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I brush the tears from my eyes and smile at Conor who still watches me intently. That actually did make me feel better. Saying those things out loud made them seem less powerful. They are memories now. They do not define me. The Wolf and what he did to me will not define who I am.
Conor leans forward and takes both of my hands in his. “You are a goddamn warrior, Jessie. And when we find the Wolf, we will make him pay, Angel. I promise I would die before I let him ever touch you again.”
I lift his hand to my face and press a soft kiss on his knuckles. “You’d better not die, Conor Ryan. Not ever.”
“Well, I’ll certainly do my best, Angel,” he smiles at me.
Two hours later, I’m lying on the bed with Conor’s Glock beside me while he takes a shower. I still feel jumpy and anxious, but at least I can breathe now. We ate our takeout an hour ago, and I finally relaxed enough for him to consider leaving me alone for five minutes to take a shower.
I’m watching Fast and Furious, and although this is one of my favorite films, I am barely concentrating on it. When Conor walks back into the room a moment later, with a towel wrapped around his waist, some of the tension slips away from me again. Being around him makes me feel so much better. I feel completely safe when I’m with him, and I wasn’t sure I would ever experience that feeling ever again.
He dries himself off and pulls on a pair of shorts before lying on the bed beside me. He holds out his arm and I snuggle against his muscular chest, taking comfort from his warm skin against mine and the sound of his heartbeat against my ear.
“You okay, Angel?” he whispers as he pushes my hair back from my face.
“I am now.”
Chapter
Thirty-Five
CONOR
Iglance down at Jessie, fast asleep in my arms, and kiss the top of her head before moving her carefully off me. The panic and the terror in her face earlier scared the living shit out of me. This girl has balls of fucking steel. I have never seen her scared like that before, not even when I stuck a semi-automatic in her face that first day I met her. Not when those assholes tried to drag her into their truck the day before, or when we drugged her and kidnapped her. But today, she was genuinely, bone shaking terrified.
Sliding out of bed, I take my cell phone off the nightstand and walk to the bathroom to make a call so I don’t wake her.
Shane answers the phone on the second ring. “Hey. What’s up?”
“You answered that fast,” I say, glancing at my watch and seeing it’s almost 2am, but then my overprotective big brother rarely sleeps, and he sleeps even less when Jessie isn’t in his bed.
“I saw your name and wondered why you’re calling me at this hour of night.”
“Yeah, well. Something happened today, bro.”
“What now?” he asks, the edge audible in his voice.
“Jessie thought she saw the Wolf.”
“What? Where?”
“In a pickup in the parking lot of our motel. But he drove away and I’ve checked the lot a dozen times since and he hasn’t come back. I’m not sure it was him. I mean, how could he know we were here? And it’s some coincidence for her to just run into him otherwise.”
“Did you get a look at him? Did he seem like he recognized her?”
“I didn’t see anything. By the time she’d told me, the guy was long gone.”
“You think it was him?”
“I don’t know. But, fuck Shane, I have never seen our girl act like that before. She almost ran straight through me trying to get away. It was like she couldn’t even see me. I thought she was going to fucking pass out from terror.”
“Is she okay?” he asks, the concern in his voice clear to hear and I wish that she could realize just how much he cares for her.
“Yeah, she is now. She’s sleeping. You really got nothing on this Wolf guy yet? Or where he might be?”
“No. And if Jessie and Alexei have been looking for him for the past eight years and never come close to finding him, I don’t hold out much hope that I will. Not without Jessie’s help anyway. When will you be home?”
“Tomorrow night.”
