Page 27

“Jesse, please, you need to stop. You need to stop right now.”

“Why? What is it to you? Worst that’s going to happen to me is he’s going to throw me in jail and beat me up again. I’ll live.”

“Jesse, please,” I said.

“Charlotte, I have to…”

I cut him off by closing the space between us and smashing my lips into his. At first, he stood stock still, like I was kissing a brick wall, but then he softened, his arms wrapping around me and folding me into the kiss. When I pulled away, his eyes were distant and spacy.

“Now, shut up,” I said. “You and I need to talk, and we don’t need their bullshit in the middle.”

Chapter Thirteen

Jesse

“That’s twice,” I said.

She stared at me for a moment, confused, and then turned her head to one side. If I hadn’t been so hopping mad, I’d have found it adorable, like a puppy who doesn’t understand a command. But my blood was boiling, not just at Arnold and Eugene but now at Charlotte too.

“Twice what?” she asked.

“Twice,” I said, “that you’ve cheated on your boyfriend with me.”

Her eyes closed, and she sighed, breathing out slowly before taking another deep breath in and opening them. Tears were clustered up in the corners of her eyes, but she didn’t look particularly sad. Almost relieved, in fact.

“Jesse, we need to talk. About a lot of stuff. There is a lot you need to know, and I need to know, and we need to go over.”

“You’re right,” I said. “There is. But not right now. I have business to take care of.”

“Jesse, stop. Nothing you can do or say right now is going to make anything better.”

“Yes, it will,” I insisted. “Without me and Owen being here, I can bet he was going to try to get Amber alone outside. And then what? Who knows? Maybe we wouldn’t see her for a few days,and when we did, she’d be on a video call saying she was calling off the wedding and never speaking to anyone again.”

“That’s a jump,” Charlotte said.

“No, Charlotte, it’s not,” I growled. “You’ve been gone a long time. You don’t know what these people have done. They are one hundred percent capable of doing something like that. Or worse. I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them.”

“I don’t trust them either, Jesse, but they aren’t going to just kidnap Amber.”

“Yes, they would,” I argued. “Like I said, you don’t know them. I do.”

I pointed to the scar on my skull and then to the one across my bottom lip. Scars put there by the Andersons when they beat the shit out of me, Collin, and Luke and threw us all in jail. They almost killed Luke when Collin and I got out, and if it weren’t for Amber nursing him back to health, who knows how bad off he’d be right now.

“What is that from?”

“The last time I got into it with an Anderson,” I said. “It was a lot worse, trust me. I promised myself I’d never back down from those jerks, and after they gave me these, I don’t intend on going back on that.”

“Jesse, it’s dangerous. And stupid. They’re cops.”

“They’re assholes,” I said. “First and foremost. And second, they are messing with my soon-to-be sister-in-law. And you. And I am not going to stand around and let that happen. So step back and let me do my job, as a man, and get rid of these idiots.”

“Oh my God, you haven’t changed at all, have you?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re still that teenage boy, the one who got into fights and caused havoc for everyone all the time. Aren’t you? You’re still the same Jesse James Galloway that you’ve always been.”

“Why would I change?” I shot back. “I never pretended to be anything other than who I am.”