“Again?” I took his hand. “We weren’t….”
“You weren’t,” he amended. “But I have been since the moment I met you.”
“Jo Jo, I…”
Chavvah cleared her throat. “Uhm, we’ll give you two a minute.” She took Doc’s hand and dragged him from the living room to their bedroom.
There wouldn’t be any place in this cabin they couldn’t hear us, but I was grateful for the moment alone.
“I didn’t know,” I said. “You loved Michele. That’s what everyone said. She’d just broken up with you, and the kiss…I was a rebound.” That’s what I’d told myself. “It was the only excuse I needed to run away.”
“Run away from what?”
My throat went dry. “From happiness. I don’t trust it, Jo Jo. Can’t you see that I’m not healthy? I don’t know how to be with someone. I don’t know what it means to love without conditions. The concept is….”
“Amazing?” he filled in. “Spectacular? Wonderful?”
“Terrifying.”
He took my hands. “I don’t want to scare you, but I’m in love with you, Etta.” He dropped his forehead to mine. “I’ve been missing a piece of myself for the past several years, and I didn’t realize until I saw you yesterday how empty my life has been since you left Peculiar. I’d been convinced that you could never love me. It’s how I stopped myself every day from chasing after you. I can’t deny my feelings anymore. I won’t. I’m…incomplete without you. You’re the missing piece.”
I knew that sensation all too well. I’d thought about Jo Jo every day after I left. I still couldn’t believe he was with me now.
“You, uhm, complete me, too.” There was so much I wanted to say to Jo Jo that involved love and longing, but that was a conversation I didn’t want to have in proximity to other shifters. Especially when those shifters were my father and my alpha. “Do you have your keys?”
“Why?” He gave me a hopeful look. “Did you change your mind about the safe house?”
“No,” I whispered. “But you were so, so wrong, Jo Jo. I could love you.”
“Could?”
“I can, and I do. And whatever happens tomorrow, I want you to know that I’m a screwed-up mess—”
“Oh, I know,” he joked.
“Let me finish.” I gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, and I realized, even better news, my tattoo had stopped itching. I took it as a sign that the universe was giving me a tiny break. I took it. “I’m a screwed-up mess, but you’ve had my heart since the moment I laid eyes on you too.” I pressed my hips to his. “I’m fairly certain I’m in love with you too.”
His green eyes sparkled. “Fairly certain, huh?”
“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes and grinned. “Now, if you have your keys, I’d like you to take me somewhere out of earshot from the parents so we can finish our earlier conversation.” If I managed to beat William tomorrow, fantastic, but if the asshole managed to get the better of me, I didn’t want to miss out on loving Jo Jo the way he deserved.
His mouth formed a small “o.” “They’re inside with the bags.” He slanted his mouth over mine and kissed me until my toes curled. After a few scorchingly hot moments, he said, “Hold that thought. I’ll be back in two seconds.”
“I can’t wait,” I whispered a bit breathlessly. When he paused, I added, “I can wait long enough for you to get the keys.” I laughed as he raced into the cabin. I couldn’t fight the sheer joy I felt, and I smiled in a way that felt so genuine it hurt. Nothing would ever take this moment from me, I thought.
I was wrong. A rough hand clamped down over my mouth, and a large arm wrapped around me from behind. A sinister voice hissed in my ear, “Hello, Etta. What have you done to my son? Where’s Pete?”
Son. Of. A. Bitch. My worst nightmare was coming true. War had found me.
CHAPTERELEVEN
Etta – No pain, no astral plane.
Almost seven feet tall and half as broad, War was a dominating figure even in his human form. He whisked me off my feet without any need for supernatural ability and took off in a sprint. I tried to scream, but his palm sealed my lips. My hair tumbled into my face, and I couldn’t see where he was taking me. Even without wolf hearing, I recognized the sound of a sliding van door as War’s speed slowed.
He leaped inside, holding me tight in his grip, then barked, “Go, go, go!”
Only when the van was in motion did he release my mouth. The interior smelled like grease and old motor oil. There were locked metal cabinets in the rear, maybe for tools or, more likely, torture kits. William used his first lieutenant as a weapon of fear. This was War’s specialty, and I knew that now that he had me confined, trying to fight him wouldn’t get me anywhere but injured or worse. So, I forced myself to stop struggling.
