I stare at her, trying to figure out what she’s thinking. “You’re moving back into your apartment? There’s not going to be anyone there to keep you safe.”
“I have my security team. I’m going to be just fine.” She tosses the clothes onto the bed before hauling down a suitcase from the top shelf of the closet.
“Jade—”
“Unless the next words out of your mouth are ‘I’m not going to that fight,’ I don’t think I want to hear it.” She looks at me withglassy eyes. “I don’t think I can bear to hear it right now, Ezra. I care about you and you’re going to get yourself killed, and the last thing I want to do is fight with you.”
“I’m not going to die, but you will if I don’t go to the fight.” I cross the room, pulling her to me. “Please, just understand where I’m coming from. I don’t want to fight with you either, but this is the only thing I know how to do to make sure you stay alive.”
She melts into me for just a moment. It’s long enough to make me think that maybe we’re going to be okay, but then she’s out of my arms again and going for a round of jeans to stuff into her suitcase.
Jade stiffens when I clear my throat. She turns to look at me. “I can’t do this with you. I meant what I said. I’m not going to stand to the side and watch you get yourself killed when you know there are other options.”
“There aren’t other options.” I want to make her see that, but I don’t know how. “You don’t know what Noah is capable of. You don’t know the kinds of things he’s planning on doing to you if I don’t do the fight.”
“You know, I spoke to Royce about the other men in that damn fight. Turns out I only knew half of the story. Sure, you guys are going to gain territory, but did you know they also work for Noah?”
“No, they don’t.”
She stuffs her shoes and makeup bag in with the rest of her belongings. “They do. He’s setting you up like I said he was, but you don’t want to see it because you’d rather pretend that he’s going to keep us all safe. Well, he’s going to fuck us all.”
I sigh and sit down on the edge of the bed, running my hands down my face. “I can’t risk losing you.”
“Well, you already did.” She folds the suitcase up and zips it shut.
“At least you’re alive, and I don’t have to worry about you as long as I go to this fight.”
She hoists the suitcase onto the ground. “No. Instead I get to know you’re walking into a fight where they’re going to kill you, and then I have to worry about them coming after me while I’m grieving. Tell me, in what world does that make sense to you?”
“It doesn’t have to make sense, but he’s not going to kill me.”
She pauses at the door, turning to look back at me. “You said yourself, I don’t know what he’s capable of, but then again, you know exactly what he could do, and you’re still choosing to turn a blind eye.”
“Well, then, I guess we have nothing left to say to each other.”
Jade’s bottom lip quivers before she nods. “Yeah, I guess we’re done.”
She leaves me sitting in that room, wondering where the hell I went wrong with all of this.
She was supposed to be mine. I took her, and she was never supposed to leave. We were supposed to be together.
The only person I’ve ever loved is walking away from me.
I’m going to have to watch her carry on with her life, knowing that she wants nothing to do with me.
I don’t know how to deal with it. I don’t know how to deal with any of this.
I want to be with her, but for now I’m going to have to settle for watching her.
After what should be enough time for her to get home, I pull out my phone and connect to the cameras in her apartment.
She is just walking in.
Hello, my love. I’m sorry it has to be this way for now, but the two of us are going to be just fine.
She drops the suitcase by the door and heads down the hall, stopping at the fridge to grab a bottle of wine before sinking down on the couch and opening it up.
Her shoulders shake with sobs.
