“All right,son, wring it out good and hand it to me. Perfect.”
Cold water hits the back of my neck, clinging to me in a way that doesn’t make sense. Seconds tick by but everything feels like it’s moving in slow motion until my eyelids crease and finally crack open.
“There she is.” Miles’s voice is deep but calm, wrapping around me in a soothing cocoon of soft, cool velvet. “Jake, hand me a bottle of water.”
“Is this my fault? I didn’t mean to…”
The sound of sorry-filled guilt, trepidation oozing out of Jake jolts through me like a slap across the face, throwing me into mama-bear mode. I sit up, pushing against the support holding me upright.
“Stop.” I push hard, earning a loudooffrom behind me as I launch my ass up off the kitchen floor, a cold, damp cloth falling away from my neck. Chills race down my spine as my blood boils in my veins.
“Chloe, take it easy,” Miles says.
“Don’t.” I scramble to get my feet under me, wobbling slightly with the sudden movement.
In a flash, Miles is on his feet next to me, steadying me. “Careful, babe. Calm?—”
“No. Just no.” I shove his hands away. “Don’t you tell me to calm down. Don’t you fucking dare.”
Jake gasps, saying, “Mom,” at the same time Miles’s chin jolts back, surprise battling with concern.
He reaches out again, but I push away, feeling like a trapped animal, scared and cornered.
“What made you think that was okay? That you could endanger my child like that?” My voice sounds foreign to me, high-pitched and shaky. A part of me knows that I’m overreacting. Not a lot, but enough. I should calm down—at least for Jake’s sake—but I can’t. I just can’t.
“Chloe, please. He was safe. I would never?—”
“You don’t know that,” I scream.
Miles turns to look over his shoulder. “Jake, go on upstairs for a minute, okay? Let’s give your mom some space. I promise, I’ll be up in a just a little bit.”
“Yes, sir,” Jake says, tears in his eyes, feet pounding up the stairs.
Miles turns back to me, hands resting on his hips, and he just waits… though not for long. The moment I hear Jake’s bedroom door slam closed, I let loose my fears.
“Do you not get it? Do you just not get the significance? My husband—Jake’s father—died in a robbery just like that. In a convenience store, just like that. Kids fucking around, stealing shit, and Dallas died. He had been trained, same as you. Fought. Pulled multiple tours, and he fucking died, Miles. He died. Do you have any idea what that feels like?
“And you took the last of him—the last remaining bit of my husband—my innocent child, and you knowingly left him in asituation that was already dangerous. You left himalone. How could you for a minute think that was okay? How can you stand there and spout shit about not keeping secrets when you didn’t even have the balls to tell me what had happened today?”
My heart pounds against my ribs, and blood rushes hot through my veins. Black spots pop up in front of me, and I feel my vision clouding, tunneling again.
“Breathe in, two, three, four. Hold. Out, two, three, four.” Miles walks me through the exercise, counting for me as I try to calm down.
I close my eyes and allow it, doing all I can not to pass out again. I’m all Jake has. I have to keep my shit together and protect him, keep him safe.
“What do you think I was doing, Chloe? Jake was safe. Completely safe. The windows were down, the vehicle was locked, and I had the fob. If he unlocked that door, the alarm would have sounded. I would never put Jake or you in harm’s way. Not ever,” he says as if responding to what I thought were strictly my thoughts. “Yes, you totally said all of that out loud. But you’re not alone, Chloe, not in this.”
I want to melt into his words, wrap myself up in the promise he made. Cocoon myself in a life that includes Miles.
“I’m here. I’m with you guys, one hundred percent.” He closes the distance between us, his big palms warm against my cheeks as he gently cups my face. “There is no place in the world I’d rather be, no one I’d rather be with. You and Jake are all I need.”
Deep chocolate eyes, flecked with hints of gold, scan my face, searching, waiting. The smallest tug of pressure against the back of my skull guides me closer to Miles.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“I can’t lose him, Miles.”
“I know. I won’t jeopardize that. I won’t risk it.”
