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And then… nothing.
I slipped out of bed and padded into the hallway. Grant brushed past me and closed himself into the guestroom.
I turned to face Pete, who was staring at the front door, waiting.
Then, I knew.
Jonah was here.
This was it. The very moment we’d been waiting for.
I wanted to shrink down as small as possible, but one look at Pete’s face told me to hang on. To be strong.
So, I would be.
Chapter Thirty-One
Pete
Sierra fell back a step, her eyes going wide with sudden panic. I realized, with regret, that I hadn’t considered this fact before, that she hadn’t seen Jonah since before she made a run for it. The last time she saw him, they were still in a relationship. They hadn’t spoken since then.
This was going to be hard on her, and despite the anger over her treatment and his indiscretions roiling in my blood, I couldn’t let my fury show. I needed to keep my cool. Maybe, one day in the future, I’d get Jonah alone and do my worst but not now. Not in front of my future wife. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me lose it completely, not yet.
But someday, and that was a promise.
Grant was ready to call the police. He’d record the conversation that was about to take place. I eyed the rifle leaning against the wall near the front door. I’d only ever had to use it down at the bar, mostly just swinging it over my head to break up the worst fights.
I ran my tongue over my lip and winced when the doorbell rang. The sound cracked and split the air. No one had ever rung that doorbell before, of that, I was sure.
The sound must have been like a death knell for Sierra because she slunk back into our bedroom. She wore sweatpants and one of my shirts, which drowned her in fabric. She was ruffled from sleep and absolutely beautiful. I stared at her for a moment, thinking I was the luckiest son of a bitch in the entire world.
I could do this. I would do this, if only for her, and our future together.
I yanked open the door and came face to face with an average-height blond man of roughly thirty, maybe thirty-five. Somewhere in between. He looked up at me with a scowl, but made no moves to rush into my house.
Peeking around him, Sierra’s mother looked into my apartment with a tight-lipped grimace on her frozen face.
“Go around ringing doorbells at four in the morning, do ya?” I asked causally, keeping a firm grip on the door in the event I needed to slam it in their faces. I turned my attention to Vera. “Fixing to get arrested for ignoring a restraining order?”
“We need to speak to Sierra—” she began, but I cut her off.
“That’s entirely up to her. I could call the cops right now and get you picked up and thrown in county jail.” I smirked, then rolled my eyes back to Jonah. “Now, how would that look for your precious reputation? Being in the company of a woman who went out of her way to ignore a restraining order? Hm…?”
Jonah turned a furious red, his green eyes gleaming. I wanted to punch him in his smug face and get this whole thing over with.
“Let them in, Pete,” Sierra said in a soft, meek whisper behind me.
I fully opened the door and waved dramatically to invite them inside. Sierra skirted past me into the living area, her arms wrapped around her chest. Vera stepped in front of Jonah, examining the space with a disgusted look in her eyes before she settled her gaze on her daughter.
“Really, Sierra? This is what you want?”
“Yes,” she answered simply, but her eyes were on Jonah, who was looking at her with a sick, twisted smile on his face. “I want both of you to leave me alone. I’m not coming home.”
“You are coming home, darling. You’ve had your fun,” Jonah drawled, running a fingertip over a side table against the wall as if to check for dust. “You had your taste of freedom and… poverty. Don’t you miss your life? Your money? We could have been vacationing in Sicily right now for our honeymoon—”
“This is my home now,” she cut in, glaring at Jonah in way that made bristle. I’d never seen her make that face, something that dripped with disdain. “And you and me? We’re over, Jonah. We’ve been over for years now, ever since you started cheating on me—and not privately, I’ll add.”
“Logistics.” He chuckled. “I just got nervous, darling. Just like you got nervous and starting fucking this cowboy—”
