Chapter Thirty-Six #2
Oh, how the mighty have fallen, I thought as they kept arguing back and forth. There were days when I would have thrived on the crazy; I would have loved every single up and down. I would have eaten it up.
What could I say? I had grown up. I wanted to get my job back on its feet. I wanted to find an employee I could trust so I didn’t have to do every single thing myself. I wanted to go out and see my family. I wanted to get better supplies in Tig’s cabinets. I wanted to, well, settle down.
I never thought I would see that day.
But the fact of the matter was, I no longer needed those shots of adrenaline, those wild and crazy nights out to make me feel alive.
Because I was happy.
I hadn’t really even sensed it until that very morning.
I had been standing in front of the mirror in Tig’s bathroom, my makeup scattered all across the surface that I had pulled out of a drawer he had already emptied for me.
I hadn’t even needed to ask. The makeup brush swept across my cheek, and I could hear Tig curse and stub his toe in the bedroom.
I looked at myself and realized I was beaming.
Not smirking. Not smiling. I was beaming.
Just because I could hear him in the other room, being human, doing nothing that should make me grin.
And as soon as I saw the look, I could finally feel it. It positively vibrated through every molecule in my body, making my heart feel like it was expanding across my chest.
Happy.
It was something I had only known in big moments before: like birthdays, great dates, amazing sex, the day I signed my lease on the store, the day I finally stopped bleeding money and made a profit. It was always based on big milestones.
Not something as mundane as listening to a partner curse in the other room.
And I didn’t want to fuck it up. I didn’t want anything to come between us. I wanted to just be able to… be. I wanted to give our relationship a chance to be normal.
“It needs to be done, Kenz,” he reasoned, giving me a soft look that said he completely understood where my head was.
Maybe that was where his was as well. Maybe he was just viewing it differently than I was.
Maybe he thought we would never be able to fully settle while Cass and Santi were out there, living large off my money.
“Tig, it’s done. They have the money. They’re gone. We can just let it rest. Move on.”
His exhale was heavy enough to make my hair flutter as his hand closed around my elbow and led me out from behind the desk and toward the back.
“I need to close the case, honey,” he told me when we were alone.
“Why? You don’t exactly strike me as the obsessive sort, Tig. What’s the big deal here?”
“The big deal is some asshole and his woman found another asshole, and then all three of them dicked over my woman. That’s the big deal.”
I felt my brows draw together at that, my head tilting to the side slightly. “Do you seriously think I somehow think any less of you because you didn’t close this case?” His gaze slipped from mine, and I knew I was right. “This can’t be the first case you haven’t closed.”
“It’s not,” he agreed, still not looking directly at me. His gaze seemed focused on the lobe of my ear.
“Then why is this such a big deal? All things said and done, these guys aren’t even that bad, y’know? Stealing money? That can’t be anywhere near as bad as you have seen.”
“Not by a long shot.”
“So… what? Because it’s me?”
“Yeah, honey,” he said, his eyes finally holding mine. “Because of you.”
My voice exhaled loudly enough to be interpreted as a sigh. “Do you really think I am judging you over this? Tig, you had an entire team of arguably the best people in the state, in the country, and no one could crack this.”
“But now we have cracked it,” he insisted.
“And I want to make sure there is no chance any of these fuckers can get to you again. Seventy K is a lot of money, Kenz, but not that much. What will that get them? A year if they live modestly. They did ace on this; I’ll give them that.
But it was easy. It involved very little work since she was already inside.
So, what? She gets in at the ground floor again?
Works the angle for a year? Just to get another small payout?
Or would she maybe come back? Go for more?
Skim the credit cards like your customers are worried about?
You know what happens then, you lose the trust of your clientele, and your business folds.
If the business folds, you’ll never get another small business loan again.
Then what, Kenz? Dream gone. No chance of getting it again.
You gonna go work a desk or the floor at some other person’s dream?
I’m not letting that happen. Not even if the chances are slim. ”
“Minuscule,” I corrected, managing to smile because, quite frankly, I was all gooey inside again because even though I thought it was positively absurd, it was also incredibly sweet that he thought that way.
“If they are walking free, even a minuscule chance is more than I am willing to take with you. So, and I say this with affection here, honey, stop fucking bitching and let me take care of you, okay?”
And because I liked that, I liked that he felt comfortable enough with me already to use that turn of phrase, and that he also knew it wouldn’t bother me at all.
“Yeah?” he asked, lips twitching, and I realized I had still been grinning at him.
“Alright, fine. Go get the bad guys. But don’t take too long.”
“Why?” he asked, head tipping to the side. “You gonna miss me?”
“Eh, maybe a little,” I allowed, leaning into him, smiling harder when his arms went around me, and he leaned forward to plant a kiss between my brows.
“I’m gonna miss you too,” he admitted.
“Hey, Tig… we got him in Chicago. But we need to move before he can tell we’re onto him,” Alex said from the doorway. “Brock is already on his way to keep an eye on Kenz.”
“So you have to go,” I said, nodding.
“Your fucking family is going to hate me.”
“Eh, if they hear it’s because you’re looking out for me, I think they might like you more than they already do. Now go. So you can get back to me.”
Then he did just that—he left.