AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Closing my eyes, I felt her grief slam into me with a force that nearly sucked the air from my lungs. The anger she showed had nothing to do with me. It was her mom. She was still grieving her loss.
Fuck, how could I have forgotten?
With everything she’d been through, it made sense that Tessa hit her breaking point and I only added to it. Regardless of what I knew, my Tessa was still a woman. With a woman’s heart and compassion. The pain of losing her mother, the only family she had left, weighed heavily on her.
“Tessa, look at me.”
“Go away, Montana.”
“Can’t do that, babe. Not when you’re hurting.”
Lifting her head to look at me, I stared into her fathomless blue eyes, seeing the anguish storm violently in her depths. Sitting next to her, I pulled her into my arms, holding her tight as her dam broke. I didn’t know how long I sat there holding her while she cried, but when her body sank against mine, I sighed.
Resting my head against the wall, I looked about my room, seeing all the damage, realizing that none of it mattered. The items were replaceable. Her mother wasn’t. Just thinking about my mother had my chest tightening up.
A fear I never knew I had surfaced.
My mom was everything to me. My world for the longest time. Losing her would decimate me. Unlike Tessa, I had a family. A big one. While I still had my father and brothers, my Tessa had no one. She was alone in the world now, save my son.
She was adrift, with no direction.
Everything faded.
The last few years no longer mattered.
All I cared about was the woman in my arms. There would come a time for us to resolve the past, but now was not the time. At this moment, my woman needed me more than I needed answers.
Carefully getting to my feet, I carried her across the hall into a spare room. Putting her on the bed, she rolled over and curled into herself. Her silent tears soaking into the pillow. Slipping out of my clothes, I kneeled on the bed to remove her shoes. She didn’t fight me. I knew she wouldn’t. The fight was gone. Exhaustion took over as I removed her pants and shirt, leaving her only in her bra and panties. Grabbing for the comforter, I pulled it up and over us before pulling her back against me. Laying there in the dark, I held her, not knowing what else to do.
“I need York.”
“Our son is safe for the night. Got Malice and Storm watching the place. Just rest and I will take you to him in the morning.”
“Why do you own this place?”
“Just go to sleep, Tess.”
“I’m sorry,Montana,” she barely said, before her body succumbed to her exhaustion. Laying there with her in my arms once again, I tried not to let all those old feelings that I buried deep down rise to the surface. She may be the love of my life, but she lied and stole from me. That was something that was going to take a while to get past. Then there was the missing time with my son. That was something I would never forgive.
Yes, I knew my Tess was sorry, but I wasn’t ready to forgive her. Wasn’t sure I ever would. Only time would tell. In the meantime, I was just going to lie here and enjoy the fact that she was once more in my arms.
It didn’t mean anything.
It just felt right.
Chapter Eight
Montana
“What do we know?”
Mercy looked up at me before opening the folder sitting beside him. Sitting at my kitchen table I’m surrounded by Mercy, Fury, Payne and Happy. As Mrs. Alice served us breakfast, Mercy began, “Okay, your son, York Devlin Stone, was born on December 25, 2021, at nine fifty-seven in the evening. Vaginal birth, no complications. Kid weighed in at seven pounds, three ounces and twenty-three inches long. York is eighteen months old and, according to his pediatric file, he is a normal healthy kid. Malice snuck into the penthouse last night and took this,” Mercy said, sliding a picture across the table of my son sleeping in his crib.
“Fuck, Prez. Kid is the spitting image of you,” Payne said, leaning over to look.
“Kids got good genes.” Happy commented.
“What else?” I asked, pocketing the picture.
