He shook his head, staring at me incredulously. “You think I can leave you right now?”
“What about Rebecca?”
Jack cursed under his breath and then pulled his cell out of his pocket. “Give me your number.”
“What?”
“Your cell. I didn’t have your number tonight. Couldn’t reach you. Couldn’t warn you. That’s not happening again.”
Sensing he would not be budged and not entirely unhappy to provide my number, I rhymed it off. He then called my phone, which went to voicemail. “Now you have my number. I’ve gotta call Rebecca. Don’t move,” he told me before pressing a button and holding the phone to his ear. A few seconds later, he said, “Becs?”
Wanting to give him privacy, I strolled to the kitchen. I heard Jack’s voice following me and realized he was shadowing my movements.
Hmm.
I filled the kettle, preparing to make tea, as Jack stood at my island and watched me while he talked to his sister and explained what had happened … and that she shouldn’t wait up.
I raised an eyebrow.
“Tea?” I asked as Jack hung up the phone. I reached up to a cupboard where I kept my scotch. Now and then, on a frigid winter’s night, I liked to add a little whisky to my tea. I waved the bottle of Talisker at Jack. “Spiked tea?”
Although his mouth smiled, his eyes didn’t. “Yeah, go for it.”
We stood across from each other, the island between us.
“Kerr went to your house to taunt you about Ian coming for me?” I asked for clarification. It’s what Jack had told the sheriff. He’d sent more deputies to arrest Kerr.
“Yeah,” Jack bit out before taking a sip of the tea I’d slid toward him.
“Don’t you think that’s strange? It’s almost as if he was giving you a chance to stop it.”
His face darkened with fury. “No. He thought the deed was already done. He forgot Ian is a drama queen who likes to draw shit out. Luckily for us.” Jack looked exhausted. “Shit, Em, I am so fucking relieved you’re a secret markswoman.”
I laughed a little. “Me too.”
“I can’t believe you can laugh about this. I’m sorry you got pulled into my fucked-up family drama.” He shook his head. “How do I even apologize for what happened here tonight?”
“Jack, I don’t hold you responsible. You tried to tell me that your father would attempt to use me in some way to get to you. You were right.” One of the biggest reasons for keeping Jack at bay was because I’d been angry at him for rejecting me. But he’d only rejected me because he’d been trying to protect me. At the time, I thought it a pitiful excuse, one we both should’ve had a voice in. Yet he had been proven right tonight. This realization confused me. And made me more than a little tenderhearted toward him.
“I wish like hell I’d been wrong.”
“It’s done now. And I’m fine.” I smiled to myself before I took a sip of tea. “People always underestimate me.”
“I’ll never underestimate you.”
I nearly choked at the sincerity in his promise, at the emotion in his eyes as he gazed at me like I was his whole world. I remembered how frantic and scared he’d been as he burst into my house and saw Ian holding the gun. I’d never seen Jack lose his cool like that.
Ian’s insinuation that Jack was playing the long game with me niggled at the back of my mind. I knew I shouldn’t think that of Jack. Rationally, I knew his fear didn’t stem from losing a chance at my billions but I wanted him to know the truth anyway. “I gave up the Paxton Group.”
Jack raised an eyebrow at the abrupt change of conversation.
I took another fortifying sip of tea. Then I studied him, trying to decipher his feelings as I told him, “I sold my shares and donated most of the money to charity. I have no ties to the Paxton Group. I’m even selling the estate in New York. I’m … I’m not a billionaire anymore, Jack.”
I watched as he digested this news and then seemed to deflate with relief as he exhaled slowly. “Thank Christ for that.”
Now it was my turn to be shocked. “Oh?”
“Do you know what kind of target all that money made you? It’s a goddamn miracle no one found you hiding out in Hartwell. Emery Saunders isn’t exactly a genius alias.”
I huffed in indignation. “It worked for nine years.”
“Like I said, a goddamn miracle.”
“You’re being annoying.”
Jack chuckled. “The truth is annoying.”
I harrumphed, pouting into my tea.
“You are so fucking adorable,” Jack said softly. Our eyes met and his turned smoky and hot. “And beautiful. And kind. And naive. And wise. You’re every contradiction under the sun … and I can’t stop thinking about you.”
It was the most wonderful thing anyone had ever said to me.