Chapter 18

I think today is the day…that I burn this motherfucker to the ground.

-Text from Janie to Rafe

Janie

Tired, sore in the best of ways, and wide awake, I lay in bed next to Rafe listening to him breathe.

My dogs were snoring—on the floor at his side of the bed—and it seemed like I was the only one still not finding sleep.

I looked over at the phone on the nightstand. His. It stayed slightly illuminated, always displaying the time. I winced when I saw the time. 0333. Three freakin’ thirty in the morning.

Ouch.

After waiting for the sheets to be washed, and then dried, we’d both fallen into bed with exhaustion.

Only, I didn’t fell asleep like he did.

It was a good thing I worked from home because when I did finally get up in the morning I wouldn’t be a very good functioning member of society.

But, as three-thirty moved to four-thirty, and all I had done was rethink the entire night through—I realized I might as well be practical.

Getting up carefully and quietly as possible, I made my way out of the bedroom and closed the door behind me. Once in the living room, I picked up Rafe’s sweatpants from the laundry basket on the floor and slipped them on over my legs. I had to even untie the string because they wouldn’t fit otherwise. They were very long, though, bunching up around my feet to about mid-calf.

Telling myself not to think about my curvy self—and when I say curvy I meant very curvy. It was more than obvious I enjoyed tacos a little too much—I took a seat on the couch and reached for my computer. Which was next to Rafe’s computer.

I smiled when I saw the difference between the two. Where my computer was silver and covered in a neon yellow skin with stickers over every available inch, Rafe’s was boring and plain. The only embellishment on it whatsoever was the Apple symbol in the middle. And he didn’t even put that there—Apple did.

Grinning to myself, I signed into my computer and immediately groaned. It was running slow again. Which irritated me.

I kept this bad boy in tip-top shape. It shouldn’t be running slow.

Which got me curious. Why was it running slow?

An hour later I’d torn my computer apart—not literally, but cyberly—and was no closer to figuring out why.

The last thing I could try needed to be done through someone else’s computer.

I looked over to see Rafe’s just sitting there, and grinned.

Leaning over, I snatched his up and then spent twenty minutes hacking into it.

Who needed that many password protections?

Apparently, Rafe did.

But whatever.

And his password. My god. Who actually used that many special characters, uppercase and numerics? My man. He was that weirdo. If I had a password like his, I’d spend half my time trying to figure it out.

Sheesh!

However, once I was in, everything was pretty straightforward. Until I clicked on the app that was running and saw…myself.

I froze.

Then I looked over at my computer screen. And back over to his.

What the fuck?

“You’re a little stalker, Rafe!” I whispered into the empty room.

I was honestly…proud.

Not mad, per se, but surprised. Surprised to find that he cared enough to track my computer—and me. It was honestly smart because my computer never left me. And this program he was running had to be the reason behind my computer running slow.

That little shit!

Shutting his computer down and acting like I hadn’t touched it or realized a thing, I went to work on a few projects for Free. I’d been working for a little over an hour and a half when Rafe emerged, my dogs closely at his heels.

“You ever go to sleep?” he questioned, his voice husky and full of promise.

I smashed my lips together to keep from belting out my wishes and demands until I had myself under control, then said, “I tried. It didn’t work out. So, I started working. And for some reason, I’m not the least bit tired yet. Though that could be the five-hour nap I had at five in the afternoon yesterday. I’ll probably crash here in a few, though.”

Rafe’s lips twitched as he started walking toward the kitchen, which was directly behind me.

“Guess it’s good that you don’t have to go to work like I do,” he mentioned.

“You don’t actually have to go to work,” I told him. “You’re just going to work because you want to at this point.”

He’d been working for the repossession company, Hail Auto Recovery, for a while now. Months and months longer than he actually had to.

At least I thought that was the case.

There was really no telling with how little he told me about his jobs.

“At this point, I work there because it’s a good cover. Not to mention I get good insurance,” he replied lazily.

I watched as he reached for his coffee mug—one of his favorites seeing as he had eighteen in the cabinets, yet always chose to wash that one—and pushed it underneath the Keurig’s spout.

“You know,” I told him. “It kind of surprises me that you have a Keurig. I would’ve figured you for a pot of coffee a day drinker, like my dad.”

He gave me a raised eyebrow that clearly relayed his non-amusement with the statement and went back to his cup.

Once it was filled, he brought the cup up to his nose, inhaled the aroma, and groaned.

I swallowed, thinking about the last time he’d groaned like that—when he was inside of me—and felt things clench.

“When you look like that, I’m not sure how to respond,” he said. “My initial response is to barrel toward you, spread your legs, and make myself at home. But trying to be a bit more laid back while recognizing the fact that your father will probably kill me if he sees a bruise on you has me, instead, staying over here and trying to think about things that’ll make my cock deflate.”

I snickered. “I don’t want anything that has to do with my father to take first place in our sex life. If it feels natural to you, just do it.”

He took a step forward, reaching his arm out to place his cup on the counter, and headed toward me.

I grinned, pushed my laptop to the side, and then made him late.

Forty-nine and a half minutes later, I was satiated. Well, and thoroughly.

“I gotta go,” he said as he zipped up his pants. “Lying there, looking at me like that, isn’t the way to make that happen.”

I stretched lazily in the bed, rolled over on my belly, and then closed my eyes. “It’s best that you’re leaving. I’m tired.”

His chuckle of amusement followed him around the room.

I felt the covers fall into place over my back, then Rafe whistled.

I turned only my head and saw Rafe calling my puppies to him.

He patted the bed, and both of my babies jumped into the bed with me, Glock on one side, and Kimber on the other.

“I named them after you.”

He looked over at me.

“Yeah?”

He sounded confused.

I grinned.

“The first time I saw you, you were carrying a Glock. The second time I saw you, you had that Kimber. The one with the slide that has the oil slick-looking finish. I thought it was pretty.”

His mouth opened, then closed, then he settled on a smile. “I kind of like that.”

I closed my eyes again as Kimber’s nose dug into my shoulder—just like she always did when we were at home in our bed—and I went boneless.

“Love you.”

I blinked my eyes open again to see Rafe fully clothed now.

He was leaning over me, his mouth inches from my face.

I pursed my lips, and he grinned.

He didn’t hesitate, placing his lips on mine, though.

“Love you, too.” I stared at him for a long moment, my heart hurting. “Be careful. Don’t do anything crazy.”

He winked. “I’ll try.”

The remembrance of that day at the hospital, the worry I felt when I spoke with his doctor…it was still there. That feeling of impending doom.

I’d probably always worry about it.

It’d always be there, in the back of my mind.

But then he whispered, “I love you,” one more time, and I forced myself to calm.

My eyes fell closed, and the next time I opened them, it was to find the room empty—long empty—and the dogs now growling somewhere in the living room.

I got up, slipped on a t-shirt of Rafe’s from the night before, and snatched my phone which Rafe had so helpfully plugged in some time after I’d passed out.

With Rafe’s name pulled up for a quick dial, I made my way out into the living room to find someone standing in it.

Found her standing in it.

She was in the process of taking her shoes off, and she had her purse in her hand as if she was about to drop it onto the coffee table.

“Can I help you?” I asked, pressing Rafe’s name on the phone.

I was fairly sure that this wasn’t going to get ugly, mainly because I could more than handle myself thanks to my father’s and uncles’ instruction, but I figured Rafe would want to know that someone had come into his house.

Also, that she’d done it seemingly without breaking in, because I would’ve definitely heard had that been the case.

I also knew for a fact that she didn’t have a key—at least one that Rafe had given her—because Rafe had flat out said he hadn’t given her one. Not before when he’d had his memory, and not after when Elspeth had played While You Were Sleeping on him.

Elspeth froze at my words and looked up, a look of horror on her face. “What are you doing in Rafe’s house?”

I blinked. “Well, I actually came here legally. You, on the other hand, have not. Which, I might add, is illegal.”

Elspeth blinked. Then a flush started to crawl up her chest—which was entirely exposed. Who the hell wore tank tops in the middle of December that looked like that?

Nobody.

It was dental floss at best.

The pieces of triangles that were covering her nipples were just enough to cover the areolas and not much more.

It was also white. Meaning that I could see those areolas.

They were dark. Like, almost black.

Was that normal?

Yes, Elspeth’s hair was black, and mine was blonde. But her skin tone wasn’t much different from mine.

Maybe even a little lighter, maybe.

I hated her.

“This is my fiancé’s house.”

I snorted. “Your fiancé my ass. You damn well know that you made that shit up,” I said. “You do realize, right, that he was bound to remember sometime. Not to mention he’s mine.”

“I’m sorry, but he’s not yours. He’s mine.”

“Negative,” I disagreed. “He’s mine. Has been for a very long time,” I said.

Rafe and I had spoken about how he’d deal with Elspeth when the time came—though we had always planned on him actually being here when the discussion took place—and it was decided that whatever avenue he was trying to use with Elspeth was now at a dead end. He wouldn’t be able to pretend to like her when he very much didn’t, and I was okay with that. Anything that kept him away from this woman was okay with me.

“I beg to differ.” Elspeth crossed her hands over her chest, making the barely-there fabric stretch even thinner.

I put the phone to my ear to ask a question, but Rafe’s words caught my attention.

“That’s so fucking hot,” Rafe growled when I placed the phone back to my ear.

“What is?” I heard a man reply.

“She just claimed me.”

I found myself smiling despite my anger at the situation. “She claimed you as her daddy?”

At that, I burst out laughing. “Who is that with you?”

Rafe snorted. “That would be Parker, the bundle of sunshine and flowers.”

“Fuck you,” I heard him say.

“She’s not leaving,” I finally said. “Is there something I should be doing? Calling the police?”

“I’m about two minutes, at most, away. I’ll handle it when I get there.” Rafe’s words were abrupt and curt, letting me know that he wasn’t happy that she’d just walked into his house.

“Okay,” I said.

Then I dropped the phone to my side. “He’s on his way. If you don’t want this to get ugly, I’d suggest heading on out before he gets here.”

“Oh, no thank you. I want to know why he’d do this to me,” she sneered.

I rolled my eyes and leaned one hip against the couch. “Then, by all means, make yourself at home.”

Elspeth did, but the moment her foot edged in the couch’s direction, my dogs started their low, menacing growl again.

My lips twitched.

Then the door opened behind Elspeth moments later, and Rafe’s large frame filled the door.

Oh, and he didn’t look happy.

Not. At. All.

He glared at Elspeth. “I said everything I was willing to say to you at the hotel. You have absolutely no reason to be here.”

Elspeth’s lips parted to say something, but Rafe cut her off. “Get. Out.”

Elspeth uncrossed her hands and put them on her hips. “I don’t think so. You owe me.”

“I don’t owe you a goddamn thing,” he replied. “You owe me an apology, and you also owe Janie one.”

Elspeth’s lips twitched as if in amusement. “I saved your life.”

“You didn’t save a goddamn thing,” he replied.

“Oh, well then, I guess I’ll just take that order back then,” Elspeth hissed.

“What order?”

That came from not Rafe, but from the even larger man behind him.

The man was huge.

I’d seen him before, of course.

His name was Parker. He’d said about eight words to me at most, and he made me supremely uncomfortable mostly because he was so intense.

Anything he said or did, I felt like I was being dissected and studied.

Like he was taking in everything and deeming me as unworthy.

Elspeth grabbed for her purse.

She walked out, and neither man said a word.

She got to her car, which was parked where Rafe usually parked his bike—in the fucking grass right up next to the house—and turned. “You’ll regret this.”

Rafe snorted. “Oh, I already do.”

At Rafe’s darkly murmured words, Elspeth got into the car.

But there was something in her eyes that made me feel like this was going to get really, really ugly.

Parker agreed with me.

I couldn’t figure out whether that was a good thing or not.