Page 38 of Heartless (Scathing Hearts #1)

Jake

My cell vibrated against the wood of my desk during the Zoom call with one of my lawyers.

Ruiz was calling. “Nancy, I have to go.”

“Okay, Jake, I’ll—”

I tagged my cell and got out of my chair. “Talk to me.”

“They tazed me and slashed my tires. I’m stuck in the parking lot of Whole Foods on Arden. Didn’t see anyone trailing her, but she’s on her own.”

Racing to my truck, I’d just gotten in when my cell pinged with a text from Sienna.

Sienna: Accifdent no car nigel

I crushed the roar burning in my chest. She’d texted six minutes ago. Six fucking minutes. Blood rushed to my temples. The phone rang. Sienna.

“Baby, where are you?”

Thumps and fast breaths came through the speakers. She was running.

“Sienna. I’m here, baby. Talk to me, Sien—”

Her panting voice came through. “Jake...”

“Where are you, baby?”

“St Mary’s cemetery. Nigel... Nigel’s here. A bike... cut me off. His two men are chasing me. Ruiz ... I called 911 but they’re not... they’re not—”

Dead air.

I called Sile. “Sile, Morrison cornered Sienna in St Mary’s cemetery. I’m fifteen minutes away.”

“On my way.”

The line disconnected. My gut seized. Talk to me, baby. Talk to me.

After the fucking longest ten minutes, I slammed on the brakes on the gravel of the cemetery. The place was big but there were not that many places to hide.

Another text came in from her.

Sienna: solder statue

Soldier statue. I scanned the graveyard and clocked the gold statue.

Running at full speed toward it, I prayed.

****

Sienna

Sweat coated my skin as I fused my back against a tree trunk.

I took a deep breath to calm my deafening heartbeat and listened.

“Where the fuck did the bitch go?” one man asked.

The second goon’s voice was unbothered. “Let’s just find her and give her back to him.”

No. No. No.

The steps were getting closer. Then... Silence. A man appeared in front of me. My breath cut off. My foot lifted. I kicked his crotch with all my might. He yelled and folded over with his hands over his balls.

I took off.

There was a building. A building meant potential people. If I could just—

A weighty hand clawed on my shoulder. My feet skidded sideways, and I started falling.

Fast. The paw that had stopped me grabbed my upper arm and yanked it up so hard, I felt it detach from my shoulder.

I howled in pain. Once I was upright before him, the disgusting baboon I’d kneed slanted his ugly face inches from mine.

“Stupid little bitch,” he snarled.

He unhooked his painful hold on my arm just as his beefy hand arced across his chest. He swung it up. The back of his hand collided with the side of my face.

Agony erupted in my cheekbone. My brain jounced against my skull, and my whole body careened sideways. I instinctively threw my arms out as I fell on the hard ground.

The side of my face was on fire. My ears rang. My stomach collapsed, and I blinked several times. I raised my shaking hand to my stinging face, and a sob erupted from my knotted throat.

When the explosion of stars around my eyes started to fade, I slowly stood on shaking legs. The other man had positioned himself between me and his accomplice.

“You’re not supposed to touch her, man.” His tone was chillingly... bored, and I clamped my hand on my mouth.

“The little bitch kicked me in the balls, she—”

A thundering roar surged from behind me. I twisted just in time to see someone very fast come at me. Past me. Next, the man who’d hit me was pinned down to the ground by Jake.

Bending over Nigel’s man, Jake grabbed his collar. His other fist rose and smashed into the hitter’s face.

Once. Twice.

And again. And again.

The wet, sickening sounds of skin-covered bones crushing jetted bile to my throat.

The man who’d been bashed into the ground had stopped moving. But Jake was still punching.

Stop. Someone stop him.

Nigel’s other man just stood there, seemingly unperturbed by the savagery of the beating. My foggy mind registered movements. Then, Silas appeared.

He hooked his hand around Jake’s descending arm. “He’s had enough.”

Jake hit the man again. With a robust hold, Silas hauled Jake off and away from the man.

Stepping in front of Jake, whose body was launching toward the unconscious man, Silas gripped his shoulder. “Fuck Jake. Look at her.”

When Jake turned to me, my stomach twisted at the undiluted fury in his gaze. But I was unable to move. I wanted to go home. I wanted my mom. I needed her arms around me and smell her vanilla perfume.

****

Jake

Sienna’s face was deathly pale. Her enlarged eyes were brimming with tears. A shadow had formed where the fucker had marked her. My bloody fist clenched.

Sergio grunted. “You left me no eye.” Pulling out a knife from the back of his waistband, he jerked his chin. “Get the girl out of here.”

When I reached for her, she whimpered. I made my voice gentle. “Let’s go, baby.”

“My car... my car’s on the road. My purse is in there. I have to—”

“Sile will take care of it.” I wrapped my arm around her shaking body and led her toward my truck.

****

In the penthouse, Sienna ambled slowly toward the couch. She’d been shell-shocked on the way here, keeping her face down, and her little fists in her lap. After locking the front door, I followed her in.

When I touched her shoulder, she jumped and whirled around.

“My car,” she whispered. “I left my car on... The groceries. The fish is—”

I went to curl my hand around the unmarked side of her face, and she scuttled back. Fuck. She was in pain. I retrieved my cell from the back pocket of my jeans. “I’ll call a doctor.”

She shook her head and winced. “No... no. I don’t want a doctor. I don’t want to see another stranger. I don’t—”

“Okay, baby. Okay.”

After pocketing my cell, I reached for her, and she shifted back. “Sienna—”

“Can I take a shower? I need to—"

The elevator doors opening on Sile cut her off, and she stared at him. He lifted her purse and the branded canvass shopping bag. “Here are your things, sweetie.”

She pointed at the shopping bag then clenched her shaking fingers. “I wanted to cook for Jake... Now... it’s all spoiled... everything... everything is... ruined.”

I edged closer, and she jerked back.

Sile set the bags on the coffee table before nearing her. “Sienna, come here, sweetie.”

“I need... a shower.”

She scurried toward the bedroom and closed the door behind her.

“Fuck,” he muttered before turning to face me. “The motherfucker was gone by the time I got there. I’ve taken care of her car.”

My butterfly was hurting, and now she was scared of me.

I stretched my bruised fist. “She said you were the first and only man who protected her without asking anything in return.”

“But she called you, brother.”

While he headed out, Zook called. His tone was almost as pissed off as I was.

“Morrison hatched that moronic plan yesterday with out-of-town players, and we had to improvise. Edo put the word out that anyone who works for Morrison will be seen as an enemy of The Family. The heads of the man who hit her and the bike rider are now on Morrison’s dining table.

We also found the other donor his son had lined up.

And the man has moved his family to Florida with their newfound wealth. How is she?”

Scared. With a fucking bruise on her face. “Later, Zook.”

After washing the blood off my hands, I headed to my bedroom and threw my bloody clothes in the hamper.

While getting changed, I stepped near the closed bathroom door.

The shower was running. I went back to the kitchen to unpack the groceries.

She’d been so excited about cooking. ‘It’s the only thing I can make which is as good as what you cook,’ she had said this morning.

I couldn’t have cared less about the food. She’d been happy.

I pulled an icepack from the freezer and made my way to the bathroom.

****

Sienna

I grazed my shaking fingertips on the tight skin over the egg growing on my cheek.

I needed to wash off... everything. Keeping away from the mirror, I kicked my shoes off and turned on the faucet of the shower.

I reached for the side of my dress, but my frozen fingers were uncooperative. I yanked, and the zipper stuck.

My first tear fell. Then the second, and I gave up on the dress. I stepped under the warm spray. My legs knuckled under me, and I collapsed on my knees. My chest hiccupped while I cried.

Sitting on the hard tiles, I hugged my shins and rested my forehead on my knees.

A cool whoosh of air entered the shower stall. I tilted my heavy head just in time to catch Jake’s legs. “Sienna? Fuck. Baby.”

Panic quickened my heartbeat when I thought he was going to turn off the shower, but he didn’t.

He sat behind me with his knees cocked on either side of me before his arms banded around my middle, and he drew my back to his chest. I curled my arms over his and pushed my forehead against the side of his neck while the warm water blanketed us.

We stayed like this until the last of my tears had washed out, and I could breathe again. Then, Jake’s careful hand brushed my splattered hair from my cheek before touching his mouth to my temple. I pressed deeper into his touch, and his hold around my middle tautened.

I needed to feel. Him. Me. Safe and alive.

Breaking from his hold, I turned to face him before climbing astride his lap.

As he grazed light fingertips under the bruise on my cheek, I curled my fingers around his wrist. The blood had washed off his hand, leaving the angry slashes on his knuckles.

I raised our hands to my mouth and touched my lips to the thin gashes.

Jake’s big body hardened, and his low grunt triggered a shiver that blended with the warm spray. His arms curled around me while my hands curved around his face. I sleeked his wet hair back while the water beat on my back.

My steadier fingers traced his strong brows, his sharp cheekbones, and the length of his nose. The bristle of his strong jaw prickled my fingertips, and I shivered. His gaze flamed up, and I felt that sizzle wave through me and erase everything that wasn’t us in that moment.

I thumbed the cleft of his chin, and his low grunt brushed my nipples. Our open mouths met. Our tongues touched. I latched on to his hair, and our kiss deepened.

Heated shivers erupted under my skin, and I rocked against Jake’s erection.

Drawing out of our burning kiss, I scooted back and hooked my fingers around the waistband of his sweats. Jake managed to get the drenched skirt of my dress around my waist. Next, his deft fingers hooked around the gusset of my panties and shoved it to the side.

When two of his fingers strummed my clit, I whimpered. They slid inside me, triggering the first quiver of my sex.

I set my forehead on his and knelt up. While I curled my fingers around his penis, Jake curved his strong hands around the back of my thighs. I placed the head of his sex at the edge of mine. And he became my whole world.

With his eyes never leaving mine, Jake lowered me slowly onto him, stretching me, making me feel every inch of him until I was filled by him. I wrapped my hands around his nape, he wrapped his around my waist. Our open mouths meshed. My sex clenched, and his deep groan triggered another spasm.

He moved me up and down. Slowly. Again, and again. Panting in his mouth, my moans matched his grunts. When I was bursting out of my skin, he anchored me onto him, and I shattered into a million pieces while he groaned.

Then, we kissed under our own rain.