I know what this means to you. Even if this is coming as an unexpected shock, I’m happy for you.
Chloe and I are happy for you. She smacked me for leaving her out.
I’m sure Monroe needs a bit to come to terms with it, so we’ll wait until one of you lets us know she’s ready for it, but congrats.
Really brother. Couldn’t be happier for you.
Not in our future,I repeatedly reminded myself, and tried ignoring the accompanying grief. A grief that went so much deeper than it ever had before. This was no longer just pain at smothering a longing. This was a soul-deep ache at the knowledge that it was there, in our grasp, and it was about to be ripped away.
Moving to the next, I swiped right back out of it when I saw it was filled with nearly identical messages from Rush.
Said a lot that they all knew to text me, and not Mallory.
Gritting my teeth as I stared at the last thread waiting to be read, I nearly ignored it completely before finally tapping into the messages from Briggs. But all my grief was forgotten in a heaving exhale when I skipped right past his no-nonsense response to me telling him we wouldn’t be coming back, and took in the bottom two messages from about fifteen minutes ago.
Briggs
Understood. Congratulations.
Is this Tessa?
Below that, was a picture of the girl in question.
Younger than the woman I knew, but without a doubt her, in what looked like a school photo.
I decided against tapping out a response and called him instead, only then glancing at the time and biting back a curse when I realized I’d slept for nearly three hours.
“Is it?” Briggs asked in way of answering.
“She’s younger there,” I muttered. “Probably younger than when I met her years ago. But that’s her.” When Briggs didn’t immediately explain where he’d found that picture, as he normally would’ve, I asked, “What’s going on?”
Silence greeted me for a few more seconds before he released a harsh breath. “How well do you know her?”
I twisted to find Mallory watching me, a silent question lining her features. “Depends on the definition.”
“Outside a bed, Gray,” Rush said, making my brows tick up. Not just because I was apparently on speaker with more than just Briggs, but because he sounded stressed in a way I’d rarely heard him over the years.
“Well enough to get there,” I answered vaguely, considering my wife was staring at me, listening to every word.
Not that she wasn’t aware of my past, including my past with Tessa, and not that Tessa hadn’t told her far too much about our nights together. But I never should’ve put Mallory in the position to watch me around any of those women in the first place. I didn’t want to recount it in front of her now.
Not after everything. Not with how unstable things felt with what we now knew.
“What do you know about her family?” Briggs finally asked, sounding irritated that he had to prompt me for that much.
“Uh, her mom lives somewhere near Amber,” I informed them, and felt my stomach clench when Mallory’s head lowered before she glanced away once she realized who we were talking about. “Her dad died a long time ago. Only child. Not sure about any other extended family.” At the next ominous silence, I ground out, “Briggs, why?”
“That picture?” he finally began, voice that same unforgiving tone he always used. “It was in the file ARCK sent.” Before I could begin to wrap my head around what he was saying, he added, “Her dad isn’t dead. He’s one of the owners of the club we’re watching.”
“Then we know where she is,” I cut in. “We need to focus on getting in there sooner.”
“We do know where she is,” Briggs confirmed. “Roughly. But she isn’t waiting for anyone to come save her.” I didn’t have the chance to ask before he barreled ahead. “We got into the camera system outside the club. Her dad arrived before you even got back to Dallas yesterday. Didn’t make it into the club before Tessa stormed out of his SUV, looking like she was already yelling at him.”
I stared straight ahead, not seeing the room around me, as I absorbed what he was saying. As I tried to absorb that we were preparing to take down the mafia father of a girl I’d slept with on multiple occasions. A girl I’d thought I’d known, but, for all I knew, might be in the mafia herself.
“They weren’t there long, but when they left, it was together. Looked like they were still arguing,” Briggs finished with a sigh.
“So, she wasn’t taken,” I muttered.
