CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
TESSA
The next morning, long before the crack of dawn, the doctor begins weaning Maddox off sedation. It could be a while before he’s awake, even longer until he’s lucid. Then they’ll need to assess his ability to breathe on his own.
I can’t bear to leave his side, but we’re all so anxious that I’ve convinced myself he’s delaying this simply to fuck with us. And since I slept slouched over in the chair by his bed all night and we’re inching closer to the family lunch that Axel wants to have, freshening up is in order.
I take another shower, trying again to scrub the horror of the massacre off me.
No matter what I do, the blood and betrayal gnaw at my flesh.
The din from the cascading water provides me a safe space to expel my emotions with another torturous outburst before I summon the energy to face whatever this day holds.
He cracked me open and tore down all my walls. With him, that’s beautiful. Without him, that’s a brokenness I’ll never recover from.
Somehow, I manage to make myself somewhat presentable. My eyes are tired and red-rimmed, and my lips and skin are dry, but I don’t really care.
As I’m coming out of the bathroom, Mercy hands me a chai latte. I immediately indulge while walking to the waiting room and gawking at the commotion.
Cash and Jax are flipping through pictures of the employee festival, giggling like little girls.
“He didn’t have time … to get the grits off before … the hobby horse races.” Jax is practically crying, relaying how some employee was dedicated to an asinine cause. “Full cowboy attire and … globs of grits trickling out of him … with every hop.”
“Pissing like a racehorse,” Cash chokes out with a laugh.
They both catch sight of me, and the three of us share a heart-wrenching understanding.
Maddox shouldn’t have missed that, or the dance contest, or any of the ridiculous competitions.
He wanted to share it with Remy and my niece and nephew.
It makes me wonder what the staff has been told about Maddox.
Brasi is probably a wreck without him. For that split second, it feels like we all might crumble to pieces, so I gulp back the anguish. Maddox would hate if the joy was lost.
I roll my eyes with a reluctant chuckle. “Stupid.”
Cash and Jax smirk in return and go back to their ludicrous discussion.
“Exactly,” Ryker agrees, sneaking up on us. He ushers Mercy and me toward another patient room. “There’s someone who wants to talk with you. Let’s handle it before Maddox is up.”
I glance at Mercy, and she bobs her head, which is the only reason I don’t bolt back to Maddox’s side, even though there is no one worth pulling me away from him.
When we enter the examination room, Hunter is sitting in a chair, arms folded and expression tired.
And that all-too-familiar rage that seized me when I confronted my family slams into me again.
“This is bold. You’d better have one hell of an explanation for—”
“He does,” Ryker interrupts me, which piques my interest.
Once I brace myself against the wall, Mercy slides a chair over near me and occupies it.
“Fine,” I concede, flipping my attention back to Hunter. “Then get to it.”
He exhales with a solemn nod. “I did what I thought was necessary to keep you safe. Shane approached me about a month after you abruptly moved out of your house downtown for the pest control issue. He told me you’d”—he pauses and peers at Ryker for permission before turning back to me—“killed a friend of his and that the Noires cleaned it up for you.”
I don’t give him any sign of how accurate that is. “And why would you believe such an insane story?”
“Because when he described things, he said you were on the floor, next to the dead guy, holding another girl who was crying, and I don’t know …
” He blows out a heavy breath, plainly distraught.
“I put the pieces together. Kind of. You and Violet had moved out of the blue. She’d been so excited about meeting Derek a month earlier, but then your mom told my mom that she was withdrawn.
And you came back to work here, refusing to discuss it with me, regardless of how it was ripping your life apart.
It made sense that it was all to protect her. ”
Cash and Jax silently let themselves into the room, and suddenly, I’m transported back to my parents’ yard for the engagement brunch, when it was Maddox and me against my whole family unit. It hit me how very alone I was that day. Now, I’m surrounded.
“Then why not come to me about it? Why involve John and Derek? Why let my family believe I was some screwup?” I snap. “So much pain could have been avoided if you’d simply told me what was going on.”
“I get that but …” He leans forward, elbows on his knees. “Shane said you probably owed the Noires a favor for their help because that’s how things work, but that his grandfather could get you out of it.”
He rubs his face, like he’s over all of it.
“I’d known his family was connected back in college, so it made sense.
And he knew my family had a time-share in the Bahamas.
All I had to do was help him wash that money because he said the guy you’d killed was supposed to do that for him.
I asked John and Derek to go so the trips would seem less suspicious, and honestly, you know I don’t do shit like this.
I was nervous. In case the truth came out, I didn’t want to involve anyone outside your family.
I wasn’t trying to make you look bad, but I didn’t have another reason for insisting they come on those trips, so I twisted things. ”
Cash glances at his phone, but he doesn’t say anything about Maddox, and my heart plummets to my stomach again.
“You trusted Shane?” Ryker asks Hunter with a cocked brow.
“No,” he admits. “I wasn’t sure if he’d actually help Tessa, but I believed him when he said that if I warned her, he’d tell the guy’s father that she killed him.
He gave some chilling examples of what that would mean.
And he added that if the Noires—your family—found out he was using me, he’d kill her and Violet himself. ”
A shiver racks through me. Maybe he was as tied up in this as the rest of us.
“News story,” Cash breaks in, showing us his phone.
Jax leans in close to examine whatever is going on, but Ryker flicks on the television.
Everything pauses when a story with a warehouse exploding fills the screen.
“Witnesses tell us that the warehouse, owned by Texas mogul Vincent Lund, burst into flames about a half hour ago. From what we know at this time, there were numerous individuals insi—”
Gage and Liam bust into the room, and chaos ensues. There are now eight of us crammed into this tiny room, the racket of the news reporter and everyone’s voices clashing to become a roar of babel.
Since I can’t process what anyone is talking about, I move toward Ryker and keep my voice hushed. “Is this real? Are the Lunds gone, or is this some sort of deepfake like before?”
I’m not even sure if that makes sense. I simply know that the corrupt world I’ve been a part of for most of my adult life is far more tangled and duplicitous than I even realized, and nothing is what it seems.
Liam must have read my lips because he sidles up beside us to answer while all of us digest the scene.
“We’re investigating people who manipulate the media.
Ivy filled you in on that, right?” He smirks, but I don’t confirm whether that’s the case, so he continues, “We have our own way in too. It … helps.”
“Okay, so …” I peter off, realizing how much I was hoping the Lunds were gone after what they did to Maddox, assuming the occupants in that warehouse were Lund’s crew.
“That’s true,” Ryker adds with a grin, reading me perfectly. “But they’re really gone. No innocents.”
No innocents. So, the men bracketing me knew exactly who was inside.
Liam crosses his arms, snicking his Zippo open and closed in a mindless ritual. “It’s the story that’s scripted. Not the explosion.”
With that cryptic explanation, I tune back in to the news reporter’s voice as inky palls of smoke billow into the sky and the warehouse is decimated to an inferno of ash.
“Investigators have released possible suspects, all who belong to the well-known Makarov crime family. Niko Makarov went missing two and a half years ago, and sources suggest this is related …”
“Is there more to this plan?” I ask them.
“Yes,” Ryker says, kicking his chin toward Hunter. “Let’s get this finished first.”
He shuts off the TV, and the entire room receives the message, immediately quieting.
Cash arches an eyebrow at the guest of honor. “So, you lied to Maddox and me to protect Tessa and her sister?”
He must be referring to the day I saw the two of them driving out of Hunter’s neighborhood.
Hunter pales, staring at Cash for a long beat, but he manages to own his decision.
“You two showed up on Tessa’s behalf. I only had one more trip to take for Shane.
I figured the best thing to do was to let him walk away with the money.
You were protecting her, but I still didn’t want her to be a target.
And I didn’t want him to go after Violet.
If I opened my mouth, I risked all of us ending up dead. ”
“Noble,” Ryker sneers.
His contempt makes me feel like I’m missing something because that does sound noble, but my gut stirs with the need to check on Maddox, so I don’t press for more.
“If Shane knew it was Tessa”—Jax flicks a match and glares at Hunter through the flame, letting the second half of his thought linger with the sparks and his wild eyes—“why didn’t he … tell the Makarovs?”
Hunter swallows, his face pasty. Jax seems harmless to us, but to people outside our circle, he probably appears a bit like a madman.
Gage is about to respond, but I quickly excuse myself.
“I’m sorry. I’m happy we have answers, and I want to know what’s going on.
But none of it matters to me, unless …” I glide my hand over my stomach, feeling it twist from even the thought of Maddox still not awake.
“Thank you for looking out for Violet, Hunter. I still don’t love all your choices, but I can’t say I would have made different ones in your place. ”
His features soften. I can tell he’s hoping for a goodbye hug, but I just don’t have it in me, so I turn and exit, and Mercy stays in step with me.
As we near Maddox’s room, I hear him. So do Cash and Jax, who followed us out. For half a second, the hall freezes for confirmation, but then we all dash that way.
“She’s okay.” Axel’s reassuring tenor breaches the threshold. “She’s been by your side since you got here. She just went to get cleaned up.”
“Wanna fucking see her now,” Maddox husks out. It sounds as though he swallowed glass.
“I’m here, Drac,” I call, racing into the room before I cast a leer at Axel and the medical staff. “Why didn’t you come find me?”
“He was agitated and confused,” Axel explains as I reach Maddox’s bedside. “I was just about to get you”—he heeds an exasperated huff from one of his brothers—“and everyone else because he was starting to make sense.”
“You took your good old time waking up, didn’t you?” I cradle Maddox’s jaw, planting a gentle kiss on his lips. “I missed you so much.”
It’s evident in every line of his face that he’s still in an enormous amount of pain, but his gorgeous gray eyes caper over me with so much adoration that a tear trails down my cheek.
“Did you”—he swallows, trying to strengthen his voice—“play ‘Every Breath You Take’ when I got shot in the lung? Or did I dream that?”
I roll my lips in and bob my head.
A stilted laugh floats out of him, one that obviously hurts. “I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you back, more than anything,” I rasp with another peck on his lips, a horde of butterflies imparting an aggressive stampede on my insides.
He doesn’t say anything about me easily reciprocating his declaration. Instead, he keeps trying to piece together our horrible experience. “You smacked me too.”
“Yep. I also waved my Karambit at the staff when they tried to separate us, yelled at you to not fucking die, and apparently screamed like a lunatic. It was all kinds of insanity while you were taking a nap.”
“Marry me.” Maybe it’s the sandpaper vocal quality, but that comes out far more like a domineering demand than a proposal.
So, there is only one way for me to respond.