Adopted by Syndicate

Chapter 18

We decided to go to a little coffee shop down the road from the house. It wasn't very far from the house so we decided to walk there. Walking into the shop, the strong smell of vanilla was filling the air. James took my hand and led me to the counter to order.
I looked at the menu and tried to decide what I wanted. I wasn't a big fan of hot coffee so I decided to get a Frappuccino and a crescant and an egg with sausage. James has ordered himself coffee with a chocolate chip muffin.
He led me over to a booth and we sat down on the same side as we waited for our breakfast to be brought out. He had wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed the top of my head as I laid it on his shoulder.
"There's something that I forgot to give you yesterday," James told me softly as he pulled a small, badly wrapped box our of his pocket. He held it out for me to take.
I gave him an odd look as I took it and tried to figure out what it could possibly be. "You didn't have get me anything," I tell him with a small laugh. After giving up on trying to figure out what it was, I carefully unwrapped it to not make a mess that we'd have to clean up. After finally getting all the papers off, a little jewelry box was revealed. "James, you really didn't have to," I whined as I opened the box, finding a beautiful necklace. It was a miniature bottle with a blue gem shaped like a heart. "It's so beautiful," I mutter as I take it out of the box.
"Just like you," I heard James say before he kissed my forehead. "Here, let me help you put it on." He took the necklace and helped me put it on. I smile and when he got it on, I turned back to him and hugged him. "I knew you would like it," he told me as he hugged me back. Soon our food came and we quickly ate before leaving to go back to the house. We walked back to the house, taking our time as we made small talk about different things. His arm was wrapped around my shoulder the whole time and I smiled. I felt safe with him and for the first time, in a very long time, I felt like everything was going to be perfect.

My feet had started to hurt on the way back to the house and I ended up on James back. My chin rested on his shoulder and I closed my eyes. "Thank you," I mutter as I kiss his cheek.
"I'll do anything for you princess," he told me as he opened the door and took me into the living room when he sat me down on the couch.Tucker and Sonja were sitting on the other side of the couch.
"Where's Tom?" I asked them as I pulled James down beside me. He laughed and shook his head as he pull me on his lap.
"His in the kitchen getting something to eat," Tucker tells us.
I nodded and wrapped my arms around James. Tom came walking into the living room with a bowl of cereal and nearly spit out his food when he saw us.
"James, what the hell did you do to her?" He yelled as he put the bowl down and stormed over to us and started looking at my neck.
"Tom it's fine, he didn't mean to," I said as I tried to push him away.
"No, you don't need to be going around here with that in your neck," he suddenly snapped.
I cringed away and looked up at him shocked. The harshness in his voice was very unexpected and it hurt. I looked away as tears started to brim in my eyes.

The room was completely silent.

"Tom, maybe you should calm down," Sonja said as she stood up and put a hand on his shoulders. "You know she's had a bad past strict parents."
Tom looked at her and shook his head. "I'm sorry but I don't want her to be going around town with that on her neck."
"Tom, I'm not going to go anywhere," I mumble as I look at him. The tears had fell to my cheeks and Tom looked at me sadly.
"I'm so sorry Jo," he says as he looked at me sadly. "I didn't mean to yell at you."
I nod back but didn't say anything else.