Ignoring the look and trying to hide the reaction my body was having to it, I asked, “What about Brant? You need me to go pick him up or anything?”
She shook her head, reaching up to rub her temples like she was fighting off a headache. “No. Thank you. He’s having a sleepover with Caro tonight since I was supposed to work so late.”
It suddenly felt as if someone had shoved a white-hot poker right through my gut. She’d said the words with such apathy, like it was nothing, because for her, it wasn’t. This was just how things were for her. She had to work a job that took her away from her son most nights because it was the only way she could take care of him. And it was all my fault.
But I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to fix it.
“Come on, sunshine. Let’s get you to bed.” I gently put my hand to the small of her back and began guiding her from the kitchen. The slight shiver I felt go through her at my touch made me want to dig my fingers deeper into her skin, slide my arm around her waist, and pull her soft body against mine while I feasted on her mouth.
I didn’t do any of those things. It was so goddamn hard not to, my body was shaking with the exertion of keeping myself in check, but thank God, I managed.
I knew her exhaustion was winning out and she really didn’t feel well when she didn’t fight me, but instead, let me lead her through the house to her bedroom, a space that was so goddamn small her bed took up almost every inch, leaving no room for anything but a rickety nightstand and a cheap dresser.
“Can you turn around, please,” she asked, her voice small and weary. I did as asked, giving her my back as she began fumbling with her clothes. I realized a second later that there was a mirror hanging on the wall I was facing, giving me a partial view of what was happening behind me.
A decent man would have averted his eyes, but no matter how many times I told myself to look away, I couldn’t rip my eyes from Shane’s body reflected in the glass. She sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her boots off one at a time and dropping them carelessly to the floor, but it was when she stood up, her hands moving to the waistband of her jeans, that my breathing started to accelerate.
Her hips were rounder than they’d been when we were younger, her ass fuller. Carrying our baby had changed her body in many ways, and all of them were fucking spectacular. She bent, sliding those pants down her legs, revealing the mouthwatering globes of her ass cheeks encased in a scrap of delicate pink lace and the creamy skin on her soft, shapely thighs. Christ, I loved her body, always had. I hadn’t thought it possible, but she was even better than I remembered, and there wasn’t a single inch of her that I hadn’t committed to memory. Before I left, I’d known her body better than I had my own. Now, I’d have given my left nut to be able to memorize the new dips and valleys I was seeing.
With her jeans discarded, she climbed into bed, crawling under the covers and pulling them up to her waist. “Jensen,” she said, her voice pulling me from my erotic fantasies and back into the present. “About what you said earlier tonight—”
I quickly turned, moving to the side of the bed and sitting on the edge. “I don’t want you to think about that, baby. I’m gonna get to the bottom of it.”
“But I don’t understand.” She lifted her hands, pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes. “You said you made a deal. What deal? And with who?”
Those were the questions I’d been dreading since I returned to Redemption. I knew I’d eventually have to give her the truth. I couldn’t keep those secrets any longer if I wanted a chance at winning her back, and that was what fucking terrified me. Because if I got her back, and she leaned the truth, I might end up losing her anyway.
But there was no other choice.
“I’ll tell you everything, Shane. But not tonight. You need to sleep, baby. You need to feel better.”
Her light brown eyes held a skepticism that cut me to the quick. She didn’t trust me, not that I could blame her. “You promise?” she asked with trepidation.
“Yes.”
“You’ll tell me everything? Because I can’t stand being in the dark like this, Jensen. It won’t work for me. If you want us to get along for the sake of our son, I need all of it.”
And she’d get it. Every ugly, brutal detail. Even if it cost me everything. I just hoped like fuck that it wouldn’t. “I swear.”
That seemed to pacify her, at least for the time being. Her shoulders slumped and her eyelids grew heavy, telling me it was time for me to go—even if that was the last thing I wanted to do.
Leaning in, taking in the light, sweet fragrance of her skin, I pressed my lips against the corner of her mouth. “Sleep well. I’ll see you Sunday.”
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “And Jensen?” she called out as I started for the bedroom door. I looked back over my shoulder to see a tentative smile tugging at her lips. “Thanks . . . for taking care of me.”
“Always, sunshine.”
With that, I headed out and climbed back into my truck that now smelled just like her. I backed out of the driveway while hitting the speed dial on my phone and setting it to speaker before tossing it in the cup holder.
“Yo. Everything good?” Gage answered after two rings, the loud sounds coming through the phone telling me he was still at Bad Alibi.
“Fuck no,” I clipped through gnashed teeth. “Everything’s far from good.”
“Whaddaya need.”
“Need you guys back at the office as soon as you can. I’ll put on the coffee to sober Laeth up, ’cause I’m gonna need your help with some pretty serious shit.”
“He’s good. Kept it in check ’cause we figured this call might come. We’ve just been waiting.”
And there it was, just one of the reasons why Laeth and Gage were my family, why I’d take a bullet for either one of them.
“All right then. See you in a few.”
“In a few,” he repeated.
I hung up and choked the steering wheel so hard it was a wonder it didn’t break as I let loose the rage I’d been bottling up, letting it flow through me, into my bloodstream,.
I didn’t know what was happening, but I would soon enough. And if it was what I expected, I was going to make Whitman Rose pay.
Before I destroyed his fucking life.
Chapter Thirteen
Shane
Sixteen years old
The past two months had been completely unexpected, and it was all because of Jensen Rose.
The boy I couldn’t stand upon our first encounter, the guy I’d misjudged at the very beginning, was now the one person I couldn’t wait to see every day. He was the first thing that popped into my head every morning when I woke up, and the last thing I thought about when I went to bed at night. It didn’t matter the amount of talking at school or on the phone, or the number of texts we shared when we weren’t together . . . I couldn’t seem to get enough.
I hadn’t spoken a word to Rina in the months that had passed after our fight in the cafeteria, but I wasn’t upset by that at all. I didn’t miss her, not only because she’d been a terrible friend, but also because she’d been replaced by Jensen, who’d all but forced himself into the role of best friend, giving me no choice but to accept.