Page 83 of Every Broken Piece
He tips his head at me. “Maybe your mother wasn’t strong enough to be the person you needed. Maybe she found her peace in drugs and Cara found hers in death.”
I perch on the edge of the couch and fold my hands in my lap. “Cara and my mother aren't the same. There is no peace in drugs, only chaos that leaks into other people’s lives.”
“There is no peace in any of this.” He rubs his eyes then drops his hands between his knees. “Look, I didn’t mean to lay my burdens at your feet.”
“Sometimes burdens are less burdensome when shared.”
“That mean you’re going to share your burdens with me?”
“Some burdens aren’t meant to be shared. Mine I have to carry alone.”
“You don’t. You have me now.”
“I do. I know you don’t understand, but I do have to carry on alone. You go back to your family, Gabe.”
“And where will you go?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“So, you’re just going to keep running?”
“It’s what I do.”
“Maybe you should try running toward something instead of running away from something.”
Chapter forty-one
Gabe
Ihadn’t planned to tell Tess about Cara.
Hell, I’ve never mentioned my suspicions to Jack and definitely not to Pax. But I’m running out of time and the obstinate, bewitching, woman is standing firm. I absolutely won’t leave her here alone, and never would I allow another man to watch over her.
My phone rumbles against the worn Formica of the kitchen counter while Tess and I stare at each other—her in stubborn defiance, me in gnawing frustration.
It stops but immediately starts up again.
“You should get that,” she says.
That damn phone. It’s always interrupting us in our most important moments, yet, I can’t ignore it when I have work pressing down on me, and a son I need to be available for at all times.
I stomp over to it only to have my heart drop when I see Roger’s name flash across the screen.
“We have an issue,” he says when I answer. “That woman’s back.”
“What woman?” I don’t immediately understand what Roger’s trying to tell me because I’m still focused on Tess’s obstinance. I’d throw her over my shoulder and haul her ass to Colorado if I didn’t know that was the dead wrong thing to do.
Let me make one thing clear. Her days of running are over. I wasn’t kidding when I said she needs to run toward something. She needs to understand that there are people in her life now she can trust.
“Sandra Jansen,” Roger says. “She’s yelling about her rights and something about her daughter. I tried to keep her from going inside the building but there’s only so much I can do.”
Fuck.
Roger was hired to keep Sandra away from Tess, but he’s right. He can’t very well tackle her to the ground and hold her there without cause.
I hear a woman’s high pitched, angry voice coming from outside Tess’s door. Tess shoots to her feet, panicked eyes glued to me.
“Anyone with her?” I ask Roger as I make my way to the flimsy-ass door.
