Protecting Melissa (Holiday Cove 4)

“Morning, Chase!” Jackson said, his mouth full of breakfast.

Melissa shot him a look and he shrugged and went back to chewing.

“Hey. Can I talk to you?” I said, cutting my glance away from Jackson.

Melissa’s eyes widened but she nodded and wiped her hands off on the kitchen towel. “Sure. Um, Jackson, baby, after you finish breakfast you can go watch the rest of your movie and then we’ll go outside, okay?”

I ruffled Jackson’s hair as he nodded and led the way out of the kitchen, Melissa on my heels. I stopped in the living room and gestured for her to sit on the couch. She did and I took the place beside her, leaving space between our knees as I twisted to face her.

“You’re scaring me,” she said, her voice laced with nerves.

“I just got off the phone with Matt.”

“Oh.”

I nodded and clasped my hands together. “He’s being followed. So far, he hasn’t been threatened again, but he changed all his private contact information in case he’s being monitored. His PI is working the case, but Henry’s laying low in the wake of the plane crash that killed Talia.”

Melissa blew out a long, slow breath and her eyes drifted off. She was just as mixed up about the news as I was.

“I think we need to keep moving. We can stay here one more night, but tomorrow morning, after we check out we need to get on the boat and go.”

“Where?” she fired back, her eyes snapping to mine. A storm was raging in her beautiful brown eyes. “Where are we supposed to go that Henry won’t find us? Is this what my life will be like now? Moving from city to city, living on a boat, occasionally getting a real fucking shower?”

She broke off and shook her head angrily, like a spooked horse.

Her reality was settling in—no—our reality.

I wanted to reach for her, to take the stress and pressure off of her shoulders, but I would only make things worse and more confusing. She needed to process this on her own.

“I’m sorry, Melissa. This is how it has to be if we’re going to keep you and Jackson safe. For a while anyway.

“Sorry son of a bitch is still controlling me and he doesn’t even know where we are!” she said, her voice sharp and her eyes dark and unsettling.

Without waiting for anything else, she looked at me, got up and stalked back into the kitchen.

14

Chase

Melissa and Jackson spent most of the day at the ocean’s edge. Jackson built a small city out of sand and found more seashells than I could keep track of. He was having the time of his life on the beaches of Mexico. His mother, on the other hand, had never looked more miserable.

And it gutted me.

I knew I couldn’t backtrack. The whole situation was out of my hands—but that knowledge didn’t take away the sting of not being able to put a smile back on her face. She’d had a couple of really good, strong days on the boat, and even the first day in Cabo. But after the bombshell dropped on her that morning, she couldn’t seem to find a way back to those feelings.

Not that I could blame her. At the end of this, I could walk away and go back to my normal life. Melissa had been forced to give up everything she knew, and there was no guarantee she’d ever get it back. Her whole life had been uprooted and messed up. I couldn’t even imagine what that’d feel like and I’d moved all over the world. But I always had a home to go back to when the job was done.

That night, we went to the restaurant we’d dined at the first night ashore. I’d kept Jackson entertained while Melissa stewed. She was distant and checked out and it hurt to watch her so upset. The least I could do was keep Jackson from noticing. When we finished and went back to the hotel, I tried to reach for her, but she slipped past my fingertips and closed herself and Jackson off in their room for the night.

I tried to tell myself that it was for the best that I went to bed alone, but once inside my own room, it was impossible to drive out the memories of the night before and the passionate lovemaking we’d shared. The echoes of it came back to me and every time I so much as glanced at the bed, all I could see was Melissa lying on it, not a stitch of clothing on her beautiful body, and the tipsy grin she’d flashed my way as I’d stripped for her.

Eventually, it became too much. I was being suffocated by the memories and confusion left in their wake. I pushed out of bed, threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and slipped out the back door that led into the large room. I walked around the hotel and started down to the dock. I figured I might as well make myself useful and check on the boat.