Page 48 of Fight for You
As he held me in his arms, I glanced over at a couple starting a fire in a trashcan to warm the night. Jamie caught my attention with the rough padding of his thumb along my jaw. “When we marry, I’ll make you blush all the way to your toes.”
My heart rate raced to a crescendo. “After all my attempts to torture you—nothing. And here you are returning the favor. Talk of marriage has me weak in the knees. And why here?Ugh.” This entire scenario, with us standing here, brought those reckless teenage summer romances I used to read to the forefront of my mind. Covered in dirt, we were a mess, yet my desire for him was at the highest point. “If we were somewhere else …”
“On that note,” he chuckled. “This is why I’m so honest with affection for you. Right here. So that we don’t ruin our abstinence quest.”
What abstin— “Can we just go?”Before one of these tents starts to look appealing with me and you and the audience of insects that are no doubt in it.
“Actually, not until it’s fully dark.” Jamie stopped near overturned wooden crates by the steel trash bin, now transformed into a fire pit. We sat down. I stilled myself from trembling from the chilly air. The sweat from all our running wasn’t doing me any favors now. He swung his backpack off, crouched down to Rebel. As he unraveled her bandages, I removed the items to cleanse her wound. “Oh, dear girl,” he sighed.
I’d fallen asleep before the veterinarian finished surgery, buteven I could tell she’d bled too much. I handed him an alcohol prep pad. My eyes scanned the homeless couple who sat opposite the trash can, whispering and flicking glances across the flames atus.Why so suspicious? I didn’t have a phobia per se, but we had enough money in Jamie’s backpack that I wouldn’t be mad if they and all their homies fought us for it. Couldn’t be mad. I’d given the In-N-Out lady a couple of bills that I’dforgottento make IOUs for.
Yeah. Quite irrelevant under the circumstances. I focused on what mattered. “I can’t believe I’m asking this, Jamie … Can we call your parents? I still don’t know if we need to ditch your electronics.”
“Oh, yeah. You looked genuinely concerned. I didn’t answer you. Sorry.” Jamie’s hands moved with compassion and precision as he re-bandaged Rebel. “Phones track location even when powered off, but I’ve disabled mine. We’re good. Did the same with my laptop.”
“So, we can call your parents? Or your brother.” My eyes narrowed as I captured the memory of me and the other handsome MacKenzie’s brief argument.What was his name? “Call Leith.”
“No. I don’t trust them, JorJor.”
“Why?”
“Before I was interrupted by the cops”—he glanced over his shoulder, as if ready to fight—“I’d told you that for some reason you slipped my mind while growing up. I remembered so much of it. There were so many times that I wished to God I couldn’t recall a single thing while wrestling with the darkness that drowned me. After I found that little girl, I took back every time I begged God to make it all go away. I’d remember every moment as long as I could remember you.”
My heart lobbed in my throat. I didn’t wish what I’d been through on my worst enemy—well, except for Rocket. There was a time I hoped to forget every moment of it too.
I glanced at the couple across from us, now pulling out food. Reaching over, the man gave Rebel a hotdog.
“Thank you,” Jamie said.
“If we had more …” The woman with him glanced at me, mouth forming a grimace of apology.
“No, it’s alright,” I replied. “Our girl has lost lots of blood.”
The white noise of traffic above us added a buffer to help conceal our private conversation from the one the other couple returned to. “But I still don’t understand why your parents are to blame.” Except for, well, the obvious. Their decision not to mention the other children they left behind while saving their son. Still, I couldn’t beat a dead dog by mentioning that again.
“You don’t get it, Jordyn. I blame them for always trying to make me forget. One of them succeeded! Made me forget you. I’m sure of it. So, while I’ve forgiven them, I want nothing to do with them.”
The way he spoke, I didn’t believe he had forgiven his family. If I knew my mom … that she’d sold me, and she came to me with tears in her eyes. Apologized. How would I approach the situation? I couldn’t answer that. “I’m sorry, Jamie, but I don’t believe you forgave them.”
“Okay, full disclosure: I’m starting the process over again.”
“Why?”
“The hit on my life! Those cops. Walsh tried to shoot me in the back.” Though he held Rebel closely, the comfort I suspected she usually gave as an emotional support animal didn’t penetrate. “Walsh wasn’t on the take from Aleksandr Chelomey. My mention of Chelomey elicited only shock from him.”
“Then who?”
“My father. He engages in illegal activities and has corrupt cops in his pocket. Plenty of them. So, I’m certain that beat cop felt comfortable lying about me having a weapon.”
I shook my head. This made zero sense. “You think your dadwould try to kill us? Kill you”—at the rollercoaster of emotions and volume of my voice, I glanced across the fire and whispered—“his own son?”
Doubt threaded Jamie’s brows. He rested his elbows on his muscular thighs and dropped his head into his hands. “Jordyn, while I don’t level accusations, the facts point to him. My father doesn’t allow his emotions to reign, not like my mom.”
I could tell he struggled with the titles while his knee jittered.
“I broke her heart on Independence Day … before I rescued you. Probably broke it in the seven years I hadn’t said a word to them. Anyway, they found me. Initiated some sort of intervention. They thought I was still codependent on my medication. I dunno what they thought.”
“You ghosted them for years. When they finally caught up with you and reached out, you destroyed her last shred of hope?
