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Jamie pulls her hand away as she gets up, while keeping a smile in place, and then she leans down, under the pretence of kissing me on the cheek, and says, “You can thank me later.” Then she edges her way out of the row with Jay following behind.
I don’t say a fucking word as she makes her way to the makeshift counter next to the bar, or as she makes payment, or even when we are lead through a door to where Natalia is waiting for her buyer.
When Natalia sees me and Jay, her eyes widen before she masks her surprise, turning to Jamie as she steps forward. The guard shoves Natalia forward, and Jamie catches her before turning to the guard.
“Watch it. I paid good money for her and don’t want her damaged before I get her home.”
The guard’s eyes flash with restrained anger, arms tense and folded across his chest, and he moves to step forward, but Jay and I move in front of Jamie and Natalia, blocking his view of them.
“Are you ready to leave, Miss?” says a voice I recognise from behind us.
I turn my body enough to be able to see Tank standing in the doorway and watch as Jamie takes in the formidable size of the man, swallowing thickly.
“Yes, I think we are done here.” She throws a look over her shoulder at the guard before strolling from the room behind Tank.
Tank leads us to another exit, returning mine and Jay’s phones, and as I shove the phone in my pocket, I feel something attached to the back of it. I look to Tank who remains pokerfaced, and I give him a nod of thanks as he opens the door for us.
We descend a set of metal stairs at the back of the building that lead to the alleyway I heard Tank and Travis talking in and send a quick text to our driver. Just as we exit the alley, he’s pulling up alongside us.
I don’t give him the chance to get out and open the door, yanking it open and telling Jamie and Natalia to get in. Natalia passes Jamie to jump in the car while we have a stare off.
“Get in the fucking car, Jamie,” I demand. Thankfully, she does because I don’t know how much longer I can hold this anger in, and here is not the place for me to lose my shit.
I message Rick as we pull away, and he tells me to take her to the safe house we have here in the city, and he’ll see us there. There is no reprimand, but I don’t doubt there will be one when we get to the house.
I tell JB where to go, and to keep a look out for a tail in case someone from Tempest is following us.
Natalia sits opposite Jamie, as far into the side of the car as she can get, and although outwardly she seems okay, I can tell she has no idea what’s going to happen to her. I wish I could reassure her, but I’m more likely to terrify her right now.
There is a wild storm brewing inside me ready to tear up everything in its path. I don’t think I have every been so fucking angry with someone before or so fucking terrified. This fucking crazy woman sitting beside me has my body torn in two over what it wants to do with her. Half of me wants to throttle her, quite literally, and the other half wants to fuck her, and I can’t decide who’s going to win just yet.
Jay does what I couldn’t and talks quietly to Natalia, reassuring her that no harm will come to her. He takes his suit jacket off and offers it to her seeing as she’s still only in her underwear. And when she’s still not convinced, Jamie reaches forward, touching her lightly on the arm, and though she flinches, she doesn’t pull away. I listen as slowly she begins to talk to Jamie, telling her, her full name and age and where she’s from, but when Jamie asks her how she ended up at Tempest, she clams up instantly.
I jump from the car the instant it stops outside the safe house, storming past Rick as he opens the door and heading straight for the garden out back. I burst through the back door, flinging the door open so hard it bounces off the wall.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Rick’s voice asks behind me as I stand, hands on hips and breath like I just ran the London marathon but normally smoke twenty a day.
Spinning on my heels, I say, “Me? What’s the fuck wrong with me he asks. Did you not hear what happened in there?”
“Of course I did. From what I understand, you now have a witness and evidence of what we suspected all along. This is good, Seb.”
“Good? This is not fucking go—” I stop as Jamie steps outside, walking with purpose towards me. “Do not come any closer,” I warn her, but of course she fucking ignores me.
Stepping into my space, she reaches out a hand and touches my cheek, but I tilt my head away, not looking at her.
“Seb, look at me.” I don’t, instead I look at Rick, who just shakes his head. “Seb,” Jamie says again, sterner this time.
My eyes flick to hers, and that split second of contact breaks my restraint. Clutching her arms, pulling her tight to me, I say, “What you did was stupid and fucking beyond reckless, Jamie. What the hell were you thinking?” I watch as Rick slips back inside, leaving us alone to fight.
“Maybe that you needed Natalia, and I know you were worried about her and felt guilty for not helping before. I was trying to help. I did help, and I don’t care what you say or what you think or even how mad you are at me. All I know is Natalia is not in the hands of some perverted arsehole tonight but safe here with us. If that makes you angry, then tough fucking shit, Seb. I’ll put a fucking stamp on it and own that shit. If I thought I could have got away with it, I would have bought every single fucking one of those poor girls tonight,” she says, her voice breaking.
“Fuck!” is all I say because I’m so pissed at her, but I’m so fucking in love with her. Now is not the time for blurting that shit out, so instead I crush my mouth to hers and hope she feels it.
She melts in my arms, and my anger slowly dissolves with every sweep of her tongue, bite of her lip and beat of her heart, which I can feel thumping against my chest.
Drawing my lips away from hers, I rest my head on hers. “I’m mad at you. So fucking mad, Firefly. You took a huge risk tonight. One that could have got us killed. Got you killed, Jamie. Don’t ever do that again.”
She frowns, then says, “This is me. This is who I am, Seb. Take me or leave me, but I’ll never be anything other than myself.”
“I’ll take you anyway I can.” Jamie lets out a snort of laughter, and in a second I catch on to what I said. “Hey, now. I was being serious. But that way is true too,” I tell her before I drop my lips back to hers.
She pulls away too quickly, and before things go too far. It’s a good job one of us is thinking straight.
“Come on, we should get back inside. I want to check on Natalia,” she says, grabbing my hand and turning towards the house.
I get why she did what she did, but I’m still pissed at her for putting herself at risk like that. I don’t give a shit about myself, but Jamie? I’ll destroy the world to protect her.
