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Chad got the call three days later. The FBI had lost track of the Masters brothers. They missed their last two check-ins with their handler and hadn’t been spotted since then. They were missing in the wind and no one had any idea where Rick Bandon had gone either.
Something felt very wrong to Chad. And, he wasn’t going to wait around to see what happened. He made calls to Jack and Andrew as he headed over to Jennie’s. It was time to get her out of town. Time to be sure she was safe.
Jennie opened the door to a very intense-looking Chad. He didn’t wait for an invitation or even for her to step out of his way. He pushed his way into her house and dropped his duffle bag on the floor.
Zeke didn’t bat an eye at Chad’s pushy entrance. He knew Chad and apparently didn’t consider him an intruder.
Jennie eyed her ‘faithful’ dog with a raised brow.
Traitor.
“Gee, Chad. Please, come in. Mi casa is apparently su casa,” she said with her typical bite of sarcasm.
All she wanted to do was crawl into bed. It might only be nine o’clock at night but her body was done. She needed sleep. Jennie couldn’t get over how tired this pregnancy was making her.
Kelly had told her how tired she was when she was pregnant with Maddy, but Jennie had no idea it would be this bad. She walked around in a constant fog as though her head were a block of mush not a brain.
“The Masters brothers are missing. I’m your new protection detail.” In a move completely uncharacteristic of him, he kicked off his shoes, dropped his large body onto Jennie’s small couch, and put his feet up on the coffee table.
She didn’t know why he was acting so out of character, but she just wanted him to leave so she could go to bed.
“Chad, I don’t need protection. My name isn’t even on the record with the FBI yet. They have a whole investigation to do before my testimony even becomes a possibility.”
She crossed to the door and opened it, waiting for him to leave.
Naturally, he didn’t budge.
“Listen, Hulk, I’d love to have a slumber party and wax our legs, braid each other’s hair and all that, but that’s not happening tonight. I’m too tired. You need to go.”
“The hell I do. You’ll have to get over this, Jennie. The Masters brothers know you heard something and when their uncle showed up with a lawyer a few days later I’m sure they put two and two together. I’m not taking a chance that they know about you or that they might have told Rick Bandon about you. Until we know where they are, I’m not going anywhere. You’re going to have protection whether you like it or not. Whether it’s me or someone else.”
Oh, enough is enough. What the hell?
Jennie was more than a little annoyed at this point. She sure as hell couldn’t share a house with Chad. Not now. Not until she figured out what to do about the baby. Not until she was ready to tell him what was going on.
Never?
“Chad, I told you––”
In the split second before he rose from the couch, Jennie saw something she had never seen in his face before.
Unbridled anger. Anger he wasn’t trying to cover or calm or neutralize the way he usually did. The man who was always in control was suddenly, very much out of control and coming at her full force and there wasn’t anything funny about it.
She swallowed her words and stepped back as Chad filled the space in front of her.
“You’re having my fucking baby, Jennie!” Chad bellowed. “I’ll protect you for as long as I damn well please in whatever way I damn well please.”
Her heart stopped in her chest, frozen. She stood, eyes wide, speechless for several minutes as she watched him regain control.
She could feel the tears coming and she clenched her jaw to try to stop them as she watched Chad coil back all of the rage he had let loose moments before, until his mask was back in place.
A lump formed in her throat at the effort of holding back the tears and she knew she was seconds away from losing the battle. Regret was a tight ball in her stomach, making her sick with the what ifs and if onlies of the entire situation.
When he spoke again he was quiet. Controlled. But the anger was there. She could feel it pouring off him in waves just under the surface.
“Did you think I wouldn’t figure it out? Did you think I wouldn’t notice? That I don’t know you better than you know yourself, Jennie?” Chad’s words spat from his mouth and Jennie recoiled.
There was nothing she could say, she realized. Nothing to make him forgive her for this. He would hate her, and she honestly couldn’t blame him one bit. She hated herself right then.
