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Running my fingers through my still-wet hair, I plop down on the couch and text her.
Me: Hey, sweets. Did you make it home okay?
I don’t expect a reply because she has to hide the phone, and I’m sure her mother is badgering her with questions. Shit, what if she found out that Jordyn came home early? Is she safe there? My heart rate kicks up, and I will myself to calm down. I hope my brothers and their wives have a solution because I can’t live without her.
“Where’s Jordyn?” Alyssa asks. “I thought she’d be here.”
“That’s why you’re all here,” I tell them. My living room is packed with my brothers and their wives on their laps, and my cousin Ramsey and her husband, Deacon, are sitting the same way. We brought the chairs in from the kitchen, because my house is not big enough to hold all of us now that we’re growing. However, from the looks on my brothers’ faces, they're not the least bit upset to have their wives on their laps.
“What’s going on, Ry?” Orrin, my oldest brother, asks, as he wraps his arms around his wife, Jade, and pulls her back to his chest.
Envy washes over me. My girl should be here. “Jordyn’s back.”
“And you spent the rest of the weekend with her,” Archer fills in. He and his new wife leave for their honeymoon in the morning. I hate that I’m dropping this on them before they leave, but they need to hear this too. I need all the help I can get.
“I did.” Leaning forward, I drop my elbows to my knees and run my fingers through my hair. “I don’t even know where to start,” I say, keeping my eyes locked on my sock feet.
“The beginning,” Ramsey says softly. “We’re here. None of us are in a hurry to leave. Just start talking, Ry, and we’ll figure out whatever it is that’s eating away at you.”
“I love her.” It feels important that I start with those three words. It’s not new information. They all know I’ve been holding on to us and what we had until she came home to me.
“We know, brother,” Sterling says gently.
“Why did she leave?” Palmer asks.
“It’s a fucked-up story.” That’s the only warning I give them before launching into everything I learned about Jordyn and her family from the moment I stepped foot into her hotel room late on Saturday night.
“Damn,” Maverick mutters.
“What does this have to do with why she left?” Merrick asks.
“She wasn’t going to leave. She was going to turn down the internship. She didn’t want it anymore.” I go on to tell them how she made the decision and spilled to her cousin, who reported back to her mother.
“Fuck,” Archer comments.
“That’s not the worst of it. Her mother threatened her. She threatened us, your businesses.” I make eye contact with everyone in the room. “Jordyn was protecting us. Protecting me and our family. That’s why she left. Her mother was monitoring her phone.”
“That’s another level of crazy,” Brooks says.
“Yeah, I bought her a burner phone at the airport. I texted her earlier but haven’t heard from her. She’s sure her mom will have seen the text she sent me Saturday, telling me she was back in town, and I don’t know what to do. Is she okay? They won’t hurt her, right? I mean, they didn’t set out for their son to get killed. It just happened, but fuck me, I’m scared for her.”
“Our family is well-known,” Orrin says. His tone tells me he’s taking this threat seriously. Not that I expected anything less from him, or any of them.
“She can try to ruin us,” Declan chimes in.
“She can. You didn’t see the fear in Jordyn’s eyes. She was trembling with it. I’ve been trying to think of a solution. Something to take her down, but all I can think of is Jordyn and I packing up and leaving.”
“No” comes from Brooks. “That’s not the answer, brother,” he says.
“There is no answer!” I shout. “Help me,” I plead with the room. “I have to get her away from them and leaving her is not an option.”
“We don’t expect you to walk away from her, Ry,” Sterling says calmly. “Not a single one of us sitting in this room wants that for you.”
“We were mad at her,” Alyssa speaks up. “We hated to see you hurting, but I think I can speak for everyone when I say that her willingness to not only protect you but our family gives her a free pass.”
They all murmur their agreement, and the pressure in my chest eases just slightly. I open my mouth to say what, I’m not sure, because my phone beeps, alerting me to a message. Everything in my mind drifts away, and all I can think about is Jordyn. Is this her? I stand and dig my phone out of my pocket and sigh when I see her name on the screen. “It’s her,” I tell them, knowing they’re all wondering.
