Chapter Ten
Terrace Glen
W hen they arrived home, everyone came out to see them. Both cars pulled into the driveway at the same time, and there was that sense of relief that they were all safely behind the gates of their sanctuary.
Immediately, Emma was out and heading for Curtis and Katerina. She’d missed them the last few weeks as they were on their honeymoon.
He was smiling, and she was starting to waddle a little more. It was the sweetest thing they’d ever seen.
Emma hugged Curtis, and then she went straight for Katerina to share her affection. The woman was glowing, and she looked amazing. Pregnancy was definitely working for her.
“You’re home!” Greyson said, hugging Curtis. As he did that, Curtis whispered in his ear.
“Does she know?”
“No. Later.”
He let it go.
“MOM!” Curtis picked her up and swung her around. “I have something for you.”
He reached into his bag, and pulled out his phone. On it, he clicked on his photos.
It was a shitload of pictures of the place she’d run to find herself. He’d documented Celestia.
Tears filled her eyes as he scrolled through them. This was the best gift ever. After all, that was the place that started it all.
“It’s the same. It’s like it hasn’t changed at all.”
They all looked over her shoulder as she narrated the pictures for the part of the family that hadn’t seen it.
“That’s the cabin I lived in,” she said.
“And the one I caught me a babe in,” Greyson offered, wiggling his eyebrows.
She snorted. “Yeah, you were a sexy caveman back then too,” she added.
Curtis wasn’t done.
“There’s more. Here, Mom. Here’s a video just for you,” he said, grinning at her.
Curtis pushed the button. A face came onto the screen, and her heart skipped.
It was Reece.
‘Emma,
We miss you. I hope one day you and that husband of yours can visit us. As you can see, time stopped. I’m good, and so are the kids. The wife says hello. But we wanted you to get a piece of home. I miss you and love you.’
Curtis pulled a baseball cap out of his bag. “He sent this. He said you’d get it.”
She held it in her hands, and it moved her. It took a lot to make Emma break, but that one token was all it took. The familiarity hit her, and it made her remember.
The good.
The bad.
“An old hat?” Dimitri said.
Oh, it was so much more than that.
“It was my brother’s hat. He wore it in Vice when they were taking down criminals.”
Tears filled her eyes.
Turning it inside out, she found what she was looking for in the inside lining.
There was a picture of him and her.
It tumbled out into her hand.
“When they were going into a building, or a raid, he’d wear this backward,” she said, staring down at the picture. “I was his good luck charm,” she said.
The irony of that wasn’t lost on her. She wasn’t so lucky the day he was slaughtered in his own apartment.
Emma was overwhelmed.
She needed a minute.
It still broke her.
“I’m going to go make dinner,” she said, tucking the picture away, and then dropping his hat onto her head. “I’ll be back,” she offered, walking away.
Greyson felt helpless.
“Jesus. This is going to suck,” Curtis said.
“I need you guys to find something to do,” Greyson said. “I need to tell Emma, and this is going to be brutal.” He took that moment to fill in everyone with what was going on. The family would be her support when she needed it most.
They’d wrap around her and help her through this.
It was all they had at the moment. A part of Greyson wished he’d never asked Curtis to find that file. This was on him, and he knew he wouldn’t be enough to make it better.
He could only do so much.
Croft was going to trust his family to help him heal their core.
Dante took Steele’s hand in his. “We have wedding shit to handle. How about we head out for a couple hours so you guys can do this without an audience? Emma wouldn’t want to be a spectacle,” he admitted.
He hugged his brother. “Thank you. You’re right.”
Greyson appreciated that they got it.
“When we get back, we’ll help her through it,” Steele said. “Emma is tough. She’ll digest it, and then we’ll take care of her.”
Greyson prayed it went that easily. He felt off, and he knew what was likely going to happen.
He loathed hurting his wife.
Curtis patted Greyson’s shoulder. They would give them space too. “Kat and I are exhausted. I’ll order us a pizza, and we’ll head to our room.”
Greyson hugged them both. “Thank you.”
“If you need us,” Kat said, “just call us. We’ll come help with mom. I couldn’t imagine losing Dimitri. I can only hurt thinking about what she had to live through that night.”
Yeah, he’d seen the crime scene photos, and he knew what Hell looked like. Emma had lived it.
Chris figured they had this.
“Nat and I can…,” he began, only to be cut off.
He stopped him. “She’s going to need stability, and that means her brothers. She sees you and Dimitri as them now. It’s going to be hard, but we each bring something to the table on this one.”
Chris got it. “I’m in. Natasha, do you mind?” he asked.
She gently gave him a kiss on the lips. “How could I? Emma has healed all of us. I can’t do what you can for her, so I get it. Give her my love and hold her for me if she needs it.”
Greyson appreciated all of their help.
“Thank you. She’ll be okay, but the shock is going to be the bad part. This is going to blindside her.”
Dimitri was in.
After what she’d done for him, he’d do anything he could to help Emma. She was just as valuable and important to him as his sisters.
She was loved.
They’d carry her if she was too weak. That’s what family did, and she was their center. It was time to give that strength back.
Before they could separate and go their own ways to give Greyson, Chris, and Dimitri space to talk to Emma, the gates—not far behind them—beeped.
“It’s Riley, and he’s using the front gate,” Dimitri stated. “That can’t be good. He doesn’t come here this time of the day, and right through the reporters.”
Well, so much for telling Emma. It looked like she was going to have some time yet before they broke her heart.
Thank God.
Dimitri let him in by accessing the security on his phone. When the large iron gates opened, the man’s ride rolled through and headed right toward them.
He wasn’t alone.
As he hopped out of his vehicle, so did Delilah.
No one saw that coming.
“What’s wrong?” Greyson asked, taking in the scene.
“We have a huge problem!”
Yeah, well, that seemed to be what they faced every day of the week. When didn’t they?
Vegas was one big mess after another, and they were barely staying afloat in the sea of shit.
“What’s going on?” Dimitri asked.
Riley told them what he heard while he was at the office, and then he told them what he’d done to get her out.
“They are going to hurt her. I needed a safe place to stash her until we figure out something to do.”
“Until tomorrow,” she said, “when I have to be the courthouse to do my job.”
He didn’t look amused.
“I can’t hide forever,” she stated, holding his hand in hers. She gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“Delilah,” he stated.
“I have court. What are they going to do to me in the middle of a court room?” she asked. “I have a huge case. I have to be there, or my client is going to jail.”
Riley let out a pent-up sigh. This was frustrating the hell out of him.
Greyson through about it.
“Natasha,” he said, focusing on the woman.
“Yes?”
“Can you get dressed up, and sit in the courtroom with Delilah all day? When she’s done with court, bring her here. Is that okay, Dimitri?”
He didn’t mind. “She’s available.”
Natasha smiled. “I’ll be blonde. You’ll see me, but no one else will,” she offered.
Delilah was pretty sure they were taking this way too seriously. The courthouse was secure.
She’d be fine.
“I think all of this might be…”
Greyson stopped her. “It’s not. We have a storm coming. We’re about to dive into a case where there’s sex trafficking. It’s going to get ugly.”
“She can stay at my place,” Riley offered.
He had a hickey on his neck, and Delilah wasn’t trying to peel his skin from his body, so Greyson was pretty sure he knew what that meant.
“You can stay here in the pool house. Chris and Nat are coming back inside for a couple nights, until we have this under control,” he stated. “You’ll have more freedom.”
Riley didn’t understand.
“So you can jump me again,” she teased. “He was trying to be low key and not embarrass you.”
Riley blushed.
“Uh?”
Greyson pointed at his neck.
“Shit.”
“Tomorrow, she’ll go back to work, and you’ll head back to the job. You weren’t seen, were you?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow,” he offered.
Riley prayed they didn’t.
If they did…
“I want to GPS tag our attorney,” stated Dimitri. “We should get the detective too. Remember when Steele was taken?”
It had been Greyson’s watch that had saved him. That little tracker had made all the difference in the world.
“Good idea.”
“I’ll come to the pool house and hook you up later,” he offered. “I’ll knock first.”
Again, Riley blushed three more shades of red.
“Thanks,” Delilah offered.
Emma came outside, and she looked a little better. She’d composed herself and was back to her normal self.
Great.
And they were going to stir her up all over again.
“Are we having a party?” she asked as she noticed the attorney. “Hey, Riley,” Emma said, turning his head. “You have a shark bite. You went swimming in Lake Delilah.”
He stared at them.
“Am I wearing a sign?” he asked.
Greyson laughed.
Emma gave Delilah a high five. “Nice one.”
Their attorney grinned.
“You always were my favorite,” Delilah said to Emma. “Now I know why.”
Emma knew Delilah didn’t play favorites. She genuinely liked all of the Crofts, and not because of their money. She was a good person.
“Well, we have lots of food, so head in and have some dinner,” she offered.
Curtis kissed Emma. “Mom, we’re beat. I’m going to order a pizza, and we’re crashing early. Raincheck on the meal. How about tomorrow?”
She was surprised that Curtis was passing up immediate food. That wasn’t like him.
“Okay, that’s fine. See you tomorrow,” she said, as they headed away.
Dante kissed her and so did Steele.
“We have wedding shit to handle, so we’re going to opt out for tonight. We’ll check-in later when we get back from the strip.”
“You know, you could have told me before I cooked,” she said, laughing as they walked away.
“I have patrol,” Nat said, hugging her. “Can you put something aside for me? I’ll eat later.”
“Sure, I can, but…”
It was too late.
She disappeared too.
“Wow. Now we’re down to six.”
Delilah, ever the perceptive one, knew the three men before her were tense. “I was thinking wine and swimming pool. Are you in, Detective?”
“I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”
She grinned. “Oh, really? That’s too bad. Unfortunately for you, I did.”
He stared at her.
Riley had a feeling she was trying to get him away from the people, and he let her lead the way.
“That doesn’t seem fair. You could have warned me,” he offered.
“Yeah, I know.”
They headed inside to grab some wine, and then to the pool. Terrace Glen was one of her favorite places, and the pool was why.
When they were gone, Emma looked over at the three men.
“What are they doing here?”
Greyson let her in on what had happened, and she looked absolutely horrified.
“Oh, shit! That’s bad. Thomas Christ definitely would rape a woman, that sick bastard.”
Chris, Greyson, and Dimitri knew it was time.
“We need to talk,” Greyson said. Taking her hand in his as they led her to the front patio. Once there, they sat her down.
“Uh, is this an intervention?” she asked, immediately sensing the shit was about to go down.
Dimitri was looking at her with concern.
Chris looked worried, and Greyson…
He was hesitating.
That was not normal.
“I know I’m not going to like this. What happened? Who died? Are we in trouble?” she asked. “Has something bad happened?”
A million things were going through her mind, and none of them were good.
To say she was freaked out would be an understatement.
Greyson knew he was up.
“I have to tell you something. I wasn’t going to, and we were going to handle it, but we needed to do this right. Since it involves you, you have every right to know what we’re dealing with. I don’t want to lie to my wife.”
Oh, holy shit!
This was going to be bad.
She began feeling sick to her stomach, and her palms began to sweat. Nothing rattled Greyson, and he looked out of sorts.
They all did.
Emma tugged off the hat Curtis had brought her and began nervously playing with the brim.
“What? Just do it. I can handle it.”
“It’s about your brother.”
She marginally relaxed.
Gage was dead. What could they possibly tell her that would be upsetting? There was nothing worse than what had already happened.
“What, Greyson?”
He pulled the photocopies of the absconded file out of his back pocket and handed them to her. The whole time, he held his breath.
She didn’t understand what he was giving her.
“I’m sorry.”
Then she read them.
All three men watched her face. It went from confused, to really confused, to freaked out, and then to angry.
“What the fuck?” she asked. “How did you get this?” she asked.
“I had Curtis and Kat dig into Thomas Christ’s life back East. I needed to know what we were up against. I didn’t expect this, but someone had the original file. The commissioner tried to hide it. We found it. These are copies. Delilah has the originals locked in a safe with our other legal papers.”
She stood.
She wanted to be sick.
There were a million things going through her mind. Each one was turbulent, and made her want to puke.
“Emma?” Greyson asked, putting his hand on her arm. “Are you okay?”
Was she okay?
How could she be?
They’d just found proof that Thomas Christ had hired the druggie not to rob Gage but to actually kill him. A man she’d dated and had sex with had murdered her brother.
How was she supposed to ever be okay with that?
Emma wanted to be ill.
“When I dug into this, I wasn’t expecting it,” Greyson admitted.
“Kiddo, are you okay?” Chris asked.
No, she was the opposite of okay.
When she was finally able to speak, she glanced up at him. Here was her husband, and he was supposed to protect her.
Instead, she’d been blindsided by all three men.
“Why did you have to dig?” she asked. “Why did you tell me?” Emma said, backing away from him.
“Emma.”
He didn’t get it.
How could he?
“I would have rather you not have told me. I didn’t need this, Greyson. I’ve suffered enough. I’ve had to live with his death for years. I could have lived without knowing this.”
Dimitri saw this coming.
He’d like to say he was surprised, but he wouldn’t have wanted to know either. Some things are best left unsaid. He knew Emma had to feel responsible.
That Thomas Christ did this, because she told him to pound sand, was crushing.
Here was his fear.
Dimitri wished they would have listened to him, and then maybe, Emma wouldn’t be hurting like this.
Chris, on the other hand, was shocked. Emma had been a cop, and she was accustomed to there always being more to a story than what met the eye.
“Honey,” he said, trying to soothe her. She didn’t look well at all, and she was pregnant. Chris didn’t want her making herself sick.
She ignored him.
Greyson was up. He always forced her to be honest with him because lies only hurt a marriage.
He’d had no choice but to follow his own rules.
“Emma, I had to be honest. Lying isn’t how we do our marriage. You know I don’t want to hurt you, but I couldn’t bury this and still have you respect me.”
He reached for her.
She pulled her arm away as if his touch burned her skin.
“Then you don’t know me at all, Greyson. If you did, you wouldn’t have told me any of this. You should have known better. All these years, I’ve been fighting this!” she said, shaking the papers. “I was left behind by all of them, and this is the one thing that will break me every time.”
He was aware.
He’d only been trying to be a good husband. Since coming to Vegas, he’d been anything but.
He’d forced her back.
She’d lost her badge.
Emma was looked down upon as pariah.
Croft knew he’d fucked this up.
Immediately, she began her retreat. “I need to be alone. I want to be alone,” she said, putting space between them.
“Emma. Honey.”
“NO!”
With that, she was gone. Emma headed back toward the house to escape the three men.
Chris followed. “I’ll take the first watch,” he said, hoping he could help her. “Grey, I’m sorry. I told you to tell her. I was wrong. I’ll own it.”
He knew it wasn’t his fault. “This isn’t on you, Chris. I’m the one who couldn’t let sleeping dogs lie. I’m the one who had Curtis dig around and find it. I suspected because I saw the police record on Gage’s death. It didn’t fit. Someone had to let that guy into Gage’s apartment. There was no way some strung out crack head planned his death.”
Dimitri saw it too.
Still, this was bad.
Chris headed across the driveway and into the house. When he was gone, the two men knew they needed to figure this out.
“What do you want me to do?” Dimitri offered.
What choice did he have? Greyson had hurt his wife, and now he had to do the right thing and make it better. He had to help her heal.
That meant only one thing.
There was only one option left.
“I want you to watch her, Dimitri. I need to head out to handle some business.”
Oh, he knew exactly what kind of business he was talking about, and that made him nervous.
Really nervous.
Dimitri had no choice. He stopped him. “Greyson, I’ll do it. Let me handle it. This is not something you should be focusing on right now. Go heal your wife. Let me handle Christ.”
Croft couldn’t do that. He’d done this, and it was on him. Greyson wouldn’t blame his wife if she hated him. He’d ripped open a festering wound and ground salt into it.
He would own it.
Instead of taking the man’s out, he handed him his phone. They could be traced. He would need an alibi.
Sadly, Greyson knew what needed to be done.
“Get me his personal information. I have to go kill a man for what he’s done.”
Dimitri watched him walk away.
Yeah, this was bad.
And he suspected that it was only going to get worse.
Chris found her in her bathroom, and she was throwing up. He knelt beside her, and when she was done, he picked her up and carried her to her bed.
She sobbed the entire way as she clung to his body like a scared, broken child. He could only imagine what that day had done to her. Then all the other days where she had to relive it in her heart and mind.
“Emma.”
She curled into a ball, and wept until she shook. “It’s like losing him all over again. It’s like having that wound ripped open all over again. How do I heal from this?” she asked, as she was wracked with sobs.
Chris hated that he’d been part of this.
He had to come clean.
“I told him to tell you. I told him that lying and killing Thomas Christ behind your back would be shitty for a marriage. It’s on me, not him. I was the one who told him this was best, and I’m so sorry. Dimitri wanted to just kill him.”
That broke her heart. They’d all had a hand in this, and they should have protected her. What Emma needed most was one person in her life to know better.
To see what this would do to her.
Now, she wanted to be left alone. The anger was there, and she wanted to rage.
“Emma,” he said, as she pulled away from him.
“Leave me alone.”
That stopped him in his tracks. Chris never once thought that his advice would cause a wedge between them. He’d never hurt Emma.
He loved her too damn much.
“I want to die inside. This is too much for me to handle. My poor brother was set up. It was hard enough thinking it was random, but I was able to accept that. Fate was a bitch. He wasn’t meant to live, but now? Now I know he could have been here still. I could have had that one person I was tied to. Instead, I watched blood gurgle from his throat as he bled to death. I was forced to see him sliced apart.”
“Emma, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” she asked, getting angry. “I was nearly raped, I watched him die in my arms, and now I hear it wasn’t a drugged-up nut? That instead, it was Thomas Christ’s handiwork?”
“Emma.”
“Chris, just go. Okay? I can’t right now. I want to be alone.”
He got that, but he knew she shouldn’t be alone. That was the opposite of what she needed.
“Emma, don’t hate us. We wanted to protect you.”
She opened her eyes. “Then you should have protected me. When Denise came back last month, looking for you, I headed her off. I wouldn’t let her near you.”
“What?” he asked. “What do you mean? She came back?” he asked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“See? I didn’t tell you to protect you. Why? Because you are mine! I would die before I’d let anyone hurt any of you!”
Well, this sucked.
He stared at her.
“I get that you’re mad. I would be, too, but Emma…” He was cut off.
“Please leave. I need you to leave me alone. I can’t right now.”
He got it.
Chris had to admit that a part of his heart broke. Emma didn’t want him near her, and that stung. Then again, he’d let her get hurt, while she’d kept him safe.
Again.
“I’ll leave you alone.”
As he closed the door to her room, she was sobbing, and it killed him.
Outside the room, he found Dimitri standing there against the wall. It looked like the second string was up.
“Bad?” he asked.
Oh, yeah, this was ugly.
“She kicked me out of her room. I owned my part in this, and that’s all I can do. You’re likely safe. I’m the bad guy on this one, and she hates me. It looks like you’re up.”
He figured as much.
Dimitri would handle it.
Only, they had a bigger issue to worry about at that moment, and it was going to blow up in their faces.
Greyson could NOT kill Thomas Christ.
By going at him while he was pissed, he’d make mistakes and risk being caught. They didn’t need that.
What they needed was a well-organized plan. He led the man down the hall and around the corner so they could talk in private before he went to handle Emma.
She didn’t need to hear this.
“Do me a favor. Don’t let Greyson leave. I don’t care if you have to knock him out and tie him up. He’s going to try and kill the man. I have a really bad feeling about all of this, and I always trust my gut. It’s going to get him caught or killed.”
Chris got it.
That was all he had to hear.
“I’ll handle him.”
He patted him on the back.
“Then I’ll handle this.”
The two men split up, and they headed off to each handle a Croft. When he knocked on her door, Emma didn’t answer.
“Emma?”
Nothing.
When Dimitri went inside, he looked for her, but she wasn’t in her room.
He really hoped she didn’t sneak out. As he thought about it, he was pretty sure he knew where she’d be. It was reminiscent of what he’d done. He’d been wounded, and he went to the one place he felt safe.
Emma would go to the one place she felt safe. To her, Greyson and Chris had betrayed her.
He hadn’t.
Leaving her room, he headed down the hall toward his bedroom. When he opened the door, she was sitting on his bed, and she looked beat down.
Broken.
Horrible.
“Emma.”
“I need a favor,” she said, wiping her eyes. “I need your help.”
He suspected what she was going to ask, and like he’d told Greyson, he would kill the man. That had been his plan from the start.
“What?” he asked, sitting beside her.
“I need you to teach me how to kill him. I need you to show me so I can do it. I have to kill him for my brother. He’s spilled blood, and I’m going to pay him back.”
Okay, that was NOT what he was expecting, and it horrified him that she thought he’d ever let her do that.
Emma wasn’t going to cross that line—not while he was alive, and certainly not while her husband was either.
He sighed. “Emma.”
“Just show me. I’ll pull the trigger. I’ll do it. He deserves to die.”
“Come here,” he said, opening his arms to her.
Emma didn’t hesitate. She went to him, and Dimitri simply held her. The tears came again, and he tried to comfort her as she wept. Her whole body shook.
“I have you.”
She sobbed even harder.
Dimitri rested on the bed and took Emma with him. She immediately curled into his body, and he protected her with his own.
It reminded him of what she’d done for him. When the storm hit, she held it back.
It was the least he could do.
She buried her face in his throat and sobbed as the storm raged around her.
Dimitri did what he always did when his sisters woke from a nightmare, or they were hurt. He let them feel. He knew she’d stop crying at some point, and that’s when he’d help her.
“It’s okay. This will be okay,” Dimitri said, holding her against him.
“He had a hit put out on my brother. I have no one because of him.”
He knew how to get her to focus.
Dimitri lifted her chin so she was staring into his eyes. “So everything you said to me last night was lies? I’m no one to you? I’m just someone to teach you to kill?”
She sniffled.
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t. You have three men who would go kill him for you, and then we don’t because we respect you and your choices, and you get mad at us.”
Here came his version of tough love. There was no doubt in his mind that it would work.
“I’m not mad at you.”
He stared into her eyes.
“I just hurt.”
He got that.
She tucked her face back into his neck, and she held onto him. While she did, she felt better.
“You smell like him.”
“Who?” he asked.
“My brother.”
He let her talk. Emma was a rational, smart woman. She’d work her way through it using logic. Dimitri would always bet on her to pull through.
“I remember when I would have days so hard I didn’t think I could pull it off, and he’d hold me like this. He’d tell me he loved me, and it would be okay. You wear the same cologne, and when I close my eyes, I can still hold onto him. I know it’s silly, but it’s all I have left of him—memories.”
He knew it wasn’t silly at all.
Dimitri knew that sometimes, you needed anything to get you through the moment. That’s exactly why he gravitated toward her. She got him through his pain.
So, he offered her some of the peace she’d given him.
“Out of the millions of colognes in the world, that’s a wonderful thing. Maybe, if there is something past this, Emma, he’s trying to give you a sign. He’s offering you that connection to him through me.”
She held onto him for dear life.
“I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered. “It’s so damn hard. Vegas is overwhelming me.”
He was well aware. The place was a sucking mire that could pull you under at any second.
Still…
“If you leave, I’ll follow. You’re mine, too, Emma. It’s a two-way street. You said a lot of things last night, and now it’s my turn. I love you. There are days when you’re the mother I never had, and then there are days when you’re the sister who takes the time to protect me. When I was hurt, or sick, or bleeding, there was no one. I watch you hold my sisters, telling them it’s okay as you shield them from the harshness of the world. No one has ever protected me, but then there was you. You’re loved. If you leave, we’ll follow. All you have to do is decide.”
She sobbed.
Dimitri held her tighter, and she went with him. Her hand went beneath his shirt to his abs.
It gave them both peace.
That little touch of skin to skin was calming. There was nothing sexual about the way she ran her hand up and down his flesh. It was more a way to connect.
This was the deepest essence of love between them, and it felt perfect.
“Close your eyes and rest. I’ll watch over you tonight.”
She didn’t fight.
She trusted him enough to listen.
As she slipped into sleep, he did something he’d never done for any woman before. He slipped away, took off his shirt, tucked it over her, and then wrapped her in blankets so she’d have comfort.
He grabbed a new shirt, and headed out.
He had to stop a murder.
For her.
For a woman he loved.
* * * G r e y s o n C r o f t * * *
Sky Villa
Late-Afternoon
She was ready for his return. She had planned everything out, and it was going to be perfect. She owed Paris a nice evening, since he’d worked all day.
He’d also tried so hard the last few weeks, and she’d been difficult every step of the way.
Tessa regretted that.
So now, she was going to repay him for his kindness, patience, and love.
As Tessa set everything up, she waited for him. When security called her, like she’d planned, it was time to light the candles on the roof.
She was going to have a romantic date for them.
Just them.
And it was a long time coming.
When Paris rolled into their home, she wasn’t there. There was no trace of Tessa to be found.
Immediately, his heart began pounding in his chest. He’d lost his temper with her, and he shouldn’t have. They were both under a huge amount of stress.
She was struggling, and instead of being kind, he’d flipped out and told her to ‘fuck off’.
That was bad.
What the hell kind of husband was he?
Who did that?
He was going to find her, apologize, and see if they could re-approach this issue with calmer heads prevailing.
If she wanted a baby, he’d do anything. Maybe there was some Chinese medicine to increase sperm counts. All he knew was that all day, he was sorry that he’d talked to her that way. It wasn’t the man he was or the one he wanted to be. Paris was writing it off as a simple crack in his resolve, and it wouldn’t happen again.
As he rolled around, he became more worried with each passing minute.
Tessa wasn’t home, and there was nothing done. Maybe she had left him.
That scared him to the point he began calling her on her cell, but they went to voicemail.
Then he saw it.
Her phone.
It was on their bed beside his pool towel and swim trunks.
No note.
Just that.
He assumed his wife was leaving him a message, and he prayed that was the case. Maybe she’d gone to the roof to relax, and wanted company.
He could only hope.
So, trying to give his wife what she wanted, Paris stripped out of his clothes, and he pulled on the swim trunks.
As he looked at his cane, he figured he could pull it off. He’d sat all day, and he could use the exercise.
Standing up, he slowly walked to the door, and then the elevator. He prayed when he got upstairs it wouldn’t be a fight.
He couldn’t do it anymore.
He was losing her, and Paris needed Tessa to live.
As the door to the upper deck opened, he stepped out. There was only one cabana being used.
“Tessa?” he called, but there was no reply. As the sun was setting across Vegas, he had to hope his wife was okay.
He moved closer.
Maybe she was sleeping.
She wouldn’t hurt herself, would she?
All these questions were racing through his mind.
When he was in front of the bright and sunny cabana, he opened the curtain. There, on the large cushion were rose petals in a heart with their initials in it.
“I’m sorry,” she said, stepping out from behind it. “I thought that we could have a picnic,” she offered.
They’d done this once before.
He’d blown it.
“Tessie, I’m sorry I spoke to you that way. I lost my cool. Please forgive me.”
“If you forgive me for being miserable. I’m sorry I’ve dumped this on you.”
He sat down. “I love you.”
She sat beside him. “I called Greyson and took him up on his offer of donating. He wants to see us tomorrow to discuss it.”
He stared at her.
Was she serious?
“It was kind of him to do that, and it was really special for you to do it. Only, I was only thinking about me. I didn’t think how all of this would make you feel. You would have to live with knowing he donated. I want you to decide if this is something you can handle.”
The complete turnaround surprised him.
“Tessa, I can’t have a baby with you, and that kills me. I would give my life to give you my child. I would die for that one moment to see you happy.”
“And I am happy. I know you’d do that for me. I want this to be about us. Can we live with what might happen?”
He moved back on the big seat, and she followed. When he tucked his legs beneath him, she handed him a sandwich.
“Are you asking if I would love this child less because I didn’t supply the DNA?”
“Yes. I don’t want to have a baby if you can’t honestly look me in the eye and tell me that you will be this child’s father in every possible way.”
He loved his wife so much.
Why had he doubted she’d turn this around? Here was that tough woman he fell in love with as his partner.
“I can love this child with all of me, Tessie.”
She prayed he meant it.
“I dream of holding a little girl with your smile, or having a little boy climb into my lap. I’m not able to make our child, but I get the blessing of picking a man I respect to give my child the traits I respect most. Children are products of our environment. So, no, the baby wouldn’t look like me, but he or she would be mine. You aren’t biologically part of me, but you’re mine.”
She kissed him.
“I think we should do it. I wouldn’t have gone to him had I not wanted a child with you, Tessa. It’s not like he’s going to have sex with you. He isn’t, right?” he teased.
She laughed. “He’s not my type.”
“What is your type?” he asked.
“Men who are sweet, gentle, smart, and who would die to protect me and my heart.”
He slid his hand into her hair and tugged her mouth to his.
“I love you, Tessie. Let’s have a baby. I want to be a father. I want you to be a mother.”
“Then we’ll have to see him tomorrow. It’s probably to be sure that we’re okay. He’s compassionate like that.”
Paris smiled. “And that’s why I went to him. He’s a good man, and if our kid ends up like him, we didn’t lose.”
He was right.
They’d certainly won.