Chapter 192
745 Words
Gradually, her sobs tapered off, and Jim pulled back to look at her. She stared at the floor, embarrassed and ashamed, but he wasn’t having any of it.
“Hey,” he said softly. “Look at me.”
She took a breath, lifted her chin.
“You’re not in this alone, baby. Not anymore.”
“I know,” she whispered, tears threatening again.
“And I’m not leaving you on your own until Dallas knows exactly where this asshole is. You hear me? I’m going to do whatever I have to do to make you feel safe.” His eyes were blazing at her. “That means staying here, sleeping on your sofa, taking you to work, picking you up. When we’re sure that twisted prick’s safe and sound in Foxburg Falls, then we’ll see where we are. OK?”
She nodded, her throat too tight to speak.
Jim stepped back now, and she tried to smile at the other men. “Thanks, guys.”
“Sure,” Dean said gruffly. “Whatever you need Kat, just ask.”
“I will.”
They gave her a hug on the way out, and Jim shut the door behind them. Kat sat on the sofa, suddenly completely and totally wrecked and exhausted. He saw it in her face, and he sat next to her.
“How you doing?” he said.
“I’m not sure.” She considered. “Worried. Relieved. Tired. Happy.”
“All at the same time?”
“Yeah.” She smiled at him, and he loved how her face lit up. “I’ve got a blender going full-speed inside of me. I’m all mixed up.”
He grinned at that. “You want to go lie down for a while?”
“Yeah, maybe.”
“OK, you go do that. And when you get up, we’ll drop by my place and pick up some of my clothes and stuff.”
She started. “Oh, Jim… you don’t have to do that. I mean, I’ll be fine here on my own.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What did I tell you?”
She squirmed under the intensity of his gaze. “When?”
“Not even three minutes ago.” He glowered at her. “Didn’t I say that I wasn’t leaving you alone?”
“Yeah.”
“You trying to make me a liar?”
“Uh. No.”
“OK, then. You get some sleep, then we make some dinner, then we go. Deal?”
“Deal.”
In her bedroom, she peeled off her clothes, climbed into bed and closed her eyes. The last thing she felt before falling into a dreamless sleep was a deep sense of calm.
I’m not alone, for the first time in years. I’m safe.
For now.
****
About five minutes after Kat – or whatever the hell her name is – closed her bedroom door, Jim started to have some trouble with himself. He sat and drank a second beer, trying hard to stay in control of his anger.
Now that he knew almost all of Kat’s full story, he felt an odd combination of relief and rage. OK, yeah… he’d guessed that she was on the run from something, and he’d assumed it wasn’t pleasant, and he’d known that he’d be pissed about whatever it was. But still, he was taken aback at just how much he wanted to look Sheriff Michael Ferguson in the eye as he beat his head into a wall, over and over again. Jim longed to do to this asshole what he’d done to Kat: Jim wanted to scare him, hurt him, humiliate him. Make him feel unsafe and insecure.
Tit for tat, you fucker.
In a weird way, though, what was really making him see red was the news that this guy was ex-military; that he was, in fact, one of Jim’s fellow highly-trained brothers. When Kat had innocently said that he was ‘one of you’, Jim had jumped at her precisely because she was right. This sick, abusive asshole with a badge and a gun was one of them. And since Jim, Dean, Chris and Dallas knew what this guy was capable of – in some ways, they knew even better than Kat, despite her personal experience at his hands – that made stopping him their responsibility.
We take care of our own – and that goes both ways.
- Writer
