Page 99 of Pretend You Love Me

I cut my eyes to Kip. “I want to stay here. I want to stay with Kip.”

Kip’s face softens and so does James.

“That okay with you, Kip?” he asks.

“Yes, sir. She’ll be safe with me.”

“I’m sending two agents. Brooklyn, that’s non-negotiable.”

I nod. “Yes. Of course.”

“Let me talk to Hawk for a minute.” I hand the phone back to Hawk.

Kip runs his hands over my hair and then says, “Let’s go home.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Kip

I want to lay into her about how stupid she was, about how she almost got herself killed, but I can’t. I can’t even take my eyes off her, or I’m afraid she’ll disappear. I keep glancing over at her while I drive.

She’s holding my hand, not saying a word.

When I pull up in front of the house, I turn to her and say, “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.” I feel those words in every part of my body. The agents pull up beside us. They take a few minutes to make sure the house is secure and then motion for us to go inside. The two agents stand like guards on the front porch, nodding silently to me as we pass through the front door.

When we’re inside, I take her hand and examine the marks on her arms where she was tied up. Her cast is gone. I wonder how long it’s been off. I press my lips to each wrist. She looks up at me with those big, pleading eyes. I want to fix all her problems. I want to make sure no one ever hurts her again.

I examine her face. One side is swollen and bruised. “He hit you?”

She just nods, and her eyes start to water.

“Fuck.” I slide my hands around the back of her neck and let my fingers rest in her hair.

“Not the first time he hit me.”

There’s so much rage in my body right now. “If he weren’t dead, I’d kill him.”

“I know.” She leans her head forward and rests it on my shoulder and then she says, “How did you find me?”

“Your brother.”

She pulls back. There’s a line between her brow. “He got an alert that you’d flown to Alaska, and then he got your text. He traced your phone. Wasn’t too hard for him to guess where you were going. Your brother called Hawk. He figured Hawk could get there the fastest. Hawk called me on the way.”

She exhales softly. “I should have called someone. He said he would kill them if I didn’t come alone. I couldn’t leave them in danger.”

“I know,” I say as I stroke her hair.

“I still didn’t find them.”

“But they aren’t with him anymore.”

She doesn’t move for a few minutes.

“What do you need?” I whisper.

She looks up at me with those big sad eyes and says, “Make me feel something other than what I'm feeling.”