“Where are we takin’ your friend, son?” He raised his eyes and locked his gaze on mine in the rearview mirror. We never had to speak to communicate. Silent words passed between us, then he returned his gaze to the road and carefully drove away. Rhett didn’t have to glance around like a paranoid addict looking for possible witnesses. He could spot them in his sleep.
I turned my head and observed Jade. She still hadn’t moved away from the door; her head still rested against the glass with her thumbnail between her teeth. We’d come here so she could be with her mom, yet everything had imploded. Although, I couldn’t say I minded all of it. I didn’t want to give her up, but if it were between that and going after the man who’d taken advantage of her…I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Just knowing he’d never be able to touch her again would lessen the sting of not being with her.
“I guess the hospital,” I mumbled with my heart in my throat.
“I don’t mean to scare ya, darlin’, but I’m gonna need you to keep quiet about what you saw tonight. Am I clear?” He hadn’t come across as intimidating, just direct and upfront regarding his expectations. However, it still caused her to flinch and tense in her seat.
“Yeah, she understands, Rhett. She won’t say anything.”
Jade whipped her head to the side and peered at me in the dark cab. I would’ve given anything to look her in the eyes and learn what she was thinking, but I couldn’t see anything past the shadows veiling her face. Her harsh swallow resounded between us seconds before she returned to her position away from me.
Silence played on repeat until we pulled up to the hospital entrance. Jade couldn’t get out fast enough—she barely waited until the vehicle had come to a complete stop. I hopped out and chased after her, catching her within ten feet of the idling car, and interrupted her hasty exit by grabbing her hand. The expression on her face when she turned around was enough to slice me open from tip to toe.
Her jaw tensed and flexed with her teeth clenching, and her lips were flat and pressed together. Instead of the clear skies that normally shined on me, drawing me in with the allure of sparkling, shallow waters on a sunny day, they deepened into an angry sea in the midst of a storm. Her brow was hard and pulled tight, casting a shadow over her heated eyes. I wanted to make it all go away. I needed the softness to return so I could make things right again. But something in my gut told me I wouldn’t get that chance if I let her walk away from me.
I lifted my hand to her face, ignoring the way she flinched, and grazed my knuckles across the smooth skin on her cheek. And when I ran the pad of my thumb along her bottom lip, some of the doubt fell away from her expression. It wasn’t much, but I was willing to take what I could get.
“I’ll be back to get you. Call me if you need anything.”
“No, Cash.” Those were the first words she’d spoken since we left her mom’s house, and they were the ones I feared the most. “I’ll have Stevie pick me up in the morning. I can sleep here for tonight. You should probably go home.”
Not once did she meet my eyes or lift her chin to look at me. I refused to believe what it meant, even though the truth was right in front of me. “You’re going to come home, right?” I sounded desperate—then again, that’s exactly what I was.
“I’m going to stay here until my mom gets better. After that…I’m not sure what I’ll do.” She held her hand up between us as if to keep me away, even though I hadn’t moved toward her. “I just need time to think.”
“What about the library? Your job?”
“I’ll call them in the morning and explain about my mom. I’m sure they won’t hold my position for me, and I can’t really ask them to. I have no idea if I’ll be back, so it’s unfair to ask them to hold my job when I can’t guarantee I’ll fill it anytime soon.”
“We need to talk. And honestly, I don’t feel comfortable with you being here alone.”
“I’ll be fine. I have Stevie, and I’ll be here at the hospital.” Then her gaze slowly trailed up my chest to my face before cautiously holding my stare. “You and your friends—or dad, or whoever they are—don’t have to worry about cutting my tongue out. I won’t say anything. And I’m pretty sure he won’t be a problem, either. He may act tough around me while he’s got me under his control, but I don’t think even he would enjoy getting another visit from a group of trained killers.”
Any ounce of hope I’d clung to until that moment deflated. My shoulders dropped and all the air in my lungs fled my body. “We really need to talk about that, Jade.” I glanced around, lowered my voice, and added, “But this isn’t the right time or place. Just promise me you’ll give me the chance to explain.”
Her throat dipped with her hard swallow before she nodded. Her gaze fell to the ground, and in a last-ditch effort, I curled my fingers around the back of her neck, pulled her head to my lips, and pressed a desperate kiss to her hairline. It didn’t last long, though. Rather than linger and watch her walk away from me, I dropped my hand and turned to climb into the passenger seat.
The second the door shut, Rhett shifted the car into drive and rolled away. I didn’t want to see her, but that didn’t stop my eyes from drifting to the side mirror. I found her standing exactly where I’d left her. The farther away we drove, the smaller her image became, yet throughout the entire time she appeared in the reflective glass just outside my window, she didn’t move.
“So now are ya gonna to tell me what the fuck happened tonight?”
I wasn’t stupid enough to think Rhett would let it go. I had no idea where he was taking me, but it didn’t matter because it wasn’t like I had a choice either way. My only option was to sit back and take it, give him what he asked for, and hope I still had a job.
Sighing, I rolled my head on the back of the seat and closed my eyes. “I already told you, Rhett. We came here because her mom’s in the ICU, and when I saw them together and heard someone call his name…I snapped.”
“There’s a reason I have rules set in place for shit like this. I tell all my men to come to me with personal vendettas—and I know I’ve told you the same. I don’t care what it’s about; I need to know.”
“I did tell you about it.”
“Yeah, well, ya didn’t call me.”
I huffed, not in the mood to argue, but also yearning to have my point heard. “I didn’t have time, Rhett. It’s not like I went looking for the guy. I walked into the hospital to find Jade, because she’d gone in ahead of me, and that’s when I saw them together. I had no idea who he was at first. But I couldn’t ignore her reaction to him, and within seconds, I realized who he was.”
“So you sayin’ it all happened in the blink of an eye?” A slight smirk played on his lips.
“Yes.”
His abrupt, roaring laughter startled me. “I thought you said ya saw him in the hospital? Yet I found ya in his kitchen. Unless I heard ya wrong—which ain’t possible since I got the hearin’ of a greater wax moth—ya told me you saw him with your girl…so why’d she seemed so su’prised when she walked in?”