Chapter Fifteen
DREW
Seeing Eric and Jedd had given my soul a sense of peace, even though I still had a thousand questions and a million reasons to stay awake. The only thing I’d needed after the day I’d had was her. The need to make her come and have her whisper my name in my ear was stronger than ever. No better feeling existed.
With Ayda’s head resting on my chest and her breaths falling against my skin, nothing else seemed to matter. I was tired. So tired. Not just from recent events, but from my life. All of it. The expectation, the damnation, the purpose, the leadership…
I was fucking exhausted.
I’d listened to Ayda’s quiet, heavy breathing for a while. The ceiling held my attention for only a few minutes before dreams of a peaceful life, a wife, and a healthy baby filled my world.
A world I was beginning to wish I could drag into reality.
It felt like I’d only been asleep for a minute when I felt the gentle tugging of my hand that was hanging off the edge of the bed. With a groan of protest, I rolled my head on the pillow, facing the direction of the tugging.
“Tucker,” came a rough voice.
It took one thunderous heartbeat for my eyes to fly open and my body to tense.
Jedd was hanging over me, his silhouette the only thing I could really make out as the light from the adjoining bathroom poured through the crack in the door. He had a finger pressed to his lips, and his dark eyes narrowed as he used his other hand to point to Ayda.
I glanced down at her blissfully asleep against me. She was holding on tight, clinging to me in a way that made me want to curl into her even more and spend a week there. But Jedd was back, in the middle of the fucking night, telling me to be quiet, and the peace Ayda had shrouded me in was slipping away by the second.
With a sigh, I peeled Ayda off my body, making sure not to wake her as I lifted my groggy head from the bed and began to slide out from beneath her. Jedd was backing away toward the door, his silent instruction clear.
I walked out into the corridor, blinking against the muted lights that lit the way. I’d dressed in some loose fitting, gray sweats, and was pulling my white T-shirt down over my body when I froze in place.
It wasn’t just Jedd waiting for me.
Eric was there, too.
I’d barely had time to blink when a groggy-looking Slater Portman was shuffling into place beside me, rubbing the tiredness out of his eye as he struggled to stifle his yawn.
I looked between all three of them before I began to walk forward, Slater dragging his bare feet behind me. Eric was standing behind the bar, as stoic as ever, and Jedd was standing by his stool with a suppressed grin on his face.
“What fucking time is it?” Slater croaked.
“About one in the morning,” Jedd answered.
I blew all the air out of my cheeks and glanced between him and my father.
“What’s going on?” I asked roughly.
Jedd gestured for me to take a seat on the stool as he slid into place on his. Dad uncapped the bourbon, lined up four glasses, and poured heavy measures into each one.
“They let you out in the middle of the night?” I questioned, scowling at Jedd just as Eric slid a tumbler into my hand. The gulp I took sent a burning fire into my chest—one that woke me up without fail before I dropped the glass back to the counter.
“They offered to let me go two days ago.”
“That’s a joke, right?”
Jedd glanced at Eric, as though waiting for his instruction rather than mine. When he eventually looked back at me, his eyes were light, the darkness I’d come to know him wear so well… gone.
“I was free to walk any time I liked.”
“But you stayed…”
He nodded slowly. “All part of the plan.”
