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Her whispered, “I’m not sure it ever will be,” damn near destroyed him.
He just held her on his lap until the hired car pulled to a stop. Jarrod kissed her mouth quickly. He just couldn’t help himself. “Come on, babe. Your friends are waiting.”
She pulled in a shuddering breath. Her hand twisted in the material of his T-shirt. Right over his heart. She clung to him for just half a moment.
And he knew—that was when he knew—she was hiding exactly how she felt. Keeping it inside. To protect herself from the hurt. Jarrod pulled her close and kissed her one more time.
He would protect her forever. No matter what.
50
“Hey. How is rabbit sitting going?” A hard hand slapped him on the back once Jarrod followed his little rabbit up the long drive to where her lady lackeys waited under the ridiculously large portico leading to Victor Scott’s evil lair.
Jarrod just grunted and turned to the other men. He felt raw, no denying that. No way he was letting these guys know that, though. “My least favorite part of the job.”
“Do you have any favorite part?” Dom asked from the other side of Jake.
“Clocking out at the end of the day.” Jarrod shot the other two men a glare. He still felt a little unsettled. Holding her while she had been hurting like that stung. “And badge bunnies. Those are…fun.”
Not that he’d ever been in to women who drooled over the badge like that. Jarrod far preferred women of substance. Like the women gathering in front of the doors to Victor Scott’s mausoleum. He just watched them now.
“Anything from Hal?” Jake asked, studying her for a moment. “She’s anxious about this, isn’t she? She’s more jittery than normal.”
“I’m surprised you noticed. How perceptive.” But Jarrod saw exactly what the other man meant. Haldyn had checked her watch a good six times since he had looked at her.
That was one of her tells. He strongly suspected that woman had some serious anxiety. She had tells, too. Just like Gabby had. It had taken him too damned long to realize that. Gabby’s main tells were talking and pacing. Chattering. Haldyn’s was that damned watch. And just watching everyone. Because she was afraid.
Haldyn wasn’t Gabby. Her anxiety was far more contained. No—hidden. She did what she could to hide it. He suspected if it had shown as a child—her father would have beaten it out of her. Jarrod despised that man more than words could say. If he ever came face-to-face with that man, Jarrod didn’t know how he would react.
It probably wouldn’t be good.
But checking that watch? No. It wasn’t that. Not the watch, exactly.
She looked at something under that watch. He knew what it was now.
The scar. Where her arm had been repaired years ago. He’d found it the night before. That was what it was.
She smiled at something Zoey said. Zoey had her hand on Haldyn’s shoulder. Comforting almost. Haldyn nodded. He’d noticed before—some of the more outgoing, bolder women in that group were protective of Haldyn. To a great extent.
He’d never figured out why. Unless it was that whole she-looked-so-helpless thing he’d always thought she had going on.
Maybe it was just the soft blue eyes that made her look that way. The vulnerability he had never really seen before. She was strong, though. Stronger than he thought she even knew.
He had missed that.
Maybe it was just Jarrod who had always seen her as vulnerable and helpless, and not the rest of the world?
Because something about her triggered something in him he hadn’t figured out yet.
Maybe that was what had made him so damned hostile in the beginning. He thought she needed rescued from life and it had sent his own emotions roiling?
It was possible.
Jarrod just watched the beautiful monsters as they waited for the realtor and Gunnar to arrive from their stop off at her house a few blocks away. In the light of day, realizing how close Scott’s place was to Powell’s, and Shelby’s, and Jake’s niece Izzie and her prissy rich doctor dude husband’s was chilling.
Evil living next door.
“Stressed over this shit. They shouldn’t be here.” Jarrod wanted her away from here. No denying that. He wanted his little rabbit back at the rich man’s castle, behind guarded walls. Then he wanted to go out there and fight all the dragons. Keep her safe forever.
