by Caitlyn Dare
“Fuck,” Ace barks as he steps into the coffee shop.
“This is Jeb, Dad.” Conner helps him to his feet. “He works with Hadley.”
“I’m Mr. Jagger.” He holds out his hand and Jeb stares at it. “I’ll have my boys drive you to the ER and get that looked at.”
“Shouldn’t we call the police?”
“I’ll handle everything. Don’t worry.” He squeezes Jeb’s shoulder.
“Ace, Conner...”
“We’ll see you back at the house, okay?” Remi gives me a reassuring smile.
Conner leads Jeb out of the coffee shop, and Ace and Remi follow. James closes the door before rolling up the sleeves on his sweater.
“Cole, help me move Mr. Davenport into a better position.”
How does he know Tim’s name?
“Cole?” I gasp.
“Just trust me, okay?” He kisses my forehead before going to help his dad. They sit Tim up against a couch, and James taps his face.
“Uh… what...”
“Mr. Davenport. So nice of you to join us.”
I watch dumbstruck as Tim startles. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m someone who could make life very difficult for you.” James glowers at him.
Tim goes to climb to his feet, but the sound of a pistol loading makes him freeze.
“I’d think really hard about whether you want to do that.” James nudges the barrel of the gun against Tim’s temple. His hands shoot up in surrender.
“Easy, I’m not looking to—”
“Good, that’s very good. Hadley, would you come here please?”
Cole gives me an encouraging nod, and I climb to my feet. Gingerly, I walk over to them, letting Cole tuck me into his side.
“It’s going to be okay, Dove,” he whispers against my hair.
But everything is still hazy, and I don’t understand what’s happening right now.
“Now, Mr. Davenport, I’m almost certain my son would like to see you with a bullet through your skull for touching his girl, but lucky for you, he’s recently learned the art of self-restraint. I, however, have not.
“But since your history is with Hadley, it seems only right that she gets to decide how we deal with you.”
The air is sucked from my lungs. Is he saying what I think he’s saying? Surely not.
Surely Mr. Jagger isn’t actually talking about killing Tim?
But as I think the words, I know they’re true. The Jaggers aren’t a normal family, not by any means. And something tells me there is far more to James Jagger than meets the eye.
“Hadley?” he says softly. “This is your decision. I can make Tim go away, or we can send him back to wherever he came from with a stiff warning never to return.”
“Hadley, babe, come on. It’s me,” Tim implores. “We had something once, didn’t we?” Fear is etched into every line on his face, and I want to bask in his terror for what he has done.
But can I do it?
Can I give James the order to kill him?
Seconds tick by, my heart beating harder as they pass. My palms are sweaty and blood roars between my ears as I choose between life and death for a guy who just tried to hurt me.
A whimper spills from my lips as I bury my face in Cole’s shoulder.
“It’s okay,” he says, hugging me tightly. “He walks.”
“Are you sure, Son?” James asks.
“He walks on one condition, if you ever step foot in Sterling again, I will kill you. You don’t contact Hadley again, you don’t come find her, you don’t even think about her, asshole. Are we clear?”
Tim mumbles something inaudible.
“I’ll see that Mr. Davenport is accompanied back to Gravestone County. Take care of your girl, Son.”
There’s a commotion and then the door opens and closes, followed by deathly silence.
“It’s safe to come out now.” Cole coaxes me out of his arm.
“What was that?” I tremble. James acted like he knew Tim, and the way he talked about Gravestone... but it doesn’t make any sense.
“I wish I knew. But you’re safe, and that’s all that matters. Tim won’t ever hurt you again.” He cups the back of my neck, pressing his head to mine.
“I know,” I breathe.
And I do.
Because Cole Jagger doesn’t just love me.
He would kill for me.
But tonight, he chose something else.
He chose to rise above his own demons and do the right thing, and that one small action has me falling in love with him all over again.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Cole
The image of Tim’s hand around my girl's throat taunts me as I drive Hadley back to her dorm building.
I know I did the right thing, despite the fact that my body was screaming for me to kill the motherfucker for thinking he had any right to touch what’s mine.
I might have taken matters into my own hands with Charlie and Donny, but this wasn’t my fight. It was Hadley’s, and I had to follow her lead. I also needed to show her that I was different now. That I was able to rein myself in and keep control.
My knuckles are white with the grip I have on the wheel, but I’m in charge right now. I know what I’m doing.
“Are you okay? You’re pretty quiet over there.” Reaching over, I find her hand, desperate to feel her touch but equally knowing that she might not want it.
She let me kiss her in the coffee shop but I’m not stupid enough to think that was because she wanted to. She was scared, terrified, and I was there.
“Yeah,” she whispers. “I’m fine. Just… shocked, I guess.”
“Is that the first time you've seen him since…” I trail off. She doesn’t need me reminding her about the past. It’s not like it’s something she’s going to forget anytime soon.
“Yeah, well… he came in earlier. Jeb got rid of him.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“And say what exactly? I called Conner for a ride, hoping that I could avoid him.”
“If he wanted to see you, he’d have just come back. And he did.”
“I know, it was stupid to think I could outrun him.”
“He’s gone now.” James will take care of it, I know he will. “It’s over.”
She lets out a small sigh.
“Everything is going to be okay, you know that, right?”
“Is it?” Sadness bleeds into her expression. “Everything I once knew is over. I’ve got nothing and no one. I have no idea what I’m going to do when I graduate, if any colleges will even want me. Ugh,” she groans. “My life is such a fucking mess.”
Twisting my fingers with hers, I lift her knuckles to my lips.
“Hey, everything is going to be okay. You’re strong. So fucking strong, you’ll figure this out.”
“I’m glad someone has some faith in me.” She pulls her hand from mine and curls up in a ball on the passenger seat. It guts me that I can’t do anything to help her right now.
Silence once again falls over the car until I pull it into a space outside her building. I kill the engine, half expecting her to jump out and run at the first opportunity, but she doesn’t. Instead, she turns to look at me.
I allow her a second or two to study me before I turn to look into her tired green eyes. Her breath catches as our all-too-familiar connection holds.
“W-why did you come tonight and not Conner?”
I can’t help but chuckle. “He was meddling again.”
She shakes her head, but I don’t miss the small smile that appears on her lips at the thought of him.
“You’ve really got him under your spell, you know that, right? If it weren’t for me, you would stand a chance with him.”
Her smile spreads. “Nah, we’d never be a couple. He’s just not…”
“Not…”
She hesitates, moving her gaze to look over my shoulder. Reaching out, I take her chin between my fingers and move her so she has t
o look back at me.
“He’s not you,” she breathes.
Her honesty wrecks me. It’s exactly what I want to hear, but at the same time, it’s exactly what I don’t need.
I miss her so fucking much it hurts. But I stand by my promise to her. I’ll wait as long as I need to make her mine again.
“Hads, I—”
“Do… do you want to come up?”
I look over to the building, desperate to go inside with her, to have her all to myself for as long as she’ll allow me.
“Um…” My need to do the right thing stops me from jumping from the car like a man possessed and dragging her up to her room.
“Come on.” She shoulders the door and waits for me at the trunk.
The second I join her, she slips her hand into mine and, side by side, we walk through the main door.
“Won’t you get in trouble for having me here this late?”
“What are they going to do? Tell my parents?” she asks, but although she’s trying to stay strong about everything, I hear the waver in her voice.
“Hads, I—”
“Don’t, please. I didn’t ask you to come up to talk about all of that.”
“No? So why did you?”
We come to a stop at her door and she looks up at me through her lashes. My cock jumps at the sight, and I’m unable to keep wicked images filling my mind.
She pushes her key into the lock, and I follow her inside.
“Hadley?” I ask when she just stops in the middle of her room and turns to look at me. “What are we doing here?”
“Make me forget, Cole.”
“Dove,” I sigh, stepping up to her and wrapping my hand around the back of her neck, dropping my forehead to hers. “You can’t ask me things like that.”
“Why? Don’t you want to?”
A pained laugh falls from my lips. “More than you could possibly imagine. But you’ll regret it in the morning.”
“Would I?”
“You know you would.”
“And what if I tell you that I was wrong? That all that stuff I said in Conner’s car wasn’t true.”
“I’d tell you that you need to be honest with me. You know how I feel. I love you, Hadley. I need you.”
“I love you too, Cole. I never stopped.”
She closes the space between us, her soft curves pressing temptingly against my body.
“But—”
Two of her delicate fingers press against my lips. “No buts, Cole. Kiss me, please.”
“Fuck, Little Dove.”
I brush my nose against hers, our eyes locked in our standoff. I’m worried that if I do this I’m not going to be able to stop, to be able to walk away again.
“Please, I need you.”
Her whispered voice is the last straw, and I crash my lips to hers in a bruising kiss before spinning her and pressing her back up against the door.
A moan rumbles up her throat as my tongue tangles with hers and my hand slips up inside her tank.
“Yes, Cole. God, I’ve missed this,” she moans as I move my lips to her jaw.
I lick up the column of her neck, savoring her taste before sucking the skin into my mouth hard enough to give her a taste of the pain she loves so much.
Hitching her leg around my hip, I grind my hardness against her.
“Oh God, more, Cole. Please.”
Gripping her thighs, I pull her from the wall before throwing her down on the bed. I watch her bounce before dragging my hoodie over my head and dropping it to the floor.
Her eyes drop to my chest, her tongue coming out and licking across her bottom lip.
“Look all you like, but you’re not going to get to touch.”
“W-what?”
“You want to forget. Let me give that to you.”
“But—”
“Ah ah, no buts, remember?”
She sits up to argue, and I take the opportunity to pull her tank off her quickly, followed by her bra.
“Lie back. Let me take care of you.”
As I crawl over her, my tongue sweeps into her mouth once more before I tease a trail down her body until I drag her jeans down her legs and settle myself on my stomach between them.
My eyes linger on her core for a couple of seconds before I lift my gaze up her body and find her eyes staring down at me.
My breath catches and my chest constricts at everything her eyes are telling me. But I refuse to allow myself to believe that she might be willing to give us another chance. It was only days ago that she was telling me we were done.
I need to take this for what it is. She needs me, and I’m more than willing to be able to give her the escape she craves, even if it leaves me feeling more lost than ever when she makes me walk away.
With my tongue on her clit and my fingers deep inside her, she’s crying out my name in record time.
I retrace my steps back up her body once she’s come down from her high and claim her lips once more. She moans when she tastes herself on my tongue, and it makes her even crazier as her nails scratch down my back.
Her fingers tickle around my stomach and over my abs, but the second she hits my waistband, my hand wraps around hers.
“I meant what I said. We’re not going there.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m fucking addicted to you, Little Dove.” His fingers trace the angel wing on my chest. “If I get inside you, I’m never going to be able to watch you walk away again.”
She opens her mouth to argue, but I cut her off. “Now’s not the time to make a snap decision because you want to escape, Hads. Tonight sucked, I know that. But just because I happened to be there, doesn't mean I expect this. I heard every word you said to me the other night, and I understand. I do. It’s killing me, but I get it. This thing between us, it’s been… intense. Incredible, but intense. I get your need to have a breather.”
She sits up as if she’s going to leave me alone, and I tighten my hold on her. Despite everything I just said to her, I’m not ready for this to be over.
“I’m just going to the bathroom.”
With one more kiss, I let her climb from the bed and shamelessly stare at her naked ass as it sways toward the bathroom.
She stops in the doorway and looks over her shoulder at me. Her eyes are still full of heat, and there’s a small smile playing on her lips.
I swear to fucking God, the sight turns my world upside down for a second.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” she says when she emerges and rummages around in one of her drawers for a shirt to pull on. I can’t help but smile when she finds one, because it’s one of mine. “There’s a good chance I’ll be kicked out and living in a squat by the end of the semester.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I say, holding my hand out for her so she can come and lie with me.
“No?” She snorts. “I have no way of paying for this place. Hell knows my few hours at the coffee shop aren’t going to cut it.”
“I’m so proud of you, Dove,” I tell her, staring deep into her eyes so she has no choice but to believe me.
“As much as I appreciate that, it’s not going to get me very far.”
“Conner told me about what you did. I’ve spoken to James.”
“Cole, no,” she argues.
“Shhh, Dove. It’s all okay. He’s going to take care of everything. You don’t need to worry about being kicked out.”
“I can’t take his money, Cole.”
“Maybe not, but I can. He owes me, remember? Please don’t argue about this. No matter what happens from here with us, I need to know that you’re looked after, that you're safe. I’ve put you through too much not to.”
Tears fill her eyes as she looks back at me. “It was all worth it.”
I quirk a brow. “Really?” I ask, thinking of all the shit she’s had to deal with because of me.
“Yeah, I think so. Maybe it’s true what they say, there’s always a light at the end of a very long a
nd dark tunnel.”
I rest back against her pillow, thinking of her words. “Yeah, maybe.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Hadley
I don’t see Cole on Friday. The team has extra practice before the championship game tomorrow in LA. Conner told me Coach Miller has agreed to let him play, but I can’t help but wonder if James has something to do with it.
“Hey, there you are.” Remi appears, looking flushed.
“What’s wrong with—”
I notice Ace slip out of an empty classroom and take off down the hall. “Were you two just... in a classroom?”
“Shh, we were just fooling around. We both had a free period.”
“Oh my God, you’re crazy.”
“I just can’t get enough of him. He’s working longer hours at the auto shop and absence is definitely making my heart grow fonder.”
“Your pussy too, apparently.” I smirk.
“Hadley Rexford, did you just say pussy?” Her eyes are as wide as saucers.
“What would you have me call it?” I shrug.
“Lady garden. Va-jay-jay. Hoo-haw. Cooch. Beaver.”
“Okay, okay, I get it.” I snort, fighting a smile. This is nice. Normal. It’s a ray of sunshine after a devastating storm.
We both laugh as we walk down the hall and out of school.
“How are you, really?” Remi asks.
“I’m okay. Part of me still can’t believe Tim was here, but after the last few weeks, nothing seems impossible anymore.”
“You’re so strong, Hadley. I don’t know how you do it.”
I clutch my necklace, glancing at the ground. “I don’t have any choice.”
It’s either let myself drown or try and stay afloat.
“Things can only get better. Only one week left of the semester, and then it’s the holidays. You’ll come, right? My mom really wants you to be there, and you know Conner and Cole do too.”
“I don’t know...”
“Still having second thoughts about Cole?”
“It’s complicated. I think space will be good for us.” But as I say the words, my stomach sinks.
Being in Cole’s arms again last night felt amazing. The desperate loneliness melted from my bones, and I felt nothing but love and warmth.