Solace In The Silence ✓✓

chapter 6

I nearly died with relief when I saw Jake's face pressed up against the glass. He squinted inside, his eyes trying to locate me in the dimly lit truck.
"Bess, are you in there?" he urged as I lay soundlessly. His voice was mangled by fear, and I couldn't justify letting him worry anymore, even though all I wanted was to be alone right now.

I quickly wiped at my cheeks and then reached out to unlock the driver's side door. Jake spilled into the seat right beside me like a tidal wave, his arms encircling me. He crushed me against him until I could feel every inch of his warm body —a solid wall of comfort I found myself sinking into.
"Damn, I've been looking for you everywhere," he murmured softly into my hair.
If it was under different circumstances, I was sure butterflies would have been tumbling around inside my stomach, but right now, I'd never felt so numb, so cold.
His breath feathered over my collarbone, and he rasped, "Someone just told me they last saw you alone outside with Joe. Please tell me that's not true? Everyone knows that guy has a few loose screws."

When I didn't say anything, Jake drew back to look into my eyes, cupped my cheek in his hand. "What did he do, Bess?" His throat bobbed with a gulp. "And don't you dare handle me with kid gloves right now."

I opened my mouth and then immediately shut it. I knew Jake was a ticking time bomb. The minute the words escaped me, there would be no taking them back. No way to know how they would even affect him.
His arms loosened a fraction, and I burrowed into his neck, needing him to keep holding me. I imagined myself curled up in my bed back home in Hall Hill — my safe haven —and I imagined being with my parents. I didn't care if that made me weak. Despite running from my past, it was times like now when I realized just how much I still needed them, how much I already missed them. The idea of moving away suddenly seemed really dumb.

I'd sworn up and down that Jake had absolutely nothing to do with my decision to move to Fenna, but at this moment, I was overly aware of how much he had . And was he really enough of a reason to stay?

A gradual doubt crept into my mind, and I contemplated if moving out here had been a mistake, after all.
"I swear," his gruff voice coaxed me from my thoughts, which had begun to snowball irrationally,
"if he even laid a finger on you, so help me God."
Mustering what little scraps of composure I had left, I managed to reply in the form of a broken whisper, "H-He grabbed me."
Jake tightened his arms around me, holding me against his well-defined chest.
"Did he—?" He fumbled, and I put my hand on his shoulder.
"No," I croaked out. I pulled back slightly so that I could glance up at him. His eyes were haunted.

Desperate to reassure him that it could have been a lot worse, that I had actually been lucky, I added, "He didn't touch me. I—I don't know, it was like it wasn't even about that, but I fought back. I was able to get away."

His jaw clenched, and he abruptly smacked his fist against the steering wheel. "I'm still going to fucking kill him!" Jake seethed.
An anger I had never seen before contorted his expression, and I knew I had about five seconds before he would fly off the handle. Jake had always been ridiculously protective of Angie and me... but this was something else entirely.

My fingers locked around his forearm in a death- grip—a valiant effort to keep him safely inside the truck for as long as I physically could.
"I'm okay. Shaken, but okay. You can't go after him, Jake. Do you understand me?"
Silence greeted my question, which forced me to hurl a stern, don't-you-dare look at him.
He barked out a laugh, but there was no trace of humor.
"Damn it, Bess. You can't just expect me to sit here and do nothing when I hear that piece of shit tried to attack you."
"I never said that," I objected. "But if you truly want to help me right now, you'll drive me to the nearest police station so I can report it. Putting the guy in hospital is not going to achieve anything."