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"Jacob?" Her voice was gentle. Soft. Compelling.
He turned around to find Phoebe still standing there, her hand over her heart. "Yeah?"
"Thank you. With all my heart."
He heard the earnestness in those words, and he nodded.
He met her gaze, and he could tell she wanted to say more, that she wanted him to say more, but he didn't have words for what was going on in his head and his heart right now. "You're welcome," he muttered. "What's your timing?" he asked, trying to change the subject to one that didn't feel so fraught with landmines.
"Our timing?" She cleared her throat, and seemed to pull herself back together. "A few more minutes. I'm going to fill a duffel with some of Annie's favorite things."
"Great. Get her blankets and comforter too. She'll like that." For a second, they looked at each other, and he was once again caught by his reaction to her. Stunning. Awaking the man inside him that he'd forgotten how to be.
Then, as one, they both turned away. "Can you come up in a couple minutes and help carry stuff down?" she shouted as she hurried up the stairs.
"You bet." He grabbed the dog food bin and carried it to the front door…but instead of moving it outside, he set it down inside the house. He'd take it to his truck when they were all together.
Because until he found out what the threat was, he was keeping them close.
And it wasn't because he found himself unable to tear himself away from them.
Or at least, it wasn't only because of that.
* * *
Phoebe watched Jacob's jaw tick as he drove.
Annie and Cupcake were asleep in the back seat of his extended cab pickup truck, stuffed in beside blankets, pillows, and dog beds. In the truck bed, beneath the cover, was the rest of their gear. Except for her computer, her camera, her microphone, her computer monitor, and all the other things she needed for her business. All of that was nestled at her feet, because she never let it out of her sight. It had taken them too long to get out of her house, and the tension of both adults was rising with each passing minute, not knowing what was coming or when.
But now they were on the road, and the miles were ticking by.
Jacob had taken a number of detours and roundabout routes to expose anyone who might be following them. He'd called his brother Lucas to drive a ways behind them, also watching to see if anyone was following them.
Jacob had stopped to cover his license plates with mud, and he'd given her a burner phone to use and made her turn hers off before they'd driven away from her house.
His attention to detail to keeping them safe was reassuring, but also alarming. She didn't want to be living a life where she had to rely on someone like Jacob to do what he was doing. "How come you're such an expert on this stuff?" she asked, trying to distract herself from how much she didn't want to be in this situation.
Jacob looked over at her. "My family takes our safety seriously."
She raised her brows. "Is your family in danger often?"
He shrugged as he pulled off a main road onto a dirt road, for what felt like the bazillionth time. "We have pasts."
"What kind of pasts? Do I need to be concerned?"
He looked over at her then. "Do you not know who I am? Who the Harts are?"
She almost started laughing at his surprise. "I don't, sorry. I have enough trouble keeping track of my own life. I'd never be able to keep up with someone else's. Fill me in."
He rubbed his jaw, drawing her attention to his forearm. It was so freaking chiseled. The man was strong, and she couldn't help but notice. "The abbreviated version is that we were all homeless kids. We found each other, lived under a bridge for a while, and became the Hart family. We invented some software and made some money when we sold it. We used the proceeds to buy a ranch and we all have homes on it. But when you're a teenager living on the streets, it usually means that you walked away from a situation that wasn't good, so yeah, we learned to protect each other from early on. The habit stuck."
Phoebe leaned back in her seat, digesting that. The truck they were in right now was clearly the top of the line. It was huge, leather seats, pristine condition, aftermarket super-elite technology in the dashboard. His brother's truck that was now following them up close was equally tricked out.
So, they'd done all right for themselves, the Hart homeless kids. "I like that story," she said. At his glance, she added, "The part about creating your own forever family. It gives hope to people who feel alone. I like that."
He glanced at her again. "You got family?"
She nodded. "I do. My parents are awesome, but I haven't seen them for a long time. I had to go off the radar, and it wasn't safe to contact them. And then, I adopted Annie, and had to make some more adjustments." God, there was so much more to it than that, but that was all she could share. And what was the point of dwelling on what she couldn’t change?
