Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
The video was still accessible in places that didn’t respond to legal pressure quickly, but the active spread had slowed to a fraction of only an hour ago. It wasn’t gone and likely never would be. But the bleeding was being managed. Hopefully, once interest shifted to something else, the video would fade away into global oblivion.
I tried not to think about Jade two floors up, probably not sleeping. Definitely hurting. I felt like the biggest, most useless idiot in the world for not knowing how to help her. Frustration pressed down on me like a physical weight.
The light from the hallway outside the office shifted slightly as someone moved into the doorway. I looked up, expecting to find one of my brothers, probably Inferno, there to make me leave and get some sleep. Instead, Jade stood in the doorway in an oversize gray T-shirt and cotton sleep shorts, her feet bare on the hallway floor. Her hair was down and loose around her face. She had her arms crossed loosely at her midsection. She looked like someone who had tried to sleep but had eventually given up on the attempt.
I nodded toward the spare chair against the wall. One of the women had insisted on actual furniture in here, so instead of a hard, waiting room chair, an actual plush living room chair rested in the corner where anyone using it would be comfortable. She came in quietly and settled into the chair, pulling her feet up under her. She looked at the screens for a moment.
“Do you mind if I sit in here with you for a while?” she asked.
“Not at all. You can sit with me as long as you want.”
She nodded. Didn’t speak again right away. The monitors cycled. I heard her breathe, steady and slow, which was better than the shallow, panicked breathing from earlier. She’d found some ground under her feet between then and now. I was glad.
“Does it bother you?” she asked after a while. “Staying up all night just watching. Doing this every night. Must feel like a lot of work for you.”
I thought about that for a moment. “No. It helps me relax because I know what’s going on around the people I care about.” I glanced at the courtyard feed, not wanting to place too much emphasis on my words so I didn’t spook her. “Doesn’t feel like work at all.” I turned my head to the side so I could see her but didn’t look directly at her. “I have a driving need to…” I struggled with my words, needing to convey my feelings to her without scaring the bejesus out of her. “I don’t know. Protect, uh, people.” I shook my head slightly, knowing I was fucking this all the way up. Finally, I sighed and just laid it out there. “I need to protect you, Jade.”
She sucked in a breath but remained quiet. I felt her watching me, but I didn’t turn toward her yet, letting her decide whether she wanted me to look at her.
“Rip.”
“Yeah, honey.”
“This morning on the overlook.” She paused. “You said when I was ready, you’d be here. That you weren’t going anywhere.”
“I did,” I said without hesitation. “And I meant it.”
“I know you did.” She laid her head on her bent knee as she looked up at me. “I’ve been trying to figure out why knowing you’re serious doesn’t scare me the way it should. After everything.” She turned the question over for a moment. “And I think it’s because you always ask. Before you do anything. You’ve told me what you were going to do before you did it every single time we’ve interacted. It never even occurred to me that a man taking me to a secluded area alone might not be the smartest thing I’d ever done, but you’re not just any man to me, Rip.”
I turned and looked at her. The dim glow of the monitors still caught the haunted shadows under her eyes from the day’s events. “Yeah?”
“Eric never asked. About anything. I’d forgotten I could make my own choices.” She looked at the monitors. “I’ve been thinking about that.”
I set the coffee cup down carefully. “I’ve been trying to give you room,” I said. “Space to figure out what you want without me making it complicated. More than I want to be with you, I want you safe and happy, however that looks.” I kept my voice level because that part was true. It was also costing me something, and I didn’t see any reason to pretend it wasn’t. “I know what it’s like to have choices stripped away. I won’t do that to you. If you believe nothing else, I want you to know I will always ask you what you want. And I’ll do my Goddamned level best to make it happen.”