Page 97 of Speechless
Connor shrugged. “Probably.”
“You gonna let her?”
Another shrug. “Maybe.”
“I didn’t know, Connor. They promised me they’d give you time to convince Jenna. It wasn’t until I got a phone call from the judge telling me to pick her up that I realized they’d done an end run. I swear to you, if I’d known this was going to happen, I’d have warned you sooner.”
Luna’s growls vibrated up Connor’s arm. Almost choking herself, she snapped and snarled at Hadley like a crazed wolf.
Connor studied the agent’s face. There was regret lining Hadley’s eyes, a sorrow in them Connor understood far too well—he felt it burrowing inside him like a sickness. The sick sense of loss. He couldn’t catch even a hint of a lie from the man. With a growl of his own, Connor gave Luna the command to cease.
“How do I tell her?”
Sarah rubbed his arm as Luna settled, pried his fingers off the collar. “Why don’t you and Hadley go sit down?” she suggested. “You’re frozen, and your teeth are about to chatter. Jenna must be wondering where you are, Con. Reassure her.”
Reassure her? He couldn’t reassure himself he wasn’t about to watch the love of his life being ripped away. “How do you propose I do that?”
“Be the man she’s come to trust,” she said simply. “She relies on you, Connor. This…unforeseen circumstance doesn’t change that. It makes you all the more vital in her life. Are you going to let her down when she needs you most?”
Damn it, his teethwerechattering. Warmth flooded his cold muscles, turned to pain in his feet and hands. But he shook his head. “She’s mine.”
“She is. Zeke will do all he can, Connor. If he can stop this, he will. But right now, Jenna’s in there by herself, and she doesn’t have any idea everything could come crashing down on her head.”
Connor ground the heel of his palm into his forehead, gripped his hair in tight fingers. He needed to tell her, he thought with dread curdling his belly. Before Zeke came in and either broke them or worked a miracle, Connor had to man up and explain things. Fuck swaying her opinion toward her parents, fuck their relationship with their lost daughter.
In one foolish move, they’d already ensured Jenna remained lost to them for good.
“Hadley, give Sarah a hand with the drinks, would you?” Connor said absently as he walked away. He looked down at himself, turned around. “I need to get changed.”
“We’re making drinks now?” Hadley muttered as Connor plodded upstairs.
“Shut up, asshat. I haven’t forgiven you for your part in this,” Sarah hissed at him, making Connor’s lips twitch. Her matron tone was fully engaged, which meant she was in a bitchy mood. “The boss wants drinks making, we make goddamn drinks. Get in there and get the mugs out of the cupboard.”
“Is that dog hungry?”
“God help you if she is. She won’t listen to me.”
Connor strode into the bedroom, took in the bed where everything had been so perfect just a day before. Oh, what he’d give to go back twenty-four hours and alter little things to skew the outcome of today. Left arm? He could live without that. His house, his job? Take them. Without Jenna, the house would be an empty shell, and his job would hold no meaning anyway.
Wanting to get warm, he stripped down to the skin and went on the hunt for his thermal underwear and socks. With those in place, he chose the thickest pair of padded pants he owned, a thermal undershirt, thick woolen sweater, and found his goose down jacket stashed at the back of the closet. He dressed in everything but the jacket, carrying it back downstairs with him and hanging it on the newel post.
If shit kicked off, he wanted his boots and jacket to hand.
Sarah and Hadley bickered in the kitchen when he snuck past. Sarah’s snark wafted from the room like a rich, underappreciated perfume—sweet, potent and deadly. He swore she would make one hell of a Domme if ever she wanted to experiment with the lifestyle. Busting balls was a skill she had honed to perfection.
He found Jenna curled on the couch beneath her ducklings, watching cartoons on TV. Her gaze slid warily to his when she saw how he was dressed. “Are you going somewhere?”
“No, baby.” He sucked in a long breath and said the words capable of sending her careening back into hiding behind her little. “We need to talk, Jenna.”
She swallowed hard and tugged the covers further up. “Sounds serious.” She wet her lips, tried a smile that faltered before it reached her eyes. “Did Hadley have some news?”
Connor closed his eyes. “Yeah.”
When he opened them again, she was almost completely hidden from view. Unable to bear not touching her, comforting her if she needed it, he lifted her and sat, letting her curl up with her head in his lap. His fingers moved to her hair, began to stroke her scalp as Luna padded into the room and dropped on the floor with a disgusted grunt.
“Last night while you were asleep, Hadley called. Your family are anxious to see you, Jenna. Before they left Colorado, they petitioned the court for the right to take you back into their guardianship.”
Jenna went rigid.