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Her mother frowned. “I think you’re making a big mistake.”
“Let me know where you’re staying.” Her father cut her off. “I’ll make sure you have round-the-clock security until this man is caught.”
Jane nodded slowly. “Thank you.”
“I’ll call you in a few days. After you’ve had time to rest.” Her mother sighed, but Jane only stared at her.
Without so much as a hug, they both turned and left the room. I wouldn’t have expected Jane’s family, with all their wealth and social standing, to be as bad as the shitty family I came from, but they were. Or maybe they’re worse. Because at least my family never pretended to be something they weren’t.
“You too.” Her eyes flicked up to meet mine after the door closed behind them. “I mean it.”
“No, you don’t.” I placed my palms on either side of her head and leaned in close. “And I’m not leaving you alone to deal with all of this.”
She shrugged as best she could, but she was losing some of her bravado. “Why not?”
I decided to be honest with her. I had nothing to lose. I knew the minute I found out she was missing that there was a lot more between us than just chemistry because of the way I reacted.
“Because I lost my fucking mind when I couldn’t find you.” My eyes flicked between hers. “You ended this, and I understand why, but we are not over, Jane. I’m not going to let you throw away whatever the hell we are because you’re scared. We’re gonna figure it out.” Her eyes filled with tears, but she swallowed them back. “I’m not leaving you.”
“I think it’s better for me if we just part ways now.”
“That’s not better for either of us, princess.”
This time tears flooded her eyes, and I leaned in to softly lay my lips against hers. She sighed, and a huge sense of relief hit me. She might be cold and distant with her parents, but she wasn’t with me, which meant she hadn’t given up on me.
And that was all the sign I needed to start to fix what I fucked up.
There was another knock on the door, and I pushed off the bed just as it opened. Bree stuck her head in and caught my attention. “Can we come in?”
I nodded and watched Bree, Harper, Sydney, Maddie, Charlie, Grace, and Becs all walk in, followed by Rachel.
“Oh my god, Jane.” Bree rushed to her side. “I can’t believe this happened to you. How are you?”
“Okay.” She smiled softly at Bree, which was a hell of a lot more than she’d given anyone else. “Just tired.”
“Are you in pain?” Becs moved to the side I was standing on and gave me a look that clearly told me she wanted me to move. I lifted my eyebrows to let her know that wasn’t happening, and she rolled her eyes but stood next to me.
“Not right now.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t remember much,” she admitted. “Not of the accident anyway. I just remember waking up in that basement.”
“We heard you crawled out through a broken window.” Becs smiled. “You’re like a freakin’ ninja or something.”
Jane’s smile grew, but when she laughed, an ache settled in my chest, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. “I don’t think climbing through a window makes me a ninja, but I appreciate that.”
“It does, actually.” Harper spoke up from where she stood at the bottom of the bed, sandwiched between Grace and Charlie. “I’ve climbed out windows before. It’s not as easy as people think.”
Bree frowned. “That wasn’t the same thing. You were trying to ditch a guy you didn’t like. Jane was saving her life.”
Harper smirked. “I was saving myself from what would’ve been about ten minutes of terrible sex, so I think that counts.”
Bree shook her head, but the other girls laughed, and Jane joined in. She needed this. She needed her girls to let her know they were here for her and had her back. This was exactly what she was missing in the fucked-up world she lived in with her family.
I stayed while they talked, and the more they did, the easier Jane’s laughter became. She trusted them.
She used to trust me, but somehow in all of this that was lost.
