Page 11 of Savage Rancher
"This place is a fucking liability, Emma."
"It's my home."
His eyes flash. "It's a target."
“Not anymore.” I take a breath and step inside, closing the door behind me. The house feels smaller with him in it. More charged. Like the walls can barely contain the energy radiating off him. "Why did you do it?"
He goes still. "Do what?"
"Fight Eli Turner." I meet his eyes, refusing to look away, because I want to hear it’s because of me, that I matter that much after all these years.
I’d been devastated when he disappeared after high school. I’d convinced myself that he’d led me on, that we’d been just about sex, and he’d moved on.
Of course, my dad had encouraged those thoughts. I didn’t know what he’d done until a few months after my wedding, when he’d made an offhand comment about how he should have run Mark off like he had Jake. I had to shake the truth out of him.
It’d shattered me. My dad and I always had a sandpaper relationship, but I didn’t talk to him for months after he told me what he’d done.
And then I felt guilty and awful, like I’d betrayed Jake by believing he’d abandoned me. Only it’d been too late to do anything, even if I could find him.
What a clusterfuck.
So I know it’s selfish to want him to care—maybe even mean—but I can’t help myself.Istill care. Seeing him in my house after all this time makes me remember what I wanted.
Him.
I swallow the hope that’s risen up my throat. “Well? Why did you do it, Jake?”
He just stands there in the middle of my living room, his hands loose at his sides, his expression unreadable, watching me.
Then he says, "Because no one touches you."
The words are simple and still so complicated. My heart pounds in thick beats.I matter to him.Maybe I’m projecting what I want to believe, but I’m running with it until otherwise proven wrong.
He takes a step closer, his eyes locked on mine. "No one threatens you. No one puts their hands on you. No one makes you feel unsafe. Not while I'm alive. And I didn’t fight him. I eliminated the threat. On purpose."
My breath catches. "Jake?—"
"I'm not asking for forgiveness," he says, cutting me off. "I'm not apologizing. I did what needed to be done, and I'd do it again. No hesitation, no second thoughts. You need to understand that. Understand the kind of man I am. If that’s not what you want, back out now."
Maybe once I process everything, I’ll come to my senses and realize how unhinged it is that I’m grateful to Jake for killing someone to protect me. But right now? I only feel relief.
I take a jagged breath, hugging myself. “Every time he showed up here and made those comments, every time helooked at me like I was something he could take, I felt weak, like there was nothing I could do to stop him. Sheriff Garrett said there wasn’t anything he could do unless something happened. So thank you for, uh,eliminating the threat."
He looks like he wants to say something more. Or like he wants to step up to me and take me in his arms.
I’dreallylike that.
I’d love to cuddle into him and have him tell me about where he’s been and who he’s become. I’d give anything to rest my head on his chest until he lifts it for a soul-destroying kiss.
"I need to go," Jake says, and it hits me like a physical blow.
"Stay," I say before I can muzzle myself, putting my hand on his arm.
He hesitates. Heat flares in his eyes, but he shakes his head. "I still have a couple of things to take care of, and I need to debrief Ace and Riot."
“Ace and Riot?”
“Mason and Luke, my teammates.”
