Chapter Twenty-Five
Matty
After another two hours, I walk my parents to the door. “Yes, Mom, I promise I’ll bring her for dinner.”
She turns and hands Jax back off to me, but not before she covers his chubby cheek in her red lipstick kisses. “I love my boys,” she coos before I lean in and let her place a kiss on my cheek.
“We love you too, Mom.” Jax throws her an air kiss, as Dad ruffles his hair and slaps my shoulder. He’s always been a man of few words, but I could tell him anything. He’s known the lengths I’ve had to go to in life concerning Jax and everything else, but he never judged or offered suggestions.
“Bye bye.” Jax waves at them as they close the door behind them.
I turn him in my arms. “Let’s go get Tessa,” I say to him, but stop, needing a moment to take in my son. His sandy blond hair is a little too long, and his bright hazel eyes stare up at me. I’ve known love in my life, but not the kind I feel when I look at him. There’s no word in the English language to describe the way I feel about him.
I look past him to see Tessa standing at the foot of the steps, smiling at us. She walks over and reaches out to comb her fingers through Jax’s hair, making him turn to her. When he leans out, he holds his arms out to her and she takes him in her arms. “Hey, baby,” she coos as she places kisses on his cheek.
There was a time when I thought I wanted this with another woman, but now, I know it would have been all wrong. Because this, what’s going on between me and Tessa, is more right than anything in my life has ever been.
“Hungry?” I ask, pushing back the flood of unfamiliar emotions.
“Yes, and I’m sure it’s time for this little man to eat too.”
I snake my arm around her shoulders, leading her to the kitchen. “How about grilled cheese sandwiches?” I ask, watching Jax light up as he begins to clap his agreement.
“Cheese,” he squeals.
“I take it he likes cheese?” She sits him down in his booster seat at the table and secures him in.
“I’m pretty sure he would eat a turd wrapped in cheese.” I duck into the fridge to get out the butter and cheese.
“Eww.” She gags. “That’s disgusting, Matthew.”
I look at her laughing and shrug my shoulders. “What? It’s the truth.”
“But still, that’s a gross mental image I don’t want to carry around with me.” She comes around the table. “Can I help?” she asks.
“Sure. Get some plates if you don’t mind.” I tell her as I begin to put together the sandwiches. I look at her over my shoulder and figure now is as good as time as any to break the ice about her place. “Eno came by yesterday when you were napping.” I start with a soft tone.
“Oh yeah? What did he want?” she asks, busying herself setting the table and playing with Jax.
I clear my throat, suddenly uncomfortable with the conversation. I know how proud she must’ve been of her house and her freedom, but that asshole stepped all over what she had built for herself, and he would pay for that. “I’m just gonna cut to it. Your house, the things inside—” She stops what she’s doing and turns to me, plate halfway to the table. “It’s a complete loss.”
Her shoulders slump, along with her body into the chair. She sighs and looks up at me, the emotions on her face swirling the drain between anger and sadness. Her cheeks are rosy and her eyes are glassy. I place the pan on the stove and go to her. I take her up in my arms and hold her to me. Her body’s shaking, and I’m not sure if it’s from fear or anger, but I don’t care. Once we find him, she’ll never have to worry about him again.
His family is wealthy—not that Tessa saw any of that fucking money—but my family is wealthier, and he has no idea who he’s fucked with. He will soon though, and I’ll make him pay for putting his hands on something that belongs to me.
~~~~~~
Tessa
I want to fucking punch something and cry the whole time I’m doing it. I always knew what Jake was capable of, but maybe in the months I’d been away from him I’d let myself forget, replacing the fear I always carried with hope. When I’d moved into this little town, I thought that this was where I could put down roots, work a real job and make a life for myself, but he’d found me, which means he can find my mother, if he hasn’t already. She had come to the hospital, and if he is around, he knows she is too.
Matthew’s rubbing circles on my back, but he isn’t saying a word. “So what do we do about that?”
He takes in a deep breath and exhales loudly. “Well, I could take you over there to see if you can find anything worth keeping and hire someone to come in and clean it all up. Do you have insurance?”
“Yes, my mother has it for me.” At least there’s that, I think to myself. Thank God for my mother.
“We’ll need to take pictures and file a claim first thing Monday morning,” he tells me matter-of-factly.
“Oh shit, I hadn’t even thought of that.” His eyes roam over my face, and I feel his hand smooth down the back of my head.
“That’s what I’m here for, Tessa. You got a shit ton of stuff on your mind, and I’m here to muddle through it, to get the mundane things done for you.” He leans down, placing a quick kiss on my lips.
This can’t be real, he can’t be real.
I turn to see that Jackson has been watching us intently the whole time. He’s a very quiet child, unusually so. But Matthew doesn’t seem to be bothered with it, so I’m not going to worry. He looks completely healthy, and I guess that’s the only thing that matters.
“Thank you for doing all you’ve done when you didn’t have to.” I raise myself up onto my tiptoes so that we can be somewhat eye level. “You’re amazing.”
“There you go, stroking my ego again, Tessa,” he says with a sexy grin on his full lips.
“Cheese, cheese,” Jackson starts yelling as he claps his hands together. We start to laugh as we pull away from each other, going back to what we’d been doing before my little meltdown.
“So do you want to go see? Or would you prefer I clean up before you go back?” he asks again.
“There are a few things I would like to see if they survived the Jakenado, if you don’t mind taking me over. Plus, I need some clothes to wear.” I look down at my chest, my nipples forever hard and sticking out of the T-shirt.
He turns to me with one eyebrow cocked, taking me in. “I personally like you walking around all nipped out and shit in my things.” I smile at him, blushing.
“Shit!” Jackson screams out. My eyes widen as I look at Matthew.
Matthew purses his lips and mouths ‘oh shit,’ then he smiles. “Guess we’re gonna have to start watching what we say.”
~~~~~~
My stomach’s in knots as his truck moves down the street to my house. I feel his hand on my thigh, which he gives a squeeze. “I’m right here, and Eno’s meeting us there too.” He looks over at me. “The son of a bitch better not show his fucking face.” His face is set, all hard lines and sharp angles.
We’d left Jackson with Avery, who lives just down the way from Matthew’s house. She’d been more than happy to take the little guy. She gave me a once-over with a knowing smile, but to her credit, didn’t ask or say anything.
We turn up the empty drive to see Eno sitting on a big black motorcycle, smoking. He stands when he sees us, letting one last breath out of smoke before dropping it and grinding out the fire with his booted foot. He’s handsome. Hell, they all are.
He takes off his aviators and tucks one arm in the collar of his black tee, hanging them against his chest. He opens my door for me, offering me his hand. “Hello, gorgeous,” he greets me, leaning in to give me a kiss on the cheek. “Jo says hello, and she wants you to call her when you get time,” he tells me. “She went through something similar to this a few months back, so she said she’s here if you need her.” I tilt my head at him, but keep my mouth shut. I want to ask a million questions.
I smile appreciatively, but feel a little stunned she offered. “Thank you,” I say, not wanting to ask why because I’d only met her and the others once, but Avery had been more than helpful to me and has kept my little secret, like she said she would.
I turn to Matthew. “Where’s my car?”
He smiles, coming up to snaking his arm around my shoulders. “Dalton towed it to the shop yesterday,” he replies as he tugs me to the front door.
“I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it?” I ask him, confused, as he leads me up the walk to my front door.
“No, but if Jake did this to you and tossed your house, I wanted to make sure he didn’t fuck with your car,” he answers me.
I stop turning to face him. “Do you think he would do something like that?” The thought has never crossed my mind, but by the look on Matthew’s and Eno’s faces, it shouldn’t surprise me if there is something wrong with my little piece of shit car.
“If he did this to you, Tessa, and your house, I wouldn’t put it past the fucker to mess with your car in some way.”
“Shitheads like Jake will do just about anything they can, Tessa. He’s fucked in the head,” Eno quips as he opens my front door for me.
~~~~~~
I stand in the middle of the complete chaos that used to be my living room with Eno and Matthew behind me. I survey the damage, and it’s utterly devastating to see what Jake has done to what little bit of a life I‘d carved out for myself. I shake my head and begin to shift through the wreckage covering the floor looking for anything that might be intact.
“I take it you’re not surprised?” Matthew asks as he comes up beside me to help turn what’s left of my coffee table over.
I scoff. “Not one little bit.” I rest my hands on my hips as the table falls to one side because it’s missing two of its legs, one which is sticking straight out of the drywall.
“Why don’t you go upstairs and see if you can find yourself some clothes, and I’ll take the pictures we’ll need to file a claim down here.” Matthew kisses me before nudging me to the steps.
I reluctantly climb the steps to the second floor of my destroyed home. The upstairs isn’t any better than the downstairs, and I highly doubt I’ll find anything intact. I pick up shattered pieces of my life as I make my way to my room. Stopping in the doorway, I survey the carnage left behind and feel as the world I thought I’s build for myself slowly crumble around me.
I walk in, picking up the ripped and bloody sheets from my broken bed. The mattress I’d laid on is shredded and stained. I walk to the dresser drawers that have been busted up and begin to shift through all the clothes that had been dumped out of them. There are very few items that haven’t been torn to pieces. Finding a bag, I begin to fill it with the meager items. Slipping on one of the only bras I have left, I follow it with one of the three pairs of panties I have left. I dress in a tee and a pair of my gym shorts, and stuff Matthew’s clothes into the bag with what is left of my undergarments.
I cross to my closet and the clothes in there haven’t fared any better than the clothes from the dresser. I find a pair of blue jeans and a few shirts that had survived, and tuck them into the bag as well. I find a box and begin to fill it with the few photos and knick-knacks left unbroken, pieces of my heart crumbling every time I pick an item up. When I’m finished, I have only two boxes of my things, everything else is a complete loss.
Feeling emotionally drained, I descend the steps to Matthew’s waiting arms. I fold myself into his warmth, laying my head on his hard chest. He rubs his hand gently up and down my back, soothing away the despair Jake has caused.
“You ready to get out of here?” he asks me.
I nod and look over at Eno, his face hard and his black eyes sharp as he takes us both in. His resemblance to his brother is striking. His build is a bit smaller than Leo’s, but they both possess a fire under their icy facades.
We have a phone full of pictures and we load the two meager boxes of things I was able to recover into the truck. The whole experience has been taxing on me, and all I want to do is go back to Matthew’s and crawl into bed, pulling the covers over my head to block out the world.
I turn in my seat towards Matthew. “What now?” I ask him. “I mean, my job, which is pretty much an afterthought, I’m sure, but damn.”
“About your job…” he starts. “I made a few calls, and your application and hiring history has been put on hold for now. Claire did me a solid. She wants to help you and wants you back at the office, so she made the three days you worked last week disappear.” He looks over at me. “So when you’re ready to go back, you’ll just go through the hiring process again with a clean slate. The only thing is you’re not going to get paid for the days you’ve worked.”
I look at him in shock. Who is this man, and why is he doing this for me? Nobody in my life, aside from my parents, even remotely did things like this. He’d told me he knew people and had a few of connections, but shit.
I say the only thing I can think to say, something I’ve been saying a lot lately. “Thank you, Matthew.” I know I should be fighting this, tell him I can do it all by myself, but for some reason, I have a feeling that wouldn’t sit well with him. He’s practically come into my life and taken it over in a good way, not the sadistic way Jake had. Matthew uses kind gestures, while Jake just used the back of his hand to get what he wanted from me.
Matthew amazes me with how much he gives of himself to a person he’s only known for seven days. There’s no way I’ll ever be able to repay his kindness. I have nothing to offer him.
~~~~~~
Matty
Going back into the house has my anger level and blood pressure through the roof. I’ve gotten used to seeing the bruises on her face, but it doesn’t make stomaching the fact of what he did to her any easier. But when I had to take the screws out of the back door, the fury from the day I’d found her slammed back into me. We can’t find that fucker fast enough.
I thought the arrogant asshole would’ve surfaced by now, but he’s dropped off the grid. The whole situation doesn’t make sense. I can’t figure out the details of it in my head. I’ve read over the information Eno had been able to pull together about her a million times, but I still can’t put the details into any kind of working order.
Killing him with my bare hands is a tangible thing, but since the police are involved, it might raise a few flags if his body turns up in the local river. He’ll pay for what he’s done, and it’ll be my fists collecting the debt he owes her. My father has been working on her divorce. As he’s one of the best lawyers in the South, I have no doubt he that he’ll get the end results she needs.
She’s quiet when we finally pull away from her house. She watches it disappear from view with a pained look on her face. I remember how Josie had reacted, seeing how her life had been turned upside down, and it’s the same way Tessa is reacting now. I reach for her hand, lifting it to my lips kissing the back of it.
“It’ll all be okay, Tessa, I promise,” I mumble, my lips still against her soft, sweet smelling skin.
Her green eyes are sad when she looks at me. “You can’t promise that.” Her voice is soft, sounding defeated.
“Yes, I can.” I lace our fingers together and squeeze her hand tight to mine.
She sighs, all the fight gone from her. “If you say so.”
“I do.” There’s no other way to relay how true my words are to her except to come clean about who I really am. That will come soon enough, and I’m afraid it will drive such a large wedge between us, we’ll never get back what I feel we’re building.