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“Got a pick for me to wear?” I smirked when Jackson emerged in a towel. A big grin spread his lips.
“Nah. Wear what you wanna wear tonight.”
“I like when you dress me,” I said in a baby voice, silently revolting myself.
Jackson could barely hold back his delight as he pulled me into his wet chest. “Man,” he gave a little growl. “I fucking love you, Lara Kinsley, you know that?”
“Excuse me, I’m not a Kinsley yet.”
“You will be soon,” he murmured.
I wet my lips as I looked at him. Maybe that was still true.
“God. My fucking gorgeous fiancée,” Jackson shook his head at me, pushing my silk robe open and kissing my neck and then my lips. “Come on, babe, get dressed. You and I gotta get there early,” he said before disappearing into his closet.
I stared after him.
That closet was where he hid his second phone, my bloody shirt and the jump drive containing Gabrielle’s screaming voice. He had instructed Jake to wait outside while he got it but just laughed when Jake went in anyway to find him pulling a shelf of shoes aside to reveal a small safe built into the wall. Out of it, he took his other phone. And in that closet, Jake watched the video, all the while ensuring that his vision was in focus, so that he could attempt to spot the lock combination when Jackson closed the safe back up. But what he saw was a fingerprint-activated lock.
Only Jackson could open that safe. Which meant that in order to get to what was inside, I was going to have to play a whole lot nicer than I had imagined.
~
Sloane was a beautiful bride in an ivory dress with a beaded, swingy skirt ending at her knees. Caleb, according to Sawyer, was a “hipster-chic groom” in a vintage blue suit that I was shocked Sloane let him wear. I was also shocked to see Caleb the one who was teary-eyed all night. But it was their wedding, we were at our favorite restaurant in the world, and it was a night to start brand new memories, so why not?
Something was in the air, but we were all happy, joyous, smiling. Sawyer was performing a terrible rendition of a John Legend song and even Jackson was laughing, clapping on as Sawyer tried to reach the high notes.
And across the long table, Jackson’s heavy arm draped around me, I gazed at Jake. He was so incredibly handsome in his crisp grey suit and black skinny tie. I watched him watch me, the music and laughter floating around us, entrancing us all into the best moods of our lives. I probably wasn’t the only one grappling with drama lately. We all needed this moment.
“You know what?” Jackson whispered in my ear.
There was a soft tug at my heart as I blinked away from Jake. “What?” I asked, looking up at Jackson.
“Maybe we don’t need a big wedding either.”
A knot balled in my throat. “Jackson Kinsley forgoing a massive spectacle of a party?” I teased. “What would the magazines photograph then?”
He laughed. “Fuck it. This – all of this right now – it makes me realize that I don’t care about anything besides devoting my life to you as a husband. I’ve done a lot of things for you that you don’t even know about and I’m never going to tell you, because that’s just my job. To protect our love no matter what.”
I gazed into his sparkling blue eyes. It would’ve been a beautiful speech if our love didn’t involve killing young girls.
“So what are you saying, Jackson? You wanna make this a joint wedding?”
He grinned. “No. But after all the shit we’ve been through this year, all I want is to declare my love for you so that we can go back to being the way we were before all of this started.”
I took his hand between mine and fixed my gaze at him. “There’s something you have to do before we can think of any of that.”
Jackson frowned. “What? Just say the word.”
“Jackson, you should know. What’s the one thing hanging over my head? No – the two things hanging over my head, that you threw at me the day I thought I wanted to leave you.”
Jackson exhaled, bowing his head and closing his eyes. He knew exactly what I was talking about.
“Jackson, you have to admit that keeping t
hose things was fucked up.”
“It was. I admit it, it was.”
