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“He said my dad didn’t respond either.”
I gently wrapped my fingers around her arm, avoiding the bruises the best I could, but she didn’t flinch. I didn’t want to tell her that he hadn’t responded and decided at that moment that I wasn’t going to be the one to break her heart. “Don’t know anything about that, baby.”
She shifted her attention to stare across the room, and I closed my eyes. “I told him my father wasn’t going to pay and that you didn’t have that kind of money, but he said you did and that he’d been wrong thinking somebody would want me back.”
“I was coming for you.” I stood and leaned over the bed, pushing strands of her hair out of her face. “I drove all over four fucking towns trying to find you as soon as Rachel called and told me you never got home.” Leaning down, I laid my lips against her forehead. “I promise you I wasn’t going to stop until I found you.”
She turned her head and stared into my eyes, but hers held no warmth. They were blank. “It doesn’t matter, Tank.”
“Jane…”
We both turned to face the door when it pushed open. I tensed when I watched a man and a woman, who could only be her parents, walk into the room, their eyes shifting between us. I pushed off the bed and stood straight, but there was no way in hell I was moving any farther from her side.
“Jane.” Her mother hurried to her side and reached for her hand, but she flinched when she saw the bandages. “What happened to your hands?”
“I had to climb out of a broken window,” Jane answered very matter-of-factly.
“The police are searching for the man who did this.” Her eyes slid to her father, who stood at the foot of the bed when he spoke. “He will be found and prosecuted.”
“I’m sure he will be,” she replied, but something had changed. She wasn’t speaking to them like she did on the phone the day I found her. She was distant. She was saying exactly what they wanted to hear, but even they looked unsure.
She lifted her hand and gestured toward me. “This is Tank. He’s the man who gave me a ride the day of Emily’s wedding.”
Her mother glanced at me, but her father ignored me entirely. He didn’t seem to realize that shit didn’t bother me, but it was annoying Jane.
“You could thank him for that.” Her mother glanced at her father while Jane spoke. “He made sure I was safe.”
When her father only glared at her, Jane’s mother answered. “You were safe at the wedding. You made the choice to leave, Jane.”
I stared at Jane while she studied them, and then I saw it. It was slight, and if I hadn’t been paying attention, I would’ve missed the hurt in her eyes, but she blinked it away almost immediately.
Pissed that she was lying in a hospital bed and they were still blaming her for shit, I decided I was done. “You need to leave.”
“Excuse me?” Her mother glared at me. “You have no right to say that to us. We’re her parents.”
Reaching down, I wrapped my hand around Jane’s forearm and faced her father. “You had every chance to prove that in the past three days. But you didn’t.”
“I wasn’t giving in to the demands of some lowlife thug.” He finally let the hate he felt for me shine through, and it was obvious from his expression that he also considered me a lowlife thug. “I had my best men on it. I’m confident had she not found a way out on her own, they would’ve found her.”
“What if they hadn’t?”
“Jane put herself in that situation by being where she was. Had we known she was spending time with a motorcycle club, we would’ve put a stop to it before something like this happened.” He shifted his stare to Jane. “Unfortunately, there are consequences to our choices, which proves that.”
“Leave.”
My head snapped toward Jane when she uttered that one very significant word.
“Jane—” Her mother began, but she was interrupted.
“Now.” She attempted to point at the door. “And just go home. I don’t need any of you here.”
Her father took a few steps back. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is.” Her voice turned cold. “Thank you for coming to see me.”
“Jane,” her mother scolded. “We came here to make sure you’re okay and take you home with us.”
“I’m not going home with you,” Her eyes slid to mine. “Any of you. I made it out of that basement alive, and I did it on my own. If I can do that, I can make the changes I need to make so I can live a life I’m proud of, and I plan to do that on my own too.”
