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“You live alone?”She frowned.“But the woman who brings…”
My brows lifted when she didn’t finish her sentence, and it took me a second to figure out who she was talking about.“Marcy?”
Nishia shrugged.“I don’t know her name.She doesn’t speak to me when she brings you fresh clothes.”
“Marcy is the cook at Sanctuary.She was one of our first residents way back when.I was a kid at the time.Sometimes our residents move on, and others stay in the area.Marcy married another resident, and they both decided to stay local.Mom hired her to be the cook, and Delilah works at the garage my grandpa co-owns.She’s a hell of a mechanic.”
Her nose scrunched up.“I thought Marcy was your…your…”
A surprised laugh left me.“No way, little fairy.Marcy didn’t introduce herself because she didn’t want to overwhelm you.She knows how hard it is to recover from…” I clenched my jaw and shook my head.“She just understands a little of what you have been going through and chose to let you rest.She knew she would meet you once you were back at Sanctuary.”
Nishia’s face smoothed out, and she gave me a tight-lipped smile.“Oh.”
“Now you can relax about leaving.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, her cheeks practically blazing from a blush.“I can relax a little more now.”
CHAPTERELEVEN
nishia
Slowly,I took in the house Jack had just pulled a truck up in front of.I knew the vehicle belonged to Sanctuary because the name was wrapped across the front and back doors of the oversized, yet oddly enough, energy-efficient mammoth of a truck.It was fitting since Jack was so large he took up most of the front, but he’d driven it with ease, so I hadn’t been nervous.
As someone who was mainly used to crowded subway travel, I found being inside the truck a new experience, one I was still trying to comprehend.
After I was released from the hospital earlier that morning, Jack put me in the truck and then drove me to a local optometrist, where the doctor had not only given me an exam, but was able make my glasses within an hour.Now everything was so much clearer, but Jack was still my sweet, gentle, gigantic bear.Only it was easier to see just how beautiful he was without having to be so close to him.
He’d used a keypad on the dash screen to unlock the main gates that had slid open noiselessly.It was a bit of a drive up to the house, but I saw that the grounds were basically immaculate.And then I’d seen the house…mansion…and I was unable to contain my gasp.The outside looked like it had a Mediterranean style.Apparently everything that Jack touched was massive, because the mansion was three stories and seemed to go on and on in three different directions.
“Don’t let the outside fool you.When we first bought this place when I was a kid, it was falling apart.Barker & Reid Construction, which is MC-owned and run, fixed it up for Mom.We turned the majority of the interior into suites for our initial residents on the second and third floors, but there are a few on the first floor too.And, of course, my apartment in the basement.California doesn’t normally have basements because of the whole earthquake thing, but for whatever reason, this house had one, and the construction team was able to reinforce the structure to ensure it was safe.Then later, when some of the women wanted to remain local but were still too nervous to leave the property, we built the cabins so they could feel like they had a more permanent place.”
Jack pointed to something in the distance, but I was too entranced by the intricate detailing of the dark ink on his arm to follow where he indicated.“At the moment, we have ten cabins, and Mom is talking about building five more.We just need to clear out those trees and expand the security fence before we can start construction on them.”
“H-how do you keep up with everything that must go into maintaining a shelter of this capacity?”I asked in awe.
He grimaced.“My mom inherited a lot of money.But she thought of it as tainted, until this place went on the market and she got the idea to start a shelter for women in need of a safe place to recover and start a new life.We also have a few sponsors who have helped a lot over the last decade or so.”
Reaching over the console, he unbuckled my seat belt and carefully let it slide back while giving me a smile.My heart did a funny little flip at the sight of it.That smile only emphasized how beautiful he was, and I’d been seeing more and more of it.What had started out as just the ghost of a twitch when I first met him was now full-on smiles multiple times a day.
“Hang tight, little fairy.I need to help you out since they haven’t put you in a boot yet.”
Since my teeth were still wired together, and apparently would stay that way for at least another seven weeks, I couldn’t really return the smile, but I nodded as he slid out from behind the wheel and shut his door before walking around to the passenger side.
Behind him, the front door to the mansion opened just as he reached in to lift me out of my seat.My uninjured arm went around his shoulders, and he stepped back just as a little girl in pigtails shut the door for him.
“Hi, Mr.Jack.I’m so glad you’re back.We missed you around here.It was kinda boring.”Her pigtails swung as she danced around him, looking up at me with wide eyes.“Who are you?”
“Molly, this is Nishia,” Jack introduced as he started up the front steps.“She’s a new friend who will be staying with us.”
“Who did that to your face?”Molly asked as Jack kept walking.“Was it your husband?Does it hurt?”
Between Molly’s questions and the swiftness of Jack’s strides, I didn’t get to see much of the interior as he walked toward the back of the house.
“My daddy hit my mommy and hurt her really badly.She was in the hospital for a while.You look like you should be in the hospital too.”
“Molly, maybe don’t share what happened to your mom with complete strangers,” Jack advised.
“But you just said she was a new friend,” the little girl reasoned.
