“Oh.”I let out a breath.“Kidnap?I thought you were going to kill me.”I put my hand over my racing heart.
“Kill you?That’s the last thing I want to do with you, little mouse.”
Again, that somehow sounds like a threat.My brain screams to run, but my body says to hear the man out.
“Maybe I should get that ride.”I point toward the front doors.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“My head hurts.I think I have a concussion from you tossing me around in your trunk,” I lie and wonder if there’s any way he’d actually believe me.“I promise I won’t sue if you just let me be on my merry way.It will be like I was never here.”
“A concussion is the last thing you’ll need to worry about if my associates find out what you might know.”I swallow as I realize I might be fucked.Both literally and figuratively.
Why can’t I keep my trap shut?
ChapterFour
GRAY
“Ican’t stay here.”All of Jade’s bravado has begun to dissolve, and I see the worry around her eyes.
“There’s nowhere safer than my home, and if I know about you poking around, then they certainly do.I know how to keep safe from them, but you’re too vulnerable.”
“But…” She tries to think of another argument, and it’s kind of adorable to watch her weave her ideas.“I don’t have any clothes.”
She says it as a “gotcha” moment, but I just shake my head.“I own a multi-billion-dollar company.I think I can afford a few cartoon T-shirts.”
“Hey!SpongeBobis a generational triumph.”
“I like the show.”I shrug, and she seems surprised by that admission.“Especially Mr.Krabs.”
“You would.”She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest.
“Have you eaten?”At the mention of food, her stomach growls, and I don’t need a heightened sense of hearing to know it.“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“I’m not staying.”She stomps her foot in the cutest way, and I wonder if I can get her to do it again.
“House, tell Francisco to make dinner for two,” I say, and the soft chime overhead sounds in receipt of the message.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”Jade looks up at the ceiling.“You just talk to your house like a dog or something?”
“More like a computer, but yes.”
“House, tell bossy Gray to let me go,” she says, but there’s no chime of confirmation.
“It likes me better than you,” I tease, and I realize I’m smiling.
What in the absolute fuck is happening to me?First I’m telling her to get in my bed, then I’m demanding she stay.Now I’m forcing dinner on the poor girl, but I can’t seem to stop.I’ve never felt as good as I do when I’m next to Jade.What I’m doing is selfish, but I don’t care.I’ve been so, so long without anything that created a positive emotion that I can’t let her go.Not yet.
What I told her about the Russians was real.I don’t know everything she heard, but it’s enough for them to want to keep her quiet.Permanently.The thought of losing Jade or something happening to her doesn’t sit right with me, and I won’t allow it to happen.Maybe I’m once again acting on my own selfish needs, but goddamn it, I won’t let them take her.She’s in deeper than she knows.
“You could at least give it a name if you’re going to boss it around,” she huffs.
“I tried, but nothing sounded right.”I shrug because it’s the truth.When I had the house designed, it was part of it, but I couldn’t decide on a name.“Maybe I should call it Jade so it does what I say.”
“That would be the only Jade that listens to you.”
“Dinner is ready,” the house says, and Jade scowls at me.