My face fell and I dropped my arms as I took a step away from her. “Thanks for killing it again.” Turning away, I walked quickly toward the stairs and up to the loft.

“Where are you going?”

“To get ready,” I called back. “We’re leaving and spending time in public until I can stop thinking about my sister walking in on us.”

I heard her soft laugh from below, and the sound made me feel worse than I already did. I’d wanted to get her mind off my mom, knowing that this wasn’t something she needed to worry about, and knowing she’d continue bringing up the subject until I told her what she wanted to hear. And while I was glad she had dropped it for now, I hated that I’d forced the change in conversation for my benefit.

Instead of protecting her like I’d promised I always would, I felt like I’d tricked her.

Chapter 14

Jagger

August 29, 2014

PLACING A HAND on either side of Grey, I leaned down and pressed my lips to first her throat, then her jaw and cheek, and finally her mouth. She smiled against the kiss, and the tips of her fingers traced along my jaw before I moved back.

“Morning,” she mumbled sleepily.

“Good morning, sweetheart.”

Her eyes finally opened, and her brow furrowed when she got a good look at me. “Why are you dressed?”

“I’m gonna go pick up something for breakfast. Unless you want me to cook . . .” I trailed off, and laughed at her horrified expression.

“No! Go get something.”

“That’s what I thought.” Kissing her softly once more, I stood up and started walking backward toward the stairs. “I’ll be back soon, I just didn’t want you to wake up while I was gone.”

Her face softened into a dreamy smile, and I had to fight with myself when all I wanted was to crawl back in bed beside her. “Thank you. Be safe and come back to me soon.”

“Always.”

Turning around, I jogged down the steps before I could talk myself into staying and walked outside—my steps immediately halting when I looked up.

“What . . . the . . . f**k.”

I looked quickly around the alley where our cars were parked before jogging to the corner to look down that side of the building. When I didn’t find anything, I walked back to Grey’s car. A low growl built up in my chest when I saw what was on the paper, and my arm automatically reached out to rip off the one closest to me before I stopped myself. Pulling out my phone, I called the police and told them what was going on before looking at my own car.

Covering my car were thousands of pieces of paper, all with pictures of Grey and me together. Across the pictures were the words “whore” or “backstabber.” It was the same on Grey’s car, except the papers had pictures of her and Ben, with the words “What about forever?” The other papers were copies of Ben’s vows. Over. And over.

I wanted to keep Grey out of this, but I knew I couldn’t. Taking pictures of every angle of both cars, I finally walked back inside, standing just at the doorway.

“Grey?”

“What’d you get?” I heard the bed shift a few seconds before she appeared at the railing. “Are you coming inside?” she asked on a laugh that died as soon as she saw my expression. “Jagger?”

“I need you to put some clothes on and come outside, babe. The police are on their way.”

“What?” Her soft voice barely reached me, and I hated the way her face fell.

I swallowed thickly and looked behind me toward the cars before looking back at her. “I’m here for you, Grey, and we’ll find whoever is doing this. I swear to God.”

A pained exhale came from the loft as she shook her head back and forth and took slow steps away. She hadn’t even seen the cars, but she knew what was happening. I hated this for her, and silently vowed to do everything to find this person and make them pay.

The cops showed up before Grey made it outside, and I was in the middle of talking with the officer who’d helped us last time when I noticed his eyes trail to something behind me. Turning around, I saw Grey standing in front of her car with a mix of pain and fear covering her face. I walked over to her and pulled her into my arms as I backed us away from the cars and toward the officer.

“It’ll be okay,” I whispered in her ear. “I’m sorry.”

She just nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving the cars. Not even a minute later, she gasped and gripped at my arm. “Jagger.”

“What?” I looked around quickly, first to her and then around the alley to see if she’d seen someone who shouldn’t be here. My eyes barely glanced at where another two officers were taking the pieces of paper off the cars, then darted quickly back. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groaned.

The officers started removing the paper faster when they saw what Grey and I had seen, and soon both cars were paper free. Now you could see that someone had painted in white letters on all the windows of both cars. Mine had the words that had been typed over every picture covering my windows. Grey’s were covered with Ben’s vows. I pulled out my phone and took more pictures while the officers took pictures with their cameras, and stared at the writing. It was nondescript. It didn’t look masculine or feminine. Every letter was capitalized, but that was it. Nothing else could be said about it.

We stood out there until the officers were gone, and when I got Grey back inside, she surprised me by looking pissed.