Jacob’s expression tightens, but his voice stays smooth, dangerous. “Funny. Looks to me like she’s sitting right here of her own free will.”
The words hang like fog. My spine stiffens. Jacob’s anger isn’t loud; it simmers.
Benny’s jaw clicks “Like she has a choice? You don’t get to drag her around and show her off like she’s some kinda prize you won… Summer, come with me. Let me take you?—”
The table freezes.
Jacob exhales slow, then shifts, turning fully in his seat. One arm draped across the booth, legs spread wide, power radiating like heat from asphalt.
“Put your hand away before I tear it off and ram it up your fucking ass,” he says, voice lazy.
Jacob’s smile is thin. “Let me explain how this works, since you three seem confused. I don’t make threats in public. When I decide to end something, I end it. No warning. No noise. Just gone.” His tongue drags across his teeth, eyes never leaving Benny’s. “So, if you think coming in here, trying to get her to leave with you, gives you a shot—think again.”
He turns to me then, his stare molten, scorching.
“You think they can protect you better than me, baby?” His voice is a blade pressed to my throat. “You think they’ll look after you like I do? You wanna leave with them, you can go right now. I won’t stop you.” He raises both his hands as though expressing surrender.
We both know even if I tried to leave, he would have me over his shoulder and thrown into the back of his truck before I even managed to get to the door, but the truth is, I’m enjoying our conversation. I want to stay with him.
My breath hitches. “No Jacob, I want to stay with you.”
He smiles, reaches over and cups my hand, then looks back at Benny, calm as death.
“Approach me again and I won’t just come for you. I’ll make surethe whole town watches what happens when little boys forget their place.”
The diner goes still. Like time stopped ticking. No one speaks. No one moves. And just when I think he might lunge across the table and finish it—he smiles. A slow, terrifying curve of his mouth and raises my hand to kiss it.
The waitress drifts over, oblivious, and sets the plates down with a polite smile. The smell of seared short-rib and butter should make my stomach growl—but instead, my hunger curdles. I can’t take a bite.
“Eat your dinner, baby,” Jacob murmurs, his lips brushing my knuckles like a brand. “You’ll need your strength for what I’ve got planned.”
Benny doesn’t flinch but doesn’t look away either.
He leans forward, forearms braced on the table, his whole body wound tight like a bow pulled to its breaking point.
“You’re a fucking coward,” Benny spits. “Beating on a woman half your age—vulnerable, scared—and you call that strength?” Jacob doesn’t blink. Doesn’t even twitch.
But I feel it—the shift.
The silence is weighty and electric, like the moment before lightning splits the sky. A muscle jumps in his jaw, and I know—whatever happens next, someone’s about to bleed.
“Careful,” he says, voice calm, almost amused. “You’ve got exactly one more breath before I stop being polite.”
“You’re not polite,” Constance snaps. “You’re a manipulative piece of shit who gets off on fear.”
Adelaide doesn’t speak—but her eyes flash. Her hands are trembling. She looks like she’s ready to throw her glass straight through his skull.
Jacob finally turns his gaze to them. And there’s something ancient in his stare now. Something feral. The kind of predator that doesn’t need to bare teeth to make you bleed.
“You two should be smarter than this,” he says, voice so quiet it makes the words worse. “No doubt she’s told you why she’s living with me?”
My stomach twists. Constance flinches. Adelaide goes pale.
“But go ahead,” Jacob murmurs, voice flat. “Keep whispering your little plans. Just answer me one question—when the night comes and there’s a knife at her throat, which one of you will be breaking down the door to save her? Because I guarantee there’s no man, woman or fucking animal on earth, in heaven, or hell that will get near her while she’s with me.”
My stomach flutters, but Benny’s reply comes fast. “You’ll be the one holding the knife,” he shoots back.
“Tell me, son,” Jacob drawls, the word dragged out like an insult. “What exactly do you think you’re offering her? A busted bed in the back of a trailer? Cold pizza and songs nobody’s listening to?”
