Page 62 of Teach Me
“For how long? Six months? A year? You can’t stay with me 24-7. And then what?” How long could she argue about this before her bones shook apart? “He’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants. At least this way, we have a chance of catching him and giving all of us some peace.”
“No, Jess. No! You can’t do this.”
She reached up, cupping his cheeks in her shaky hands despite the pinch of his strong grip. Her mouth was dry, her stomach a bottomless pit of knotting anxiety, but she had to convince him. For Conlan, she would do anything to get Brit out of her life and off the streets. “It’s never going to stop. This is the only way—”
“No. I won’t risk you. I won’t let you,” he said through gritted teeth. “There’s no way in hell—”
“Why not, Conlan? Why?” Her voice came out a low croak, but she forced it to work, forced herself to lay bare everything she felt. “I want a life with you. I want to love you. And yes, it would be utterly fantastic to hole up in this cabin forever and play house and forget the outside world ever existed, but we can’t do that. You have a business to run. I have a job. We need groceries and to pay bills and to ride that damn fine Harley you have stashed in the garage because we can’t leave the house. I can’t ask you to live like that. Iwon’tlive like that.”
“I would!” Con stared down at her, the desperation she felt reflected in his eyes. “I’d do it forever if it meant you were safe.I love you, Jess. You can’t make me love you and then do something like this. You can’t ask me to risk you. It will tear my heart out.”
“It’s our only choice.”
“You know she’s right, Con,” Jack said quietly. Conlan rounded on him with a vengeance.
“Shut up! This isn’t about the womanyoulove. This isn’t me asking you to put her in the line of fire. You think it hurt when Lee took that bullet? You think watching him slowly disintegrate into a man we didn’t know, a man whose every thought was consumed with pain because he lost the woman he loved, was hard? You didn’t even have a front-row seat, but you will this time. There wouldn’t be a slow descent, either. I wouldn’t wait for the enemy; I’d eat my gun if something happened to her, and not think twice about it.”
Jess’s heart squeezed so hard she couldn’t breathe. “Conlan, no.”
Conlan turned back to her. “Yes.The only thing that would delay me would be taking that bastard out any way I could.” Conlan brought his face down to hers, cheek against cheek, his arms gathering her close with a tenderness that was unbearable. “I’d follow you, Jess. I’d go wherever you are, baby; don’t you doubt it.”
Jess could feel the shudders coursing through her, through him. Racking their bodies. She rocked him quietly, holding him, wishing with all that was in her that she’d never met Brit, never brought this mess into Conlan’s life. But she couldn’t regret meeting Con, knowing him, loving him. She would love him through eternity. She just had to find a way to make sure they spent it together, alive. And safe.
“We don’t have a choice, love,” she whispered in his ear. Conlan’s big body shook against hers. Lifting his head, he crushed her to him, cursing as he struggled to accept what they both knew had to be done.
“Shit. Goddamn it, Jack, just…shit.”
“I agree,” Jack said. His voice was almost as raw as Conlan’s.
When Gaines spoke, they all startled. “We will do everything we can to keep her safe; you know that.”
“No.” Conlan turned, tucking her protectively behind his back. “Wewill do everything to keep her safe. You focus on Holbrooke.”
“I can’t allow—”
“You can’t stop it,” Jack told Gaines. “It’s our way or nothing.”
Gaines eyed the two men as if considering his chances of grabbing Jess and getting out of here alive. Jess could tell him they were nil, but he seemed to reach that conclusion on his own. “We can work something out.”
Jack nodded. Conlan’s grip on her hips went tight, then relaxed. Jess laid her cheek in the furrow of his spine, her eyelids slipping closed.
He’d said it. He loved her. Despite what she knew was coming, that knowledge curled up and settled in the deepest part of her soul. This man loved her. Together they were complete.
They would defeat Brit. She wouldn’t accept anything else.
That same determination filled Conlan’s voice as he gathered her into his arms again. “This has to be done right. Let’s get to work.”
* * *
The bedroom was silent when he finally entered. They’d planned long into the night, long past Jess going to bed, but he still wasn’t happy with what they’d come up with. He didn’t think any plan would make him happy; nonetheless…Jack had finally overruled him with a “Nothing’s perfect, but we’ll make it work,” to which Con had responded with a raised middle finger. Jack was lucky he hadn’t pulled a gun. Score one for a level head.
He brushed his teeth, shucked his jeans and shirt, and climbed slowly into the bed, trying not to wake Jess. She needed the sleep. Jack was already putting things in motion, laying the Internet seeds that would bear fruit soon. When they woke in the morning, it would be to an unsafe world. He could give Jess one night of peace.
He’d been such a damn fool. Had he really thought, such a short time ago, that he could get close to Jess, share her body and her life, and not want to keep her? Not have her become as necessary to him as breathing? Because that’s what she was—and he’d be damned if he figured that out, just to lose her again. Holbrooke’s days were numbered; Con guaranteed it.
Next to him, Jess jerked, a near-silent whimper leaving her lips. A nightmare. Con growled at the reminder that, even in her sleep, she wasn’t safe. Holbrooke was definitely going to die.
He scooted over. Jess whimpered again. The sound broke the restraints chaining him back.
