Page 60 of Bad Blood Wolf

Jasmin opened her fist to reveal a small black button-like object, about the size of a fifty-cent piece.

“Flynn put a tracker on your car.” She tossed it to him.

Automatically, he put his hand out and caught it.

“Shit.” He didn’t know whether to be angry or impressed. “Fucking paranoid crazy-ass lion. I thought he liked me.”

“He does like you,” Jasmin said. “You should see what he does to people he doesn’t like.”

Brody snorted a laugh at that. He didn’t know why he was surprised. Flynn had admitted to following Brody to his drug dealer—why not a tracker? At least Brody could count on the fact that he was too paranoid to tell anyone what he found out. No one outside the Bad Bloods would learn about this location. Adele was safe.

But Flynn was still an asshole.

“Fucking lion,” he said again. He hauled back and threw the tracker across the parking lot. It hit a patch of ice and slid underneath the steps of Adele’s trailer.

“I’m kind of liking him right now,” Jasmin admitted. “Otherwise I would never have found you.”

“So why did you come?” He meant to sound challenging, to hold onto his pride and harden his heart. But she looked so vulnerable, sitting there, and he couldn’t make himself push her away.

He still wanted her so badly.

She took a deep breath, and then let it out without saying anything. She took another one.

He could see her trying to break down her walls, trying to get words out.

“You said you loved me,” she said finally, her raspy voice no more than a whisper. “And I told you I didn’t want you to.” Another deep breath. “It wasn’t true,” she admitted.

He waited, unable to breathe, a tiny seed of hope blossoming one more time in the center of his chest. She’d pushed him away, but then she came after him.

“I wanted you to love me, but I wanted you to love me. The strong parts and the soft parts. I thought if I loved you, it would make me soft, and you’d hurt me. But losing you hurt worse.”

She swallowed, looking away.

“Full disclosure. I looked in the window, and I saw you with your mother. I wanted to knock on the door and come inside, but I didn’t know if you wanted me here. I wish you did. I want you to love me. I want to love you back. I do need you, and it makes me so fucking scared I don’t know what to do.”

By the time she finished what she was saying he was already moving, closing the distance between them and hugging her up tight. He could feel her shaking in his arms, how scared she was, his beautiful deadly jaguar who wasn’t afraid of anything.

Except opening her heart.

But she’d jumped off the cliff for him, arms spread wide, and he had to be there to catch her, the way he’d told her he would.

He held her close and stroked her hair, whispering gently, “Shh. It’s okay. It’s all okay now.”

He could still feel her trembling; hell, he could feel himself trembling. The pain in his chest that he’d been carrying around began to subside, and warmth was creeping in.

He felt like he’d been so cold for so long.