Chapter Fifteen
NOVAK
Hours go by while we fill in police reports and do the paperwork required to press charges. The cops arrived at the pastor’s doorstep shortly after I did, and weren’t pleased that I had taken the law into my own hands to get Tess out safely.
But, if I had left it to them, how far would he have gotten?
He’d have taken the one thing that matters to me and left me empty.
Risking my life to save hers? Felt like an easy choice at the moment.
Better still, being a lawyer, I know the best ways to deal with the cops.
They didn’t stand a chance as soon as I stepped into the cubicle, trying to pin this on me.
Once we’re done at the police station, Tess and I get into my Lexus and make our way home. She slides a hand onto my lap and finds my free hand. I take it, intertwining our fingers, and a beaming smile lights up her face.
“I’m sorry, Tess,” my words come out on autopilot.
“Sorry for what?” she asks, raising my knuckles to her lips.
“Sorry for how I’ve treated you.” This conversation isn’t going to be easy, but I need to have it with her.
She has to understand what she means to me.
It took a horrible situation like this for me to realize Tess Murrow isn’t just some fuck toy I use and abuse when it suits me.
Somewhere along the way, she rooted herself inside me.
“Don’t be stupid,” she says.
“I’m not. It took nearly losing you for me to realize how much I care about you, and I’m saying it now before I lose my nerve.”
“Go on.” Beneath a layer of confusion, I can hear the excitement in her voice.
“It isn’t easy for me to express myself, so bear with me, alright?”
She giggles. “Alright.”
“I used to think I hated you. You get under my skin in ways no one else can. You make me furious beyond all else.”
Tess scoffs.
“You step over my boundaries and make me want to do very bad things to you. But, I don’t want to hurt you. I’d never want to see a hair on your pretty little head harmed.”
Tess’s smug grin melts into a softer smile, which tells me I’m finally getting somewhere.
“Look, I guess what I’m trying to say is…” Here it is. There’s no going back now. Say the words and be done with it. “I think… I think I love you.”
“You think?” she says. “Well, if it’s any consolation, I know I love you.”
Tess winks, and I catch it from the corner of my eye.
We’re toxic as hell, Tess Murrow and I, but I couldn’t imagine a better person to have at my side.
For better or worse, we belong to each other now.
THE END.