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“I’m always careful, Tristen. You should know that by now.”
He shook his head, muttering under his breath. “Don’t say I wasn’t looking out for your best interest. I’ll call the pilot, but first I’m getting some damn aspirin. Do you think you could just ask me a question before you start with fists flying next time?”
I half chuckled. I hadn’t gone off halfcocked since I was a nineteen-year-old asshole out to prove his worth. Tristen wasn’t my enemy, but it was obvious I also needed to send a clear message to my soldiers that fucking with me wasn’t in their best interest. With two men down, I could appear just weak enough someone was thinking about jumping ship. I’d need to find them as soon as possible.
“I’ll see what I can do.” I walked out, heading toward the other house. The walk would do me some good. What I needed was a chance to clear my head, even if the ache in my arm was increasing.
Pain meant nothing to me. I expected to feel it, deserved to wallow in it. I purported myself a businessman and had for years, trying to ignore I’d been more brutal than my father when I was younger.
I thought more about enlisting the help of the Brotherhood. Why the hell not? Before entering the house, I send a text to the others, requesting their arrival a day early. They had their own way of obtaining intel, which could prove to come in handy.
Then I walked inside, storming through the house when I didn’t find her immediately. As soon as I entered the kitchen, the sight of her struck me hard again. Whoever had tried to take would have ended her life.
Because of her connection with me.
Because the assholes wanted to destroy my world.
Before I had a chance to say anything, I realized she was crying, her shoulders heaving as the tears turned into sobs.
“Jade. Did something else happen?”
Startled by the sound of my voice, she did everything she could to wipe her face, but her soft whimpers gave her away. I moved toward the island, leaning against the edge.
“Just go away,” she pleaded.
“You know I can’t do that.” I walked closer and she shifted down the island, still rubbing her eyes.
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Let me see your wrist.”
“It’s fine.”
I gingerly pulled her arm into my hand, still forced to fight her when I tried to look at it. “Just a scrape.” She continued to fight me as I turned on the water, easing it under the cool stream.
“Ouch.”
“The bastard. I should have cut off his arm for hurting you.”
“You can’t go killing everyone who pisses you off but thank you for saving me.”
I sighed, reaching around her to yank off a paper towel, running it under water, very careful as I blotted the long scrape. “I told you that I’d do everything in my power to keep you safe.”
“None of this makes any sense,” she choked out.
“There’s no reason for you to cry, little one.”
“I’m not your little one or your sweet Jade or your anything,” she struggled, tears still slipping past her long lashes.
When I reached out, she recoiled, immediately closing her eyes. “Whatever I said in the middle of the night was just in a dream. I used to have them as a kid. That’s all it was. As I’ve told you before, I haven’t lied to you. We have a deal and if you would like, I’ll have my attorney prepare a contract. Whatever terms you’d like.”
She seemed confused, opening her eyes slowly, her brow furrowed. “I don’t believe you.”
“Maybe in time you will.” I brushed my knuckles down her face then pinched her chin between my thumb and forefinger. “I will do everything in my power to try and make you happy for the duration of the contract. However, you will not continue to disobey me. That wasn’t a random attack. I think you know that.”
“Something happened in your past that turned you this way. Didn’t it?”
I took a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds, snippets of the nightmare playing out in my mind. It was the same one I’d had years before, only this time played out differently. “We all have something in our past that haunts us. Nothing changed me, Jade. I was born into a family who refused to accept any weaknesses. That simply took away a portion of my childhood.”
