Page 188 of Eight Years Gone

She stared into his kind eyes as she lifted her hand, trailing her fingers along his cheek.

“I’m still me,” he said quietly.

She nodded. “I know you are.”

He pulled her closer, settling his forehead against hers. “I scared you. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“I love you, Gracie.”

“I love you, too.” She closed her eyes, exhaling an unsteady breath as she suddenly struggled not to cry. “Why is everything always falling apart?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Go ahead and get in the shower. You have goosebumps.”

She stepped into the steamy warmth, watching him pull off his shirt. His jeans and boxers landed on the bath mat before he joined her.

“Come here,” he said, pulling her back against him as the water rained over their bodies. “It’s going to be okay.”

She shook her head because nothing about his reassurances felt true. “How many times have you told me that over the last couple of months? How does everything keep getting worse?”

“Grace—”

She felt her tears mix with the splashes of water on her cheeks. “We were finding our way with Colton. He was settling in. Now there’s this. What are we going to do, Jagger?”

“Colton’s going to tell me what he knows. Then I’ll talk to Jason and some of the guys on his team.” He brought her hands to his lips, pressing a long kiss to her knuckles. “I’m going to take care of this.”

She sniffled. “What does that mean? What does that look like?”

He gave a slight shake of his head as he shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure yet.”

“Shouldn’t we just go to the police?”

He shook his head more adamantly this time. “The last thing we want is to put Colton in the position of becoming some sort of informant. I’m going to handle this quietly.”

“How can I help?”

“You can’t. I want you to stay far away from this.”

She frowned as she pulled out of his embrace. “Why is it that when everything starts falling apart, I lose my choices? How can you expect me to sit back and do nothing?”

“This is dangerous, Grace.” He pulled her back, cradling her face in his hands as hints of the fierceness she saw before filled his eyes. “These people aren’t fucking around. This Ray guy’s in deep. This is organized crime.”

She sighed, well aware of how bad the situation was. And she was afraid. “I’m worried about Colton. I’m worried about you. I love you both.”

“Trust me to fix this, Gracie. Trust me to help him the way I couldn’t help Logan.”

She frowned as she shook her head, growing more afraid of just how determined he was, knowing he would stop at nothing to make this go away. “This has nothing to do with Logan, Jagger.”

“I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t save him, no matter how hard I tried. But I’m not a twenty-year-old kid this time. Logan’s problems were always bigger than us. There was always so little we could do. But I’ve dealt with people so much worse than the ones who are fucking with Colton.”

“Jagger—”

He shook his head. “I’m ending this, Grace. For Colton. For all of us. Then we’re moving on with our lives. Trust me to do that.”

She nodded because she had no choice. She wanted to tell him they would find another way—that all of this was too perilous. But Colton needed the help that only Jagger could give him. “Okay.”

He kissed her. “Let’s wash up. We need to eat something. I’ll make us all some eggs.”

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