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I sat forward, hating that she had been afraid. Hating that she stood with hurt smeared across her face. Inhaling deep, I pushed out the best explanation I could. “I didn’t call you in the middle of the night because it wasn’t a big deal, so there was no reason to disturb you or get you worried.”
And because I’d had Savannah to take care of me, and I was selfish enough not to want my mother to interrupt that.
She choked over a cry as she came forward. “You didn’t want me to worry? You were stabbed.”
Shit.
Apparently, Pamela had given her the ugly details.
“It was hardly a flesh wound.” I tried to make it a joke, but my mother wasn’t having it.
“Ezra…you can’t…your kids…they need you.”
Grief speared through her features, and I saw what was written on her face. Her fear that my kids would lose both their parents. The loss so fresh even though I knew it would go on in her forever. To her, losing Brianna had been like losing a daughter.
“They aren’t going to lose me, Mom. I won’t let that happen.”
“You can’t know that.”
A heavy sigh pilfered from my nose. “Yeah, you’re right, nothing is a certainty. You and I both know that. But what I can promise you is I will fight with everything I have for them, and that means fighting for me to be there for them, too.”
Her attention drifted out the French doors to the sound of shrieks and laughter. Joy in the morning air. No question, my kids were in the middle of that sweet mayhem, having the absolute best time with their cousins.
Satisfaction pounded in my heart that Savannah was out there with them. That she’d stood up to care for them after she’d spent the night caring for me.
“Is that the new tenant?” Mom asked, her voice twisted in something I couldn’t quite discern though there was no question it left me unsettled.
“Yeah. Her name’s Savannah.” I answered it just as quiet.
For a moment, my mother watched.
When she looked back, grief and speculation had knitted her brow. “Are you sure you’re ready for that?”
I scrubbed my palm over my face at the blatant insinuation.
The way she laid it out like she’d seen everything that’d gone down in the last twenty-four hours play out in her mind.
I hoped to God not.
The thing was, my mother thought I was heartbroken over Brianna. I wasn’t sure I could break her any more right then by admitting the truth.
“We’re friends, Mom. She got disturbed with the sirens last night, and she came out to help.”
The lie tasted sour on my tongue.
Like disloyalty to Savannah.
Like treason.
Mom didn’t seem allayed, but instead came closer, her hand shaking when she touched my face. “I can’t stand you going through any more pain, Ezra. Not after what you’ve already been through.”
I reached up and pressed her hand to my cheek. “I’m okay, Mom. I promise. This isn’t anything I can’t handle. It was likely a thief out looking for something easy to take and he panicked when I had him backed into a corner. We’re going to catch the guy, just like we always do.”
Agony twisted through her expression. I knew exactly what she was thinking.
We hadn’t caught Brianna’s.
But we would. I was sure this was one and the same.
“I’m good, okay?”
Reluctantly, she nodded, then she softly smacked me on the shoulder. “If anything like this ever happens again, God forbid, I’d better be the first to hear about it.”
“I promise.”
She swiveled and pointed between Caleb, Ryder, and Cody. “And don’t think I don’t hold the three of you responsible for not keeping me in the loop.”
Ryder lifted his hand in an oath. “I’m sorry, Aunt Linda. I got distracted racing over here to check that this guy was fine since he didn’t bother to call me, either.”
Hands pressed to the opposite side of the island, he sent me a pointed look.
Cody clapped him on the back, wearing a giant smirk. “Come now, Ryder, if our brother here needed backup, you didn’t think he would call you, did you? He’d call me, then we’d get things taken care of.”
Considering Cody was twice as thick as Ryder and just as tall, the dude would come on the scene like a battering ram, not that Ryder wasn’t every bit as vicious. Cody was all brute, and Ryder was a scrappy motherfucker who didn’t hesitate to take someone out.
“Hardly,” Ryder scoffed as he sent the ribbing Cody’s way. “What, you think he wants all brawn and no fucking brain?”
Cody feigned a gasp and touched his chest. “The words, Ryder. And here I thought you were supposed to be my best friend. Let it be known that title is still revoked since you started putting those grubby hands on my sister.”
Ryder laughed, no concern since the two of them were closer than they’d probably ever been. “Just can’t help myself when it comes to her, brother.” Then Ryder returned the full force of his attention to me. “And all I’m saying is I think we need a plan.”
