“Jesus Christ! Get the fire! I’ll get Lacey!”
Loud voices filtered into my foggy brain. My head pulsed painfully and I reached up to feel it. The pain radiated from the side of my head and in a flash I remembered the feeling of someone hitting me. Suddenly alert, I jerked upright and flailed my arms out, afraid that whoever attacked me was still going to be close.
“It’s me, Lacey. It’s Jagger. You’re okay.” His voice sounded strained and gruff. Then I felt his arms scooping me up. His arms on my bare skin.
I forced my eyes open and looked at myself. I was naked and dirty. My heart started pounding harder. “What happened?”
He held me against his chest like I was a child and hurried inside. “I don’t know, baby. You’re safe now, though.”
I couldn’t make sense of anything. Panic rose in my body until I was shaking. “Someone hit me. Someone hit me and knocked me out. I don’t remember anything else. I don’t remember. Jagger, did they… Did they hurt me?”
He pushed open my bedroom door and shut it behind him. With a gentleness that didn’t make sense in a man his size, he put me down on the side of my bed and knelt in front of me. Cupping my face in his hands, he pressed his lips to my forehead and then leaned back to rip his own shirt over his head. “Put this on for right now, Lace.”
I shook violently as he pulled it over my head. There was tenderness between my thighs, but it’d been there that morning from the night with Jagger. I didn’t feel anything else. I couldn’t tell if they’d touched me. I couldn’t remember. Why was I naked?
“Do you remember anything else?” He seemed to be barely containing the urge to yell. “Anything at all?”
“I saw Franklin before it happened. He went around the clubhouse and I got off Jameson to go after him. Then I heard someone behind me and before I could see who it was, they knocked me out. I have to go find Jameson.”
“He’s fine. He came back here. We went to get you and couldn’t find you or Jameson. Franklin said he hadn’t seen you. We looked all over for you and couldn’t find you anywhere. Fuck. I was scared to death. Jameson showed back up here without you and we knew something was wrong.”
“How long have I been gone?”
Jagger ran his hands through his hair and then down his face. “It’s nearly midnight. We’d just come in from looking. I noticed the cameras go down again and I ran out to try to catch the fucker doing this shit and nearly tripped over you. They also set fire to the barn. We found it so fast, though. Your Dad and Bradley had it almost out by the time I got you in the front door.”
The tears started and I couldn’t seem to stop them. “They had me all that time?”
“Is there a doctor I can take you to? Give me a name and I’ll find them and wake them up, Lacey.”
I nodded. “Dr. Daniels. She’ll be at the clinic tonight. I need to go. I need to know if they touched me.”
With his jaw clenched so tight, he looked like he was going to snap off all his teeth, Jagger stood up and crossed to my closet. “Pants? Any of these okay?”
I nodded absently and stared at the ground. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be okay until I knew that no one had touched me. I couldn’t feel anything. I kept telling myself that. I couldn’t feel anything, but I was naked. I couldn’t help the way my imagination filled in the blank of being undressed. I couldn’t help imagining someone’s hands on my skin as they pulled my clothes off.
Jagger knelt in front of me again and helped me into a baggy pair of pajama pants. “Come on. I’ll drive you.”
I let him pull me downstairs and then out to Dad’s truck. He put me in the passenger side and then yelled to Dad, where he was staring at the damage done to the barn.
Dad threw him the keys and then stared at me with the same face he’d stared at the barn. Like I was another part of the damage accumulated. His forehead pulled towards the middle with thick lines dissecting the skin. He quickly looked back at the barn and shook his head. I knew the look. He’d looked at me the same way after Jason. I was something that he knew he had to handle, but he wasn’t quite sure how.
I put my seatbelt on and worked my fingers together in my lap. There was dirt under my nails. I couldn’t remember if I’d had it there before being knocked out. I hid them in my palms and stared out the side window.
“The clinic on the way into town?”
“Yeah.”
Jagger started the truck and hurried away from the ranch. For not the first time in my life, the farther he drove us from it, the better I felt. I rolled the window down and rested my head on the door. The wind whipped my hair around, stinging my eyes, but it gave me an excuse to let the tears keep falling.
*
“You sure you want to go back tonight? There’s a hotel in the town over that I’d be more than happy to pay for.”
I looked over at Jagger, at the wheel of my dad’s truck, and smiled. A real smile. “It’s my ranch. No matter how big of a dick Dad is being, it’s mine. I have to go back.”
He popped his neck and rested his arm along the back of the seat. “With everything that’s been happening, I feel like I should stay in your room again tonight. You know, in case I get scared.”
I laughed. I felt worlds lighter than when we’d walked into the clinic. Dr. Daniels had been able to assure me that they hadn’t done anything to me. It still freaked me out and I’d probably have nightmares, but knowing that I hadn’t been raped while unconscious was the biggest relief. I did have a knot on the side of my head that still throbbed, however. The headache that went with it wasn’t great, but again, I was looking at the positive.
“You want to stay again?”
He stared at me, his face serious. “Yes.”
I slowly nodded, feeling something shift in my chest. “Okay.”
“Fine, then. I guess I’ll take us back.”
I leaned my head back on the seat and watched his arm shift the truck into gear and then reach across the bench seat to rest on my thigh. I rested my hand on his and he worked his fingers in between mine.
“I can’t tell you how glad I am to have you this close to me, with a smile on your face, Lace.” He stopped and sighed. “I thought for a second that we’d been wrong about this being someone just fucking around.”
I unbuckled my seatbelt and scooted to the middle of the truck. I curled into his side, feeling ridiculous but accepting it. “I don’t know what to think, but none of it’s coming easy to me tonight. My head hurts too bad to try and figure it out. Give me tonight to ignore it and tomorrow morning I’ll try to figure out what I think.”
He wrapped his arm around me and held me close. “Fasten your seatbelt.”
I smiled to myself as I adjusted and strapped myself in. “Happy?”
He glanced down at me for a second before looking back to the road. “Getting there.”
I turned up the radio and settled back against his side. We rode the rest of the way home listening to old country music. I put blinders on when he got closer to the ranch. I didn’t want to see anyone. I didn’t want to see anything. I just wanted to get in the shower and then get in bed with Jagger.
Dad was on the porch when we pulled up, waiting. Before we’d even climbed from the truck, he was yelling out to us. “Everything okay?”
Jagger patted my hip and forced a smile at me. “Why don’t you go on up and get ready? I’ll be up to check on you in a minute.”
I nodded and moved to go past Dad. He caught my arm at the last second and pulled me into his chest for a hug. “I’m glad you’re okay. I was scared shitless that something had happened to you.”
I nodded. “I’m okay.”
“Tell that to your mom, would you? I had to give her one of her pills earlier and put her in bed. She was worrying herself to death. Stop in for me, please.”
“Sure, Dad.” I went straight to her room, ready to get it over with and shower.
She was in bed, the covers up to her nose. Her head fell towards me when the door opened and something blinked in her eyes, a recognition but not enough for her to sit up and acknowledge me.
“Hey, Mom. Everything’s okay. I just wanted to let you know that I’m fine before I head to bed. I love you.” I leaned over her and pressed a kiss to her hair. “See you in the morning.”
I turned out the light on my way out and went straight to my shower. I undressed and stepped in before turning the hot water on. Standing to the side until the water got hot, I pressed my head against the cool tile and sighed. It felt like everything had changed in a matter of days. I felt different. Both of those things made me feel on edge and I was trying my best to just forget everything for a few hours.
“Mind if I join you?”
I glanced back to find Jagger standing there, naked as the day he was born, with a soft smile on his lips. I nodded and turned to face him as he pulled me into his body. “I was waiting for the water to warm up.”
His chuckle vibrated my cheek that was resting on his chest. “You were in a different world. The water’s been hot for a while now. I took the liberty of checking out your backside while I waited for you to notice me. Imagine my wounded ego, knowing that you never noticed me at all.”
I grinned and tilted my head up to look at his face. Handsome as ever, the dangerous glint was still there, but he looked softer, somehow. “Your poor ego. How will it survive?”
His hands roamed down to my ass and he lightly slapped it. “I know a few ways. It can wait until your head is feeling better, though. It’s not a complete monster.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. I never would’ve expected the boy who snuck out of teenage girls’ windows in the middle of the night, leaving a trail of crying daughters and angry fathers, and the man who had a carefree act down so well that no one could’ve imagined what was going on beneath the surface to be a man who, in reality, was gentle and kind. Gentle and kind, but also sexy as sin and distracting when I needed to be distracted.
I reached between us and cupped him in my hand. “I feel much better.”
Jagger groaned and stepped away from me. “Bullshit. I can tell your head still hurts.”
I followed him. “Make me forget, then. I have a heap of trouble waiting for me in the morning, Jag. Make me forget tonight.”
“I touch you right now and I’m a complete asshole, baby. After what happened today, you need rest.”
I stood up on my toes and pressed my lips to his. I respected him for being willing to turn me down even while his other Jagger was rock hard and stabbing me in the stomach, but I wanted him. I wanted to focus on something good and kind and sexy for a while.
“If you don’t touch me right now, you’re a complete asshole.” I added a little pout in my lower lip. “Don’t make me beg, Jag.”
He swore and immediately lifted me and wrapped my thighs around his waist. “You’re a vixen.”
I tilted my head back as he kissed my throat and moaned as the throbbing in my head faded and the throbbing between my legs kicked into overdrive. “And you’ve got magic lips. I’m feeling better already.”
With a deep chuckle, Jagger walked me into the spray of the water and gently rocked his body against mine. “More than just my lips are magic, baby.”