Page 36 of Wildest Desire

She looks down at her hand, then places the gun in mine. Passing it over to Dan, I turn back to Lexi, “How about that bath?” I ask her.

She gives me a nod. I hear someone walking behind me, but I don’t turn around. “Jackie will pack you a bag, then we'll go back to my place.” She doesn’t say anything as she walks away from me and into Dan’s arms.

I walk to the bathroom that’s joined with her bedroom. I want to take her out of this house right now. But, she isn’t ready to leave yet, and pushing her to go isn't what she needs. If I want her with me, I need her to say she wants to be with me.

Looking around for something to put in the bath, I hear Dan behind me. “In the basket,” he tells me. I pick up one of the balls and look at it. “She loves her baths and bath bombs.” I stand there wondering what I’m supposed to do with it now. “You just have to throw it in.”

“Thanks.” Throwing the thing in the water, I turn and look at him.

“If you had to choose between money and life, which would you choose?” Dan asks, and it makes me look long and hard at him to see if I can read him.

“Life.” I lived before without money, I can live without it again.

“Your life or my sister’s life?”

He wants to know if he can trust me. He wants to know if Lexi being with me is right, or if it’s a mistake.

“Dan, I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. I get that you're worried about Lexi, and no matter what I say, you have already made up your mind about me. You don’t think I can keep her safe, but let me tell you something. If someone wants to get to Lexi, they'll have to shoot me first,” I say, turning the tap off and walking out of the bathroom.

I understand where Dan is coming from. If it was Tanya, I would be asking the same questions. I wouldn’t trust anyone to look after her but me. Walking into the bedroom, I see Jon kneeling in front of Lexi, rubbing her legs. I turn to Jackie, who’s putting the last of Lexi’s belongings in a suitcase. I told her to pack a bag, but Jackie is taking everything she can.

“I’ve called Adam. He’s going to help me take all of Lexi’s clothes to…” she stops as Dan walks over to us. “Wherever, and then I’ll call the mover to empty the whole place and put it on the market. If he's still around and sees it empty, he might think she left already.” Jackie looks at Lexi walking over to the bathroom, then closing the door behind her.

“Jon’s dad said we could use his storage unit for all the big items. At least until we know what her next steps are going to be,” Dan says, as Jon walks over to us.

“And it’s a good hour away from here. Might help if he sees the truck leaving the area,” Jon says, and the four of us look at each other.

“I’m the only one that doesn’t know what’s going on. You can wait for Lexi to tell me, or you can give me the bullet points.” I look at them all. I don’t care if they want to wait for Lexi to tell me. I need to know a little about what's happening, so I'll know how to look after her a little better.

“She got married to an asshole who beat her. She left. He found her. Some things happened. She left again. He found her. She left again, came here and was happy. And now, he’s found her again. There are your bullet points,” Dan says. I can tell that’s all the information I’ll be getting from anyone.

“Dan, where am I taking Lexi’s clothes?” she asks him while looking at me.

“Can I talk to you, Jackie?” Dan and Jon walk out of the room. Jackie looks at me, and I nod to let her know it’s fine and I understand.

After Jackie walks out, I pull an empty box over to the closet and start putting all her shoe boxes in it. She wasn’t lying when she said she loved her Jimmy’s. She could easily open her own store if she wanted to.

Looking down, I see marks where Lexi tried to dig her nails into the floor to stop him from pulling her out. If I ever get my hands on this man, I’m going to beat him until there's no way he’ll be able to walk again.

My phone vibrates in my pocket, so I pull it out and answer it without looking at the screen to see who's calling.

“Hello.”

“Ethan, we—”

“I’m not in the mood to talk to you. I’m hanging up before I lose my temper,” I tell her.

She keeps telling my lawyer she needs to talk to me about something important. My attorney told her she needed to go through them because I’m not interested. She told them she needed money and if I would just talk to her so he could explain, I would understand.

“Ethan—”

I end the call because the only thing I care about right now is Lexi and making sure she's safe.

“Ethan, can I have your keys?” Jackie asks, putting her hand out for me. I look behind her at Dan and Jon. What did she say to get them to agree to this?

“Here, I’ll go ahead and call the front desk to let them know you’re coming,” I say, taking my keys from my pocket. Jackie comes a little closer to me. “They agreed?” I whisper as I place the key in her hand.

“Don’t make me regret taking your side on this. That asshole hurt my girl. I want her staying with the one person I believe won’t let anything happen to her,” Jackie tells me, then walks away to continue putting things in the box. As I’m walking over to the bathroom, Dan stops me. “You hurt her or let him get close to her, then so help me God, I'll—”

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