Page 35 of Nowhere to Run
I arched an eyebrow out of habit, but lowered it when I saw the anger flicker in her eyes.There was nothing playful about her, and I saw the warning when she looked up at me under her thick lashes.
I sat down and leaned back in the chair, resting my hands over my stomach to look as calm and nonthreatening as possible.I still had my gun on me, but it was tucked into the back of my pants, and I had zero desire to reach for it.I wasn’t a threat to Jo; she just needed to confirm that on her own.
She lifted her foot and held it right in front of my dick, pressing down slightly as she stared at me.
“If you make even theslightestmove to get up or reach for your gun, I will squish the shit out of your dick.Do you understand me?”
I went to answer, but before I could, she began pressing down.
“I understand,” I forced out, struggling to control myself because even though she thought she was intimidating, this was just making me hard, and it was by far the worst time for that.
She watched me for a few seconds before putting her gun away and using both hands to look through my phone.
“What is this?”she asked, turning the phone to face me.
On the screen was a picture of Jo sleeping.Only, in the picture, she didn’t look asleep.She looked dead.
“I liked how you looked, so I took a picture.”I shrugged, knowing she wasn’t buying my bullshit.
She turned the phone around to look at it, then looked at me as she cocked her head to the side.
“You liked how I looked?”
“Yeah.You looked peaceful.”
I swallowed hard as I watched the storm brewing in her eyes.
“I.LOOK.DEAD!”
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing because this wasn’t funny.But I couldn’t help it.She was adorable when she was pissed off, even if I knew that my dick was currently on the line if I continued to piss her off.
“I don’t think so.”
“Don’t fucking try to play me, Dom.You took it because I looked dead and you wanted to have something in case you needed to prove to Tray that you could handle me.”
She popped her hip out and placed her hand on it as she stared at me and waited for me to disagree with her.
“Okay.Fine.You’re right.”I sighed heavily, hating that she was so fucking smart.“I took the picture because it did look like you were dead and I wanted to have something in my pocket, should I need it.”
“You’re such an asshole,” she muttered as she tossed my phone to me and started to pull her leg away.
Before she could, I held onto her ankle, grinning when her eyes widened and she struggled not to lose her balance.
“I’m an asshole who is determined to protect you, Jo.I fucked up by not telling you about my involvement with Keith.I’ve said I was sorry, and I meant it.But if we’re going to do whatever this is and keep you alive, you’re going to need to trust me.”
“I know,” she grumbled, looking away from me.
“Okay, then what happened?”I let go of her ankle and stood up after she was steady on her feet.I wanted to look into her eyes and know what had changed to make her doubt me again, so I could try to prevent it from happening again.
“When I asked you earlier what you wanted from the house, you saidjust me,” I continued, tilting my head so I could see her face better as she looked the other way.“What changed?How did you go from wanting me to be here with you to questioning whether I was setting you up?”
“I don’t know,” she hissed, throwing her hands in the air.“I just got to thinking on the way up here, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense that you were just doing all of this so you could turn me over to Tray.”
“Why would you even think that?”
“Because, since the moment I opened my eyes this morning, you’ve been doing everything you can to control me.Youdecided that you were going to drive me to the clinic.Youdecided to stay there all day, despite my telling you multiple times that you could leave.Youwere the one who offered to go to my house to get stuff onceyoudecided that we needed to leave town.Just likeyouwere the one who said that if anyone asked what you were doing at my house, you would tell them you were going after the bounty and trying to find me.Youisolated me from my friends and took me to the middle of nowhere, where I wouldn’t have anyone to help me if needed.You’ve been the one controlling everything, so excuse me for questioning whether you have ulterior motives and if all of this is just to fit your narrative.”
I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly as I rocked back on my heels while I processed that.
