Full Contact (Worth the Fight #2) - Sidney Halston Page 0,4
and caused it to collapse. It’s looking better already, but we need to continue monitoring her. She’s on heavy sedatives for the injuries as well. Her arm’s broken, which is why she’s in the cast.” She turned her attention to Jessica. “Honey, I hope you have lots of family, because you are going to need help once you get out.”
Jessica’s eyes watered, and she gave an unconvincing nod to the nurse, who smiled before leaving the room.
“Jess? Have you called your family? They’re from Charlotte, right? Are they coming?”
Jessica shook her head.
He reached for her hand. “Baby, you want me to call them for you?”
She shook her head again. She looked so fragile, so alone, and so scared that Slade wanted to put her in a protective bubble and stand guard. From the day they’d met, he’d felt this way about her. He was notoriously selfish, but when it came to this woman, a surge of protectiveness consumed him.
“Please, what can I do? I’m so sorry about—”
She shook her head again. “Not your fault.” Speaking made her grimace.
“Does it hurt when you talk?”
She nodded.
“Then yes-or-no questions only, ’kay?”
She squeezed his hand and blinked. Her face was turned to his, and tears were slowly running down her cheeks.
“You don’t want to call your family?”
She shook her head.
“I think you need to tell them what happened.”
She shook her head again, this time frantically. Her chin quivered as the tears continued to fall onto the bed.
“Baby, please, don’t cry. I don’t know how to handle this, but I’m here. Okay? I’m here. You’re not alone. If you don’t want to call your folks, that’s cool. You’ll just be stuck with me.”
She frowned at him.
“No?”
“No,” she whispered.
“Why?”
She shrugged.
“Not a good reason. And, since you can’t speak, it’s me or your parents. You pick.” He reached for her phone as if he was going to dial her parents.
She seemed to ponder it for a few moments, then pointed at Slade.
“Okay. That’s settled, then.”
He reached over and stroked her hair. “Go to sleep, baby. No one’s going to hurt you. I swear to you. No one will ever hurt you again.” Her eyes slowly closed, and then she was asleep.
Slade sat there for hours, looking at the beautiful woman who lay there broken.
He’d had a few regrets throughout his life. One was letting his sister walk out of his life more than ten years ago because of some bullshit he had said to her during their father’s funeral. The second thing he regretted was not finding Dennis Stavros and fucking him up himself. Even if it had led to prison, he should’ve done it. Slade had stayed away from Jessica, and that allowed Dennis to severely beat her.
He vowed at that moment never to let her get hurt again.
Chapter 2
Jessica hadn’t set foot inside her house since the day Dennis had hit her. Now she was climbing out of Slade’s truck, hoping that their date later that night would wipe away those horrific memories. Slade had hired a company to clean Jessica’s house, and then he’d gone himself and removed anything that looked as if it belonged to Dennis, including clothes and photos.
“I can’t believe that asshole was released on bail,” Slade said as he took her bags out of the bed of his big black F-150 truck.
Jessica looked over at the angry man stalking toward her front door. “I know, but Chrissy told me that according to Jack, part of Dennis’s condition for bail was that he couldn’t be near me. So don’t worry. He might be a sadistic jerk, but he’s not crazy. If he comes anywhere close to me, he’ll go to prison for a long time. He’s not going to risk it. Prison would certainly taint his political aspirations.” Slade shrugged, and Jessica continued, “I’m so happy to be home. I can’t wait to be able to start yoga again. My doctor and PT said I should be okay to do some light yoga next week.”
“Absolutely not! You’re crazy, Jess. You’re all broken. Nothing strenuous for a while.”
She rolled her eyes. The man was nuts if he thought that the commanding tell-her-what-to-do thing would work with her. It hadn’t even worked when Dennis did it, and he’d used violence to try to get his way. She reached for the doorknob at the same time he did, and their hands touched. She looked up at him and smiled.
He was really a good man, despite being a tattooed and badass mixed martial arts cage