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I stare at her as I consider her offer. I could go for takeout. It would probably be quicker too. “Okay.” I run a hand over my jaw. “What do you feel like?”
“A big dirty burger,” she grins. “And a Coke.”
“Dirty burger and a Coke,” I nod. “I’ll be back in fifteen.”
I open the door with the bag of takeout in my hand, and the first thing I notice is that Jessie isn’t lying on the bed. I step inside. She’s not in the room.
“Jessie,” I shout as I head to the bathroom, but the door is open and I already know instinctively that she’s not in there. My heart drops through my chest. The first opportunity she got, she ditched me. How the fuck does this girl keep making a fool out of me?
“Fuck,” I shout, punching the bathroom door and putting a hole right through it, just as I hear voices outside.
The door opens and Jessie is standing there with an old lady with gray hair. “Here he is. I’m sure Conor will be able to sort it for you,” Jessie says as she smiles at me.
“What?” I can’t help but frown as adrenaline is still thundering around my body.
“This is Barbara from down the hall. She can’t get the faucet to turn on and there is no one at the desk. I tried, but it’s stuck fast. You think you can take a look?”
I take a deep breath and will my heart to stop racing. “Yeah. Course,” I say walking out of the room and along the corridor behind Jessie and Barbara.
A few minutes later, I’ve fixed the stuck faucet and Jessie and I walk back to our room after Barbara insists that I take a packet of M&M’s for my trouble. As soon as the door is closed behind us, I pull her into my arms. “Don’t disappear on me like that again, Angel,” I warn her.
“I’m sorry. But she knocked, and she needed help. I was only a few minutes.”
“I thought you’d left, Jessie. Or something had happened to you.” I swallow the emotion that wells up into my throat.
“I’m not going anywhere, big guy,” she smiles at me and I press a kiss on her forehead.
“Good. Now let’s eat before I fucking pass out.”
We finally sit down at the small table and Jessie takes the food out of the bag. It smells incredible and my stomach growls in agreement. We eat in silence for a few moments and I can sense the tension growing in the small room. She looks across at me and I know the question is coming.
“What happened after I left?”
“We didn’t kill him,” I tell her. “When you left, I don’t know, maybe we got distracted. Your father–”
“He’s not my father,” she interrupts me.
“Alexei got out of there. Him and a few of his men.”
“And the rest?”
“Dead. He basically used them as human shields. Didn’t you know he was still alive?”
She shakes her head. “No. I ran here and then I haven’t even opened a laptop or been online at all. I didn’t even have a smartphone. I wanted to leave it all behind. I thought perhaps if I tried to be this completely different person, he would never find me.”
I finish my burger and wipe my hands on a napkin. “You really didn’t want anyone to find you? You’d rather have stayed in Arizona?”
“Well, I thought so. But then you showed up and I now all I can think about is how much I’ve left behind. And how much Alexei Ivanov has already taken from me. Not just my family, but the new family I’d found too,” she says as tears form in her eyes.
I reach out and place my hand over hers. “Your new family is still right here, Angel.”
“Some of you are,” she sniffs.
I lean back in the chair. Shane. She worries so much about what he thinks of her, but then we all do. He's the head of the family, after all. My brothers and I can’t stand to disappoint him, and it seems that Jessie feels exactly the same. I wish I could help her understand him a little more, then she would see how much she means to him. But it’s something she needs to figure out on her own.
She wipes her eyes and pushes her chair back, leaving her half-eaten burger on the table. “Thanks for dinner. I’m going to grab a quick shower. I feel sticky,” she says, bending to give me a kiss on the cheek.
I watch her walking away, contemplating following her in there, but I get the sense she wants to be alone.
