She frowned and wrapped her arms around herself in a protective gesture as she glanced over at the cops. “Can we leave yet?”
“Yeah. Barrett’s here now so he’ll take care of the cops.” He took her hand and pulled her into his arms, not caring who saw, not even Barrett. There was no one in their universe at that moment, just them.
Haley nodded and then pulled back and looked back at Granny and Ava. “Where are you guys staying?”
“With you guys of course.” Granny smiled wide.
“What?” Jayden froze.
“Barrett said we could all stay at his house.” Granny hooked her purse higher on her shoulder.
“I don’t think there’s enough room,” Jayden said too quickly.
“Sure there is.” Barrett appeared out of nowhere and spoke over Jayden’s shoulder. “It’s three bedrooms. Plus room in the RV. It’s not a bad idea to have more people around to protect Haley.”
Jayden opened his mouth to say speak, but really, what could he say to that?
#
“What the fuck happened to my door?” Barrett growled as he stood in front of the bedroom missing a door.
“The door was stuck,” Jayden muttered and looked away.
“That’s strange. As many years as I’ve owned this house I’ve never known this door to stick.” Barrett arched his brow. He knew when his Guardians were lying.
“Must be the humidity.”
“It’s spring. There is no humidity. Even in Arkansas.”
“I’m going to find some sheets for the couch.” Haley cleared her throat as she tried not to laugh.
“Look in the hall closet.” Barrett kept his gaze on Jayden.
“I’ll go help.” Jayden quickly followed.
He didn’t like it when his Guardians got personally involved while on a mission. Shit tended to go wrong when they didn’t have their head in the game.
“You going to tell me what’s going on?” Barrett kept his gaze on Jayden.
“It’s just a door. I’ll pay for it.”
“I’m not talking about the door. I’m talking about Haley and you. And what’s going on between the two of you.” Barrett had sensed something more was going on between the two from the few phone calls he’d had with his Guardian. But he didn’t have proof and he certainly had bigger issues to worry about than if Jayden was trying to get into Haley’s panties.
“I don’t want to see Haley get hurt.” Barrett cocked his head.
Jayden’s head snapped up, fierceness in his eyes. “I would never hurt Haley.”
“I’m not talking about physically. I mean emotionally. I don’t want you to break her heart. She’s younger than you, Jayden.”
“Jesus, don’t you think I know how old she is.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m sure after this is over she’ll want to get on with her life at college. She’ll have her freedom and the rest of her life to look forward to.”
Barrett gave him an assessing look. Jayden was clearly in turmoil. After he’d been rescued by his Guardians from his captors who had tortured him, Jayden had changed. His easygoing attitude and carefree lifestyle wasn’t there anymore. Jayden might have been pulled out of hell that night, but he had brought his demons with him. He’d known the full extent of Jayden’s injury from that one night in Louisiana.
“Does she know?” Barrett’s kept his voice calm and quiet. Although he knew everyone kept their distance when he was having a conversation with one of his men, he didn’t want the women to overhear.
Jayden frowned. “Know what?”
“How you feel about her?”
The look on Jayden’s face couldn’t have been more priceless. He looked like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Or Haley’s cookie jar to be more precise.
He opened his mouth and what came out surprised Barrett.
“She doesn’t know I’m in love with her.” He looked away, pain etched in his eyes. But Barrett knew it was a different kind of pain from what he’d been dealing with over the last few months.
“And why not?” Barrett crossed his arms. It was times like this he hated being Pack Master of Arkansas. He could deal with the fighting and the missions and all the political shit. But when it came to matters of the heart he didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. And he sure as hell hoped he never found out. He made it his own personal mission to avoid being mated.
“I don’t know. It’s like you said, she’s young, and she hasn’t had time to sow her wild oats.” Jayden shrugged. “I don’t want to force her to commit to me when she hasn’t had her full college experience.”
Barrett arched his brow and snorted.
Jayden glared.
That got his attention.
“I don’t think she would be interested in the ‘college experience’ as you put it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Damon told me about when you went to college and how you had your college bucket list written out.” Barrett snorted.
“So?”