Elias exhaled deeply, and I could see by the look on his face that he was affected by it.
“Jacob is going to take this hard,” he said. “But we’ll do everything we can for him, Indy. And you.”
I could still hear Jacob’s cries as he tried to piece his wife’s head back together. A wash of sadness spread across my skin, and I let out a deep breath of heartache.
“Thanks, Elias. You’re a good guy.”
“Thanks.” He smiled and gave me a wink. “But I won’t be if your old man finds you up here. How can I convince you to go back inside?”
“It’s alright, Elias.” The voice with an edge to it came from behind us and we both turned to look. It was Cade. He’d made it onto the rooftop without being heard. “She’s not going to listen to you. I got this.”
Elias stood up and gave me a wink. “Stay safe, okay, Indy.”
After he left, Cade pulled a crate over to where I was sitting and sat down.
“I know you don’t like being told what to do, but, Indy, we’re in lockdown—”
“Want some?” I cut him off, offering him my joint. I didn’t need the safety speech. I needed to be numb.
He shook his head. “I can’t protect you if you do things like this.”
“Come to the rooftop for a joint?”
“We don’t know who is doing this, Indy. Who they are. Where they are. You can’t be out here, exposed.”
“We can’t stop living our lives.”
“No. But we can take precautions.” His face softened. “Baby, work with me here. You’re my number-one concern. If anything happened to you—”
“I get it. I’m sorry.” I reached for his hand and squeezed it, exhaling deeply as I fought back my tears. I slumped back into the chair. “She was pregnant.”
Cade’s eyes widened, just for a moment, then settled as the realization set in. His jaw tightened. “Jesus Christ,” he growled, running his hand through his hair. “Does Jacob know?”
I shook my head and finally my tears broke free and spilled down my cheeks. I didn’t want to think about Jacob finding out. It would kill him.
Cade scooped me up and held me against his big chest, and I cried in his arms as he tenderly soothed me. I cried for Mirabella and her unborn baby, and for Isaac and Tex, and Irish too. And I kept crying until my eyes were raw and my chest ached with exhaustion and grief.
When he was sure my tears had stopped, the tops of his fingers found my chin and lifted it. “You’re safe. I promise. Because I will do everything in my power to keep you safe.”
My chin quivered. Images of Mirabella’s lifeless body in my arms were hard to shut out. “How?”
“Whoever is doing this is not some magical god. He’s human. That means he is flawed. He’ll make a mistake. And when he does, I’ll be there to make him pay.”
CADE
“You need to take time off work,” I said to Indy as she stood at the mirror brushing her hair. I watched as she pulled it back into a ponytail and secured it with a hair tie.
She raised her eyebrow at me.
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“No.” I moved to stand behind her and looked at her in the mirror. “We’re in the middle of a lockdown.”
“And I have a job. A job I’ve just started. I can’t take time off.”
“Then quit.”
She reached for her jacket and pulled it on. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
“I can’t protect you at the hospital.”
“Just as well the hospital is full of security.” She sat on the end of her bed and pulled on her knee-high boots, leaning forward to zip them up. When she sat up she smiled at me and all I could think about was how beautiful she was. If anything happened to her . . . “I’ll take an escort to and from the hospital. No one is going to get me while I’m at work. Lockdown or no lockdown, life has to go on.”
She stood up and came to me, wrapping her arms around my neck. She smiled seductively as she reached up and brought her lips to mine. Her kiss was slow and teasing.
“I’ve got a couple of hours before my shift starts,” she said, making me hard as she dragged her tongue along my jaw.
Christ, this woman was my weakness.
She was also a welcome distraction from the turmoil taking place inside.
I kissed her fiercely and crushed her to me. Making love to her was always a welcome relief from the seriousness of our situation. For a small patch in time, I could lose myself in the bliss of her touch and the magic of her body. I walked her backwards toward the bed, removing her jacket and unbuttoning her silk shirt. When her hand found the front of my jeans and began to rub over the hard ridge of my cock, a deep groan left me.