“Joe Abatangelo,” Jarrod forces out of his mouth in anger. “This has nothing to do with a past case and everything to do with a future one. His case isn’t even up for another four months so I didn’t even give it a thought.” Jarrod slams his fist against the door.
Fuck. All this time we’ve been looking in the wrong direction only to have it all go back to Joe Abatangelo—the guy involved in the stuff back in Lexington. Colin and a couple of guys in the office have been looking at the wrong set of people. Manpower spent contacting informants to try and get information about something they probably knew nothing about.
I stew in silence for the rest of the journey home, because I’m mad as fuck. Part of my anger is at myself for Gia getting hurt. I know she doesn’t blame me, but if I’d been with her it might have been prevented. I sure as hell would have been inside the changing room with her instead of standing guard outside.
I don’t blame Chris. I’d cursed him out something bad when Chris rang me to give me the not so good news.
Gia is trying to put on a brave face, but I’ve been grazed with a bullet on more than one occasion and it hurts like a fucker so she has to be in a fair amount of pain by now.
As I pull the car to a stop outside the front door to the house, I hop out and run to open Gia’s door. On looking at her though, I step forward and scoop her up in to my arms.
“I’ve got you babe. I’m not going to let you go.”
“Please don’t,” she whispers, nuzzling into the warmth of my chest.
If anyone has the power to bring me to my knees then it’s this woman in my arms. My girl.
“Let’s get you inside.” Walking toward the door, Jarrod runs ahead and opens it before punching in the code for the alarm.
The whole of the assignment is going down the drain. I’m there to protect them. There is no way I can protect Jarrod while I have Gia in my arms. Something has to give and I have a feeling it’s going to be me. That I’m going to have to give in and phone Colin for some support. Admit to Colin that I’m more involved than I should be. I can imagine Colin having a good laugh at my expense. The big bad guy no one wants to mess with has fallen for a woman.
Jarrod interrupts my thoughts and asks Gia, “Are you really okay?”
She holds her hand out to her father who takes it and after kissing her on the knuckles, he places it back on her stomach.
“You need to rest.”
“Dad, please don’t worry. I’m fine, I just want to stay with Hunter.”
Jarrod frowns. “We need to talk about that.”
“Not now. I’m too tired,” Gia tells him, successfully avoiding the subject.
“I’ll leave it for now, but not long,” Jarrod sighs, looking directly at me.
I notice that for once Jarrod looks his age. The stress of the day has obviously caught up to him.
Walking into the living room, Gia stops me, and asks, “Will you take me upstairs to change?”
“I have some calls to make. I’d rather you rest up on the sofa where I can keep an eye on you.” I lean closer so that our faces are mere inches apart, and tell her, “I need to keep you in my sight.”
Gia brings her uninjured arm up and caresses my face with her hand, letting her palm rest on my cheek.
“Okay. I’ll come back down.”
“You’re back…and my good friend has the babe in his arms. Can’t be bad,” Julian says, walking out from the kitchen with a mug of coffee in his hand.
“I didn’t know you where heading back this way,” I comment.
Julian had been called back to base so the fact that he’s showed up back here is unexpected.
“Yeah, a waste of time. Things had changed by the time I’d gotten back so figured you could still use my help.” He grins. “Wouldn’t mind seeing Parker again. She’s a hot little number. Nice scenery around here as well,” he comments, taking a swallow of his coffee to hide the smug grin on his face.
“Yeah well, this ‘nice scenery’ is my girl. Go annoy Parker,” I growl.
Julian throws his head back and roars with laughter.
“The bad ass has gone soft on a girl. Wait till I tell the guys.”