Kaleidoscope (Colorado Mountain #6)(96)

“I’m scared too,” he replied.

That confused me.

“Why?”

“I’m scared for you, honey.”

That made sense.

“Go home, go to him,” he urged.

“You sure?”

“No way on this earth would I ever tell you something like that if I wasn’t absolutely certain it was the right thing to tell you.”

I gave his hand a squeeze.

“I love you, Harvey.”

His hand spasmed in mine, something sharp and wounded passed swiftly through his face before he hid it and whispered, “I love you too, my beautiful, Emme. Now get out of this old guy’s kitchen and find your man.”

The word was again trembling when I agreed, “Okay.”

He stood, and with his hand in mine, brought me up with him.

It was me, it was always me, who went in for the hug.

But always upon always, Harvey hugged me back. Firm, sweet and for a long time.

This time, he did it for longer.

Then he waited until I grabbed my jacket and purse and he walked me out to Persephone.

I waved as I drove away.

Harvey waved back.

* * *

Two minutes earlier, in the control room of Nightingale Investigations…

“Confirm it’s her,” Luke Stark, Lee Nightingale’s right-hand man, demanded over the phone to Jack, the man who most frequently worked the control room.

And the vast amount of time Jack spent in that room, he did it eyes to the large bank of monitors.

“Confirmed. Caught her goin’ in, didn’t get a clear visual. Caught her goin’ out and saw her full face. Got the photo Deck gave us. It’s her. She was there an hour. Lee’s off-line, but orders are, Deck knows the minute we see her there.”

“I’ll call Deck. Out,” Luke said.

Jack heard the disconnect.

Then his eyes went back to the monitors.

Chapter Seventeen

Lost You

Three hours later…

I drove back to the mountains and went straight to Jacob’s.

I was terrified, I didn’t know why, but I was. I’d admitted that.

And he’d told me he was intent on helping me figure it out.

And I loved him.

My finger would be bleeding, dialing that number over and over again.

Throughout the journey, I heard Harvey’s words repeating in my head.

And that was what did it for me.

I loved Jacob in a way that I knew life without him would be no life at all.

Like Harvey’s life was without the ones he loved.

And I’d known that for years. Even when I didn’t have Jacob, I’d known it.

Now I had him and something was wrong with me. But he wasn’t running for the hills, knowing it the same as me, and not wanting anything to do with it.

No.

He was with me.

With me.

Wanting to fix me.

Wanting a future.

Wanting babies.

Wanting me.

It was me holding back. Holding back for no reason that I understood.

But the most intelligent person I knew was Jacob Decker. So if someone could help me understand, it was him.

Having made my decision, I went to Jacob’s but he wasn’t there. I sat in his driveway, pulled out my phone and was about to call him when I decided against it.

I’d call him when I was home. For this, whatever it was going to be, I decided I needed to be home. And Jacob, being Jacob, he’d come to me.

He’d come right to me.

Any girl in her right mind who knew that down to her bones would squeal with pure joy.

It petrified me.

Yep. Something was not right with me.

Luckily, it petrified me in a figurative way, not a literal one, so I could drive home.

When I did, I found that, just like when Jacob was looking for me and I’d been at his place fuming, when I was looking for him, he was at mine, hopefully not fuming.

He’d given me space like he said he would. Three days.

I guessed he was done doing that.

This was good because I was too.

It didn’t mean I wasn’t still terrified.

It was dark but I’d left the outside lights on and I saw his truck. He was in the shadows but I still saw him at the tail in the exact same position he’d been in three days earlier.

I parked where I’d parked three days ago. But this time, I didn’t open my door, jump out of my truck and round the hood to find Jacob at the steps waiting for me.

I opened my door and jumped out of my truck to find Jacob standing in my door.

“Honey, I’m glad—” I started.

“Get in the house, Emme,” he clipped, and my head jerked at his tone.

Okay. Apparently he was fuming.

“I—”

He leaned into me so suddenly and so deeply, I had to lean back into the cab of the Bronco.

“Get in the goddamned, motherf*cking house, Emme.”

I felt my eyes round.

He’d never spoken that way to me. In fact, I’d never heard him speak that way to anybody.

I stared at his face.

He was angry.

No. That wasn’t right.

He was enraged.

“What’s happening?” I asked carefully.

“Get in. The goddamned. House,” Jacob repeated.