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I know that he'll do anything to protect me, but I also know that Uncle Jack has a lot of men that will do anything for him.
“I’m sorry that I shut down on you, it was—”
“I know, I want to say surprised, but I think it was more fear,” I tell him. I’ve got to that place with Leo now that I know I can be open with him. I don’t have to hide away from him. “Now what?”
“Jackson and I are talking about it.” He peers outside. “Would you like a midnight walk tonight?”
I watch him for a moment, wondering how he can think about going for a walk when he has just learned something so awful. It's not something small either, it's huge. I thought now that they know who he is they would want to finish this. Leo and Jackson have been searching for him for five years now. Why would they not want to just find and kill him?
“How about you find him and end this for both of us?” Reaching over to him, I place my hand on top of his. “I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder anymore.”
“Jackson is downstairs looking at any connections between Jack and Joseph. There has to be a link in there somewhere.” Leo stands up, putting his hand out for me. “I thought we could order some lunch. Jackson wants to show you how to use the e-reader.”
Placing my hand in his, I let him pull me up. When I'm on my feet, his hand moves to my lower back, and he gives me a kiss.
"There's only one thing that I ask, don't hide away again," Leo whispers against my lips. I'm trying very hard to stop myself from running away from here. Finding out that Joseph was here made me believe that Uncle Jack wasn't far behind.
Walking back downstairs, I look over at Jackson on the phone as I walk over to the kitchen to get myself some water. Leo joins him. I can’t make out what they are saying, but Jackson is still on the phone as Leo talks to him.
I go to the fireplace. Today is the first day that I'm starting to feel the chill in the air, and I've never sat in front of a fire before so it would be nice to see how they work. Looking for the switch, I place my hand on the cold marble as I feel for it. I smile to myself, this is the first time that deep down I feel like I can really be here, see myself living here with Leo.
"Wants some help?" Leo kneels next to me and flicks on a button under the mantel, and I smile as the flames go up. "You getting cold now?"
"Yeah, my wrists are getting a little painful, but that's just the weather," I tell him. The doctor did say that the weather would affect them, so I'm not worried about it so much.
Leo moves closer to me. "Would you try sleeping on the bed tonight?" His voice is quite soft, but my body still tenses up, and he must notice as he says, "Okay, not the bed, but how about we spend all night under the covers." I look at him wondering why he thinks I don't sleep under the covers. "I know that you wait until I'm asleep then you remove the sheets, so tonight even if it means I don't sleep, all night under the covers. Please?" Leo's hand softly brushes my leg, and I look back at the flames.
I don’t say anything to him, as I admire the beauty of it, the colors flickering.
"Hope, the e-reader is charged. Would you like me to show you how it works?" I look behind me as Jackson walks over to the sitting room. I glance over at Leo as he brings his drink to his lips. I know he won't stop me. He wants me to be more comfortable with Jackson, and I'm starting to be.
“Jackson, sit here, Hope’s feeling cold.” Leo leans over and gives me a kiss on the cheek as he moves over to the couch.
"I have already hooked this up to Leo's account, so beautiful you're all ready to read all the books you wish to read." Jackson sits on the floor, as he smokes the last of his cigarette. Bringing the tablet to me, he talks me through how to look for a book and how to buy it, read it and then find all the other books that I have bought. I smile the whole time. I can't wait to start reading e-books. "You should smile more beautiful, it's a nice view."
I frown at Jackson, as I didn’t realize I was smiling so much while he was telling me everything.
Jackson moves to stand up. “Right, I’m off. I’ll be over for breakfast.” He quickly leans down and gives me a kiss on the cheek. “Happy birthday, Hope.”
As he stands, I grab his hand to stop him walking away, and I smile up at him. "Thank you for my gift, Jackson."
He grins and gives me a wink. “Any time.”
I turn back around as I start looking at the reader to see that Jackson has already bought me some books to read.
"How about you sit over here and read?" Leo gets off the couch and walks over to me. "We can put the heat up if you would like?" He presses a button, and I see the flames get a little bigger.
Getting up, I make my way to the couch and sit down next to Leo. He pulls me in closer to him and without another word he puts on the T.V. There's a football game on so I start looking through the books that I have to read.
I do enjoy that we can sit in silence and find it easy to be with each other.
* * *
A while later I start to watch the game as Leo gets up to get himself another drink. I don’t know the rules of football, but I get the feeling that Leo likes it a lot as he is always watching it.
He stands by the couch. “Want to order some dinner?” I move to the side so that he can sit down.
"I can make something," I begin to get up, but Leo grabs my hips for me to sit again.
