Suddenly His - Jessa Kane Page 0,49
my mouth.
“What the fuck is she doing on the floor?” I’m picked up, cradled to Jack’s chest possessively and it feels so good, so perfect, that tears clog my throat and burst out of me in a torrent. “Oh, Maisy. Baby, I’m here now. You’re okay. You’re safe. I’m never going to let anyone touch you. Ever again. Are you hurt? Are you fucking hurt?” He makes a hoarse sound, his eyes scanning me anxiously. “I’m so sorry, angel.”
“I’m okay,” I hiccup, clutching the front of his shirt. “I’m not hurt.”
Holding me tightly, he takes two steps and slams his foot down between Winston Creed’s eyes. “You’re lucky I called the police and didn’t kill you myself, motherfucker,” Jack seethes, his powerful frame shaking with rage, his unsteady hand stroking my hair in an unconscious gesture. “Come near her again, breathe in her direction again and I won’t think twice. Do you fucking hear me? I will end you.”
It seems Jack is going to do just that, perhaps changing his mind about going the legal route, when a man in a suit steps between us and Winston. “No one is killing anyone today.”
“This is outrageous!” Winston screams from the floor, spittle flying from his mouth. “You have no right to be on my property, Commissioner. This is trespassing.”
“Actually,” drawls the man in the suit—no, the police commissioner. I recognize him now from press conferences on television. “We’ve been watching you and this club for months, Creed. Financial records to prove money exchanged hands for sexual services. Had more than enough evidence for a judge to sign off on an emergency warrant. Now we can add kidnapping to the list of charges against you.”
Winston sputters. “She’s here of her own free will.”
Jack growls through his teeth. “Bullshit. And my security footage says different.”
“He’s a member of this club!” Winston pipes up with frantic satisfaction, pointing a finger at Jack. “If you’re going to arrest us, you better cuff him, too.”
A line forms between the commissioner’s gray eyebrows. “That true, Lincoln?”
“He only joined last Friday night to save me,” I say in a clear voice, my anxiety over Jack getting in trouble cutting through my residual terror. “He wasn’t going to make me…participate. But we didn’t have a choice. They were holding us at gunpoint.” I look into Jack’s adoring eyes and emotion impacts me in the chest. “Please. He’s the father of my child.”
Jack’s throat works, his mouth coming down to rest on my forehead. Kissing me hard. “I’m taking her home now. Where she belongs.”
“We’ll need a statement from Miss Whitaker,” calls the commissioner to Jack’s back.
“Later,” Jack shouts back, holding me tighter in his arms. “Much later.”
When we walk outside, I’m relieved to find Charles there, prepared to drive home Jack’s Bugatti. His driver is there as well, holding open the back door of the limousine. Jack climbs inside with me in his lap and we don’t talk on the short ride home, Jack simply rocking me in his arms, warming my chilled skin with his hands. He seeks to calm me, but I can hear the unruly tempo of his heart and know how terrifying the last hour has been for him.
Carrying me inside minutes later, he mutters unevenly, “I thought you’d left. For just a moment, I…thought you’d changed your mind.”
A weight sinks in my belly. Grief over what he went through before finding me. “No. I’ll never change my mind about you, Jack Lincoln. Or my heart.”
There’s a wealth of relief in his exhale. “I’m so sorry about your mother,” he says thickly. “Goddammit, I should have been here to protect you, baby. I—”
“No one could have known he’d go that far, Jack. We’ll be more careful now.”
“Damn right we will. I’m hiring enough security to populate a village. Installing a gate. Buying an armored car—”
I lay a finger over his mouth. “Let’s just be grateful for now. I’m safe. We have each other. Nothing is going to change that.”
Momentarily appeased, he carries me to our bedroom and settles me on the edge of the bed. Kneeling in front of me, he takes a ring box out of his pocket. Opens it to reveal a diamond so large, I can barely fathom that it’s real. “Jack…”
“Maisy. My angel.” Intensity radiates from him. Love. Bottomless love. “The first time I saw you, the world became a place of…miracles. It was always a gray, broken place for me, but how could it be broken if you, with your