Page 51 of Steel & Jenna
She dialed the operator to connect her to the hospital. Then she had to wait to be transferred to Jack’s room. It rang several times before someone picked up.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Zarin!” Jenna said loudly, excited. Then she lowered her voice, conscious that her mom might be trying to listen in. “Mr. Zarin, it’s Jenna. Please, I have to speak with Jack.”
“Are you safe, Jenna?”
Her laugh was dry. “My room is being packed without my consent, I’ve been imprisoned in my own house with guards posted at every door to keep me inside, and I am being shipped off to a boarding school across the country against my will. But safe? Yeah, sure. That’s the one thing I am.”
There was a pause before Mr. Zarin said softly, “Stay strong, sweetheart. This might just be something you and Jack have to endure for the foreseeable future. Hold on a second. Let me get him situated. He was laying down after your father left.”
Jenna closed her eyes, hanging her head in shame. Jack washurtand did not need the added stress her dad’s visit would have brought with him. She heard the murmur of their voices after Mr. Zarin put the phone down but couldn’t pick up on any words except her name.
Then there was some rustling. “Jenna?”
“Jack.” Tears flowed down her cheeks. “Jack, I don’t want to go! I swear!”
“I know, baby. I know. I didn’t believe it for a second.”
Relief filled her that he hadn’t doubted her commitment. “What did he say? What did he do?”
“He tried to bribe me to break up with you but I told him ‘no’.”
“Stupid,” Jenna chastised. “We could have used that money to run away together.”
Jack chuckled before groaning into the phone. “Don’t make me laugh, baby.”
Jenna winced. “I’m sorry. How are you?”
“Better now that I’m talking to you. And don’t worry—I’ll take the money if he offers again. Still won’t stop me from marrying you though.”
Jenna couldn’t help the smile, but it was bittersweet. “What are we going to do? I don’t want to go.”
Jack let out a long sigh. “I know, baby. I don’t want you to go either. But our hands are tied. As much as we hate it, your dad does have the right to send you off to boarding school across the country.”
“I’ll come back!” Jenna vowed.
“No,” Jack snapped and then hissed. “I am not having you traipse across the country on your own just to get back to me. Seeing you is not worth your safety, Jen. We will figure something out. Talk every day on the phone. Write letters. I’ll figure out some way to come see you, even if I have to work my ass off to pay for a plane ticket. This isn’t the end of us.”
“Jack…” Tears continued to fall down her cheeks. “You don’t understand. It physicallyhurtswhen I think about leaving you.”
“You think it doesn’t hurt me? I could take a thousand beatings from your mom’s thugs and I still wouldn’t feel a fraction of what I’m feeling at the idea of not seeing you again for months or years. But the knowledge that Iwillsee you again will keep me going. The knowledge that you’re taking a piece of me with you. That even across the country, you’re stillmine.”
Jenna felt like she couldn’t breathe. “I love you, Jack.”
“Fuck, baby, you have no idea how good it is to hear you say that. Even better to finally be able to say that I love you too. I’ve wanted to since that first kiss.”
“First of many,” Jenna swore through her tears.
“Damn straight.”
“I’m going to try to sneak out of here to see you.”
“Only if it’s safe, Jen. Don’t get yourself into trouble or put yourself in danger just for me.”
Christ, she loved how growly his voice got when he ordered her around like that. Why was that so hot? “Jack.”
“Yeah, baby?”
