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I still remember the one day I couldn’t save him; he was locked away for three days before he was allowed out again.
"What are you going to do about the site?" I ask him. Now, this is not what we do, this is a lot bigger than we thought it would be. I wanted to kill one man, and maybe that man is on this site, maybe he's not. But one thing's for sure, this is something that neither one of us can do.
“I have no fucking idea. I suggest the best thing to do would be to go to the police. I don’t know.”
Blowing out the smoke, I shake my head. “If we go to the police, we might lose our only link in finding him and—”
"You want to find the man who spent eight million on Hope don't you?" Jackson stands in front of me. "Some people owe me a favor. Let me talk to them to see if we can find anything on the buyer." He glances over at Hope breaking off pieces of her breakfast. "She's starting to open up to you, but before you make promises, I think you need to make sure you can keep them." Tapping my shoulder, he leaves.
I smoke the rest of my cigarette and gaze over at Hope thinking about what to do next. She starts peeling the skin off her hands, but I move my focus to her face. My attention moves to her lips. I remember her kissing me last night. Sheletme kiss her, she let me in. She must trust me enough to do that.
Pushing myself off the counter, I make my way over to her. I turn her chair around to face me, as I sit in front of her. "Jackson's not here, you can look at me now." She lifts her face a little, and I feel a spark of joy inside. She doesn't try to hide her eyes away from me, for the first time she is lookingatme and not behind me.
“How about we start walking with our head held high? You have nothing to hide from—”
“I’m hiding from him.” Her voice is broken, scared.
I swallow hard and think about Jackson’s words about promising her things. "In this house, you don't have to hide from anyone. The only people that come here are my parents and Jackson. They won't hurt you. I'm going to find who did this and I'm going to make them pay, but I don't want you to hide from my family."
“I’ve lived with rules for—”
“There are no rules in this house. Everythingtheysaid to you, everythingtheymade you do, none of it lives in this house. This house...isyours.”
Her hand moves to mine where it’s resting on her leg. “I’m trying. I am...but then I remember something and the rules come back to haunt me.”
"Hope, do you trust me?" Until she trusts me, no matter what I say to her, she's not going to believe me, and there's nothing I can do to make her feel safe.
“I want to. I want to believe that you won’t hurt me once you get my trust, but they did it. Someone always got me to trust them then they broke it.” Pulling the sleeve of her sweater, she uses it to wipe the tears and her nose. “Someone always broke me,” she whispers the last part, as she drops her head.
"I won't break you. I'm going to make you whole again." Placing my finger under her chin, I slowly lift her face to look at me again. "Now, if it's okay with you before I go to work I was hoping that I could give you another kiss." My gaze moves to her lips then back to her eyes. "I might have enjoyed you kissing me last night." I give her a wink.
Her eyes search mine and her fingers move to the scar just above my right eye. "You can kiss me," she whispers, and I can't help but smile. Her cheeks flush with pink, but I'm not going to say anything about that to her.
Leaning in closer, I move my hand to her cheek and then slowly to the back of her neck. I move my lips against hers. I just want so much more from her. I've become lost in her kiss; all our defenses are being pushed to the side. I know that there's so much hunger inside me for her. Just the feel of her soft lips touching mine is all I want every day. She pulls away from me, but I don't want her to. My hand is still on the back of her neck and my forehead leaning on hers.
Then I hear it, my phone’s ringing. She pulled away from me not because she didn’t want it but because someone is calling me.
“Hello?” I answer the phone.
"Mr. Masters, you haven't come into work, and you have a meeting this morning. Would you like me to cancel it?" my assistant asks, and I look at my watch. I'm so late.
“No, I’ll be there.” I end the call and put the phone in my pocket. Hope is watching me.
“Have a nice day at work.” She goes to stand up, but I pull her back down.
"And what do you have planned while I go out?" I ask her. She doesn't do anything fun, but I don't think she knows what fun is, I don't either. My life is work and home, and I like it like that.
“I was going to wash the bedsheets and clean the bathrooms and then make some dinner.” She starts gathering the plates together that are on the table.
“How about pizza tonight?” Her hands freeze as she grabs a plate. “Or you could make the pizza?” I need her to step away from her routine. I can’t push her out of it. I’m starting to learn that I needherto break the chains that are pulling her back; I can only help her find the strength to break them.
"For two or three?" she asks, and I start laughing out loud. She knows Jackson so well.
"What do you think?" I ask her as I stand up. I walk over to the door and glance over at Hope cleaning the table. "Hey," I call her, and she turns to face me, "Tonight, you can look up, he won't bite." I give her a wink, and I leave.
I don’t want her to keep hiding from Jackson. He’s over all the time and I want Hope to feel comfortable here, but I can’t make my best friend stop coming over.
* * *
