Hold You Close: A Jay Halstead Story

CHAPTER FIVE

Ever since that morning in the storage room when he found Della all bruised up, Jay's brain had been working overtime trying to think of ways to get her away from Santino, to protect her and keep her safe. He felt like he had come up with every idea under the sun – from planting evidence of three different felonies in Santino's car to get him thrown in jail for the rest of his life, to getting one of his tech savvy CIs to create Della an untraceable new identity, faking her death, and shipping her off to Canada. The selfish part of him hated the last idea for the distance it would put between them. But he would deal with it if it meant keeping her safe.

Instead of bombarding her with ideas, he kept them to himself until she was ready. As much as it killed him inside, he had to just respect her wishes for the time being, knowing that might be the safest thing to do for her, the only way to help.

A few mornings later, Jay walked into the storage room carrying two steaming mugs of coffee - the Blackhawks one for Della and whatever random mug he could find for himself. He placed the hockey mug down in front of her then leaned down and placed a loving kiss on the top of her head.

"Morning," he mumbled.

"Morning," she replied, looking up at him with a genuine grin.

He fought the urge to lean down and kiss her lips. To kiss the small pink scar on the edge of her mouth. It was barely visible if you didn't know what you were looking for, but Jay wanted to kiss it until it disappeared altogether.

He had decided that he no longer cared about adhering to his moral code or respecting her scorned marriage. If Santino wouldn't take care of his own wife, then Jay would.

Della deserved happiness, she deserved to have a smile on her face 24/7, and if that was all that she would allow Jay to do for her at the moment then that's what he would.

He gave her a soft smile, reaching out to cup her cheek.

"Your bruises are healing up well," he commented, titling her face slightly to get a closer look.

"Arnica gel," she said softly.

"What?" He wondered as he brushed her cheek with his thumb before he dropped his hand and walked over to his side of the table, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Arnica gel," she repeated. "Works like magic to treat bruises quickly."

His eyes scanned her face and he frowned. He didn't even have to ask – he knew she had learned that from experience, from needing to know a swift way to get rid of bruises. And it made him feel absolutely sick.

He put his coffee on the table, no longer able to stomach the beverage.

"Any new ones that I need to know about?" Jay asked.

"New what?" She requested as she got busy opening files and flipping through pages.

"Bruises."

Her hand paused for a brief second – she wasn't used to freely talking about this topic – then she shook her head and continued sorting through the documents in front of her. "He's been out of town since Sunday night."

Jay nodded. She didn't seem to be lying but he wasn't sure how much he trusted his judgment of that anymore. He didn't know if she would actually tell him about any other incidents but he figured it was worth a try.

"You'd tell me, right?" He wondered.

She looked up at him curiously.

"I know you don't want me to do anything, and I'm trying to respect that, but I am worried about you. So I need to know that you'll tell me if something else happens," he elaborated. "That if it gets too bad, if you need me, you'll call me."