believe I almost forgot her.”
He hadn’t noticed a cat the entire time he’d been there. Damn thing must’ve been hiding when he’d gone looking for the guns.
“We can’t take a cat to the hotel, Jules.”
Her shoulders fell. “Crap. You’re right. But she’ll be okay overnight, right?”
Before he thought about what he was doing, Mike reached over and rested his hand over hers. “She’ll be fine.”
Juliet stared at their joined hands for several second before nodding. “Okay.”
With a quick text to Derek, Mike requested the former SEAL bypass the traditional reservation route and secure him a room under the name Jay Reynolds. With a promise to explain later, he then sent a text to Jake thanking him for covering his ass with the local cops. He also promised to call when it was safe to talk.
Minus a few dings on his phone from Derek’s incoming texts, the ride to the hotel was damn near silent. Not that Mike was complaining. They both needed a minute to process everything that had happened.
By the time they checked in and got to their room, Juliet was wound tighter than he’d ever seen her before. After securing the locks on the thick, wooden door, Mike was setting their bags down when she spoke from behind him.
In a small, frighteningly calm voice he heard, “It’s been almost two years, Jay. Where the hell have you been?”
Turning to face her, Mike found Juliet standing in the middle of the room, her hands fidgeting at her sides. Taking a few steps toward her, he locked his eyes with hers and said, “We need to talk.”
Chapter 4
Juliet sat at the small, rectangular table picking at the crust on her slice of pizza. After saying they needed to talk—and boy, did they ever—Jay had started to say something, but then changed his mind and decided he should shower and change, first.
Since his leather jacket and t-shirt were both black, she hadn’t even noticed the blood that had been smeared on them from when he’d held her earlier. While he’d gotten himself cleaned up, Juliet had used that time to try and figure out exactly what she wanted to say.
Confused and hurt...and thrilled beyond words that he’d quite literally appeared out of nowhere just when she needed him most, Juliet had a multitude of questions rolling through her brain. Add to that the fact that she’d almost died tonight, after having almost killed a man...right before Jay did kill a man...and yeah. She had no idea where to even begin.
So when he’d come out of the bathroom and asked if she was hungry, she’d lied and said she was.
“You look good.”
His words had her eyes rising to meet his. “You look”—better than good—“different.”
“Yeah.” Jay’s brown eyes crinkled with his smile as he rubbed the smooth skin along his strong jaw. “Decided to ditch the beard a while back.”
Juliet’s gaze lifted to his hair. The long, dark hair she remembered was short, now. More so on the sides and back than the top. And there were a few lighter streaks here and there that, when the light landed on them just so, told her he’d spent quite a bit of time out in the sun.
“And the ponytail?”
“Was a pain in the ass.” He chuckled low.
Juliet couldn’t keep her lips from curling into a ghost of a smile. Having long hair, herself, she could appreciate the comment. But damn, she used to love running her fingers through his long strands while they lay in bed together.
There’s still plenty there to grab onto.
She cleared her throat and gave herself a mental slap. Those thoughts had no business playing in her head, now. He might be back, but he wasn’t...back. Or was he?
Just ask him.
When Mikhail had first introduced her to Jay, Juliet remembered being drawn in by his bad-boy appearance. The ponytail, beard, and tattoos were definitely a far cry from the guys she tended to date.
But he hadn’t been sent to her place on a date. He’d been there to protect her.
Of course, she’d argued that she didn’t need protection, but her brother had insisted. Mikhail didn’t know about her self-defense classes, nor did he realize she knew how to shoot.
Still, even if he had known, Mikhail would have worried about her. Because that’s the kind of big brother he was.
He’d always been nice to her growing up. Helped her with her homework, let her hang out with him and his friends when she wanted. Because of this, Juliet always had a hard