Page 144 of Every Broken Piece
“I love you,” I say at the same time because I’m not holding anything back anymore. “I love you so much.”
“Oh, Spitfire. I love you too. With every breath I take.”
Something pops behind me, a muted sound that has Gabe pressing my head to his chest and curling his body over mine. There’re two more muted pops, then nothing but the birds chirping in the trees and the gentle brush of the breeze against our skin.
Neither of us moves until I hear soft footsteps in the dried grass behind me. Gabe stands and I slide down his body, my arm around his waist, my finger hooked in his belt loop because I can't let him go. He turns me so I’m tucked tightly into his side.
The tattooed man stops in front of us, nods to Gabe, his emotionless gaze flickering to me, to Gabe’s hand curled around my hip. He drops my backpack at my feet, then continues on to the street where he climbs into a big black car and drives away.
“Who’s that?” I whisper even though his car is turning the corner and I know he can't hear me.
“That’s retribution,” Gabe says.
Chapter sixty-four
Gabe
One Month Later
“Iwin,” Tess yells.
Pax groans and throws his cards down.
“Damn it,” Jack grumbles.
I sit back and grin. It’s been a month since Tess was taken, and Pax shot.
Life is different now. It can’t help but be different after what we all went through.
Pax came home a week after. By unspoken agreement we’ve all hunkered down in my apartment.
While Jack hasn’t moved back in, he’s here more than he’s at his own place. I’ve been working from home and helping Tess set up her business. All but one of her clients came back to her. I’m the one who didn’t. Not because I didn’t want to, but because she didn’t want me.
She prefers to keep business separate from pleasure and I’m more than happy to be the pleasure part. Although she doesn’t know it yet, I cleared a corner of one of the floors at Strong Sterling and will be “renting” it to SmartDesk Solutions becausethe thought of her not being near me sends me into a panic I’m not proud of. I know I need to work on that because I don’t want to stifle her but for now, she seems to feel the same way so we’re rarely out of each other’s sight.
She’s laughing as she scoops the playing cards into a pile. This isn’t a drinking game tonight, but we don’t care. We’ve played Go Fish every night since Pax returned home. It’s another comfort we rely on, but we enjoy it so no harm.
She smiles wide at me, but I see the new shadows in her eyes alongside the old shadows. She’s told me a little about her experience with Carter. I know she’s holding some of it back and it about kills me, but I’ve learned to go slow with my girl. I also know that she needs to let it out at some point, so I’ve been researching trauma therapists for when she’s ready. For Pax too because being shot changed him, matured him. He’s like a diamond now—hard, a little bit cold, with sharp edges.
We’ll survive. I’ll make sure of it.
Jack stretches, then stands. “I’m heading home to bed. Night all.” He kisses the top of Tess’s head as he walks by, and she leans into him with a smile.
Pax stands too, a little slower than Jack and with a wince and heads up the stairs. Tess watches him closely. The day she was rescued she’d been convinced she’d killed him and didn’t calm down until I took her to see him. They hugged and she cried, and Pax acted like he wasn’t crying. They’re good now even if Tess hovers too much and Pax tries to hide his annoyance.
Tess taps the playing cards into a neat pile. I take them from her and pull her up by her hand to lead her to the couch in front of the fire I started earlier. It’s almost May, but winter’s holding on tight and it’s still chilly at night although the days are warming up. I settle on the couch and pull her down on my lap because I can’t get enough of holding her, can’t stop touching her.
She settles her head against my chest while I rub her back.
“You, okay?”
“I’m fine.”
She tucks her cold hands between us, her tone not hiding her annoyance at my question. Probably because I ask it multiple times a day, but I need to know for my own peace of mind even though her answer is always the same.
She’s not fine yet, but she’s getting there.
I heard from Hardwick this morning that Sandra Jansen’s body was found on the banks of the Chicago River. I haven’t told Tess yet and I won’t tonight because she’s happy and I refuse to ruin that with news of her mother.
