Page 39 of In the Pursuit of Haven
From out of nowhere, Jessie shoved him hard. The guy let me go and fell backwards into a barstool.
Jessie seized my hand.
Hunter nursed a scraped cheek ahead of us. “Watch your back,” he growled out, “or you’re going to end up like the rest of your family—drunk or dead.”
Jessie’s grip loosened on me like he’d go after him again.
I threw my arms around him, scared he’d try to fight them all. “Come with me.” My strength wouldn’t keep him back, and still I tugged at him. “Let’s go.” He found my shoulders, like he’d protect me from the world.
I’d never thought after seeing him with Divine that I’d ever let him hold me like this again.
Hunter shouted at us as we left, “We’ve got you, Jessie, and you know it!”
Jessie’s jaw hardened as we plunged outside into the wet world. It was no longer snowing, but the cobbles were slick as we made our way back to Haven’s boat on the wharf. I wasn’t sure who held up who—my legs felt like they’d melted into jelly—and I was suddenly terrified that those men would follow us out into the darkness and rip Jessie away from me. My fingers tightened over him.
Someone had to have notified the police about the disturbance. They were on their way. Would the call save us?
Jessie must’ve had the same thoughts because he slanted a glance at the tavern behind his shoulder. His ragged breath blew a mist of warmth against my cheek. Five figures cut across the shadows.
I scrambled for the boat. My questions would have to wait until we got somewhere safe.
Chapter Twelve
The motor growled under us as the silver water lapped against the wooden hull of Haven’s boat. The lighthouse shone in the distance. My hand went to Jessie’s jaw. It was swelling.
I figured he couldn’t hear my soothing noises over the sound of our watery escape, and so I let my concern fall heedlessly from my lips as I tried to make sure he was still in one piece.
I sniffed, not really sure if it was from the cold or because I was just weepy and terrified. After seeing him with Divine tonight, I’d thought I lost him for good… and I still might’ve.
I couldn’t say what he was into, but I had my suspicions.
“Here, let me help you.” He scooted across the bench seat and took the wheel from my shaking hands. I noticed his bleeding knuckles seconds before his arm went around me like he’d been doing since we’d left the tavern.
The lights from the cabin glowed across his face, emphasizing the angular lines of his cheekbones, the roughness of his jaw. He ran his hands down my back trying to comfort me.
I let out a shudder.
After tearing my focus from pirate governors and pirate ancestors to Jessie, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to see him in the same light as those reckless adventurers. Had Phips’s wife been consumed with worry over her husband every time he left on his war journeys? What had she thought after he’d left her alone in this strange new world for Canada, leaving her at the mercy of these strangers who would later accuse her of being a witch? Looking up at Jessie, I saw he was studying me with those dark eyes.
Those same beautiful almond-shaped eyes I’d fallen in love with. Why was this happening to us?
One of those annoying tears shot down my face without my permission.
“Oh honey, no!” He tried to stop the flow with his free fingers.
Immediately, I turned prickly—his warmth was no match for my coldness. How dare he try to make this go away when he’d caused this? “Is this what you couldn’t tell me?” I was crying because he’d drifted so far from me, crying because I was angry, crying because I felt so helpless. “What’s going on?”
After everything I’d seen earlier, there was only one thing that this could be about. My life was mirroring Haven’s. This was what she’d warned me against, and I hadn’t believed her.
“Are you… are you looking for that treasure?” I asked.
“It’s not what you think.”
He is! I’m such an idiot not to have seen the signs.
“Were you afraid I was going to run into those people when I went into town this afternoon?” I asked.
He sighed. “They don’t like to be told ‘no.’”
