Page 13 of August

It’d been a good twelve hours since he found Gigi at the diner. A lot could happen in that span. If the first assailant was dead, the cartel might have sent another one by now.

They’d stayed in position too long. As soon as he got Gigi fed, he’d check them out and get back on the road before someone caught up to them. With his gaze on the hotel doors, he watched a family exit the building talking and laughing. A woman walked a few paces behind them. Her head was dipped and she wore a baseball cap low over her long brown hair.

Holy shit.

“Dude. I’ll call you back,” he said abruptly, ending the call.

Anger boiled inside him as he watched Gigi glance around the lot then cross the road.

Motherfucker.

CHAPTER 5

Where the actual fuck did she think she was going?

August’s breath hissed through his nose as he climbed out of the SUV and stormed after her. Thankfully, the extra paces she had on him forced his temper down a notch as he walked. Otherwise, he’d have given in to the urge to throw her deceitful little ass over his shoulder.

He should’ve known something was up. If he hadn’t been so stressed out and exhausted, he might have picked up on her tension and seen that she planned to run. He’d also been distracted by Gigi’s tousled hair as she stared up at him from her bed. Her slightly swollen and sleepy eyes had numbed his brain and given him blue balls from hell.

Before leaving, he’d caught sight of the top of her white tank top, and judging by the thin straps, she hadn’t worn a bra underneath. Luckily she hadn’t stood up because seeing her nipples poke through the material would have made his already hard cock demand to see those pretty tips naked.

At the memory the front of his pants shrunk around his cock. Apparently he couldn’t even think about the fact that he’d almost seen her nipples without getting aroused.

He was worse than a teenage boy.

He walked briskly behind her. With her shoulders hunched, her face tilted downward, and her hands shoved in the pockets of her hoodie, she appeared to have no clue he was on her heels.

Snagging her elbow—he didn’t give a damn if his hold had bite—he wheeled her around. “What the hell do you—”

Her hand swept out from her pocket and a blade sliced toward his midsection. He dodged out of reach, nearly throwing his back out in the process.

Her eyes went round and her mouth fell open. “A-August?”

Anger flashed through him. He snatched the blade from her, slid it closed, and then stared at the familiar wooden handle.

She’d kept it. The knife he’d given her in the hospital months ago. And just like that, the anger and hurt drained from his veins.

The only memento of his father, and probably the only thing he was sentimental about, was in his hand again. Giving it to Gigi had felt right at the time. As if he were handing her a part of himself to shield her. And just as he’d hoped, she’d been using it to protect herself.

He stroked the piece. He’d never be able to look at it without thinking about his dad—the knife had been his, given to him by his own father while hunting as a child.

His father had died eight years ago of a brain aneurysm, and his mother had passed a year later of a broken heart. The fact that both of his parents were gone was a heavy weight on his heart. But he’d moved on. Tried to do shit they’d be proud of. Even though what they’d wanted most for August was a wife and kids. They’d worried relentlessly when he was in the military, though he was sure his dad would’ve thought his being in black ops was cool.

“You kept it.” He wasn’t sure why he was surprised. Maybe it wasn’t surprise but gratitude.

“Of course I kept it.” She swatted a strand of brown hair behind her ear. “I remember you telling me when I stayed in your apartment that it was the only thing you had of your father’s.” She swallowed, and the fine skin encircling her neck moved.

“You have no idea how much that gift comforted me,” she continued. “It was the only thing I had from home. The only thing that proved to me my old life existed.” She let out a loose laugh. “Some days I thought I was losing my mind. That I’d made up my whole past and everything was just a dream.”

He reached forward and tucked the knife back in her pocket. The action brought her inches closer, and she didn’t move away.

“Why’d you leave?” The question came out jagged—and coated in hurt, goddammit.

Gigi rolled in her bottom lip, and her gaze swept to the sky before returning to him. She looked remorseful. She’d never displayed remorse around him before, not even when she told him she was seeing someone else.

The memory burned a hole in his chest.

“I’m sorry. I appreciate your help. I just...” She toyed with the drawstrings of her hoodie. “I can’t go back into witness protection. And it’s not fair for me to risk your life, and Ivy’s and Rami’s, by returning home.”

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