Chapter 19 Ella
NINETEEN
ELLA
My eyes fluttered open and I felt something strong moving against my body.
My naked body. My aching, pulsing, naked body.
I drew in a deep breath of air and turned over, finding my arm comforted by a strong presence.
The warmth was intoxicating. It pulled a smile across my cheeks.
Something shifted beside me in bed before limbs wrapped around me.
A leg slid between mine. An arm tugged at my waist, wanting me closer even as soft snores fell against my ears.
I giggled as my eyes came into contact with Texas’s sleeping face.
With his sleeping form. With his presence next to me.
I had woken up in his arms.
I snuggled down into the bed as my eyes danced along his face.
I took in his disheveled brown hair and the way his lips lightly puckered as he slept.
The warmth of his morning breath cascaded along my face, wrapping me up in him.
I didn’t care that it smelled. I didn’t care that his hair was knotted from me fisting it and pushing him between my legs all night.
I didn’t care about the stale scent of my womanhood still dancing on his lips as I leaned forward to kiss him.
I loved waking up to Texas and being in his arms all night.
I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to inch away for a second. I wanted to freeze this moment in time and make it last forever. But I had to get ready for work, and I was already running behind.
I peered at the clock over on Texas’s side of the bed.
It was already fifteen minutes to eight, and I had to be at work by nine.
I had to shower, get dressed, and get Keva up and fed before I even thought about dropping her off.
I was running almost an entire hour behind, and that lit a fire under my ass.
Even though Texas still held me close to him.
I wiggled away from his grasp, trying not to wake him.
At first, he resisted. His leg tightened around mine and his hand splayed across my back.
Every time I moved back, he moved with me, unwilling to let me go.
Even in his sleep, he wanted to be next to me.
Close to me. And that ignited a fire in my heart I’d felt for no man before.
It was official.
I’d fallen in love with Texas.
“I’ll be back soon. I promise,” I whispered.
I cupped his cheek and kissed the tip of his nose.
He relaxed at the motions, and it was all I needed to slip out of bed and away from him.
I shivered in the room and wrapped my arms around myself.
Holy hell, the heat must’ve gone out or something because I could practically see my breath.
At least, it felt that way as I stumbled around in the room trying to piece myself together.
If I resolved myself to a shower after work, I wouldn't run late to work.
“Keva, sweetheart? I need you to start waking up.”
I knocked on her door softly to try and get her going.
It was odd for her to not already be up, but with how cold the house was, it didn’t shock me that she was still hunkered down between the sheets.
Hell, I still wanted to be that way, too.
I walked into my bathroom while pulling my clothes on and cleaned myself up as best as I could.
Teeth. Face. Hair. Deodorant. I sprayed myself down with some body spray to cover up whatever scent Texas had left behind on my skin, my eyes drifting back to the shower.
I’d definitely need one of those after work.
“Keva, honey. Are you awake?” I asked.
I knocked on her door again and didn’t hear any sort of sounds. So, I slowly inched her bedroom door open. The sun hadn’t yet penetrated the windows of her room, so I slowly eased the lights up with the dial I had installed myself after we first moved in two years ago.
And what I saw horrified me.
“Keva?” I asked.
The curtains of her window billowed with the fresh air pouring through it. And the air was cold. Almost frigid. My heart stopped in my chest as I strode to her bed, my hand reaching for her sheets.
“Keva!” I exclaimed.
I ripped her comforter back but didn’t find her in her bed. I dropped to the floor and looked underneath. I ran into her bathroom and tore back the shower curtain. I even checked in her closet to see if she had gotten cold and tucked herself away somewhere else.
But she wasn’t in her room.
“Keva!” I roared.
I sprinted out of her room and started running around the house. I threw open every closet and every cabinet door. I peeked behind the couches and even walked my ass out back. I cupped my hands over my cheeks and screamed for my daughter but heard nothing except the neighborhood dogs kick up.
“Ella? What’s going on?” Texas asked.
I spun around and saw him standing there, rubbing his eyes. He had on a pair of pants to go along with his mangled hair, and I could tell he was only just beginning to focus. Tears rushed my eyes. Panic filled my veins.
My daughter wasn’t in her bed.
Hell, my daughter wasn’t in her house.
“Keva’s missing,” I breathed.
Texas snapped to the present in a heartbeat. He leveled his eyes with me before he pushed off the doorway and went storming through the house. He bellowed her name as he walked through the place as tears streamed down my face.
I slowly walked back into the house, frozen in an instance of horror.
“9-1-1,” I whispered.
“Keva!” Texas exclaimed.
“We need to call 9-1-1!” I shouted.
Texas threw open the front door and shuffled around on the lawn.
I ran into my room and fumbled with my cell phone, pressing down on the red button on the front of the screen.
My hands shook as Texas tore back through the house.
He shook the walls that were supposed to keep us safe before he appeared in my bedroom doorway, his face red and his eyes bulging.
“There are man-sized boot prints outside her window on the ground out there,” he said.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
I heard the voice in my ear, but I paused.
Man-sized boot prints. I knew exactly who those were.
And in that moment, I wasn’t sure if emergency or the police were the best options for me.
The courts had failed to help me. Twice.
And now, Keva was in the hands of Jett. A man with a storage unit who was ready to kill on sight if I made the wrong move.
What was the right move?
“9-1-1, are you there?” the voice asked.
“Hi. Yes, this is Ella Watt. My daughter’s been taken from her bed, and I think it was my ex-husband that took her,” I said.
I rattled off my information to the woman before I hung up the phone. Despite her insistence to me to stay on the line with her, I couldn't. I still had my brother to call. I needed all of this officially documented, but I also needed results.
And I knew my brother would get results.
I scrolled through until I found my brother’s phone number while Texas threw on his clothes. He was fuming. Cursing to himself as the seams of his clothes tore with his efforts to get them onto his body. I sat on the edge of my bed, my eyes staring lifelessly out the window.
He took her from her bed through her own damn window.
One ring. Two rings. Three rings before Stone finally picked the fuck up. And when his voice hit my ears, my eyes welled with tears.
“Ella?” he asked groggily.
“Keva’s gone. There are boot prints outside,” I said breathlessly.
“What?” he growled.
“I’ve already called 9-1-1, but you know how long they’re going to take. Stone, he’s got Keva. Is anyone tailing him right now?”
“Bronx is on it right now. I should’ve gotten a fucking phone call with this shit. I’m calling him right now, and I’m headed your way. Do not talk to the police until I get there. Understood?”
“I hear you,” I whispered.
“Where’s Texas?” he asked.
I looked back just in time to see him dart into Keva’s room.
“He’s in the house looking around,” I said.
“Tell him to take pictures of everything and send them to me.”
“Will do.”
I hung up the phone and relayed the information to Texas.
And the second I heard sirens flying down the street, I walked outside.
Police pulled up, filling my driveway and my lot.
There was a random firetruck that pulled up as well as an ambulance—all things I hoped to fuck on high I wouldn't need.
My heart sank to my toes. Tears poured down my cheeks.
And when I saw the cop that walked up to me, I seethed.
“Ella, I’m so sorr—”
“This the ‘action’ you were looking for the last time I came to you?” I asked.
The officer sighed before he looked away. Like he couldn't fucking bear to look into my eyes after telling me there wasn’t shit he could do without Jett coming after us.
Well, now he had.
And I hoped he was fucking proud of himself.
Everything was a blur. I heard the roar of Stone’s bike pulling up. I felt the warmth of Texas’s hand on my back. The police hit me with questions, and Stone tried to intervene. I felt myself literally leaning against Texas to get through the questions.
“When did you get up this morning?”
“When did you notice she was gone?”
“What did the room look like to you?”
“Was Keva okay when you left her to sleep last night?”
“Do you lock your windows at all?”
“Is anything else in the house missing?
Why the fuck would I care about anything else other than my damn daughter?
The police told Stone not to intervene. They told me they’d go check Jett’s house. That they could get an immediate search warrant to bust in from one of the judges. I laughed bitterly when they told me that. Yeah. The two fucking judges paid off by my ex in the first damn place.
“Good luck with that,” I said flatly.
I gave them the most recent picture I had of Keva. I gave a description of her from head to toe. Every identifying mark I had memorized over the years and every stat I could. From her eye color to the small mole she had on her left butt cheek that the doctors were keeping an eye on.
I felt like I was going to puke.
“We’ll keep you updated as we go. I’ll be the officer calling you every couple of hours,” he said.
“Sure. Yeah. That’s fine,” I said breathlessly.
I didn’t remember much else after that. I remembered Texas rubbing my back.
I remembered him wrapping me up in his arms. I remembered feeling Stone’s gaze on us both and staying there until the police left.
Until the firetruck knew it had no purpose.
Until the ambulance turned around in my driveway and headed off into the distance.
And when everyone was gone, my brother drew in a deep breath.
“Suit up, Texas. I just got a text from Bronx,” he said.
“You know where he is?” Texas asked.
“I do. And he’s not at his house,” my brother said.
That statement alone was enough to collapse me to my knees. Because I knew Jett. And I knew exactly where he had gone.
My ex-husband was about to kill my little girl.