Jon eased back and gifted her another smile. His eyes were brighter than usual, the brown shining out clearly. She couldn’t help but return his smile.
Until the serenity of the moment was quite literally shattered as a large rock, half covered in dirt, came flying through her kitchen window. Glass exploded everywhere. One of her semi-sheer drapes was torn down. The rock smacked onto the edge of the sink, wobbled, and rolled with a thunderous crash to the vinyl floor.
Jenna let out a startled shriek.
Jon tugged her beneath the overhanging edge of the peninsula with an arm around her shoulders, holding her close. He raised his other hand to his lips to signal her to be quiet.
Jenna bobbed her head and bit her lips to hold back any reflexive screams. She had no idea what the hell was going on or why anyone would be hurling rocks through her windows. If she’d been home alone, she’d probably be hyperventilating.
“Jenna!” a male voice bellowed from outside. “Get your whore ass out here!”
Everything froze. Her fear, her confusion. Her lungs. Her blood.
She’d forgotten. In the chaos and euphoria of the previous day, she’d managed to forget how the day had started.Stupid. Stupid, Jenna.She should have been bracing herself. She should have thought up plans—escape routes, emergency codes, anything. She should have held on to Lynnette’s bear spray.
A warm, calloused hand cupped her face, penetrating the ice and drawing her attention. Jon was close, his nose a hair’s breadth from hers and a concerned scowl on his lips. “Talk to me, baby. What just happened?”
“Jenna!”
Her throat constricted and she clung to Jon’s shirt, wishing she could will the knowledge into his mind. She pried her lips open.One word. It’s just one word.She’d already told Jon the story. If she could push the bastard’s name past her lips one more time, Jon would understand.
“If you make me come in there, bitch, I’ll kill your new fuck toy, too!”
Too. Because killing her was the plan. She’d known that, hadn’t she? He’d warned her. Screamed it at her.
Jon pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her, one hand threading into her hair. “Tune him out. Find something good to think about and turn up the volume.Whatever it is. Sing to yourself, write up a new recipe in your head”—he pressed his lips to her ear—“remember my mouth on your pussy.”
She gasped at the unexpected turn. Her body thrummed.
Jon kissed her temple and eased back, moving his hands to her shoulders. “I’m going to go out there and shut him up. You stay right here until I come back, understand?”
All she could do was nod.
Chapter eighteen
Never Again
Colin Carr was notan impressive man.
Jon put him at about five-eleven, with a moderate build beneath the oversized clothing. The man had dirty blond, unkempt hair in desperate need of a cut, as it hung at least to his chin, and blue eyes that were dark in the way that revealed the emptiness inside. He looked exactly like the kind of man who would be lurking outside a woman’s apartment.
Jon’s fists clenched tighter at his sides.Never again.“Colin!”
The man who’d spared him half a glance when he’d rounded the corner of Jenna’s building snapped fully around, a new rock held in one hand. “Who the fuck are you?”
Jon strode forward. “As far as you’re concerned, I’m the Grim fucking Reaper.” There were certain people in government who would put two and two together if they ever heard of the broken, dehydrated corpse that may someday be unearthed within a reasonable afternoon’s drive of Jon’s hometown. Particularly if the corpse were ever identified. But those same people had too often taken advantage of his unique skillset in the past. They didn’t worry him.
Letting the abusive piece of shit who’d stalked Jenna across state lines see another sunset?Thatbothered him.
Colin finally seemed to judge Jon as a threat, so he hurled the baseball-sized rock in Jon’s direction and shuffled backward. “Piss off while you have the chance, boy toy,” he called, like he thought he was tough.
Jon rolled his upper body to the side, letting the rock sail by, and continued forward. “You should’ve done yourself a favor and let your Prison Daddy shank you.”
Colin stopped moving, his eyes going wide for a beat before the anger reddened his face. “The fuck did you say? What the fuck are you even—”
Jon kicked his lips up in a taunting smirk. “C’mon, we both know you were the bitch.” He paused to let that hang. “Hell, you probably weren’t even themainbitch.”
Colin’s nostril’s flared as he huffed, every piece of visible skin turning an unhealthy shade of red. He reached into his too large coat and pulled out a switchblade, flipping it open without looking away. “You smug motherfucker,” he snarled, “think you can talk to me like that? After I let you spend all night between my whore wife’s legs?”
