Safe Word Read Online Free PDF Page B

another bite of her food.
    “Are you going to sneak out to meet me tonight?” I wrapped my arms tighter around Rose’s waist, drawing small circles with my thumb on her lower back.
    “I’ll try.” She pressed her lips against mine.
    She pulled back and sighed as she fumbled with the collar of my shirt.
    “What is it? I can tell when something is bothering you.” I brushed the bright-red hair from her forehead.
    “My stepdad had some of his friends over last night.”
    “Did they touch you?” Murderous rage consumed me. Rose was mine and the thought of anyone else putting their fucking hands on her killed me.
    “No. God, no. They were talking about your father.” She looked up at me with her deep brown eyes. I clenched my jaw, trying not to let myself get upset in front of her.
    “What did they say?”
    “They were saying he had borrowed money from one of them and never paid it back. The guy works for the mayor. Anyway, they said your father got mixed up in some crazy stuff to get back what he owes him.”
    “What crazy stuff, Rose? Think.”
    “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “They closed the door to the office after that.”
    I ran my hands over my hair and sucked in a deep breath.
    “That’s it?” I asked.
    “There’s one more thing.” Rose wrung her hands together as she chewed on her lip out of nervous habit.
    “He said if he didn’t get all of what he was owed he was going to turn you in for that string of burglaries happening across town.”
    “I didn’t do that, Rose.” I cupped her face with my hands as I looked her directly in the eye. “I would never do something like that. I’m not the bad guy.”
    “I know you’re not, Cole.”
    “I’ll take care of it.” I leaned my forehead against hers and closed my eyes. None of my father’s mess mattered. All that mattered was Rose.
    A loud bang came from outside of the office, startling us.
    “Rose!” Jacob turned the corner from the gym and stopped as his eyes fell on us.
    Rose jumped back out of my arms, a look of terror on her face.
    “Holy shit. You and Cole?” He laughed.
    “No! He’s just a friend.” She laughed and took another step back. “I was gonna see if he could do my homework so I could go to the game tonight.”
    “Is he going to come looking for you?”
    “He might. Everyone is going to wonder what happened to me. I won’t tell anyone if you just…”
    “It’s too late for that.” I shoved the rest of my sandwich in my mouth and placed the plate on the coffee table.
    I walked back into the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge. Lily had barely eaten anything.
    “You need your energy. Just eat it. You want a beer?” Her eyes met mine and I could tell she was trying to figure out my angle. “If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn’t need to get you drunk first.”
    She nodded once and I pulled two bottles from the fridge. I unscrewed the cap to her bottle and sat it in front of her. She eyed it for a moment before I snatched it back and grabbed a cup from the cupboard.
    “It didn’t keep him down; a bottle to the head sure as fuck wouldn’t keep me down. It would only piss me off.” I smirked as I poured the contents into the cup and put it in front of her a second time. It was a deep dig bringing up her stepfather, but it pissed me off that she would even think I brought her here to rape her after I stopped that son of a bitch from hurting her. I would have given up everything. I would have killed him if she’d asked me to.
    She picked up the cup and took a healthy swig. My eyes watched her hand as she drank. There was no ring on her finger. No one would be missing her at home. That thought was normally comforting but with Lily, it just made me sad.
    “So this coworker…you didn’t seem to have a problem making him jealous at the bar.”
    “It was you. It was different. I wouldn’t have done that if it was anyone else,” she said sadly before taking another drink.
    “I wish you wouldn’t have