“God, Jack, I wish you would.” Tess sits on the counter and leans her head back against the wall. “This day is amazing, but also really draining. I kind of just want to go to bed.”
She closes her eyes and looks so weary. The moment she opens them again, I see how much is boiling under her surface.
“All your stuff is still at your apartment, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” she says, her clear eyes welling with tears. “I had that realization about Teri and Jeb, and fainted. I left everything when I got in the ambulance, and even though I have this family—and you—I just feel so untethered. Like I’m floating. And I don’t know where I’ll land.”
I swallow, stepping toward her. “Should I have waited to propose? I didn’t really consider the implications of your emotional state. I was only thinking of myself, of what I wanted.”
She grabs my wrists, pulls me close to her. I wrap my arms around her as she wraps her legs around me.
“Jack, I want to be your wife. I want to tethered to you, with you. I just need this mess to be over.”
“It won’t just disappear, Tess. The men out in the living room are ready to fucking blow up this town to get revenge. And I understand. They want to know why they can’t go to the cops. And the cops are going to be here at some point, doing interviews and reopening this case. A child kidnapping is a big deal.”
“Well, the woman who kidnapped me is dead. My dad—or the man I thought was my dad—may not even have been there. We have no idea. Maybe my mom kidnapped me alone, before she ever met my father. And if it was all pinned on my mother—well, she’s dead. She’s had her payback. The revenge has been served.”
“I don’t think it’s that simple. The Brotherhood is back, Tess. They’re still here in Vegas.”
Her face crumples, and she sobs into my chest. “No, Jack. I just want it to disappear. I don’t want to keep running.”
My chest tightens. I have my fucking answer about the music contract. I can’t be the person Tess needs me to be—I can’t offer her the life she wants—and sign a hundred million dollar contract. I can’t be on tour for the next ten years and be her protector.
I can’t be everything. And fuck, music may be my life, but it isn’t Tess. And life without her isn’t worth living.
I kiss her forehead. “Girl, it’s gonna be okay.”
“How do you know? Everyone out there probably wants to know why I’m so against involving the cops.”
“So what? We don’t owe them anything. It’s your story, baby. Your life. Let’s make this as simple as possible.”
“How can this be simple?”
“We tell them you’re exhausted. That you love them, but need to sleep. And that tomorrow we will talk with the police—which we will.”
“No, I can’t,” she says, crying in my chest.
“Shhh, we can and we will. We tell them about the woman who raised you, give them her name, that you grew up on the road, and let them know that, as far as you last knew, she died.”
“That’s all true,” she says, looking up at me, “but what if it opens the whole thing up?”
“Then we deal with it one step at a time.”
“You aren’t going to do something stupid?” she asks. “Like go chase them and start some showdown?”
“Do you want me to do that?” I ask. “Because, look, Tess—I’m not that guy. Some guy who wants to show his strength by the way he fights. I’m not a mafia boss.”
“I know you’re not,” Tess tells me. “I would never want a man like that, Jack. I don’t think fighting is what makes a man strong and powerful. Or even how much money he has or how important his career is. None of that matters to me.”
“Good. Because I don’t want to fucking own a club or a hotel or any part of the fucking strip.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to make choices that keep you safe, Tess, keep you whole. I just found you; there’s no way in hell I’m gonna lose you.”
TESS
Jack and I walk back into the living room to let everyone know that I’m exhausted and need to be alone for a while.
Before I can explain what I need, Emmy jumps in. “Oh, sweetie, we had no idea about your past. You never told us. We’re so sorry.” She pulls me into a hug and I shoot Jack a look of confusion. What did he say?
“I can’t believe you were raised by a biker gang. Tess, that is bananas,” Claire adds. “I just can’t imagine losing Sophia that way.” She starts crying and Landon pulls her into a hug.