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“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Back off, asshole. You can have her when I’m done with her.”
I cried out when his fingers pumped in and out of my pussy, his hand choking me with more effort. My eyes went wide as the black around the edges grew more pronounced. I knew what came next, had been here more than once in the early days of my escort career.
“Yeah, that’s not how this works, motherfucker.”
Jasper’s broad shoulders hunched forward, and he barreled inside the bathroom, pulling out his gun as he came closer and closer. He pressed the barrel to the asshole’s head, looking as sexy and ruthless as I’d ever seen him.
“If you want to live long enough to see the sun rise tomorrow, let her go.”
His words were eerily calm, but the look on Jasper’s face was pure fucking murder.
“Oh, she likes it. Tell you what, you can take her asshole while I pound this wet cunt, and we both get what we want.”
Hell blazed in Jasper’s eyes, and he let the gun drop into his palm, leaving the butt of the gun exposed.
“Wrong answer, dickhead.”
With one swift move, Jasper cracked him behind the ear with the gun, sending his head forward and impaling him on my knife.
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit!”
His blood was warm and deep red as it trickled from the small hole in his neck between my fingers, tracing the veins on the back of my hand.
“Jasper, what the fuck?”
“The word you’re looking for is thank you, Maureen.”
My stupid little heart leaped at the way he used my given name, something he only did when he was really serious.
“Yeah, thanks, Jas. You’re my fucking hero, but there’s a more pressing problem. His neck is about two and a half inches full of switchblade.”
Jasper grabbed a handful of thick brown hair and yanked his head backward to inspect the small hole. “It’s barely a flesh wound. He’ll live.”
He released the man and pushed him toward the door. “If I see you again, in Glitz or Vegas or Mayhem, that paper cut will be the least of your worries. Got me?”
The guy stood tall, one hand to his neck to stem the bleeding, eyes wide with fear and disgust.
“You fucking people are crazy!” With a shake of his head, the asshole stumbled out of the bathroom, and slowly, my shoulders relaxed, and my heartrate returned to normal.
Jasper’s deep green eyes landed on me, examining me closely with a frown on his beautiful face. “You all right?”
All right wasn’t a phrase I could wrap my head around at the moment, so I nodded and slammed my eyes shut, feeling like that scared little girl all over again. I didn’t want to see pity in Jasper’s eyes. I never wanted him to look at me and see that scared and weak little girl, too afraid to fight back against the monsters.
“Yeah.” Slowly my eyes opened and settled on the emotions written all over his face.
“Say it, Mo. Look me in the eyes and tell me you’re all right,” he insisted, his voice filled with anger. The gold flecks in his green eyes sparkled with intensity, and I couldn’t look away, not from this moment when it looked like Jasper gave a shit about me. Fear and anger mingled like the green and gold, and for just a second, I let myself believe the lie. The myth. The fairytale that one day Jasper would be mine.
“Mo,” he barked loud enough that his voice echoed in the empty bathroom.
His outburst startled a gasp out of me, and I put a hand to my chest to stop my racing heart, still on high alert again even though this was Jasper.
“I’m fine, okay?” I was so far from fine that instead of soaking up his attention, I brushed past him and into a stall, where I emptied what little there was left in my stomach. Again. “Just fucking fine.”
Chapter Nine
Jasper
Standing outside of my hospital, I sucked in a lungful of crisp, unseasonably cool, desert air. It was midday and cloudy, the perfect fucking scene for this day. Sadie was inside, still in the ICU, eyes still closed, mouth still silent.
I wasn’t a man given over to his emotions, but goddammit, this was my mother. It was Sadie, the strongest, bravest person I knew. She wasn’t just my mother; she was my mentor.
And she was still in a goddamn coma.
I stamped out the cigarette I’d smoked down to the filter even though I hated the fucking things. Then I pulled out the leather and brass studded flask that Mo had given me as a joke gift last Christmas and took a long fucking drink before going inside. The antiseptic smell of this fucking place didn’t make any of this easier, but one foot in front of the other, down the hall and into the elevator, out of the elevator and to the right, and I was at the doorway to Sadie’s room.
