Page 40 of Ghost Walk
Grace blinked. “Okay.” She said simply. …And just like that, she threw in with a dead pirate over a man who was “husband material.”
It was astonishing.
So astonishing that it took Jamie a beat to catch up. “Okay?” He echoed, not fully believing her quick agreement.
“Okay. I’ll keep the door locked. But what are we going to do next?”
If Jamie still had a heart it would have flipped in his chest. No one had ever trusted him so quickly and for so little reason. It was humbling. “I donea know. I’m thinking. Just stay right there on the bed.”
“I know you’re in there, Grace!” Robert shook the door hard enough to rattle the hinges. “Damn it! You at least owe me a conversation, you bitch!” He banged on the wood. “Let me in!”
She flinched and her gaze cut back over to Jamie. For the first time, she began to look worried.
In his whole life and death combined, Jamie couldn’t recall ever being so furious. She was frightened and there wasn’t a goddamn thing he could do about it. If he’d beencorporeal, the world would be now down one paunchy museum director. Jamie would have slaughtered Robert without a second thought.
As it was, he was no more effective than a light breeze.
Grace should have a living man here protecting her. Someone worthy and strong and made of pure husband-material. Someone with a fucking heartbeat. The inescapable truth of that did nothing to improve his mood.
“Son of abitch.” Jamie took a deep breath, even though ghosts didn’t need to breathe. “Where is your portable telephone, Grace?”
“In the kitchen. So’s the landline.”
“Fuck.” He’d never felt so useless. “Fuck.”
She frowned a bit at his cursing, but he was too agitated to take his usual delight in her uptight-ness.
“Grace?” Robert’s tone turned wheedling. “This has gone on long enough, don’t you think? I was wrong, too. I’ll admit it. But at leastI’mwilling to work this out in a mature fashion.You’rethe one who’s trying to throw away everything we have over some cheap pizza-tramp.”
“He always says ‘pizza-tramp’ like it’s a bad thing.” She muttered. “I’m thinking it’s way preferable to being labeled semi-frigid, though.”
The door rattled on its hinges. “Jealousy is pointless, darling. I’d rather be screwingyouthat way. You know that. Just open the door and give me a chance to show you what you’ve been missing.”
She made a disgusted face.
Jamie paced back and forth like a caged lion, his eyes on the doorway. “What are you wearing under the robe, Grace?” He asked, already dreading the answer.
“Nothing.”
He closed his eyes. “Fuck.” He whispered helplessly. The only two things between his woman and that son of a bitch were an old door and a thin bathrobe.
“It was just supposed to be you and me in here, Jamie!” Grace protested, like she thought he was upset with her. “I didn’t knowhe’dshow up.”
Jamie looked over at her, desperation filling him. “I know, love. It’s not your fault.” It also wasn’t her fault she was so fuckingsmall. A fay creature hunted by violent, human hands. There was no way she could put up a struggle against Robert. She’d try, but she’d lose. “Truthfully, it’s not going to matter what you’re wearing. We just need to get you out of here.”
Brown eyes blinked up at him, still not fully understanding the seriousness of her predicament. “For real? You want me to flee my own apartment?”
“Yes!” He wanted her someplace --anyplace-- far from here.
Jamie had never been this terrified. Not when he’d heard his father’s footsteps coming for him as a boy. Not when his ship nearly went down in a hurricane off the South Carolina coast. Not even when they’d lynched him in the street. Grace was so damn vulnerable and important and special and there was nothing he could do to protect her.
Nothing at all.
“Push the dresser in front of the door.” He ordered and strode over to check the window. It was a three story drop onto pavement. “Fuck!”
“Cursing is really not going to help.” Grace said with another frown in his direction.
“Well it’s sure as fuck not going to hurt.” Could she break through the wall somehow and get into the next apartment? Doubtful since they were made of solid brick. “Did you have to live in a building that predates the Civil War, lass?” He was actually longing for cheaply thrown together modern construction right now.
