“I would do it,” Tessa replies. “Does that make me a bad person?”
“What? No, of course not, sweetie.”
“If I kill them, then I would finally know that they were gone and couldn’t hurt me again. If someone else does it…I’ll never really know it’s over.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” I say even though I pray that Roman and his guys get rid of the assholes before Tessa leaves here in a month.
Roman
* * *
“How’s it going?” Winston asks when he sticks his head in my office the next afternoon. “How’s Tessa?”
“She’s settled in at the treatment facility. Charlotte said she’s still calling off the wedding, but overall she sounds stronger.”
“That’s good,” he says.
“Yeah, I just wish we had more intel on where to find those fuckers,” I mutter.
“Amen, brother,” Winston agrees. “And what about you?”
“What about me?”
“How are you doing with all this?”
“I’m great.”
“Great? Does that mean you finally got to nail the widow you’ve been stalking for years?” he asks with a smirk.
“First of all,” I start. “It’s none of your business who I’m nailing or not nailing. Secondly, I haven’t been stalking her. I’ve been checking in on her, making sure she’s okay since her husband was killed.”
“So she turned you down. Understood,” he says with a gruff chuckle.
“She didn’t turn me down! Actually she’s staying with me for the next few weeks, but we’re taking things slow.”
“Taking things slow as in the ghost of her husband is still lurking around, refusing to let her go?”
“Something like that,” I mutter.
“Have you told her the truth about him yet?”
“No. I can’t. I won’t.”
“You should. The man is dead, Roman. His secrets should all die with him. Maybe when she finally learns the truth, she’ll be able to move on.”
“I can’t do that to Charlotte, hurt her because of him in the hopes it will help her let him go. She has to do that on her own.”
“So, you’re just going to give yourself the worst case of blue balls ever and wait her out, even if it takes years.”
“Yes! I’ll wait…even if it takes years.”
“Too bad you don’t have years,” he remarks.
“What do you mean?”
“How long is Tessa staying at the facility?”
“A month.”
“Then that’s all you’ve got with Charlotte, Roman. In a month, she’ll be going home with her friend, and your time will have run out.”
Fuck, I hate when my best friend is right about shit. I don’t like seeing things from an angle that I missed, and then being forced to admit I’m wrong. But that’s why Winston is my VP — he’s a pessimist who constantly finds problems with every damn thing.
“Didn’t think about that, did you?” he asks with a chuckle.
“Fuck off. I know she has a house in Raleigh. And a job she loves…”
“Tick tock, motherfucker,” he says, tapping the top of his wrist on the way out the door. “Now or never, prez.”
Chapter Fourteen
Charlotte
* * *
“Oh, good, you’re all packed up,” I say when I get back to the rental house and see Paul and Steven’s luggage sitting at the door.
“I need to wrap up a few things at work, but I can come back since I put in for time off during the wedding and our honeymoon.” When I don’t respond to that, he adds, “Charlotte, please tell me you have some good news,” he pleads.
“Let’s…sit down and talk a minute,” I suggest while trying to figure out the best way to tell him the last thing he wants to hear.
Once we’re all sitting on the sofas in the living room, I say, “So, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Tessa is doing very well. She seems to really like the facility and has made a few friends with some of the other patients.”
“That’s great,” Paul agrees. “So, what’s the bad news? Are they going to keep her longer than a month?”
“We don’t really know right now how long she’ll be there,” I reply. “But the bad news is that…” I pause to retrieve the diamond ring from my pocket and then offer it to him. “The bad news is that Tessa wanted me to give this back to you. She’s so sorry, but she’s not ready to get married.”
“We don’t have to get married next Sunday!” he exclaims as he jumps to his feet, refusing to take the ring from me. “We can wait a few months or until next year…”
“Paul, I’m sorry, but Tessa isn’t just calling off the wedding. She wants to end things with you.”
“What?” he gasps as he lowers himself back down to the sofa. “End things? She doesn’t want to be with me?”
“I’m sorry,” I tell him. Getting up, I go over and grab his palm, turning it up so I can place the ring in the center and close his fingers back around it. “It’s possible Tessa could change her mind later on, maybe after she’s finished her treatment at the facility.”
“Why?” he asks softly. “Why is she pushing me away when all I want to do is hold her and be there for her?”
I wince when he says he wants to hold her, remembering what Tessa said about not being able to stomach letting him touch her right now. And for the first time, I start to believe that maybe she was right to end things with Paul. He won’t understand what she’s going through, no matter how hard he tries. Only those of us who were there know and get it. And it wouldn’t be fair for Tessa to have to try and explain what she went through to Paul. She shouldn’t have to talk to anyone about what happened and relive that nightmare.
“Go home, Paul. I’m going to stay however long it takes, and I’ll keep you updated, even if Tessa doesn’t want to talk to you just yet.”
“It feels wrong to leave her here,” he says as he holds the diamond between his fingers and studies it as if searching for answers as to what to do next.
“I know it does. But please believe that Tessa is doing what she thinks is best for you. She wants you to go on with your life.”
“How? How do I do that? I don’t want to go on with my life without her in it! Doesn’t she understand that?”
Now he’s getting angry. I try to recall all the stages of grief and hope for his sake that acceptance will be next.
“Yelling isn’t going to change things, man,” his brother Steven tells him.
“What else can I do but yell!” he shouts at him. “My fiancée just broke up with me and wouldn’t even tell me so herself!”
“Don’t be pissed at Tessa,” Steven says. “Be pissed at those assholes who took her. This is their fault. Just give her some time to heal. That’s what she needs now more than you.” Turning to me, Steven asks, “Is there any news? Have the police found them yet?”