R.J. frowned. “I don’t want you alone with him.” His thumb brushed across my skin. “Tell me you’ll be smart. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I’m going to break off our engagement. The safest place to do that is in public.”
“Sounds risky.”
“Maybe.” I shrugged. “It’s the best option.”
“Tell me he doesn’t –”
Reaching upward, I placed a finger against his lips. “I can’t.”
I was in his arms two seconds later, my head cradled over his heart. Thumping beats raced beneath my ear as he sighed. “Fuck, Cara.”
“I know,” I whispered as he kissed the top of my head.
“Not anymore. Never again. Do you hear me?” R.J.’s eyes held a warning as I lifted my head. “I’m serious. You do what you have to do but you don’t let him near you. Keep a phone with you at all times. I don’t want you stranded without a way to contact me.”
“I promise.”
“Give me your phone.”
I handed it to him, watching as he typed info in and saved it. “I’m in your ICE list along with Rae and Edge. You can reach us all easily.”
“Thank you.”
“Max won’t get away with what he’s done. You understand that, right?”
I did. “Yeah.”
A silent agreement passed between us. Maxwell Forman would answer for his crimes when the time was right. I didn’t feel badly about it. Not at all.
Chapter 10 – Cara
“Hey, Cara.”
I looked up from my desk, shocked to find R.J. standing in my doorway. “You’re at my school.”
He chuckled at my response, holding up a lunch bag. “Technically, it’s my little goddaughter’s elementary. Leah rushed off without her lunch sack. Rae says she has pregnancy brain and can’t get a damn thing right anymore, so she never checked to see if Leah had it until she was already on the bus.”
Giggling, I shook my head. “I’ll walk you to Leah’s classroom.”
“I know where it’s at but come with me anyway.” A confident smile ghosted across his lips as I stood. “Happy to see me?”
He sure was laying it on thick.
“Maybe.” I lifted my chin and refused to meet that steady dark stare. “How have you been?”
It was only Tuesday. Three days since we last saw each other but it felt like weeks. Not that I would give him the satisfaction of knowing how much I’d missed him.
“Sad and lonely.” He tried to pout, and it just didn’t work.
“You’re too manly to pout. It looks like you’re about to murder someone instead.”
A loud laugh burst from his lips and he shook his head, his palm resting against my back as I approached and walked beside him. Shifting my body, I let his hand fall away, unable to hide a shiver.
“What’s that about?”
“Ask me some other time, okay?”