Page 19 of Unraveled Love

Jaxon chewed on the inside of his cheeks and cursed, the only sign during all of this that he was frustrated or pissed. “I know. It’s just all we have.”

And it wasn’t going to happen.

Not again.

No matter how brave Addi wanted to be, there was no way in hell I was throwing her to the wolves again. Not when we still had men in the hospital.

7

Addi

If fear hadn’t still been a slithering worm in my blood, barely holding me back from a constant state of a panic attack, I might havealmostfelt like a celebrity as we pulled out of the hotel in Pennsylvania and headed back to Raleigh.

I was in the middle row of a large, black SUV complete with fully tinted windows, and we were stuck in between four more matching SUVs, two in the front, two in the back.

Before we slid into the back of our vehicle, I was briefly introduced to Cort. As large and fierce as Jaxon, he had a scar that ran beside his right eye like someone had tried to slash at his eye and barely missed. It gave him such a furious look that had my breath stalling in my throat when he introduced himself. Closely cropped blond hair gave him the typical military kind of appearance, and after he saidGood morningto me, he shook Shawn’s hand and nodded. Apparently as much for small talk as Jaxon, he hadn’t spoken since we got on the road. He was armed, a gun at his hip that I’d noticed before I climbed into the back seat, and on the passenger seat next to him were two more guns. Shawn was equally armed, loaded, and alert. His eyes hadn’t stopped scanning our surroundings, constantly checking our planned and alternate routes on a maps app on his phone for any potential problems.

If I hadn’t been sitting in the massive vehicle, fighting back puking, I’d have found it hilarious. We were on two-lane back country roads. Barely any traffic, sliding through small towns where their town squares had died and crumbled decades earlier, our ridiculous caravan appearing like we were the president of the country or one of the most well-known celebrities.

“It feels like we’re drawing more attention to ourselves than hiding,” I muttered. “Isn’t this overkill?”

“Nothing is overkill when it comes to your protection.” His hand slid to my thigh, and the heat from his palm seeped through the leggings another man on Jaxon’s team had delivered to the hotel that morning. “I’ll do anything to keep you from being hurt again.”

His hand reached out and dragged along my wrist that still had the red burn marks from being restrained.

“Shawn—”

His voice turned wretched, and I hated that he blamed himself for what had happened to me. I was the one who’d insisted on going to work instead of hiding.

“Don’t. Don’t try to make me feel better. I won’t until your body is completely healed, and I won’t apologize for being overprotective until we know you’re safe.”

Outside a few scrapes and bruises from the binds that had been wrapped around my ankles and arms, even the smack I’d taken to the temple wasn’t all that painful. I rubbed at it, catching the swollen lump and the slash one of Jaxon’s men had butterfly-taped together.

I swore Shawn growled as I did, and I turned to him. His thick blond brows were pulled in, and his face matched sketches I vividly remembered learning about in Greek mythology.

His fierce fury reached out, skittered down my spine, and heated my blood. Why did he manage to look even sexier when he looked like he was fighting down the urge to tear someone’s limbs off than he did when he was moving inside of me?

The image of him doing just that the night before pushed to the forefront of my mind and I squashed it down.

Yeah. Those two faces were in a tight race for first place on thehottest faces Shawn Blakely makeslist.

As if he needed to seal his statements to a promise, he reached out and brushed his thumb over the lump at my temple. I shivered from his touch, that tiny connection sparking fire deep in my core where I still felt the effects of my night with Shawn hours later.

I licked my dry lips, and they parted. “Where are we going when we get back to Raleigh?”

“My place. We’re going on the assumption that it hasn’t been compromised. Jaxon has some safe houses we can take you to, but I didn’t think you’d like that.”

I considered it for a moment even as I fought down a psychotic laugh at the idea of me being a person who needed a safe house. But if Daniel was in New York with MaryAnne like they suspected and had told me after I woke up that morning, was I in immediate danger?

“I don’t like the idea of it while everyone else fights for me.” Not that I could do much, but the distance might make me less informed, and I needed to know everything that was happening as it happened.

“I figured.” His hand fell from my temple and settled into a fist on his lap. “But you have to trust me, and if I think it becomes necessary, we’ll be gone.” He flashed a wink, and his gaze heated as his voice lowered. “But if you’re a really good girl, I’ll let you choose whether we hide in the mountains or at the beach.”

My head spun with visions of us screwing in a hot tub in the mountains or on a secluded stretch of sand late at night. His lips brushed against my throat before he pulled back.

He left me heated, burning with desire for him…and I’d completely forgotten about my near panic attack or fear.

Which I was pretty certain had to be his point.

---