Chapter 16
I woke up to Tommy’s hands and mouth on me. My back arched as his fingers prodded between my legs and I let out a little moan. Then I heard squeals of laughter outside the door, and he put his hand over my mouth and winked. The kids were awake and sounding like a herd of elephants running down the hallway. Tommy ignored their ruckus and kept at me, hand over my mouth the whole time.
When, I wasn’t too far off an orgasm, the door burst open and Luc’s two girls and Tessa’s older boy all barreled in and were on the bed with us. Tommy had been on top of me, thankfully we were covered by the blankets, but the three of them were jumping on the bed, “Uncle Tommy, Auntie Tia! Breakfast is ready!” Tommy blew out a slow breath and said, “Okay, guys. Get downstairs and tell them to pour coffee. We’ll be right there.”
The kids all scattered. I felt my heart warm at being called Auntie.
He looked at me with a wicked grin. “To be continued,” he said, then got up and we both got dressed.
“What happened last night?” I asked.
“We’ll talk later. Let’s go down for breakfast. I smell bacon and I think I can hear it calling my name. And if I can’t be inside of you hearing you call my name then I need to answer to the call ‘o the bacon.”
I giggled and pushed away annoyance at not being answered. But, maybe it was better that I knew as little as possible. Plausible deniability and all. I followed him down thinking that maybe the one threat was done with but that there was at least my father to still worry about, not to mention Tommy’s father. Was my dad still alive or was he gone?
The mood downstairs was strained. Obviously a cloud still loomed. Coffee was handed to me and to Tommy as we entered. Tessa was sitting on the sofa in a bathrobe with her hair up in a towel turban with Luc and they were talking quietly. Tessa still looked awful. The kids were all eating pancakes and bacon. Nino, Eddy, and Dario were eating. The other women were all busying themselves in the kitchen, buttering toast, washing and drying frying pans, another putting clean dishes away from the dishwasher.
Tommy and I sat at the table with Dario and Nino.
“Pop’s showing signs of improvement,” Dario said to the group, then added, “After I finish my coffee, I’m takin’ Tess to make arrangements for James. We don’t want the whole family in one public place at one time for a while until we know things are settled down so he’s being cremated, and we’ll do a memorial service later.”
Tommy and Dario exchanged looks and I suspected there was more to it. Fear prickled the back of my neck. What now?
I heard a phone ringing and Tommy reached into his pocket and answered it before he stepped away from the table and outside with the phone.
I drank my coffee and managed to get a piece of toast into me, and then was helping by drying dishes when Tommy got back.
“Wanna grab our stuff and say bye? We need to go.” He grabbed a piece of bacon off the platter in the center of the table and sipped his coffee while I made the rounds, thanking Marie for her hospitality, hugging Marie’s sister, getting a big hug from Bianca and thanking her for her help last night. We said we’d get together soon. Then I said goodbyes to the rest of the ladies as well as the kids, who all gave me hugs. I told Tessa if she needed anything, for me to help with the boys, or anything like that to just call me. She nodded solemnly. When I hugged Luc, I felt her baby kick me through her belly and I told her that it felt like a he, like a soccer player. She hugged me hard. I hugged Tommy’s brother, Eddy, and Nino, thanking them for all their help, too.
I dashed back upstairs and made the bed and then got our things and when I got to the door, Tommy was standing there talking to his brother quietly. They separated as soon as I got there and Dario pulled me in for another quick hug and kissed the top of my head as Tommy reached for the bag from me. As we left, I saw there were six men mulling about outside. We got into Tommy’s car, the convertible; I didn’t know how it got here, where the Jeep was, or where the Harley was, either.
When we pulled out past the gates and were on the road, he reached across and held my hand as he drove.
“They ran me off the road on the Harley just up the road from the farm. Knocked me out and took me and when I came to all I could think of was you and how I’d fucking left you a sitting duck. Nino told me you’d gone on a hike and came back to them coming in. They were gonna grab you and after they’d ransomed me out with Dare they were gonna ransom you out with me. Bunch of fuckin’ chuckleheads. No idea who they were messin’ with.”
“That Bianca is badass,” I said.
He nodded. “That was smart thinkin’ on Dare’s part.”
“He was gonna send me in right up to the last minute. He was trying to coach me, but he’d been in touch with Nino and Bianca got wind and lost it and insisted she go in instead. They insisted it be a girl and we both have straight hair so…”
Tommy raised his brows. “Can’t believe Dario was gonna send you in.” He looked pissed.
“It all worked out,” I said.
He nodded and squeezed my hand but he still kinda looked pissed.
“And like you said, I’m strong enough. I’m your girl.”
He gave me a thin smile and then said, “Not 100% but leaning in the direction of lookin’ like Jimmy might’ve double crossed us. Tessa knows. Devastated. Lost her husband, her kids’ father, and she lost respect for the man she thought loved her. If so, Jim was expendable to the other side, they got rid of him, but if it was him that’d given them valuable intel that led to Pop getting shot, to putting everyone else in danger, to me being taken from you and leaving you vulnerable? Fuck.” He shook his head.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said softly but his eyes were blazing with anger.
“What’s the status with my father?” I asked quietly.
“No news,” Tommy answered and then he pulled up to the gate of his house and hit a button on the remote and someone moved into our view as it opened. After we got on the other side I saw a guy who’d been here a few times before; I didn’t know his name.
“Boss, the house has had a full sweep. We found two bugs but all good now.”
“Where?”
“Your office and the staff room. The office one was broken, though.”
Tommy’s jaw tensed. “Right. I’ll be out to chat with you and get a brief in an hour,” he said and then took my hand and we went inside.
He walked me directly upstairs, directly to the bedroom, and then as he shut the door his hands went to the fly of his jeans and I backed up slowly until I was standing against the foot of the bed.
“I need you. Lie down. Spread,” he demanded, his eyes ablaze.
I obeyed, feeling a gush of warmth down below.
He yanked my pants and undies down at once and was inside of me in record time, his eyes not releasing mine while he took me hard and fast. The muscles of his jaw were hard and tense and his eyes were steely hard, too.
His phone rang. He ignored it. Someone knocked at his bedroom door and he snarled, leaned back, broke our connection, and threw his zipper back up.
“Under the covers and wait. Do not move. Unless this house is on fire, you stay right there!” He left the bedroom, looking pissed.
I waited.
And waited.
And I waited…
Finally, I was thirsty and hungry and wondering what was keeping him. I got out of bed and reached into my purse and found the flip phone. I didn’t know if the iPhone was still at the hayloft or not. I texted him.
Hi. Since you’re obviously not in a hurry to finish what you started, can I please leave the bed, Master? I’m very thirsty and hungry and you’ve left me all alone for so very long :(
A few minutes later I got a reply.
Sorry baby! I’d like nothing better than to come and finish! Go eat. I had to run out for a bit. You’re under 3x security. You’re safe. I’ll be back ASAP. This phone almost out of juice so use my reg. number. We’ll grab your reg phone tomorrow from the farm.
Me: stupid Phone. LOL. 3 U. IDK your reg number off by heart so text it to me. Be safe!
He replied with a happy face and x’s and o’s plus his other number. Sheesh, how long would he have left me here? I had to give him a break; he obviously had a million things on his mind. I found my way downstairs and decided to pop one of Sarah’s frozen lasagnas in the oven. I drank a tall glass of water and then went back upstairs to get a shower.
Tommy hadn’t turned up by the time the lasagna was ready and it was big enough to feed a dozen so I cut off a piece for me, wrapped up a piece for Tommy for later, tossed a big salad and served two bowls out, then put the rest of the lasagna and salad in the fridge in the security team’s break room and stepped out to the patio where Dex was standing, talking on a cell. When he saw me, he put it back to his waistband. “Everything okay?”
“Sorry to bug you…” I started.
He waved his hand. “It’s what I’m here for. What do you need?”
“Nothing, I just wanted to tell you and the other guys that I put a lasagna and salad in the fridge in the staff breakroom.”
His eyes lit up. “Thanks, that’s awesome,” he said.
The other guy who’d been at the gate when we came in was approaching and I could tell he’d heard by how his face lit up. I decided then that I’d continually put food into the staff room fridge for these guys who were working so hard to keep us safe. It couldn’t be easy being in their shoes after knowing guys were killed while on that same job the other night. It was just food, but at least it was something to show my appreciation.
After I ate and watched TV for a bit, I was pretty tired. It was only around 9:00, but I decided to crash early. I texted Tommy from the flip phone.
I’m going to bed. Hope you’re okay. Love you. Xo
I got an almost instant reply.
I’m fine. See you soon. Love you. xxx”
My plan was to go home, make love to my girl, sleep for a few hours, and then find out how Pop was doing. Instead, I had to meet with my PI and my brother, to get more intel on where things were at.
On my way to get Dare from the hospital, I got a returned call back from a connection that helped me get Tia’s father moved. He was safe. For how long, I didn’t know. Did he deserve it? Fuck, no. But, he was her father and I didn’t want her to have to deal with his death on top of everything else so he was on simmer for the time being.
Turned out that Dare talked to Pop, who’d woken up. Pop had Jimmy doing double duty for insight with his enemies related to the group Romero was part of; he wasn’t really stepping out on us. Pop wasn’t coherent enough to get too into detail so we had to guess at a few things. We guessed the thing with my weapons happened because it’d fallen in his lap while he’d been wearing a wire for the other guys when he was found shot so we assumed he’d been dodgy with me because of the wire. The whole wire thing made sense, too. Jimmy had really been keeping his distance the last few days before he was shot. They’d probably told him to leave me a sitting duck.
It seemed like he’d been on his way here, probably to help or warn me, when things went screwy. If that’s what he intended, it didn’t happen because he’d been shot instead. Dare and I planned to talk to our sister and we hoped it’d bring her a little bit of peace that her husband had been loyal, too loyal. Fucking Pop.
She wouldn’t be best pleased with Pop for putting her husband in that position, getting him killed. None of us were pleased with him after the things we’d found out.
Pop was in deeper with illicit drugs than we’d imagined. And it was that depth that had created the whole rift with Juan Carlos Castillo in the first place. Many lives had been unnecessarily lost as a result of Pop moving in on Castillo’s territory. But Romero didn’t have the clout alone needed to take Pop out so at first, he participated in recruiting Earl and they tried to use Tia as a bargaining chip. Not only did Pop refuse to back off but as a result, I’d killed Castillo and worked with Castillo’s arch nemesis to wipe out the Castillo cartel.
This had, of course, trickled back home with Jesse Romero getting desperate to hang onto his business but without the strength of his uncle he had started trying to expand his team, to swell his ranks, bringing in new guys, careless and / or inexperienced guys, making alliances. The whole thing had been a gaggle fuck. Stuff we’d agreed to with Castillo down south had less to do with what we thought we were working toward and more to do with Pop’s drug deals. Now Romero and most of his crew were gone. Castillo was gone. And Pop was in a hospital bed showing signs of improvement. Big moves almost always result in a trickle effect, and I wanted to do some serious damage control.
Pop had plans to move to the islands, yeah, but retirement wasn’t looking like it’d factor into those plans. My PI dug up evidence that he had plans to have me and Dare look after business here while he expanded some seedy business to do with women, drugs, and guns into Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Pop didn’t want to retire; he wanted more power, more control, and it was out of hand. One of his enemies was doing well in that part of the world and Pop wanted to take it all away from the guy.
Clearly it was out of hand if he had this secret life. Here it was about construction, the bookie business, loans, and that trickled down into a few other areas, like stolen goods, sex, a little weed. And yeah, some was illegal but where he’d sunk to seemed to me and to my brother to be worse than that, much worse than that. We knew sometimes we had to dabble in those areas, but Pop wasn’t dabbling, he was deep sea diving in the cesspool.
What I now had to decide was, how was I getting out without making an enemy of my father? I called Dex to check on things at home and the fuckin’ guy was talking with his mouth full.
“Can’t understand what you’re saying man. What are you doing? Blowing someone? Spit or swallow, man.”
“Sorry, Tommy. Your girl put dinner out for everyone. Everything’s cool here. No problems at all.”
I hung up, shaking my head. Then I got a text from Tia that instead of crashing early it looked like Tessa’s boys were being dropped off at our place for a few hours.
Tessa was overwhelmed and her mother-in-law couldn’t watch the kids tonight. Luc was at the hospital with a bit of spotting so Sarah was with her. I shook my head. Feeding my men, babysitting my nephews? My heart swelled for her. I needed to give her a good life. I needed to keep myself in the right headspace to be good for her. And for that, I needed out of this life.
I’d gotten the call as I was falling asleep and I told Sarah I’d happily keep the boys overnight if she wanted me to but she said Tessa didn’t want that. They knew Tommy’s house was extra secured so they wanted them here but it was just for a few hours. She had Bianca’s Aunt Joanne drop them off on her way to work (she was a nurse at a hospital on the nightshift) and was going to have Sarah pick them up in a bit. I put movies on and built Lego structures with them.
I let Antonio, the older of the two, play on Tommy’s laptop on a kids’ game website and Lucas was content in my lap with a pop-up book. The time went by quickly and I gave them a bubble bath and put them in their PJs and around 11:00 Sarah got there to pick them up. They were quiet and subdued, not like the typical active baby and toddler. They must’ve sensed something was amiss. They didn’t really know me, and it was probably way past their usual bedtimes, too.
Apparently, Tom had woken up and Lisa was by his side. Luc was being put on bed rest. As I was helping Sarah put the boys into their car seats in her van, I saw Tommy’s car pull in and Dario’s car behind him.
When Dario got out of the car, he pointed at me accusingly. “You! Follow me. We need to have a conversation.”
My brows shot up in surprise. I glanced at Tommy. He narrowed his eyes at me. He motioned toward his brother with a hard expression on his face, so I said bye to Sarah and followed.
Dario marched downstairs and directly to the games room and the Ms. Pacman machine. He was giving me an incredulous look and pointing at the high score list and my #2 spot.
I started to laugh, feeling immense relief. Mr. Angry Intense brother was back, but this time, it was funny. I stepped up beside him. I was only a few hundred points shy of his high score. I’d beat out everyone else, taking the previous spot #2, which had said Marco. Spot #3 had said Polo. And now those were spots 3 and 4.
Tommy was behind me. “Dex ratted you out.”
Dex was coming down the stairs.
“See if I feed you dinner again!” I harrumphed.
Dario waved his index finger accusingly at me while Dex laughed and pouted simultaneously.
“I’m hot on your heels, boy!” I teased Dario and took off up the stairs behind Tommy as he called out to me.
“Tia, c’mere here baby.”
I saw Dex challenge Dario to foosball as I followed Tommy upstairs. He pulled me close once we got to the kitchen.
“How are you?” he whispered in my ear.
“I’m okay. How ‘bout you?”
“I’m good. I just want to tell you a few things, then I’ll order us some dinner. Chinese okay?”
“I ate already but I saved you some food.”
“Dare wants Chinese. We have to work late and sort some shit out. You gonna be okay?”
“Yeah.”
“What’d you make me for dinner?”
“I made one of Sarah’s lasagnas. You can eat it for lunch tomorrow, maybe?”
“Sounds good, babe, even if your lasagna’s better. You gonna cook me dinner every night?” He was nibbling on my earlobe and sending shivers up and down my spine.
“Yeah, most nights. If you want. We can do one takeout night a week, maybe a pizza night, one eat out at a nice restaurant together, and the rest I can cook.”
“Oh,” he chuckled. “Laying down the law, huh?”
“Yeah,” I giggled.
“You’re the boss,” he said as he kissed my throat. “Except I’ll cook Sunday mornings.”
I laughed. “Deal. And the boss? Me? Yeah, right.”
He laughed and winked at me. “You can be the boss of the food. What’d you do with the boys?”
“I’ll take the power where I can get it.” I winked. “I played Legos with them, did some coloring, we read a bunch of books, and I gave them a bath. What do you need to tell me?”
I hoisted myself up to sit on the countertop.
He looked at me warmly. “Thanks for that. I’m sure Tess appreciated it. I appreciate it.”
“I’m happy to help. I can’t imagine what she’s going through.”
He stared at me for a second, then said, “I, uh, had your father moved. For the moment, he’s safe. I can’t make long- term promises, but I got him moved for now.”
My eyes widened. “You did?”
“Yeah. Called in some favors.”
I threw my arms tight around his neck and whispered, “He doesn’t deserve it. But thanks, Tommy.”
“Mm hm,” he said, his voice laced with skepticism.
I knew my dad really didn’t deserve it, but Tommy was doing it for me. That counted.
“Anything else?” I asked.
“I’ve decided to put the farm up for sale so maybe tomorrow or the next day you and I will go up there and pick up whatever else we left there the other day.”
My expression dropped.
“It’s not my safe house anymore. I need to find us something else.”
“I love that place,” I said and pouted.
He frowned. “You want me to keep it?”
I nodded, “Can you?”
“I can,” he said and kissed my nose. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is. It’s where you told me you were in love with me.”
He smiled.
“It’s where you played our wedding song for me.”
He smiled bigger and stroked my cheek with his thumb, his other fingers woven into my hair.
“It’s where sun rays shot out of your head when you made love to me when I was wrapped in clover,” I whispered.
He looked at me like I’d lost the plot. “Sun rays? Out my head?”
“Yeah.” I squeezed him tight against me.
“Okay, I’ll keep it. But we need another safe house.”
“Okay,” I said. “Can we spend the night there tomorrow night?”
“Let me see what’s on the agenda. Maybe. I’m gonna go order that Chinese. There are menus in the office.”
“How’s your father?” I asked.
“Getting there,” he mumbled and then I followed him down the hall to his office and he muttered to me that James hadn’t double crossed his family after all, but that he was just another pawn in one of his pop’s games. My heart sank. Things weren’t getting any better for Tommy and I knew this meant it’d be even more complicated going forward.
She sat downstairs on the arm of the chair I was in while me, Dare, and Dex all ate. She said she didn’t want any but kept snagging food off my plate while we were there. Anyone else stuck their fingers in my food they’d lose said fingers. I just kept giving her looks but she was totally oblivious. Dare, however, wasn’t. I could tell by his smirking he found it comical because he knew me and saw I was letting her away with it despite being mildly annoyed about it. As mildly annoying as it was it meant there was a level of relaxation and familiarity between her and I that had come and I didn’t want to mess with that.
There were two other guys outside on patrol. We’d decided to move Dex and Nino up. Dex to Nino’s old job (previously Earl’s job) and Nino to Jimmy’s post, which was mixed security for the family and other shit that we needed someone we could truly trust on. Dare was briefing the security team at Pop’s house later.
When Nino arrived and reached for one of the XBOX controllers Dare said to him, “We’ve gotta talk business with you. No gaming right now.”
She just got up and cleared the food, kissed me, and then headed upstairs. I didn’t have to get her to leave the room. It was like she was made for this life. But I wasn’t keeping her in it. It was ending and tonight was going to be the beginning of that.
After a productive meeting with the guys, Dare and I strategized some more. We pulled an all-nighter and then Dare and I went to see Pop at around 7:00 in the morning. I drove us down there and then afterwards dropped Dare off back at the office where he was gonna take care of a few things and then crash on the couch for a few hours.
As I came into the bedroom at around nine o’clock in the morning, I found Tia still asleep. I climbed into bed with her. She squirmed into me. She was naked.
“You’re naked,” I muttered into her ear.
She sleepily answered, “You weren’t here to give me a shirt. And so are you.”
“Good girl,” I said and pulled her tight against me.
She was breathing slow and steady and I decided to just let her sleep. I had a lot of shit on my mind.
I thought back to Dare and I going to see Pop.
“Boys,” he’d said hoarsely when he saw us.
“Pop,” we’d said in unison.
I sat in the chair beside the bed and my brother was leaning against the counter off to the side of the bed.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Romero’s dealt with,” I stated.
He nodded a little.
“Yeah,” I nodded, too. “They got Jimmy. He’s dead.”
“Dario told me yesterday,” Pop replied.
I knew he knew this but I needed to lead with that.
“Listen, Pop. I need autonomy. Now. You good with that?”
He nodded a little. “Of course, my boy. I can’t exactly do much from here.”
“For good, Pop.”
He winced and shifted a little. “For good?”
“Yeah, Pop. See, we found out some stuff we’re not too thrilled with. There’s a mess on our hands. My sister’s a widow. We need to clean up. You good with that?”
Pop swallowed hard and closed his eyes.
“We’re done dipping into the business you were in on in Morelia. We know it’s gone on elsewhere, too. It’s bad news. You interested in continuing that from your retirement villa, so be it. Me and Dare, we’re out. It has zilch to do with Ferrano Enterprises.”
Pop had looked to my brother and my brother nodded.
“Two against one, uh?” Pop snickered.
Dare piped up. “We don’t like some of what we found out, Pop. But we’re happy to continue with the existing business structure for now. Tommy and I have a few changes in mind but slowly we’ll make those changes so it doesn’t hurt the company and so it preserves relationships that have been built that we still need. We think it’s best we get you to sign over with lawyers. And you retire. Or, you don’t retire but we part ways with the business here. You made a deal that he got married he’d take over. He’s getting married so it’s time.”
I added, “You got a problem with us running things the way we want to run them, clean, we part ways now businesswise. You give us the reins you continue to get residuals of everything we decide to keep doing. You don’t, we leave it in your hands and we go do something else.”
Pop gave a slight shrug without looking us in the eyes, “We’ll talk after. Let me think about it.”
I didn’t like that one bit. It felt like a game I wasn’t interested in playing.
“All right, Pop. Dare and I, we’ll be back in the morning. Sleep well. Glad you’re all right.”
Pop closed his eyes and my brother and I made our way out, nodding at the on-site security guard stationed outside his door.
Dare and I exchanged knowing glances on the way out. We didn’t like his attitude. He, clearly, hadn’t been thrilled with ours, either. He was a man used to calling the shots, a man who thought of his sons as his right and left hands, not as men who would pull a mutiny over on him.
When I woke up, Tommy was watching me sleep.
“Hey,” I greeted.
“Hey,” he replied and his eyes twinkled.
“Isn’t it kinda creepy stalkerish that you were just watching me sleep?”
His mouth quirked up into a lazy smile. “I’ll stalk you to the ends of the earth, baby girl.”
I curled into him, knowing it was true, but for the first time, not really feeling creeped out by it.
“I smell bacon,” I jolted upwards.
“Sarah’s here today,” Tommy said. “You go. I gotta sleep for a few hours. Wake me at two?”
“How do you want me to wake you?” I squirmed against him friskily.
“Why don’t you try a few things now and I’ll pick my fave?” he suggested. I disappeared under the blankets and took his cock with my mouth. He let me finish him that way and it was empowering to watch and feel him shatter like that, his hands in my hair, his body trembling as he came. It was rare that he didn’t look after me in return, so I didn’t feel slighted when he almost immediately fell asleep afterwards. He’d been running his fingers through my hair while my head rested on his belly and his hand just sort of flopped. I kissed his abs, kissed his chin, and then covered him up and headed to the bathroom for a shower.
A little while later, I found my way to the kitchen and sure enough, Sarah was making breakfast. She poured me a coffee and I sat at the breakfast bar and took a sip. I’d only seen her put one sugar in it. She just wasn’t giving up, was she? When her back was turned, I put two more sugars in. She saw me do it and snickered.
We chatted amicably while she kept cooking and she smiled big at me when I got in there and started popping bread into the toaster. Tommy had come down, talking on the phone and walked into his office. His arm went around my waist as I was buttering toast and he scooped me against him, my back to his front, and leaned down and kissed my temple. “It’s only 10:00, honey, you should be sleeping!”
“Yeah, something’s come up. Looks like I’ll have to sleep when I’m dead.” He reached and snagged a piece of toast, “Call you later.”
“Kay.” I nuzzled back into his warmth. “Don’t get dead.” How this man could seriously function on zero sleep so often was beyond me.
“I won’t. Love you,” he said huskily into my ear and then kissed my lobe, leaned over and kissed me quickly on the lips and I told him I loved him too, and then he was gone.
Suddenly, it was like the life was being squeezed out of me. Sarah Martinez had her arms around me and she was shouting in Spanish while hugging me, hard.
“Whoa,” I laughed, taken totally aback, dropping the butter knife to the floor.
She was shouting to the ceiling in Spanish and then she kissed both of my cheeks and my forehead with a flourish.
The toaster popped again so she let go of me, I got a fresh knife, red-faced.
She wiped up the floor with a soapy paper towel, saying, “I never thought I’d hear that boy tell a woman those words. You’ve been the prescription, Chiquita, the prescription.”
“Yeah, well it’s not all ice cream sundaes and walks on the beach, lemme tell ya,” I started and then stopped myself. I bit my tongue.
She gave me a knowing smile. “Peaks and valleys exist in all relationships. All marriages.”
Yeah, the peaks were high, the valleys deep. Dark and deep. Tommy and I being married would mean I really did have to take my ‘for better or for worse’ promise to heart.
Since it was just me, Sarah joined me for breakfast, teasing me about making eight pieces of toast for the two of us (but I was used to the bustle in the Crenshaw kitchen so had done that out of habit) and then I helped her clean up while she went over a bunch of stuff with me about running the household.
She gave me her cell phone number and we talked about her coming by twice a week for half days to do some deeper cleaning but we figured I could handle the rest and if I couldn’t or wanted to change things, she was open to it. She also promised that when she did freezer meals for the girls, she’d make batches for Tommy and I. She did a day of cooking once a month to put several entrees into everyone’s freezers.
She was here to pack her room up as she was moving into Tessa’s to help out and would be working between here, Luc’s, and Tessa’s. I offered to help her pack up her room. I had nothing else to do, really. We had a nice afternoon together.
* * *
Tommy texted me that afternoon and told me we’d have to wait until the following day to go to the farm. He said he’d be home late and told me not to wait up.
The next day we left to spend two nights up in the hayloft and filled our time, making love, fishing, hiking, making love some more. He’d been sweet and attentive and we avoided talking about touchy subjects. We just took those few days to de-stress and it was mostly vanilla and totally…well…wonderful.
But the next day when we’d gotten back to the city Tommy told me that he had to take off for about a week to clear up some stuff to do with his father. He wouldn’t tell me very much, just packed a bag, made love to me, and then he left. He told me he’d text me daily. He told me his brother was staying at the house while he was gone to keep an eye on things and keep me safe.
I stayed home the whole time, other than hanging by the pool. I baked, I watched Tessa’s boys one day, I played Ms. Pacman, I burned through a half a dozen romance novels on my reading app on my phone, and not much else. Dario and I had a few meals together, but he seemed pretty busy, pretty preoccupied, mostly spent his time in Tommy’s office.
Tommy and I had texting conversations daily. Most of it was just quick check-ins from him. On the fifth night I was in bed and hadn’t heard from him all day so texted.
Hope you’re okay.
Love you.
Miss you. Xo
When I got his message back a few hours later, it woke me up,
Tommy: Hey
Me: Hey
Tommy: Whatcha doin?
Me: Zzz’ing. Dreaming about you. Missing you. You?
Tommy: Send me a pic of your face.
Me: I’ve been sleeping. I’ll look all sleepy and messy.
Tommy: Don’t care.
I snapped a selfie with my lips puckered. Gah! I looked more than sleepy. I looked like something the cat had dragged in. I sent it anyway.
Me: You asked for it.
Tommy: Gorgeous.
I smiled and cuddled into the pillow.
Me: Send me your face.
Tommy: Send me a pic of your boobs first.
I laughed out loud and snapped a picture of my chest with a bit of cleavage and the use of my arms to squish my boobs together and up but I had a tank top on. I sent it.
Tommy: Naked boobs please
I giggled.
Me: I’m not that kind of girl. Send yours first and maybe a dicture (lol) I’ll think about it. wink>
Tommy: Dicture?
Me: Dick picture. LOL.
Tommy: You first.
Then it hit me. What if this wasn’t him? I cringed and thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t sent a naked picture.
Me: Gimme the code word. So I know it’s really you
Five minutes passed. I started to feel sick. It’d been instant replies up until that point and now nothing. I dialed his number.
He answered. “Tia?”
“Hi!”
“Hey, Baby. It’s late. You still up?”
“I’m so happy to hear your voice.” I started to shiver.
“Me too. Miss you. Sorry I haven’t texted you today yet. Been a bit nuts. I should be home in two, maybe three days, though. Why you up so late?”
“Tommy.”
“What?” His voice changed. He knew something was wrong. “What, Baby. What?”
I told him what’d happened.
“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He growled, “I’ll deal. Go to sleep. Don’t stress.”
“Don’t stress?”
“No. I’m calling Dare. I’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“Kay,” I whispered.
“Tia?”
“Hmm?”
“Love you. Good catch.”
“Yeah. Love you.”
“Save the messages. My brother might need to look at your phone.”
We said goodnight. I didn’t sleep a wink the rest of the night.
Who now? I couldn’t wait until all of this was over, until he got us out and away from the danger.
* * *
It was embarrassing when Dario went through my phone in the morning. Him seeing the banter and my silly kissing photo, not to mention the tank top with the cleavage and references to Tommy’s dick. Ugh. He took my phone while we were at the island in the kitchen, perused the messages, his jaw got tight, and then he disappeared into Tommy’s office with the phone. I didn’t hear anything else about the matter and he gave me the phone back and told me to keep being vigilant about messages.
* * *
The night before Tommy was scheduled to come home, I woke up to an alarm blaring the house down. Burglar alarm?
I jumped out of bed and threw my robe on and climbed under the bed. There was only the knife strapped, Tommy hadn’t replaced the guns. My heart hammered in my chest and I wasn’t sure if by this point I should be permanently traumatized or starting to get numb to this sort of stuff.
When the alarms stopped, I heard the bedroom door open and my hand went to the knife. Then I heard Dario’s loud and panicked-sounding voice. “Tia!”
“Under the bed!” I called out.
“Come out,” he told me.
“What was that?” I rolled out, then scampered to my feet.
He had a gun in his hand, pointed at the floor and a ferocious-looking expression on his face. He walked over to the patio doors and checked the knobs. They were locked. He moved the blinds aside and looked out. Then he opened them and looked out. His whole body tightened for a second and then he turned around and looked at me. I was standing there, arms wrapped around myself but trying to get a read on his expression, which looked absolutely murderous.
“Dario?”
“Get dressed.” He motioned toward the closet absently with the gun. I frowned, looked at it, then went in and put on a pair of jeans, a hoodie over my tank top and sleeping shorts. I slipped on my leather flip flops. I fastened an elastic band around my gathered-up hair into a messy bun as I walked back out.
“Follow me,” he ordered.
I followed him down to the office where a guy I didn’t know personally but had seen at Tom Sr.’s house stood. He looked alert and at Dario, his arms folded across his chest. He gave me a polite nod.
Dario put his gun into the back of his suit pants. It was three a.m., but he was still fully dressed. He motioned toward a chair.
“Relax a minute, Tia. We just need to make sure the house is secured. Someone tripped the burglar alarm and the land line isn’t working. He dialed a number on his cell. “Status update?”
I sat and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.
“Get to the balcony outside the master and do a sweep.”
I frowned. What the heck did that mean?
I sat for about an hour in Tommy’s office with the guy who looked ready to kill. Dario finally came back and told me I could go back to bed.
* * *
Tommy was in bed with me, all over me. Fingers, lips, tongue, cock. He devoured me like it hadn’t been a week; it’d been more like a century.
“Missed you so much,” he breathed against my ear while he was thrusting his cock into me hard, so hard. So good…
“Why are you back early?” I rasped. “And did you get a lot done?”
Then my head was banged a little against the headboard with the force of his hips against mine. He rubbed my head and took the brunt, shielding my head with his hand, his knuckles hitting the headboard a few beats, before he grabbed a pillow and shoved it behind my head to shield it, still without missing a beat, without breaking our connection, without stopping his rhythm.
“No one is going to fuck with what’s mine,” he grunted angrily and then he slowed and deepened the driving into me, taking us both to orgasm.
He rolled and I fell asleep on top of him, him still inside of me.
Later on, he told me someone had been on the balcony outside our door and that something had been left. He wouldn’t say what it was, but his eyes were filled with wrath when he said he suspected they were there to hurt me as a message to him. I didn’t know what was going on now, but suspected it was huge. I didn’t know if it was an old threat or a new one. He didn’t want to discuss it and asked me to have faith that he’d protect me.