Page 45 of Every Broken Piece

Chapter forty-three

Gabe

“ G abriel, if you fuck this up—”

“I’ll be there,” I tell Jack. “And I’ll be ready for the meeting. All I’m saying is that we’re leaving a few hours later than planned. The plane’s taking off at three instead of noon. I have my laptop. I’ll review everything on the flight.”

I’m pacing Tess’s small dining area, feeling the suffocating weight of Jack’s expectations. This meeting is big, and he’s right. I can’t fuck it up. But what’s going on with Tess, that’s even bigger, and I can’t fuck that up either.

I feel like I’m walking a tightrope with her. One bad foot placement and I’m falling.

I’m so furious at what happened with Sandra earlier that I’m still shaking, but I’m trying to stay calm for Tess’s sake because I know my girl. She’s ready to run.

Detective Hardwick left a few minutes ago.

Tess told the detective about the phone call and the minty breath, but beyond that her memory is hazy at best. The police have a lead, at least that’s something, right?

Hardwick can start with Sandra Jansen. If they can find her. But I can’t think about that now.

Motherfucker, I need a moment to process all this. I haven’t had a second to think since Sandra pushed her way into the apartment. I need to walk away just for a minute. I need to punch something. Preferably Sandra Jansen’s face, but a wall will do.

“Gabe? Are you listening to me?”

“Yes. Montrose. Meeting. I’ll be prepared.”

“That’s not what I was saying.”

Damn it. I need to focus.

“I swear to you. I’ll be there.” I run a hand over my face and pinch the bridge of my nose.

“You’re bringing her home?” Jack asks.

“Yes. Maybe.” I haven’t convinced her to come to Colorado with me and time’s running out.

“Yes? Or maybe?” Jack’s persistence is making my head pound. Tess disappeared into her room the minute Hardwick left, and Jack spectacularly timed his call as her door clicked shut. I pray she isn’t climbing out the fourth story window.

“ Gabe. ”

“I’m bringing her home.” Those four words feel so right that they make my chest ache. I just hope Tess feels at least partially the same way.

“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.” I end the call and tilt my head back, closing my eyes and breathing deep. This Montrose meeting couldn’t have come at the worst time. I’ll be ready. I don’t have a choice. But damn I’d kill for one more day so I can at least breathe.

“I’ll never be free of her.”

I spin around to find Tess standing behind me, wrapped tightly in her bright yellow daisy blanket. She’s pale. Those gorgeous tiger eyes are sharp and beautiful but it’s the resignation in them that guts me. She’s giving up and I hate it.

“You can, and you will. Starting now. Let me help you, Tess. Come home with me.”

Her eyes drift closed. Her shoulders rise, then fall. Her fingers twitch as they grip the blanket. I let her go inside her head where she needs to be to make this leap of faith. It’s a huge leap. A life changing leap. I want her to understand that she can have the life she wants without her mother.

She opens her eyes and nods. “Okay.” Then a little louder. “Okay. I’ll go with you.” She pins me with a stern look. “Just for a little while. Until I can figure out what to do next.”

“For however long you’d like.”

“Not forever.” She sounds like she’s trying to convince herself.

“For however long you’d like,” I repeat. If that’s forever, I’m not complaining.

She huffs out a breath that could be frustration or could be relief. She chews on her bottom lip, then nods again. Just like that my heart feels a thousand pounds lighter.

She’s coming home with me. The rest we can handle later.

I find her sitting on her bed, staring at a jumbled pile of shirts and pants and socks and hoodies of every color.

“You good?”

“I don’t know what to take,” she says.

“Take what makes you feel comfortable.” Getting dressed is a struggle for her, so comfort it is until that wrist is healed. “If you forget something we can always buy it.”

She runs a hand through the pile of clothes. I see a t-shirt that says, “ Hollywood—Star Studded and Sunny ”.

“You don’t need to spend your money on me.”

I move into the room, push the pile back and sit beside her on the edge of the bed. “I know I don’t need to. I want to.”

She grabs a sweatshirt and nervously starts folding it, but the strings stick to the Velcro of her wrist brace and she lets out a frustrated huff. I gently untangle them and pull the sweatshirt from her hands.

“I don’t want you to think you’re responsible for me,” she whispers.

“I know I’m not, but I want to be. Let me take care of you. Please?”

Her body tilts to the side until she’s resting her head on my shoulder. It’s the single best feeling in the world to have her leaning on me for support. I don’t think she recognizes the significance of this simple action, that by leaning she’s letting me hold her up even if it is for a moment.

“I want so badly to believe you” she whispers.

“What don’t you believe?”

“Everything.”

“I can’t convince you if I don’t have specifics.”

She winds the hoodie strings through her fingers. “That I can be free of my mother. That I can be...happy.”

My eyes sting. This woman has made me cry more in the last two days than I have in the last eighteen years. “I can help with your mother. Being happy has to come from inside you.”

She angles her head to look up at me. “I think you could make me happy, but I’m afraid to believe because everything I’ve ever hoped for has been taken from me and I don’t want that to happen with you.”

Fuck. “Spitfire...” I clear my throat.

She pulls away to start sorting clothes. “I should pack so we can get going tomorrow. You need to study up for your meeting.”

I take her hands in mine. “Stop, Tess. Stop turning away from me. Stop trying to push me away.”

Her shoulders slump. “It hurts too much to hope.”

I press a kiss to the top of her head, inhaling the vanilla scent of her shampoo. “I’m here for you. I’ll always be here for you. And someday you’ll start believing again.”

She lifts tear-filled eyes to me. “Don’t hurt me, Gabe. Don’t promise me things you can’t deliver. And don’t underestimate Sandra.”

I wrap her in my arms and hold tight until her warm body melts into me. I think I need this hug just as much as she does. “You’re safe with me. Your heart. Your body. All of it. You’re safe now. I swear on my life.”

She pushes away and wipes at her eyes. I surreptitiously wipe at my own.

We each sit in our own thoughts, mine of convincing her to stay once I have her in Colorado.

Hers, I don’t know. I wish I knew what she’s thinking so I can counter every argument in that pretty head, but she’s not saying, and I’m left guessing.

“So.” She looks at the pile of clothes and the moment is over, but I still feel the way our bodies fit so well together, like we were made for each other, and I fully intend on holding her like that again.

“Is it cold in Colorado?”

I grab the Hollywood t-shirt and start folding, while she picks up the sweatshirt she’d been folding earlier.

“It’ll probably snow a few more times, but spring is coming.”

“Will you show me the Rocky Mountains?”

My heart. It’s not going to survive this woman. “Absolutely. You can see them outside my penthouse windows.”

I grab a t-shirt that says, “ Grand Canyon—Nature’s Masterpiece ”.

“We can even take a trip to the Grand Canyon if you want.”

Her smile is small as she folds a pair of jeans.

“What’s with the t-shirts, anyway?” I ask, adding to her pile of folded clothes.

“They’re bucket list items. Places I want to see before I die.”

My hands falter as the breath leaves me. Can my heart break any more for this woman? I clear my thick throat. “Then definitely we should go to the Grand Canyon.”