Page 33 of Teach Me
Her laugh came out a bit more on the hysterical side than she’d like. “Really? You still want to teach me?”
A heavy sigh sounded in her ear. “Jack will likely take over. It’s for the best—”
“For whom?”
The silence crackled with awkward tension. Jess shook her head as she gathered her things, fishing for her key card and wishing she could just hang up the phone before she embarrassed herself more. Was she standing up for herself, for what they both knew they felt, or just being a bitch? She couldn’t tell anymore, and honestly, considering the way her life was going and the ulcer her stomach was probably working on after the last few days, she didn’t think she cared. She just knew she was at the breaking point, and if she couldn’t be honest with the man who’d seen her naked, who’d had his fingers inside her, for goodness’ sake, who could she be honest with?
The sound of her car door slamming shut was loud in the gathering twilight. “Look, Conlan, I need to go.”
“I got a text yesterday.”
“I’m sure you get them every day. Why is that important?”
“Because this one was from Holbrooke.”
The e-mails she’d received—and her response—flashed before her eyes. She ignored her sudden shaking and swiped her card in the door. “Wh-what did it say?”
“It said, ‘Jess is mine. Disappear or she will.’”
She stumbled across the threshold before managing to right herself. “I—” God. She headed toward the elevator, searching desperately for a response, but there was just…nothing.Disappear or she will.Brit had actually declared, to someone besides her, that he wanted to kill her. So another man wouldn’t have her.
That pesky hymen problem rearing its ugly head again. Maybe she just needed to hire someone and get rid of it once and for all; it seemed to be the only option, considering she couldn’t get the man she wanted to take it willingly.
“It’s okay, Jess. Nothing I can’t handle.”
You, maybe. What about me?“It’s not okay. It’s— Grrr!” She ground the heels of her palms against her eyes, her purse smacking her chin in the process. “Why is he doing this? Why?”
But she knew why.
Conlan was talking in her ear, something about tracking and police reports and Jack, but she wasn’t listening. She was tumbling out of the elevator as fast as her legs would carry her, digging in her pocket for her keys. A few feet from her door, she dropped her files, fumbling with the phone to keep it in her hand as she scrambled to hold on to everything. Finally she just dropped it all, all except the phone and her keys, and walked the few steps to her door.
It was open.
“Conlan.”
Something in her tone registered with him; she knew because he went silent. Then, low and deadly, “What?”
She was already backing down the hall. One foot landed on her purse, and she tripped, almost going down.
“Jess? Talk to me.”
“I—” The elevator appeared on her right. Eyes focused on the door to her apartment—the open door—she fumbled for the Down button. “I—”
“Jess?” The word was breathless, as if he was running. A slamming door. An engine rumbling. “What’s going on?”
The elevator dinged its arrival. “My apartment—I think it’s been broken into.”
The squeal of tires came across the line. “Get out! Get out now, Jess. I’m on my way.”
“Okay.”
The elevator doors narrowed, focusing the image of those few inches between her door and the jamb it should’ve been locked into, down, down, down until it disappeared from sight. Then she was dropping, her stomach sinking like she was on a roller coaster.
Conlan’s voice throbbed with adrenaline. “I want you to hang up. Call 911. I’m on my way.” When she didn’t respond, he practically yelled, “Jess! Do it now!”
“Okay.”
The word was sickly. She fumbled for the Off button as she lurched down the first-floor hall toward the back door. Only the sight of the black night waiting on the other side of the glass forced her to a stop. No way in hell was she going out there alone. Which was how she found herself huddled in the corner off to one side of the door, waiting on the arrival of the police. The fact that she was on the line with the dispatcher, giving him information, describing what she’d seen, receiving assurances that a unit was on its way, registered somewhere between the heart in her throat and her unseeing eyes, but not fully. What she really wanted was Conlan’s arms around her, his heat warming the ice taking over her body. That wasn’t going to happen, though, was it? Because she was a virgin and he didn’t do virgins. If the reason hadn’t seemed stupid before, it did now.
