Page 34 of Under His Watch

I frowned, not liking how quick she was to shut me out after last night’s way of her letting me in as deep as I could go. She couldn’t only want me for sex. She was too inexperienced and naïve to be able to use sex as an escape. “How are you complicated?”

“Let’s see. I’ve been controlled by my parents for my whole life. My dad takes all my money. My mom expects me to be some pure, good girl and do no wrong. The fact that I didn’t bring my dad’s car home was a huge wrongdoing, and I bet if I showed up today and told them I was raped, they wouldn’t let me into their house.”

I shook my head, mad that she’d be so quick to assume such a shitty future. “No. You will not be homeless, Tess.”

“I don’t have any money for my own place,” she continued just as matter-of-factly. “I can’t get my own apartment or anything, but Nina and I were trying to save up for one to share since she hated her brother mooching off her.”

“That’s not an issue anymore,” I replied.

“Well, I guess not, with her being engaged to your dad.”

I shrugged. “And the fact that Ricky is dead.”

Her eyes opened wide. “Whoa. How?”

“The bikers.”

She winced. “Because Nina didn’t go to Reaper after that bet?”

I shrugged again. “The Devil’s Brothers are ruthless.”

“I can see that.”

“You won’t be homeless,” I repeated, steering her back to explaining herself, not talking about others.

“I have no job anymore,” she argued.

“I’ll find you whatever position you want.”

She rolled her eyes, stubborn against my arguments that she didn’t have to have such a complicated life. It was her trust and faith I wanted to hear from her. Suddenly, they mattered so much more than sex—hard or soft, however it could happen. Something physical was fine, but with how quickly I’d been smitten with her, I wanted to feel something reciprocal from her.

“Then the whole thing with Elliot.” She lifted her old phone and let it drop. “He’s been calling too.”

I frowned at the device. She had the new one, but it seemed she was still hanging on to the older one with her former number. While it might have represented a method of clinging to her past, I wondered if she debated pitching it and losing all contact with her parents.

From her perspective, it was probably scary. Without me, she’d have no one and nowhere to go—except to Elliot, who she wanted to avoid at all costs.

“I still can’t believe my mom went into the account and programmed it so Nina couldn’t contact me. She must have thought Nina was a bad influence.” She scowled, shaking her head. “Actually, Iknowshe thought Nina was a bad influence. She commented a few times about how wrong Nina was to dissuade me from marrying Elliot. She overheard us talking once, and afterward, she nagged me for having ‘bad’ and ‘unsupportive’ friends.”

When we realized that Mrs. West had blocked Nina from contact, it seemed like Tessa really wasn’t joking about how controlling her homelife was.

“And Elliot is a massive complication in my life.”

“He doesn’t have to be,” I reminded her.

She peered up at me, serious and quiet for a long moment. “I’m not going toaskyou to kill him.”

I smirked at her, slightly amused. “Killing someone isn’t always the simplest answer.”

She blushed, looking sheepish.

“But as far as Hines is concerned, killing him would provoke more consequences than what we might want right now.”

“I know.”

“Nina is pregnant, and my father is obsessed with her safety. At the same time, we’re preparing to eradicate the power the Giovannis and the Devil’s Brothers have. It’s a lot at once.”

She set her hand on my arm. “All the more reason for you not to worry about me.”

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