The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus by Jaime Jo Wright

Author:Jaime Jo Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romantic Suspense;FIC042060;FIC042120;FIC027110
ISBN: 9781493428113
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2020-07-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter twenty-three

She wasn’t any of Jake Chapman’s business, and yet the look etched into his face stated he thought otherwise. Pippa could sense his eyes burning into her back as she escaped toward Lily’s pen. There was no reason for him to have any sort of protective attachment toward her. None. Yet she heard his frustrated curse, coupled with a tone of regret, as though he’d overstepped and yet somehow failed at the same time. He’d equated her to his sister. Bridgette, she remembered him calling her in a previous conversation. But Forrest was far from a man who attacked a woman in the shadows, who left her for dead, who had murder on his hands. He was simply—a man. The head of their future household.

Still, Pippa couldn’t deny that, for a brief and unfair moment, she had to battle away the twinge of jealousy toward the dead woman. Toward Jake’s sister. It was obvious he had always defended Bridgette, and he still was. Intent on fighting for her, for justice, for wrongs to be righted as much as they possibly could be. What must it have been like to be Jake Chapman’s sister? His spring-like body, ready to go to war for those he loved. He was a defender at heart. It lived in his eyes, seeped from the very marrow of his bones. Pippa wanted to tell Jake that she was none of his business, but for an irrationally clear moment, she realized she wanted to be.

“Pippa, wait.” Jake’s call echoed behind her.

She didn’t. She pushed the door back on its rollers and entered Lily’s place, Penn beside her. The dog’s tail wagged but with caution, not friendship. Pippa knew the four-hundred-plus-pound baby pachyderm could crush her with one placement of its panicked foot. Yet her huge eyes merely lifted slightly at Pippa’s entrance. A weak acknowledgment from a creature who in many ways paralleled exactly how Pippa felt. A resigned acceptance of their unwanted and uninvited fate.

“Pippa!”

Jake surged through the doorway of the stall and stopped short. Lily pressed her broad head that rivaled Pippa’s petite frame against Pippa, who leaned into the calf, sprinkling kisses on the animal’s coarse skin. She would ignore Jake. She would ignore her father, the raging storm inside of her, the ostracized loneliness that came with being the castaway child of the circus, and she would level all her might and her power on Lily. Loving a creature who demanded nothing in return, but whose eyes pierced Pippa’s soul and stamped their acknowledgment on Pippa’s heart. Penn stood vigil at the calf’s feet, and Lily’s trunk nosed Penn’s muzzle. As if in slow motion, the dog’s tongue licked the elephant’s trunk, and then Lily tilted her head toward Pippa.

“Shh, baby girl,” Pippa whispered. Another kiss to the wide expanse of Lily’s forehead.

The three of them were a cohesive unit.

Pippa could feel Jake watching them, yet he didn’t say a word. She could feel her strength oozing into Lily. Finally, completely, a family in the middle of a fray filled with threat, foreboding, and a tentative future.

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