“Virus is working on something to scramble the cell tower info related to her phone. So hopefully that’ll be enough to keep them guessing.”
“Hopefully.” I turn away from him, but his arm reaches out before I can step away.
“You straight?”
“I’m good,” I lie. I won’t be able to say that with honesty until my girl is safe in my arms.
Although Lynch prepared me about what I was going to find, my blood still runs close to boiling when I open my bedroom door and find Kaci wrapped around Kai in repose. He doesn’t jolt or fly out of bed with guilty movements. He simply raises his fingers to his lips, shushing me before slowly drawing himself out from under her. With more care and concern than I thought possible for the normally flamboyant man, he eases away from Kaci without disturbing her or waking her up.
The covers are pulled all the way up, so I don’t have a damn clue what I’m going to see when they separate. Luckily for Kai, he climbs out of bed fully clothed. Even the soft fabric of his athletic shorts are flat, so he wasn’t getting aroused by her when she was in distress. I should commend him for his restraint, because even with knowing what she’s going through my cock kicks in my jeans at the mere anticipation of crawling into bed and replacing Kai in that spot.
My first instinct is still to punch him as he crosses the room, but I’d never want Kaci to suffer. If Kai in bed with her is what it took to calm her enough to go to sleep, then how can I be angry about that?
“Thanks, man,” I tell him, clapping my hand in his as soon as he’s close enough to touch.
He squeezes my shoulder, looking into my eyes, and I see her pain reflected in his. This girl has the ability to draw every single person in. It makes me even more protective of her.
“Anytime, handsome.”
The door softly clicks behind Kai as he leaves, so the only light in the room is coming from around the edges of the window blind and the tunnel of illumination from the bathroom.
As fast as I needed to get back to her, I’m torn between getting a shower and washing the highway off me and stripping naked and crawling in bed with her. I frown when a clicking noise fills the silence in the room, but once I realize it’s her teeth clacking together, my decision is made for me. She must’ve begun trembling again the moment Kai pulled away from her.
I strip out of my clothes, unconcerned that my cut lands on the floor disrespectfully. I growl in frustration when I try to push my jeans off without first removing my boots, so getting to her takes much longer than I want.
Stripped to my boxer briefs, I pull back the blanket and climb under it with her. My heart expands when she reaches for me in her sleep and presses her nose into my neck. The trembling doesn’t subside immediately, and of its own volition, my hand soothes down her back until my fingers reach the hem of her shirt. With smooth movements, my fingers ease under the fabric so I can stroke her delicate skin from the nape of her neck to the top band of the sweats she’s wearing.
She releases a ragged breath, and only then do I realize she’s shaking because she’s crying. As tears leave her eyes and skate down my neck and shoulder, I hold her tighter, whispering promises that she’s safe, and I’m never letting her go.
I don’t know how to make this better. Naturally, I want to grip her chin, insist she dry her eyes, remind her that her piece of shit dad doesn’t deserve her tears, but she’s also recently lost her mother, and she could be crying for her, for all I know. I contemplate rolling her over and eating her to so many orgasms that she has no choice but to let the endorphins take over and make her feel better, but she’s in no position to fully consent right now.
I feel impotent, unable to give her what she needs. Emotional shit isn’t my forte. At least it wasn’t until today. I won’t take it back. I won’t tell her I freaked out and overreacted with my declaration while I had her on the phone. I meant every fucking word of it. I don’t even know if she heard me say those three words I’ve never uttered to another human other than my mom and little sister before she hung up. I meant it then, and if she’s up for it, I’ll whisper them in her ear every night before bed. I’ll yell them from the tallest tree on the compound if that’s what she needs from me.