Page 78 of Wild Thorns

The possessiveness in his voice should have frightened me. Should have reminded me of Marcus, of all the ways men tried to own women under the guise of protection.

But this was different. Callum wasn't trying to own me. He was trying to keep me safe, whole, protected, and the difference was everything.

"Okay," I breathed.

His expression shifted, something raw moving through it. Then he stepped back, releasing me, rebuilding the distance.

"Jasper's outside," he said. "Eli's at the house. You're not going to be alone tonight."

I nodded. I didn't have words left.

Lila was staring at me with wide eyes. "What the hell was that?"

"I can't," I said. "I'm sorry."

I let Callum walk me to his truck, his presence a solid wall between me and the darkness.

My neck prickled a warning, I glanced back at the bar one last time.

Marcus was standing in the doorway, watching us go. And he was smiling.

It wasn't the smile of a man who'd lost. It was the smile of a man who'd gotten exactly what he wanted.

He wanted to see them, I realized. He wanted to see how they'd react.

Which meant this wasn't random. It wasn't coincidence.

Marcus was planning something.

And we'd just given him exactly the information he needed.

Chapter twenty-one

The Stairs at Midnight

Icouldn't sleep.

The Marcus encounter kept replaying in my head; his smile, his certainty, the way he'd looked at me like he still owned me. And Callum, appearing out of nowhere, putting himself between us like it was instinct.

I gave up on sleep around midnight and went to sit on the stairs.

Jasper was already there.

He was sitting on the landing below mine, looking out at the yard, and he looked up when he heard my footsteps. In the moonlight, his face was all shadows and angles, his dark curls tumbling across his forehead.

"Can't sleep either?" he asked.

"Too much in my head."

"Want company?"

I sat down beside him. Close enough that our shoulders touched. Neither of us moved away.

We sat in silence for a while. The night was warm, full of cricket sounds and the distant rustle of trees. The magnolia tree was a dark shape against the darker sky, and beyond it, the preserve stretched out, mysterious and watchful.

"I heard what happened," Jasper said. "At the bar."

"Callum told you?"