Page 54 of Won't Let Go
“Thank you.”
Pulling her tight against my chest, I wrap my arms around Jade’s shoulders and kiss the top of her head as she snuggles her face between my pecs. “Let’s get you some rest,” I whisper.
Her weak nod fucking breaks me.
I wasn’t there for her.
I didn’t protect her.
She lived through another nightmare without me.
I don’t know how to make any of this right, but I’m damn well gonna try.
18
JADE
How many timescan an officer swap from Jekyll to Hyde? I counted six times yesterday. Six. The jerk knew from the moment he sat down across from me in that sterile room with a mirror that I wasn’t gonna talk. But he tried. He tried so hard that I almost offered to give him a gold star for his effort. We’re talking, bullying, flirting, and more. How pathetic.
Officer Fuckwad.
That’s his name.
If I see him again, it’ll be too soon.
He wasn’t much older than Josh, and the maturity difference between the two is stifling. Compared to this baby-faced pig, Josh is a fifty-year-old grandpa.
Speaking of Josh, who’s wrapped around me like a tattooed, muscly monkey, I tighten his arm around my waist. He’s warm, possibly too warm, with his leg draped over mine and his chest pressed against my bare back. His third leg is snuggled between my cheeks. We’re naked. After showering upon our return to the compound, we were too tired to find clean clothes, so we fellinto bed and promptly passed out. There was something about Hunter packing Josh’s room. He pointed to the stack of boxes and bags full of clothes lining one wall right before I dropped my towel and dove into bed. The sisters must have changed the sheets before we arrived. They smell fresh and less like a sweaty teen. Knowing Bink, I’d expect nothing less.
A certain man mumbles against the back of my head, and I grin. I’m happy today. Happier than I have been for as long as I can remember. You’d think after killing those men and seeing all that blood and gore that I’d feel different—changed somehow. Sad, depressed, or even angry. But I’m not. Sure, it was terrifying in the moment, and I’m sad one of our tattooists and our apprentice died at the hands of those assholes, but I didn’t have nightmares last night. If the light filtering through Josh’s single window is any indication, it’s well past morning, so I slept more than a handful of hours.
“Babe?” Josh’s gritty morning voice sends a flock of seagulls loose in my belly.
“Yeah?” I whisper, resting my hand over his on my stomach.
“Why you up?” he rasps.
“Because my body woke me up.”
“No bad dreams?”
“Nope.”
He snuggles me tighter. “That’s good. Now go back to sleep, so I can stay here a few more hours.”
“Josh.”
“Shhhh. No talky,” he mumbles against the back of my head. “More naked, sleepy, cuddles.”
“Can we have naked, awake cuddles instead?” I ask, holding back laughter.
“No,” he grumbles in the cutest way imaginable.
“Why not?”
“Shhhh. You’re waking him up. Just go back to sleep. We won’t bother you if you’re asleep.” As if on cue, a particular part of his anatomy thickens.
“Oh. So you’re gonna bother me when I’m awake?”
