Drake Sisters 05 - Safe Harbor

it softly. "Let's just get it over. Let me see your hair."
    Her long lashes fluttered. She reached up a hand and touched the springy curls beneath the blanket. "I did it for me."
    He let his breath out. "That's good, honey. Let me see."
    She glanced at him as if trying to gauge his true emotion. "I have so much hair and it weighs on me, you know? I just wanted to get rid of some of the weight. And it was such a burden to always be so perfect."
    His answering laughter was soft. "People always did write about your perfect hair," he agreed.
    "They're not the ones who had to put a zillion gallons of product in it to keep it from poofing out everywhere. I wanted to do something that was my decision alone." She wanted him to understand. And she wanted him to like it, not to be disappointed.
    "Has anyone seen it?" He knew the answer before she said it.
    "Joley did it for me, but she promised not to tell."

    "She didn't dye it some outrageous color, did she? You don't have purple curls under the blanket, do you?" He reached over and took the mug out of her hand, taking a drink, allowing the liquid to warm his insides.
    A small smile curved her soft mouth, drawing attention to her full lower lip. He wanted to spend some time nibbling at her lip again, but Hannah wasn't giving him any help.
    "No color. Joley says the style is sassy and sexy. But everything is sexy to her."
    "Are you going to let me see or do I have to wrestle the blanket off of you?"
    "A couple of reporters hired boats and tried to get pictures this afternoon while you were gone. And Joley went crazy and confronted the Reverend. She basically had him confessing his sins on national television."
    "So I heard. It was a crazy thing to do." She was stalling. He knew she was and considered calling her on it, but there was more going on here than a new shorter hairstyle. He needed to let her work her way around to telling him the real problem.
    Hannah took the tea back, swallowing hard, once again not looking at him. "I thought this story would just die down and everyone would go away, but it isn't going to happen, is it?"
    "Not for a while."
    "And Joley could have made herself a target as well, right?"
    She looked young and vulnerable and so fragile he ached for her. "I'm sorry, baby, I want to tell you different, but the truth is, Joley made herself a target a long time ago just by stepping out into the public eye."
    His voice was gentle and grief hit her hard, making her throat raw and her chest tight.
    "Like I did." She swallowed hard and shook her head, tears spilling over when she'd tried so hard to hold them back. "Jonas." She couldn't say anything else. As it was, his name was choked out of her, ripped from somewhere so deep it left an open wound.
    "Why do they hate me so much?"
    "I don't know, baby." He pulled her into his arms, holding her as tight as he could, pressing her face into his chest, wanting to smash something, anything, to relieve the fierce frustration and helplessness he felt. "It's going to be all right, Hannah. I'm going to find them."
    "I don't even know how to hate someone that much," she said, her voice muffled.
    He did. Whoever had ordered the hit on her needed to die. Jonas could hate and he had a very long memory. He held her as close as possible, while she clung to him, listening to her cry as though her heart was broken, and deep inside, a monster grew stronger. He finally lifted her and sank back into her chair, rocking gently back and forth, murmuring reassurances, feathering kisses over the blanket and down the side of her face where her skin peeked out of the cover.
    "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jonas. I thought I was over this. I don't know why it hit me so hard all over again."
    She was careful to keep her face turned toward the sea, but he felt the wash of tears.
    Jonas let his breath out slowly to stay in control. She was everything to him, and seeing her so torn up, so frightened and fragile, destroyed him. He rubbed his face over hers, skin to skin, trying to show her what was inside him—that she had him always— always —and he would stand for her.
    "After you left this morning, I asked Elle to get the file from Jackson, the one with all the people who have written threatening me. Joley handed me the scissors to put away and I just flashed on the knife. I couldn't help it. The file was sitting on the dresser and I thought it might give me some answers. But all those people, Jonas…" She drew back and looked at him then,