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She didn’t seem the least bit concerned that she would get caught as she typed away.From what I could hear, it was as if her fingers were typing a thousand words a minute.Maybe they were.Just listening made me dizzy.
“The product was purchased with an offshore account from the Caymans,” she said, still humming away.More typing and then an amused laugh filled my ear.“Those fuckers think they are so smart.Idiots.Their firewalls are nothing.I should rebuild their security system too and send them the bill.”
“Mieke.”I pulled her focus back to the current situation.“The account holder, Mieke.”
“Right.Sorry.The name on the account is…” She muttered an expletive and stopped typing.“I really hope Potential Daddy Number Two isn’t Nishia’s father, Jack.Because he’s the one who bought the microchip.I’m looking at his account transactions right now, and it looks like that wasn’t the only activity he’s had recently.”
“What do you mean?”I asked, shifting my gaze to Nishia and leaving it there as a cold chill skittered up my spine and dread filled me.
“I know who took Nishia.”
CHAPTERNINE
nishia
My foot was elevatedin some kind of sling thing attached to the ceiling over my hospital bed.It was annoying and made the rest of my leg ache.The doctor said it was only for a few days, but it’d been a week and my skin was itchy and I hated the thick hair that had grown on my legs.
I couldn’t wear pajamas over it because I didn’t have any, so I was stuck with the stupid backless gown the nurses helped me change into after they reluctantly assisted me with a shower every other day.They gave me a second one to wear like a robe so my ass wasn’t exposed, because I didn’t have underwear either.
All I had was in that small, albeit private, hospital room.A toothbrush and travel tube of toothpaste that a nurse offered one morning before she had hastily scurried away, as if her hair would catch on fire if she spent too much time in my room—something I’d noticed all the nurses did when it came to having to deal with me.I also had the scratchy gowns and fuzzy blue socks with the sticky white tread on the bottom so I didn’t slip and slide when I hobbled on one foot to the bathroom with the nurse’s aide’s help.
And Jack.
I had Jack.
He didn’t leave unless it was to take a call.Every meal, he ate beside me, having food brought in by guys who wore leather vests with an Angel’s Halo MC insignia on the back.Even without the aid of my glasses, I saw that some of them had the same green eyes as Jack, and I could tell they were related in some way.Every now and then, a woman would bring him a change of clothes.He showered in my little bathroom.
He was always there when I needed him.
And I always needed him.
Between the nightmares that I knew were more memories than something my subconscious made up and the pain that twisted my entire body—including my mind at times—he was the peace that always soothed what was broken inside me.
What was I going to do when I was released from the hospital and Jack wasn’t there any longer?
His mother, Gracie, stopped by to check on me once a day, usually after dinner.She was a lawyer in town, but she was the one responsible for making Sanctuary possible.Up close, I could see a little of her in some of Jack’s features.It was the kindness in her eyes that sucked me in, made me want to believe her when she said everything was going to be okay now.
After explaining what Sanctuary was, and how they helped women in need, she’d promised me that I had a place to stay once I was cleared by the doctors.But even though it was reassuring to know I wouldn’t be homeless, that I would have a bed to sleep in, I wasn’t concerned about that in the least.
My mind kept wondering where Jack would be when I was released and had to go to Sanctuary.My hero, my security blanket, would be gone.How would I make it through the night without him holding my hand?What would I do when the nightmares became too much and he was no longer there to awaken me by stroking my hair back from my face, his rough, callused fingers oddly soothing on my skin?
I dreaded each time the doctors said I was making progress and would be out of there soon.
But I didn’t have the courage to ask where Jack lived, where he would be once I was no longer his problem.
Which was exactly what I happened to be to him.
From what I’d overheard from the nurses, and the little Jack had told me about himself, I knew that he worked at Sanctuary.He helped his mother as much as he could, while also running a family-owned business with his cousin and uncles in town.There was never any talk of where he lived—or with whom.
This was just part of the job.I was Sanctuary’s newest charity case, and he was helping because that was what he was supposed to do.But when the time came and I was released from the hospital, I would no longer be his responsibility.He would return to his home and whoever was waiting for him there.Perhaps even to the woman who brought him clothes…
A shadowy figure played through my head, and I began to shudder at the thought of being touched.Of being looked at.His laughter replayed in my head, and I felt ill.
An image of Jack with his huge body, dark ink, and kind eyes pushed the shadow back into the box where the devilish entity belonged.Jack would protect me from the shadows and anything else.
I only needed Jack.
But Jack wasn’t mine.
