Page 34 of Teach Me
Hilarious.
The need crawled under her skin anyway, doubling, tripling, until she thought if she had to sit here one more second, alone, waiting for something to happen without the buffer of Conlan’s reassurance, his touch, she would absolutely friggin’ screa—
A sharp series of raps ricocheted like gunfire in the tiny entry. Jess jerked, pushing herself as far into the corner as she could. Even as she slapped a hand over her mouth to stop it, she sucked in air for the first swelling shriek.
The rapping came again, loud and startling, then a faint, “Jess! It’s Con. Open the door!”
The starch went out of her so fast she almost slumped to the floor. She forced herself to walk the two paces to the door instead.
Conlan stood on the other side of the glass, only this wasn’t her Conlan. No, the grim-faced man looking back at her was hard, dangerous. Different. Definitely not the same man who’d touched her with such tenderness in the shower.
She had the door open in a heartbeat.
Her Conlan or not, the hardened warrior who came through the door reached for her without hesitation. “Come here,” he said roughly, and the next thing she knew, his heavy arm gathered her close to his side, and he refused to let go. His heat sank into her bones, slowing the shakes that had taken hold of her, softening her muscles until she couldn’t resist anymore and melted against him. But even his touch couldn’t erase the sense of looming disaster that filled her, especially when she caught sight of his opposite hand hovering over the gun strapped to his hip.
A sudden squawking sound came from her hand, and Jess looked down at it, finally registering the dispatcher’s demanding voice. Con took the phone before she could send the signal to her muscles to raise it to her ear.
“Hello, Conlan James speaking, JCL Security. Your name, please?”
The ease with which he took over left her flattened. He couldn’t be bothered to sleep with her, but he could ride to the rescue like a freaking white knight. She opened her mouth to protest, but Conlan stared her down, that same mean stare as before, daring her to reach for the phone, daring anything and anyone to interfere with what he wanted, and eyeing his muscles, she knew resisting would do no good. The impotence of it all built, and by the time he tapped her phone off, Jess felt like a pressure cooker ready to explode. “What the hell do you mean—”
A surprised look came over Con’s face, but it passed quickly as he glanced out the door. “The cops are here.”
“Con—”
“Jess—” Tough. Low. Implacable.
A rap on the glass. The moment was lost as Conlan pushed the door open, admitting two uniformed policemen.
The next couple of hours passed in a blur as Jess recounted her story more than once, answered questions about her apartment, and watched what seemed like half the Atlanta PD traipse in and out of the home they wouldn’t allow her into. By the time they did, she wished she could’ve waited a bit longer.
She didn’t care if he wanted her to or not; she gripped Conlan’s hand like the lifeline she knew it to be.
“There are just a few things to remember first, ma’am,” the officer said as they stood outside her apartment.
Jess nodded woodenly.
“Be certain not to touch anything. We are still in the process of taking pictures, so we don’t want anything moved or changed. We will fingerprint you at the station later to eliminate your prints. And you, Mr. James.”
“They’re on file for business purposes,” Conlan said, warrior face still firmly on display.
The cop nodded. “Make note of anything you think might be missing,” he told Jess, then hesitated, a look of sympathy softening the harsh, proper lines of his young face. Not enough experience to be hardened to a victim’s suffering, she thought, thankful he and his partner had been the ones to respond to the 911 call. “You should be prepared. There are…”
“There are what?”
Con grunted, jump-starting the cop where Jess’s words hadn’t.
“Uh, messages…on the walls.”
Shock tingled up her spine. “Messages?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He went on without addressing the issue further. “Thankfully your building has tight security and several cameras in this area, so we might’ve got the perp on film, but just in case, we need to know if anything sounds or looks familiar. Any clues you can give us would help, okay?”
Clues? They wanted clues? She’d already told them who’d done this, not that it would do any good. She knew that and wanted not to, wanted to believe the sincerity in this cop’s concerned eyes. But even if he was sincere, it wouldn’t matter. Whatever Brit had done inside her apartment, it wouldn’t be laid at his feet.
She kept her pessimism to herself and stepped through the door behind the officer. She tried to brace herself, knowing Brit wanted to hurt her, pretty sure this was retaliation for herfuck offmessage yesterday, but nothing could prepare her for what waited on the other side of the door.
“Oh God.”Breathe.A weak giggle escaped when Conlan whispered the same word in her ear. She swallowed it back. And stared.
