He laughs. “You been looking for me, girlie? I knew you liked me.”
“I maybe went back to his apartment a few,”hundred, “times in the last few months. You didn’t answer your door.”
“You went to the shitty side of town to knock on the door of a man you don’t know? A man strong enough to carry Bishop’s heavy ass up a flight of stairs.” He shakes his head. “Fuckin’ danger magnet. Don’t do that shit again, Jess. It’s dangerous.”
“Oh, heavens above.” White faced, Dolly clutches at her chest and ruins her‘I’m not watching, I’m minding my own business’act.
I shrug. “I’ve got my bodyguard there. And my gun. And Spence’s‘we’re all going to war tomorrow so you better be ready’training. I was fine. In fact, I didn’t feel unsafe at all. I think I’ve maybe become immune to danger.”
“Immune? No.” He scoffs like the sugar packets offend him. Or maybe it’s me that offends him. “Stupid? Yup.”
Annoyed, I turn back to my milkshake. “Whatever. I didn’t invite you to sit down, so, ya know, if you were planning to move along…”
“Oh, for god’s sake.” Dolly stands in front of us with a sour expression. “Boy, you’re taking too damn long with this story. Shake your ass!”
“Woman, I’m trying to prepare her, but she keeps derailing me with dumb shit!”
“Prepare?” She scoffs. “She’s a damn machine. She’ll be fine. Baby girl, don’t freak out, okay?”
“I–”
“Make your move, boy, or I’ll kill you myself.”
Heat pulses at my back, then a strong hand wraps around the back of my neck until his thumb presses where a tiny silvered scar used to be. It’s gone now. It was such a thin line. So insignificant that it disappeared within weeks of Kane’s death. I sobbed all over again when I realized it was gone.
“Blondie.” His deep voice, tender and rough in one, slides through my ears and lances straight into my heart. “Don’t freak out. Just relax a second.”
I freak. I spin. And when I come eye-to-eye with a glittery black stare, I burst into tears and collapse against his strong chest.
Too weak to fight it, too tired to beat back my official slide into insanity, I clutch at the enigma in front of me and pray I don’t wake any time soon.
I’m asleep.
It’s not real.
But he feels so real.
He smells so real.
Hunching, he buries his face in my neck and peppers kisses along my skin. “It’s okay, Jessie. It’s okay. Don’t cry.”
“You died.”
“I’m right here, beautiful. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for hurting you.”
“You’re haunting me. You won’t let me go!”
“No, I won’t let you go. I won’t let you fall. You’re mine.”
“It hurts.” Howling, I scrunch his shirt in my fists and headbutt his collarbone until my hat flips off. “You’re not here. You’re teasing because I fell asleep with your file.”
“No, Blondie. I’m right here. I promise I’m here. And I do love you. I know you think I didn’t say it before, so you think I don’t love you back. I do. I promise I do. I promise my heart to you.”
“You died. I saw you. I saw you in the club. I felt the bullets hit your back. Ifeltthem. Then the…” It hurts too much to remember. “The other one. The one that…” Killed you. “It got my arm.” I wildly swing my now healed arm up to show him. “It got you, then it got me. And now you’re gone and you’re haunting me.”
“No, beautiful.” He kisses my arm. “I’m not haunting you. I’m right here.”
“I saw you!” I let anger overtake the grief. I let it fuel me. Pushing off his chest, I stare right into the eyes I saw die in a fiery club. “I saw you! You looked right at me.” Snot dribbles along my lips. I’m a mess, but I’ve officially stepped over the edge and I don’t care. “I’m so angry at you! You left me and now I’m angry.”