Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
And yet he couldn’t do it.
“What’s happening is that we are going to bathe you, get you dressed in some clean clothes, which I’m certain that North has arranged, and feed you. Because you look like a stiff wind would knock you over.”
“Why do people keep saying that to me?” she grumbled.
“Perhaps it’s because you’re too thin,” North said.
“North,” Jared reprimanded, sending him a look to let him know that he meant it.
And if North kept pushing, he would punish him. It had already been days since he’d come . . . which was probably the reason why he was also in such a mood.
Wait. Was Angie the woman he’d come home smelling of? She had to be.
Fuck, all of this explained so much.
“Were you eating before you grew ill?” Jared asked.
“Not much,” North told him when she didn’t reply.
“Why weren’t you taking better care of her?” he demanded.
“I tried,” North replied. “She makes it very . . . difficult. She is very difficult.”
“Only to people who kidnap me,” she fired back.
Lord, she smelled. She really needed to shower and wash her hair.
“So you’re not going to be difficult for me, then, are you?” Jared murmured.
“That depends,” she said.
He didn’t know why her resistance and fire lit something inside him. Generally, he preferred obedience and subservience.
Although look who you are with . . .
North was obedient only when it suited him. And only in the bedroom.
But sometimes Jared did want more. Someone he could coddle and smother in protection. Someone who needed more care than North was willing to accept.
However, did he really want more responsibility? Could he keep her safe? Especially since they hadn’t found Beltran yet? If he got hold of her . . .
No! That wouldn’t happen. Jared wouldn’t lose anyone else.
“You took care of me, didn’t you?” she asked Jared. “While I was sick.”
“I did.”
“You guys stabbed me!”
They stared at her in shock and she held out her arm.
“We put in an IV line,” North said dryly. “Trust me, if I stabbed you, I wouldn’t bandage you up after.”
Jared shot him a look.
“You need to keep your fluids up.” Jared pinched the top of her hand.
“Hey! Rude!”
“She’s still dehydrated. I think we should give her another bag of fluid.”
North nodded.
“No,” she said. “I want to go home. Now. Keira and the others will be worried about me.”
“Zander is on the warpath, trying to figure out what happened to you,” Jared told her.
She winced. “Crap. I’m going to be stuck living in his bunker until I’m eighty.”
“You don’t like living there?” Jared asked. “Why? Do they mistreat you?”
“Of course not! They’ve all been really good to me. I just never felt like I belonged there. Like I was an intruder . . . you know what? It doesn’t matter. I need to get back there. I need to call Keira. She’ll be really stressed and that’s not good when she’s pregnant.”
“She’s pregnant?” North asked. “I wasn’t aware of that.”
“We’ll get you on the phone to her soon,” Jared said. “Once you’ve had another IV and some food.”
“I don’t need looking after. I can take care of myself.”
“I don’t believe that’s true,” Jared said. “And North should have been taking better care of you. Like ensuring you bathed and ate.”
“I don’t think kidnappers really care about the state of their prisoners,” she said, squirming on his lap. “If I stink too much, you can put me down.”
He really should put her down.
But he just couldn’t do it.
21
She looked like she belonged in Jared’s lap.
This was what he’d wanted, right?
Someone for Jared to be able to focus on. To care for.
And it had to be her. She was the one Jared thought about, dreamed of . . .
North knew that he likely wouldn’t survive what he had to do. Nobody disobeyed The Collective and survived.
But he was going to find out who had hired him to kill Jared.
It could be Beltran. Although North didn’t really think that was his style. And he had to know so that he could take them out.
Then he’d leave.
Jared would be fine after North was gone. He’d have her.
He didn’t need North. He never really had.
This was the beginning of the end.
“North, can you get the IV set up again and grab her some light food?” Jared asked.
North nodded and went to leave.
“Why am I here, though?” she asked suddenly. “North hasn’t given me any reason but to say he took me for you.”
North stilled and turned back. “I took you because I didn’t think you should be living alone. And because Jared wants you.”
“You sound like a child who wanted a toy that someone else has. I wanted it so I took it. No matter the toy’s feelings in the matter!”
“Toys don’t have feelings,” North informed her.
She gasped. Loudly. And indignantly. “Don’t listen to him, Wally and Wallina. He’s obviously lost his freaking mind.”