Page 96 of Kiss Marry Kill
Megan was pacing around chewing on her thumbnail. “I can’t relax. This isn’t funny anymore.”
“Was it ever funny? You were abducted.”
“I know that, Jackson. But I thought it was over. Now my puppy might die. He was poisoned, he’s bleeding out. Do I have to worry about what I eat now too?”
“Go shower, baby. Your job is to leave the worrying to me.”
Megan appreciated his concern, but she couldn’t relax. She walked to the bathroom, turned off the bath, and unplugged the tub, then stripped naked and took a quick hot shower. When she got out, Jax was speaking to someone on the other side of the door to the room.
“What’s that?” she asked after he shut the door, pointing to the large bag in his hand.
Jax went to the table and emptied the bag. “I had them bring up one of every kind of food they sold at the hotel store that was sealed. It’s mostly junk, but it’ll do for tonight. Tomorrow we’ll figure something out. If we go to a restaurant where no one is expecting us, the food should be okay.”
She took a bag of pretzels and sat on the couch to eat it. Scrolling through her phone, she saw that the buzz surrounding the previous week’s attack was still top news, something she’d been avoiding reading about. Tossing the half-eaten bag of pretzels away, she went to bed.
Curled into a ball on her side of the bed, she felt the mattress dip a few minutes later. Jax had been making calls when she’d gone to sleep, but apparently he was done. She felt his bare chest behind her as he pulled her close.
“Are you finished with work?”
“Not even close.”
She turned around and pressed closer to him. “I’m scared.”
“I know,” he said. “Don’t be. I’m here. We’re not leaving anything to chance this time. You’re going to be okay. We’re going to be ten steps ahead of him. I just got you back, Meg, there’s no way I’m letting someone take you away from me again.”
“Okay, Jax.”
“You blew my mind tonight. Your voice on that stage, the crowd . . . everything.”
“It was a good show.” She yawned into his chest, his hand soothingly caressing her hair until she finally succumbed to all the stress of the past week.
* * *
The next morning Megan woke up to an empty bed. She did her morning ritual before putting on a pair of sweatpants and an old T-shirt. In the other room, Jax stood with his bare and muscular back to her, looking out at the Atlanta skyline from the glass doors that led to the balcony. He was on the phone, barking orders at someone when she wrapped her arms around his waist. “I expect a call at 0900 hours,” he said, tossing the phone on a nearby table.
“The search warrant came in. They’re going into Ryan’s home now.”
“Good,” she said, as his stomach rumbled. “I’m hungry.”
“I made arrangements, and we’re leaving now instead of at eight.” She looked at the digital clock and saw it was only six in the morning.
“Do the girls know?”
“Yes. Ben and Jason have been advised.”
“What time did you do that?”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Sometime in the night while you were sleeping.”
She looked at the purple circles under his eyes. “You didn’t sleep, did you?”
“I’ll sleep later,” he said, kissing her head and then patting her ass. “I packed up all your shit. Get your toiletries together and do a final scan of the room. We leave in ten minutes.”
Megan quickly packed up what was left and looked around. “Okay. You can call the bellhop dude.”
“No. Until we know what’s happening, I want all your things handled only by me or someone from my team. No one else,” he said, pulling the two bags toward the door. “Let’s hit it.”
As soon as she stepped onto the bus, she was surprised to see that Nelly and Taylor were already there. They were usually as slow in the morning as she was. “This bites,” Taylor yawned, sulking. “Are you going to tell us what’s going on, because these two are tight-lipped and it’s starting to piss me the hell off. If I wasn’t sure it involved your safety, Megan, I’d have told them to fuck off for waking me at this ungodly hour.”
