Axel sighed. “So, you think she’s going to be so grateful when we get her away from Randy like we’ll be her heroes, and she’ll just decide to stay?” He shook his head as his mouth twitched into a hint of a smile. “I hate to break it to you, but our girl is stubborn as hell. Not only that, but she has ambitious career plans. What can we offer instead?”
The answer was easy. I didn’t even have to take a second to weigh up our options.
“Love.”
“Really?” Axel seemed surprised. “Love? You’re ready to take it that far?”
“Hundred and ten percent. Aren’t you?” I didn’t dare take my eyes off Jeff’s ATV in front of us, but I was a little surprised that Axel hadn’t been the one to drop the L-bomb first.
It had been his idea to talk to Jasmine at the rehearsal dinner—and to keep talking until she gave in and listened to what we had to say.
Not only that, but we’d both apparently had crushes on her since forever, so it wasn’t like falling in love had happened out of the blue. It hadn’t seemed like it to me, anyway, more like the natural progression of things after finally getting a taste of what I’d wanted so badly for so many years.
“Yeah,” Axel answered after a few moments. “I am ready to take it that far. I guess I’ve been ready for a while, if I’m being honest. I just never thought it would be possible to get this close to her before this weekend.”
“Same,” I nodded. “I think we just got to convince her that we’re serious about being with her. Both of us. Permanently.”
“If risking our lives to drive out here with her crazy uncle isn’t proof enough, I don’t know what is.”
I laughed. “Good point. I just hope she’ll see it that way.”
First, though, we had to make sure she was okay.
Chapter Fourteen
Jasmine Bailey
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed or what Randy had been doing since he locked me in the tiny room.
It had definitely been more than an hour.
Probably.
Two hours? Three? I just didn’t know, but I barely even knew what day it was, having completely lost track of time since just about the time I woke up after the storm.
Too long. That was how much time passed, regardless of the actual number of minutes or hours. And I still didn’t have a good plan for getting away from him. The bedroom door locked from the outside, and the door itself seemed to be a solid piece of wood—not like the cheap, paper-thin stuff I was used to back in my apartment.
So forcing my way out—literally breaking through the door—was not an option.
Which meant there wasn’t much for me to do aside from lying on the dusty old mattress and pretending to sleep while I tried to come up with a plan.
I opened my eyes and quickly closed them again at the sound of Randy’s heavy footsteps outside the bedroom door.
Oh, God.
He wouldn’t leave me alone forever, but I wasn’t ready to deal with... whatever he had in mind already.
Not now.
Not yet.
“Wake up, my love,” he said, turning my stomach with the term of endearment. Had he genuinely convinced himself that we were in love? That I could ever love him? I didn’t even want to open my eyes and see him.
Maybe he’d leave me alone if I kept pretending to sleep.
“Time to wake up,” he repeated, not-so-gently nudging my leg with the tip of his boot.
So much for leaving me alone. And since I didn’t want to find out what would happen if he had to tell me a third time, I cracked an eye open to see him standing over me with a hungry glint in his eyes that seriously made me want to throw up.
“What do you want?” I moved my leg away from his foot just in case. “I’m exhausted, Randy. My head hurts, and I probably have a black eye from where you hit me earlier. Can’t I sleep for a while?”
It was all true enough—I absolutely was exhausted, and my face was definitely bruised—but I only wanted him to leave me alone.
Forever.
“You only have yourself to blame if you do have a black eye,” he shrugged. “I wouldn’t have had to hit you if you’d stayed out of my way.”
Right.
Because, of course, it was my fault that he’d backhanded me. How deluded was he? I honestly wasn’t even surprised.
“Anyway,” he continued when I rolled over onto my other side to face away from him, “I told you to get cleaned up and make yourself look nice for me. I didn’t want to come back and see you still wrapped in this damn blanket.”
Aside from quickly washing my face and hands after he’d left me alone earlier, I hadn’t moved from the mattress.