I groaned as my cock hardened a little more at the thought. “Another time. Maybe tonight?”
“Mm. I might just hold you to that.” His fingers crept up my torso and found my stiffened nipples before giving them a quick tweak. I shivered at the expert way he already knew how to play me.
Just when I was about to dry my hands to turn around and kiss him silly, my phone rang. It vibrated noisily on the dining table, disrupting the cozy little bubble we’d been in, demanding someone answer it. I glanced at the clock again and frowned when I realized how early it still was. No one should be calling at this hour unless it was urgent. Although… the shelter knew to expect Rose this morning. Maybe they needed me to hold off on bringing her in? Better to answer it now rather than let the call go through to voicemail. “Could you get that for me, gorgeous?”
Marshall was already unwinding his arms from my waist before I’d finished asking the question. He rounded the island and picked up my phone with a frown on his face. “It’s Jackson.”
My eyebrows rose until I was sure they met my hairline. What was he calling for? He knew he wasn’t due to see Rose this week. And he never called this early. Worry filled me automatically, and I grabbed the dishcloth to dry my hands. “Answer it, please.”
He nodded and pressed the Answer button. “Daniel’s phone. You’re on speaker.”
There was a pause before Jackson’s voice quietly stammered, “Uh, is… is Daniel available?”
“I’m here, Jackson,” I called loudly enough that he should be able to hear me from where I was in the kitchen. As Marshall walked toward me, I walked around the counter closer to him, drying my hands as I went. “What’s up?”
When we met in the middle of the room, Marshall held the phone up between us, and I threw the cloth over my shoulder so I could plant my hands on my hips and concentrate. Something about Jackson’s voice sounded off, and it unnerved me.
“Um, I’m sorry for c-calling so early…,” Jackson said slowly, stumbling over his words. “Is what you said the other night still… uh… still an option? About calling if I n-needed to?”
Marshall and I looked at each other, and concern was clear on his face. I felt myself grimace as I took the phone from him, but I didn’t move away. Instead, I wrapped my free hand around his waist and held him closer. He nodded at the questioning look I aimed his way, and I clenched my teeth before I said, “Of course. What’s up, Jackson? What do you need?”
There was a long pause before we heard a halting sigh. “Um… I’m in the hospital? And… um… Brett’s been arrested….” A choked sob echoed through the line. “I didn’t know who else to call….”
Both Marshall’s and my eyes widened, and with a firm, determined nod, Marshall sprang into action, striding down the hall toward Rose’s room and calling for her as he went.
I let him go, confident that I could trust him to corral her quickly. My fingers gripped the phone hard as I lifted it closer so I could growl, “We’re on our way.”
Chapter Thirteen
Marshall
Jacksonlookedghastly.
Although he was reclining in the hospital bed with the pillows plumped up around him, the stiff way that he held himself told us more than words ever could about how much pain he was actually in. Even so, Jackson only grimaced when the attending nurse bustled around him and prodded him in several different places.
It made me wonder how long he’d had to endure these sorts of injuries without complaint. How had this become his new normal?
Small, round dark red marks were all over his pale neck, four on each side and two slightly larger ones nestled together in front. Dark purple surrounded one eye, evidence of a slightly older injury than the ones on his neck.
We’d only seen him a couple of days ago, and there had been no bruising visible on his face then at all, but Daniel had mentioned that night that Jackson had flinched when he’d patted his shoulder. The way the hospital gown hung loosely onJackson’s slim body now allowed us to see the paler greenish bruising that was fading into a murky yellow covering his shoulder and upper arm.
I dreaded to imagine what else the gown kept hidden.
Daniel sat on one side of Jackson’s bed, holding his hand carefully as he slowly took in Jackson’s injuries, his eyes narrowed in fury. Thankfully, we’d been able to drop Rose off at the animal shelter on the way to the hospital that resided halfway between Rockdale and the next town over. There was no reason in the world she needed to see any of this.
Clenching my jaw, I stood in the corner on the other side of the room with my hands gripped together behind my back, watching the nurse do his thing before leaving us alone once more.
An IV was plugged into Jackson’s right arm, and I watched the hypnoticdrip,drip,dripin the dangling clear bag of what I assumed was a mixture of saline and whatever pain relief the doctors had prescribed as we listened to Jackson talk us through the last couple of days.
“He didn’t like the way you’d grabbed him at Malone’s,” Jackson said quietly but roughly, his eyes downcast and staring at a random spot on the floor halfway between the end of the bed and my feet. “When I got home, he started ranting about how it was all my fault, that he wouldn’t have had to put up with such disrespect if I’d simply known my place and given up my side of custody of Rose like he’d been telling me to do for the past six months.”
“He’s been wanting you to hand over custody?” Daniel asked, his voice low and dangerous.
My focus, however, was on Jackson’s wording. He’d said, “WhenIgot home,” rather than “Whenwegot home.” Something didn’t feel right.
Jackson nodded once, letting out a puff of pained air when he stilled again. “It’s been the one thing I held firm over. Witheverything else… it just seemed easier to let him have his way. But give up on Rose entirely?” With a quiet grunt, he lifted his head so he could look at Daniel, his eyes so terribly defeated. “I know what you think of me. Walking out on you and Rose back then….” He shook his head, his eyes brimming with tears. “I’m not as strong as you, Daniel. Never have been.”
“Fuck, Jackson….” Daniel let out a long sigh echoing with the regret, sadness, and rage that he’d exuded the other day when he’d told me about his and Jackson’s past. “You’ve always been strong in your own way.”
