“No.”
“For fuck’s sake, Toby. Just do what’s best for her.”
“I am,” I growl. “Now get out. Jesse is on his way. You can trust me with her.” I hold her eyes steady, begging for her to just believe me and leave me alone with my girl.
“Fine. But I swear to all that is holy, if you hurt a single hair on her head, I will come after you myself. Jesse has taught me to shoot, you know.” She narrows her eyes in warning, and it takes everything in me not to laugh at how cute she looks, threatening me.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I somehow manage to force out, keeping my tone flat.
“She’s going to kill me for this,” she mutters as she pushes the door open.
“I’ll wait until you’re inside.”
“Stop playing the nice guy. It makes it hard to keep hating you so much.”
“I am a nice guy,” I argue, although I immediately cringe at trying to be the one thing I’ve hated being called almost all my life.
“Hmm…” she mumbles, but thankfully she takes off toward the door at the side of the building.
“Toby,” a soft voice whispers beside me.
“I’m here, baby,” I say, lacing my fingers through hers when she lifts her hand from her lap. My heart tumbles at that small contact with her as she feeds my addiction, my obsession. “I’m going to take you home. Look after you, okay?”
“I missed you,” she confesses, turning the air around us so thick I can hardly breathe.
“Fuck, baby. I’ve missed you too,” I finally manage to get out, but it’s too late. Her hand has already gone limp in mine, and when I look over, she’s unconscious once more.
After what she just went through, it’s probably for the best, but damn if I don’t want to hear her voice again.
It pains me not to turn toward our side of the city and head for home. Every inch of me craves to close my flat door behind us and just keep her with me until I find a way to prove to her that I’m not the monster I showed her I can be last week.
But I’m not Theo, and I’m not going to lock her up in my castle like some damsel in distress. As much as I might want to keep her all to myself, it’s not going to win me any points in the forgiveness department.
So I force myself to do the right thing, and I head toward the place where I know she’ll feel at home and be comfortable when she wakes and remembers what happened.
The door opens long before we make it up the path toward the house.
“What’s happened? What’s wrong? Is she okay?”
“I’m fine,” Jodie mumbles as she snuggles into my chest and Joanne runs toward us in her pyjamas, her eyes wide in fear.
“What’s happened?”
“It’s okay,” she says again, her voice hollow, void of any kind of emotion.
“I’m gonna take her up to bed. Can you make her a hot drink or something?” I ask, sensing that she needs to be kept busy.
Joanne stares at me, her lips opening and closing.
“She’s okay, I promise,” I assure her, refraining from telling her that things could be very different right now if it had taken me just ten more seconds to get to her.
“Her bedroom is the first on the right.”
“Thank you,” I say, holding Jodie tighter against my chest as I begin to climb the stairs.
“I can walk,” she mumbles, although she makes no effort to actually fight me.
“I know, but you don’t have to right now. Let me take the weight.”