Jordyn
Days Free: 3
Couldn’t sleepafter Big Brody, Camdyn, Lachlan, and Rory rushed Rebel to a veterinarian. The look on father and sons’ faces was bleak. Rory hadn’t even touched his phone while rushing to the Chevelle. Seemed as if they had lost a dog before. Nan canceled her big dinner when we couldn’t get a response from Jamie about his return time. Little Brody had trailed Rocket down the mountain. Now, his snores from the living room couch carried all the way to the lake.
“I bet his wife loves having the bed all to herself.” Condensation fogged from my lips. I shook my head, glancing over my shoulder at the deck that led to the sliding glass door.
Nan was asleep in one of the smaller rooms. When I offered to vacate the primary, she wouldn’t think of it.
I sighed. Lachlan’s puffer jacket, discarded in his urgent trip to the vet with my sweet Rottweiler, swelled with my movement. Arms wrapped around me.Gah. Embracing myself increased theache in my heart. The bedroom was too big for me. The bed, too, even with Jamie’s floor pallet. I tried to focus on the stunning vision before me. Snow dusted the earth like powdered sugar, falling in lazy spirals in the pine trees and kissing the surface of the lake.
“Where are you, Jamie?” I murmured, staring at the moon’s reflection over the lake. Despite the night’s brightness, the full moon created deep shadows among the trees.
Something warned me to go back inside.
“To sleep alone. No, thank you.” I was spoiled. I had a man who cherished instead of ordered, kissed instead of bit, and had a love that showed in his green-blue eyes. Another sigh ran deep through me when a twig broke.
Goose bumps prickled my arms.
My head snapped toward the sound. The trees positioned up the slope left of the cabin.
That you, Bambi?Had better be his scary behind.
A man emerged from the shadows. Short and stocky.Rocket.
My breath hitched. My body recognized him before my brain caught up. The way he moved.That twisted smirk.
A wicked gleam flashed. “Imagine my surprise,” he said, voice slick and cruel. “I’m on the dark web checking out guns. Instead, I see a familiar face for sale.”
My stomach flipped. Cold swept through me. No, this wasn’t happening. Not him. Not again.
“How did you get so expensive?” he sneered, stepping closer. “Worth more than any shipment I ever moved. More than the big dollars I thought I’d gotten from the gun dealer who wanted you! What a shame I let you go. Ihadto own you again. I told Aleksandr we were old friends. Asked him to carve my name on your feet like Woody inToy Story. I still remember your favorite movie.”
My heartbeat pounded in my ears, chest rising and falling toofast. Every step he took stole the air from my lungs and dragged me back to a place I’d sworn I’d never return to.
“Thought I’d have to tell you about our baby to get myself out of that bind. Brodyambushedme!”
“Our … baby? Wh-what?” This was the moment my brain screamed to run. Or hell,scream.But I stood there, dumber than a leaf in a storm, as tiny flecks of snow fell, all because he’d preyed on my weakness. My only weakness. The only thing I had in my life—before Jamie’s return—that I could call my own. Unshed tears tightened my throat. “Our baby, is sh-she alive?”
He reached me. Slapped my nose like a wayward dog.Dang, I’d long forgotten the reflexes necessary to respond to his primary behavior. Hostility. I swung my fist through the air, prepared to bash his face in.
Rocket clasped my wrist, tugging me against him. “Didn’t I tell you the baby was dead? That would’ve been my next step, though. Soften up a gullible, stupid?—”
“You would use your own child!”Never mind. He’d harm his own mother.
“Wasitreally mine?”
“Ifshewasn’t, that’s because you let your friends rape me.” My voice bled with emotion. “Let me go before I scre?—”
