Hold You Close: A Jay Halstead Story

CHAPTER EIGHT

Freshly showered, Della emerged from Jay's bathroom wearing his oversized CPD crew neck sweatshirt and some sweatpants that Erin generously loaned her. She ran her fingers through her damp hair as she walked down the hall toward Jay's bedroom and found him pulling the comforter back on his bed.

"Changed the sheets for you," he said as he looked up at her.

"Thank you, Jay," she replied appreciatively.

He nodded, unsure of what to do next. Della was in his room, wearing his hoodie, and smelling like his shampoo. He had envisioned this scenario quite a few times in his head. But she had just been through something completely life changing. It was a dangerous combination with terrible timing and he felt like he needed to tread lightly.

"I'll let you get settled," he finally said. "But I'll be on the couch if you need me."

She replied with a nod. Before he left the room, he pressed a kiss to her forehead, reveling in the fact that she smelled like him.

Once she was alone, she exhaled. Her brain was moving on overdrive but she didn't have the desire to process all of her emotions yet, so she decided to just go to sleep. She climbed into bed, sliding under Jay's cool, clean sheets, which smelled deliciously and soothingly like him – just like she did. She turned off the lamp on the nightstand but left the door open so that the room was subtly illuminated by the dim hallway light.

Although her senses felt calmed and comforted by her surroundings, she still felt jolts of adrenaline tingling her veins. She couldn't turn her brain off – everything that had happened that day still felt surreal. Not only was she laying in Jay's bed, wrapped in his sheets, but Santino was dead and so was all of his abuse.

It was a lot to process and accept.

When Jay promised her that he'd keep her safe, she honestly didn't believe him. She felt like her impulsive actions – giving Jay that file, clueing him in to the abuse, telling him the truth about Santino – had sealed her fate: Santino would either find out and kill her or would whisk her away from Chicago before anything could change. Hell, he had tried to do both that morning...

But Jay stayed true to his word. He had saved her and kept her safe. She wanted to cry tears of relief. She had no idea what she had done to deserve him, but she was so thankful for him.

Although she felt safe, she knew that she wasn't fully in the clear yet. Not until Damien Johnson was in police custody. Not until her name was officially cleared from any involvement in Santino's crimes. But she believed that day would come soon enough.

Again, she tried to make her body give in to sleep, but she could hardly even shut her eyes. Fear and uncertainty lingered in the back of her mind.

She finally threw the covers off of her body and got out of bed then set off down the hall in search of Jay.

She heard the muffled audio of a TV and followed the sound until she found Jay sitting on the couch watching a football game. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt, still in his jeans, and holding a near-empty whiskey glass.