“I did. I’ll tell you about it later, but right now—you need to get up, shower, and get dressed. Your bag is in the bedroom and breakfast is almost done.” With that, he stood up and gave me another hard, quick kiss before walking away.
My head was spinning as I walked into the bedroom. There on the bed was my purple duffle bag. I opened it to find a couple of days’ worth of clothes and everything I would need for a shower. I had so many questions, and I knew I wasn’t going to get answers until I showered and dressed.
I rushed through my shower routine and dried off. Tucker was still working in the kitchen. I heard the clanging of dishes, so I threw on some panties and a camisole, then put on jeans and a T-shirt. My hair was still damp, so I gently brushed through it with my fingers, then left it down to air dry.
When I walked into the kitchen, I saw he made me a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes. “Coffee or juice?”
“Coffee, of course.” He smiled and poured me a cup. I laughed when I saw my ‘Shut up it’s morning’ mug.
“I believe this is yours.” He slid it in front of me.
“It is. And I was about to kick your ass the other morning for stealing it.”
“I would have loved to see you try, Princess. Now eat up, we have places to go, people to see, and things to do.”
I sighed and took a sip of the coffee. It was strong and had just the right amount of creamer to make me happy. He’s sofucking perfect for me. There wasn’t a thing about him I didn’t like or want in my life, and he was acting like nothing had happened and that he wasn’t leaving tomorrow.
My heart was breaking at the thought of him going away, and that he was going somewhere where people wanted him dead and buried. All I wanted to do was to put him under lock and key to keep him safe. Fuck Grant. He was small potatoes compared to the danger Tucker was in, and Tucker was acting like everything was fine when it wasn’t—not even close.
“Are we going to talk about last night, Tucker?” I finally gathered the courage to ask after a few sips of coffee and a few bites of food that I could hardly taste.
“About which part?” He lifted his coffee to his lips and took a sip.
“You’re leaving and possible demise seems like a good place to start,” I said sarcastically, hating the fear that was churning in my gut.
“There’s a lot of people who would gain something from my death, and I’m going right back into the lion’s den. I’m going to do everything I can to stay under the radar and get back out without getting killed.”
“Do you think they could do it that easily and get away with it?”
“Yes. I do.”
“THEN WHY ARE YOU GOING?” I shouted. The food tasted like dust in my mouth, anyway. I pushed up from the table and moved over to where he was standing. His hip was leaning against the counter behind him. I gripped his shirt and clutched it in my fists. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I do, Patience. I’m sorry, but I do.”
“Taking these people down won’t bring your mother back. It won’t change anything that happened to you.”
“No, it won’t, but it will help keep it from happening to some other kid somewhere else. It will maybe keep one more family together. It can help make every life that was taken from the drugs themselves or from seeing something they shouldn’t have mean something.”
I closed my eyes and bit my lip in frustration. He was so damn honorable. It was one of the many things I loved about him. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you.” My voice cracked on a sob.
“I know, Baby, and I promise. I’ll take every bit of care I can to make sure that it doesn’t.”
I nodded. “I’m not hungry. We can go do our errands, then come home.” I couldn’t eat. If he didn’t have errands that he needed to run, then I wouldn’t want to leave the apartment. I just wanted to spend what time I had left with him.
Together, we cleaned up the dishes and stored the food for later. Tucker grabbed the keys and his jacket, then held up my jacket as I slipped into it. His dad was a dick that didn’t deserve the family he got, and Tucker was the kindest, most generous man. He learned what not to do from the man who raised him.
“Where are we going?” I asked once we were in the truck and buckled up.
“To see a man about a dog,” Tucker answered with a grin and popped the truck in reverse.
***
“I want to keep them all,” I crooned as I hugged and loved on each of the dogs I was introduced to.
“Sorry, Patience, only one for now. When I get back, we’ll get you another one.”
“Okay.” I smiled and greeted another one of the dogs as we walked by the kennels. They were all older, fully house trained, and they had other special training as well, Tucker had explainedto me. He wanted me to pick which one I wanted. “What breed are these? They kinda look like pit bulls.”
