Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 130159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
“Evidence that had previously been overlooked sent me to a warehouse in Jersey, near the docks. Most of those operations are crooked as hell, and I didn’t have any authority to be crawling inside the location, but…yeah, that didn’t stop me.”
Beck looked stupefied. “Isn’t that mob territory?”
Even his question made Heavenly’s gut twist. She hadn’t been aware of that, but Seth’s expression said he had.
Despite the fact she already knew the end of this story, the sense of angst and impending doom made her squirm and her heart ache.
“Definitely. But the Mafia wasn’t my problem. In my experience, if I left them alone, they’d return the favor.”
“You were damn cocky.” Beck sent him a disbelieving stare. “Jesus…”
“I was. Weren’t you at twenty-four?”
Beck shrugged. “Pretty much.”
“I’m not that old yet, and I would be terrified,” Heavenly objected.
Both men sent her smiles that were at once amused and protective.
“A sweet angel like you has reason to be,” Seth pointed out. “I was a pissed-off motherfucker with a gun and I wasn’t afraid to use it. Anyway, I didn’t find anything at the warehouse, but I knew in my gut the place was somehow important. When I got back to my car, there was a note on my windshield. Another threat. But this one was different. This one made my blood run cold.”
Seth choked on his last words and turned away. Heavenly rose from the sofa to comfort him, but Beck grabbed her arm and pulled her down with a shake of his head.
“He needs to do this himself,” he whispered.
She shook her head. “He’s all alone.”
Beck nodded. “He has to tell us if he doesn’t want to be.”
That low-voiced murmur knocked the breath from her. As much as she hated it, Beck was right. Seth might love them and he might be telling them the story of Autumn’s and Tristan’s deaths, but that didn’t mean he wanted to come home and have a future with them.
That realization was crushing.
“What did the note say?” Beck asked.
Seth clenched his fists. His body went taut, his shoulders so tense Heavenly held her breath. Had she ever seen him so close to breaking down?
“Seth?” She needed to know if he was all right.
He stood unmoving, refusing to face them.
She pressed her lips together, resisting the powerful urge to comfort him and tell him it was okay if he didn’t finish his explanation.
But it wasn’t. They all knew that.
Instead, she waited beside Beck, grabbing his hand tightly, praying Seth found the strength to go on.
Finally, he took a step, exhaled, then pivoted to them, his face a shockingly blank mask. “It was a picture of Autumn and Tristan in our kitchen, taken the day before through the window. It said ‘You should have listened. Merry fucking Christmas.’”
Heavenly gasped and gripped Beck’s hand so tightly her own went numb. He squeezed her back, looking shocked and sickened. Neither of them spoke a word. She felt faint and had to remind herself to take a breath.
“I got in my car and hauled ass out of there. I called Autumn on my way home, relieved as hell when she answered. I told her to grab the baby and get out of the house that minute, to drive to her parents’ place. I promised I would pack them some essentials and meet them there.”
His wife must have been panicked. Heavenly could only imagine how terrifying the urgency in Seth’s voice must have been. And the horror of knowing that someone wanted to harm her and their child…
“Oh, my gosh,” Heavenly squeaked, near tears.
“Autumn did exactly as I asked. I talked to her while she slipped on her coat, picked up Tristan’s diaper bag, and ran to the car. She strapped him in, backed the car out of the garage, and put it in drive. She was telling me that the streets were icy when I heard a deafening bang. The call went dead. I tried to reach her again at least ten times. She didn’t pick up. Then my scanner erupted with chatter. Car explosion. My address. No survivors.” He took a ragged breath, then finally looked their way. “My family was gone.”
Heavenly couldn’t move. The horror he’d been through sickened her, and she’d merely heard about the incident. Seth had lived it. At Christmas.
How had he ever survived?
And last holiday season, when he must have been reliving that nightmare again, she had told Seth in the checkout line at the grocery store that she liked Beck as more than a friend and sent him packing back to New York. She’d left him alone to deal with his annual grief and guilt, along with what he’d perceived as her rejection.
She tore free from Beck’s grip. It didn’t matter right now that Seth hadn’t agreed to come home. He needed comfort, and she was a human being. One who loved him, yes. But even if he’d been a stranger, she would have been compelled to throw her arms around him as she did right now and offer the only words she could think of. “I’m so sorry.”