Page 89 of Angels and Skulls
Jesse continues to trace the scar. “There is someone out there keeping you here.”
“Why do you say that?”
She taps my arm with her nail. “Something made you desperate.”
“Raffe said the club has eliminated everyone involved in trafficking us, and the senator is in prison.”
“If there’s no one left to be afraid of, then let’s go.” She stands, tugging on my arm roughly. “What do you want to take with you?”
My pulse races as she pulls me around my home. She grabs an empty laundry basket and tosses it in the middle of the room. “What do you need? Let’s get packing.”
I dig my heels against the hard wood floor. “There is only one thing I need, maybe two, but I can’t go. I simply can’t!”
She spins on me and wraps me in her arms tightly, pushing her nose against mine. “Show me you’ll do whatever it takes to be with him. Because that’s what Rachel did.”
I’ll admit her words sting, but she’s right. Rachel did what she had to so she could keep Raffe, and that’s what I wanted her to do. Now that I’ve met Jackson and seen Raffe again … I’m willing to do the same.
If I want to have a relationship with them, I need to find the courage to enter the real world again, or at the very least, theirs.
Jesse releases me and goes to the desk, grabbing a pen and paper. She drops it onto the coffee table. “I want a name.”
My hands shake as I lower myself to the couch and slowly pull the paper toward me. I focus on her, not the tip of the pen, as I write. When I’m finished, I slide it away from me, taking a shaky breath.
She snags it from the table before I have a chance to change my mind. Her brows dip as she reads. When her gaze meets mine, her nostrils flare slightly. She recognizes the name.
She holds it between her fingers. “When this is done …”
“I’ll be expecting another visit from you,” I finish for her.
Jesse pockets the piece of paper. “I’m going to need a place to change.” She tosses her bag over her shoulder.
“It’s this way.” I wave for her to follow me. She pauses at the photo of Raffe, Rachel, and Jackson on my bedside table. I walk over to it and pick it up. “This is one of the things I can’t leave behind. The other is my cat, Garfield.”
She nods.
“My method is going to hurt like a motherfucker. It won’t be easy,” she warns.
“But it will be worth it?”
“To be with Raffe? I think we both know the answer to that.” She hugs her bag to her chest. “Why don’t you go for a walk? I’ll be leaving soon,” she says.
“Okay.” I set the picture down slowly. “But before you go, I want to give you something.” I open the little drawer in my bedside table. “Your dad left this here one day …” I chuckle lightly, rubbing my temple. “He was always leaving subtle little hints around to try and coax me into admitting who I was.”
“It clearly didn’t work.”
“No, but it sure did make me fall in love with him all the more.”
I place it in her palm. When she rolls it over, she smiles, a little noise of surprise leaving her lungs. Her finger traces over the raised dragonfly on the front.
She pulls the silver lighter to her chest, and I notice a softness about her I didn’t see before.
“The necklace Raffe gave you has been passed around the club for years. That little dragonfly has always seemed to give the wearer some sort of peace.” Jesse flicks the lighter open, her brows jumping in surprise when it still lights.
“I’ve taken very good care of it.”
She stares into the flames. “You don’t know how much I needed a sign from him today.”
“If you succeed, and I’m able to have a life with Jackson and Raffe, I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you.”
