“Right,” she said. “Any idea how to get in touch with him?”
“Not sure yet. But I…have to make a call.” His eyes closed for an instant. “Don’t go near the door or windows, okay? This won’t take long.”
Before she could say anything, he headed further into the room, then went in the bathroom and closed the door. She decided to get her laptop out while he made his call. She had an airtime card, and she could try again to find something on Patrick Stiles. Anything that would help.
As the computer was booting up, she heard a thud from the bathroom—and then Jonah’s voice, subdued but clear: “Hey. It’s me.”
It made her feel terrible. He’d obviously gone in there for a private conversation, and she’d be able to hear everything—on his end, at least. But there wasn’t much she could do about it.
She tried to tune him out and focus on the search, hoping whatever he had to say wouldn’t be too bad.
* * * *
It was the call Jonah never wanted to make, especially this soon. He’d hoped to give them more time. But if anything happened to his family, he was finished.
He took a minute to punch the wall in frustration before he dialed. It didn’t help.
Mark answered on the fifth ring, in sleep-roughened tones. “Yeah, what?”
“Hey. It’s me.”
“Jonah.” His brother was instantly alert. “What happened?”
“Nothing yet, but it’s going to.” He bowed his head, still wishing he didn’t have to do this. “That’s why I need you guys to take that vacation.”
“All right,” Mark said. “When?”
“Now.”
“Jesus, right this minute?”
“By morning at the latest.” He clenched a helpless fist. “I left town, Mark. He might not know that yet, but he will soon. And he’ll know why. You guys will be his first stop when he figures it out, so I need you gone before then.”
Mark was silent for a long time. At last he said, “You’re really getting out?”
“Yeah. I’m way past the point of no return here, man.”
“All right. Then I’ve got your back,” he said. “Consider us gone. I’ll start making calls right now.”
Relief coursed through him, and he shoved his knuckles against his mouth until he could catch his breath. “Thank you,” he finally managed. “I am so sorry about this—”
“Don’t you dare apologize. We all want you out…and alive to enjoy it.”
He almost laughed. “No promises, but I’ll do my best on that.”
“Oh, no. You’re promising this one, Jonah. Because I know you’ll do anything to keep a promise.”
He didn’t want to make a promise he wasn’t sure he could keep, but he knew Mark needed to hear it. It was the only way he’d stick to the plan. “All right, man,” he said. “I promise.”
“Be specific.”
He sighed. “I promise to stay alive.”
“Good. And I promise to keep those other two idiots out of your way, so you can.”
“Good luck with that.” He smiled a little. “Watch your back, Mark. If you notice anything strange, or feel like something’s wrong, you call me. Even if it’s stupid. Got that?”
“Yeah, I will,” he said. “You watch yours, too.”
“You know it.”
They exchanged goodbyes and hung up. Jonah stayed put for a minute, regaining his composure before he went back to Piper. He still had a long night ahead of him. Getting in touch with Patrick from out here wasn’t going to be easy.
He headed into the room and found Piper sitting cross-legged on the bed, her laptop open in front of her. She stared at him as he approached.
She’d been crying.
“What’s wrong?” His first instinct was to check the door, make sure it was still locked, so he started across the room. “Did something happen?”
“Jonah…wait.”
He stopped. Then he heard her get off the bed and walk toward him. He turned to face her, his alarm sliding into confusion.
“I heard you,” she said.
“Huh?”
“I’m sorry. The walls are really thin, and I was trying not to pay attention, but…” She drew a shaking breath. “Mark is your brother, right?”
Oh. So that’s what she’d heard. “Yes,” he said. “One of them.”
“And you think Eddie’s going to hurt them to get to you.”
His jaw clenched. “I know he will.”
“I never knew…” She moved closer, until she was inches from him. “I’ve heard the talk,” she said. “Everyone in town has. The Dawson boys are bad news, and their sister isn’t much better. But I don’t put stock in rumors.” Her hand on his arm practically burned him. “You’re not what they say you are.”
“They don’t know me,” he said. “I’m worse.”
“You’re not a monster, Jonah.” She took his hand, and he held back a shudder. He doubted she had any idea what she was doing to him. People didn’t touch him…not like this. “You can’t be.”
“Yes, I can.”
“Nobody who loves his family that much could be a monster.”
“Piper…” This had to stop. If he let himself think for one minute that she could accept him, consider him anything more than some guy who came into the diner a lot and broke bones in his spare time, he’d do something they would both regret. And he wanted to—badly. “I work for Eddie Verona. Remember?”
“But you don’t want to,” she said. “The more I find out about you, the more I…really like you. And not just because you’re saving my life.”
He groaned. “Don’t say that.”
“Why not?”
He reached out, hesitated, and cupped a hand to her face. “Because I like you, too,” he said, unable to resist brushing his thumb along her lips. She shivered against him, and he nearly lost the fight. “But I’m broken. I can’t give you what you need.”
“How do you know what I need?” she said. “Maybe, when this is over, we could—”
“No.” He tried to sound gentle, but frustration crept in as he backed away. “We can’t. I can’t. And right now, we need to find Patrick.”
Her stunned expression hardened quickly. “I guess we do,” she said. “I’ll get on it, then.”
He watched her walk stiffly back to the bed, hating himself with every step she took. But it couldn’t be helped. Survival was the priority—and even if they made it through, there could never be anything between them. In fact, he expected that she wouldn’t even speak to him when this was over.
He’d live with that, as long as she wasn’t dead.
Chapter 9
Jonah had been standing by the door and staring out the window for almost an hour now. He’d made a few quick phone calls that didn’t seem to turn anything up, and then started this silent vigil. Piper had never seen anyone stand so still for that long.
She’d decided to ignore the earlier close call. Okay, so she’d almost kissed him and probably would’ve slept with him. She kept telling herself it was a heat-of-the-moment thing, and it only meant she was grateful, and he was gorgeous. But he was right that they needed to find Patrick.
The problem was she’d been striking out left and right.
She already knew there was next to nothing online about Patrick Stiles. The digging she’d done before had turned up a slim paper trail that stretched back ten years and then vanished, which must’ve been when he took on the identity. It was the only thing that made sense. He was virtually scrubbed from public records and didn’t even have a website for his business.
The phone number for Lucky Six Dry Cleaning was listed. She’d gotten her phone charging and tried that, knowing there wouldn’t be an answer this late. She was right. There was no voice mail to leave a message, either.
She did manage to find an email address that may or may not have been Patrick’s. When she logged into her account to send something on the wild chance it would reach him, she found a message fr
om Malory King. It bothered her that the lawyer had no problems getting her contact information.
The message asked her to call at her earliest convenience. She fired off a few terse lines saying she was busy and not to contact her for a few days. A phone call from Malory was not something she wanted to deal with in the middle of all this.
Once the email was sent, she’d grasped all the straws she could for now. Time for a break. She eased herself off the bed, stood and stretched, then started pacing slowly.
If Jonah noticed she was up and about, he didn’t react.
She started to wonder if he’d fallen asleep standing up. With his eyes open. She was pretty sure that was impossible, but she’d also thought that about not moving a muscle for as long as he’d been standing there. Maybe she should talk to him, make sure things wouldn’t be awkward between them for however long this took.
Before she could decide how to start, his phone buzzed.
He shook himself and took it out of his pocket. After a frowning glance at the screen, he answered it with, “Who is this?” Then his face registered surprise. “Patrick?”
Piper crossed the room rapidly. “Put him on speaker,” she said. “I need to hear this.”
“Hold on,” he said into the phone. The look he gave her was unreadable. He hesitated, and then lowered the phone and tapped the screen. “All right, say that again.”
“I said, where the hell are you?” The sound quality was good, and Patrick was clearly pissed. “You were supposed to stay on the leash. I told you not to make a move until I contacted you.”
“Change of plans,” Jonah said.
“You’re not making the plans. If you fuck this up—”
“He’s with me,” Piper said.
There was a long silence from the phone. When Patrick spoke again, his voice was tight. “And you were supposed to leave town.”
“I did,” she said. “With Jonah.”
“You did what? Do you even know him? He’s—”
“He’s the boy, Patrick.” She glanced at Jonah. He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. “But you knew that, didn’t you?” she said to the phone. “You already knew what he did for Celeste…what he didn’t do, anyway.”
“You know a hell of a lot more than that,” Jonah said. “And it’s time you told both of us.”
“She’s not part of this, you ape,” Patrick snarled.
“Yes, she is. She’s been part of it since you sent the only family she had away from her.” He met her gaze, and said. “She deserves to understand why.”
The words brought tears to her eyes. Her gratitude was so profound that she couldn’t even speak.
There was another long pause, and then Patrick sighed. “It’s too risky to explain on the phone,” he said. “We’ll make arrangements to meet, but I’m going to need a day or two. Are you safe?”
“Safe as we can be,” Jonah said. “For now.”
“Well, stay that way. Keep your heads down, don’t make any more brilliant plans—and Piper, you stick with him no matter what. This isn’t your world.”
Jonah frowned. “How do we contact you?”
“You don’t. I’ll contact you.”
The call disconnected.
“Great. Real helpful.” Jonah replaced the phone in his pocket and looked at her. “So, I’m…the boy? You lost me there.”
“Um.” She coughed and looked at her feet. “My aunt left me this note,” she said. “Not a lot of detail. She said she was sorry, and that I should trust the boy because he’d never hurt me. So when you told me what you did about Eddie and that night, I…figured she must’ve meant you.”
“And that’s why you came with me.”
“I needed something to go on,” she said. “No one’s ever told me what was happening. Not then, and not now. Except you.” She smiled, wishing she could convey how much it really meant to her. “That’s the real reason I trust you. Because you’re not leaving me in the dark.”
He nodded. “I want you to live. You can’t do that if you don’t know anything.”
“Well…thanks for that.” She sighed and glanced back at her laptop. There was no point driving herself crazy when they had nothing new to go on, so research was out. “Okay, now what do we do?” she said.
“Wait for Patrick.”
“Great. Sounds fun.”
He turned back toward the window, and she could already see him reverting to that blank, still state. He was going to exhaust himself if he didn’t relax a little.
She touched his arm. And he flinched.
“I’m sorry,” she said, drawing back quickly. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.” His voice was rough, and he didn’t look at her. “It’s late. You should try to get some sleep.”
“I’m not sure I can.”
Finally, he turned to face her. “I know this isn’t easy,” he said. “But we have to be ready for anything.”
“You mean like dying?”
“I won’t let that happen.”
“You’ll protect me,” she said. “I know that. But what about you?”
He frowned. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does. It matters to me.”
She sensed him shudder. “Well, don’t let it,” he said.
“I can’t help it, Jonah. I care about you.” She took a step closer, watched his eyes darken. “The truth is I have for a long time. I just haven’t let myself acknowledge it before.”
“Because I’m…what I am.”
“No. Because everyone I care about leaves me.” Saying it out loud brought tears to her eyes, but she held them back. “I never wanted to let anyone else in. But now…well, I want you to know. Before you die and leave me, too.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
She wanted to say that of course he was leaving her. He’d set himself on a suicide mission, and he didn’t seem to care whether he made it through. She wanted to tell him that if the price of saving her was his own life, she didn’t want to be saved.
But she couldn’t, because his lips were in the way.
The kiss was electric, stunning her all the way down. She’d never felt this much of anything. She returned it without a second thought, surrendering completely to the moment.
But when she reached for him, needing to touch him, Jonah broke away with a strangled curse.
“Goddamn it.” He closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. “I’m sorry.”
“For kissing me, or stopping?”
“I…” He looked at her with misery in his gaze. “I don’t know,” he said. “For both. For everything.”
“Well, stop it.”
He flinched. “I did.”
“No. I mean stop being sorry.” Furious as she was with Celeste and Patrick, in that moment she hated Eddie Verona more than anyone else in the world for what he’d done to Jonah. For everything that had broken him, worn him down to nothing and put that awful look in his eyes—the one that said no matter how much abuse he took, no one could ever hurt him as much as he hurt himself.
She wanted desperately to erase that look, if only for a little while.
“I can’t,” he said.
“Yes. You can.”
She hugged him.
He stiffened instantly. “Don’t,” he said in rough tones. “Please. You don’t understand.”
“I’m not letting go,” she said. “Not until you hug me back.”
“Fine.” He gave her an awkward pat on the back. “Now let go. Please.”
“That wasn’t a hug.”
He shivered. “Piper…you don’t know how badly I want you.”
“I don’t?” She shifted to look up at him, her arms still around his waist. “If you think for one minute that I don’t want you…”
“But we can’t,” he half-whispered.
“Why not? Because we’re hiding in some cut-rate motel from a crazy guy who wants to kill us?” she said. “True as that is, there’s nothing to do except wait for Patrick. You said it
yourself, right?”
“Yes,” he said slowly.
“So we’re here, and we’re waiting,” she said. “I want you. You want me. We’ve got beds, right there. What’s the problem?”
His stance softened, and his hands settled on her waist. “Good question,” he said.
This time the kiss was fast and brain-melting hot. She’d barely caught a breath when he lifted her effortlessly, and without breaking the kiss carried her to the nearest bed. She threw her arms around his neck, pulling him down with her.
And he didn’t resist.
* * * *
If the rest of her life ended up being a lot shorter than it should, this would almost be worth it.
Piper lay next to Jonah, skin to skin, his arm curled around her shoulders as she ran her fingers lightly across his chest. Every time she touched him, he reacted as though it were the first time—a gasp, a shudder, a soft groan.
They hadn’t gone further than touching and kissing yet, but she didn’t mind. This was already better than any sex.
She slid a hand down his stomach, traced the trail of dark fuzz that ran from his navel to vanish under the sheet, and he groaned. “Wait,” he said. “Maybe you shouldn’t…”
“Shouldn’t what?”
He swallowed. “People don’t touch me.”
The pain in his voice broke her heart. “You mean unless they’re hurting you,” she said.
“Well, I wasn’t going to count that.” He hitched a half-smile. “They just don’t. They’re afraid of me.”
“Is that why you’re so…sensitive when I touch you?”
A real smile greeted her. “No. That’s because it’s you.”
“And I’m special.”
“Very.” He lifted her slightly, held her closer and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You touch me, and I feel…”
“What?” she said when he didn’t finish the sentence.
“I just feel.” His eyes were intense enough to burn. “I haven’t felt anything in a long time,” he said. “I didn’t think I could. Not anymore. But you make me…feel.”
A lump caught in her throat. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever heard—and right then, she knew this was more than attraction. She could fall in love with him. If she hadn’t already.
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