Page 11 of Forced Mate Bride
He smothered the guilt once again and kept his expression even. “I want you to stay here until the wedding. Once that’s over, that’s a different story. Until then, I don’t want you leaving the house alone.”
“This is—”
“For all you know, Lucas is outside the house right now, waiting for you to go out on your own so he can drag you away,” Jasper snapped.
Even as he said it, he felt that twinge of self-loathing. On some level, he knew what he was doing was wrong. He knew she would never forgive him. He had made a mess of this, and he knew it. At the same time, he didn’t care. As long as Nikki was safe, he would take her hating him.
A long moment passed while she glowered at him, apparently too furious to articulate anything. He took in the stiff shoulders, the chin tilted up in indignation, her fingers curled into fists. The rage radiating off her was almost palpable. He kept his expression neutral, waiting.
She sighed, her shoulders sagging in resignation, her fingers uncurling. She glanced away, unspeaking. He thought she might walk away in silence.
Finally, she said, “I need to go home to get clothes.”
“I can get them,” he said.
“No,” she said. “I don’t care what you think. I’m not letting you rummage around my apartment—in my closet, no less—on your own.”
“Lucas could be staking out your apartment.”
“He could be staking out here, for all you know!” she exclaimed. “He would have seen us walk off together.”
He exhaled, frowning. He didn’t like the idea of her leaving until she had the security of that marriage. He couldn’t stand the thought of her being hurt or worse. But he was already making her life complicated. The least he could do was capitulate on this request.
“I’m going with you,” he said.
She wasn’t finished yet. “And there’s my job. I can’t just abandon it for days on end. I’ll get fired.”
He frowned. “I don’t think that’s—"
“The library is about as safe as it gets,” she said, eyes burning. “All I have to do is scream, and everyone is going to come running to see what’s going on.”
Sighing, he let out a low breath, one hand rubbing a temple. “Fine,” he growled. “But I’m walking you there and back.”
Her lips thinned, and she jutted her chin. He waited for her to argue.
“Fine,” she said, rounding back toward the door. “Now I need to go to my apartment before I go to the library, so we should probably get going.”
She marched off, not bothering to see if he was behind her.
***
Camden, Franco, and Cillian all listened with shock as Jasper relayed the story.
“So much for things going well,” Cillian muttered after Jasper was finished.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Franco said, arms folded. He tapped his finger against his opposite bicep. “You would think that we would have found some trace of him before now. Are you sure there haven’t been any traces, Camden?”
“Our patrols haven’t picked up anything like this,” Camden said. “No sign of danger at all, let alone any of Sier’s previous crew.”
“Apparently, they aren’t looking hard enough,” Jasper growled.
“They’ve been searching the area fastidiously,” Franco said. “Some areas, we’ve even had them go over twice. If they had seen anything, someone would have caught it.”
“All right, so what are we going to do?” Cillian asked. “Because it doesn’t seem like there’s a good way of finding someone who’s that good at covering their trail.”
“Have people go where he tried to abduct Nikki,” Jasper said. “Your best trackers. Have them search the entire area for some sign of the asshole. Make them keep at it until they find the fucker.”
“I can’t promise the second bit,” Franco confessed. “But I can at least start on the first. I have a couple of guys I trust. If there’s any trace of him, they’ll be able to find it.”
