I fall weak over her body, my forehead meets hers as I attempt to hold myself up so I don’t bear all my weight on her, but she pulls me in, wrapping her arms and legs around me. I shift to the side and we lay together, breath heavy and labored, bodies damp with sweat and layered with so much satisfaction.
“Thank you,” she says. “Thank you for not treating me like I’m broken.”
37
SEAMUS
“Tomorrow?” My pissed off tone is clear even over speaker phone.
“You asked me for detailsyesterday, late last night, to be specific, and I’m telling you everything I knowtoday,” Rocco replies, annoyed but still concerned at my erratic behavior. Because, I never react to news, positive or negative.
Unless it has to do with Mimi.
I don’t have a full plan set yet, but whatever I come up with he’s got to be fully on board and fully in the know. So, I tell him everything. I tell him where Mimi and I met, how we reconnected, and what happened in the last few months since I decided to move in next door to her.
His silence says everything. He’s probably cautious to reply with my unpredictable behavior because it’s completely out of character for me. But now he knows and understands how serious this is, and what it means when he tells me that NathanfuckingSimmons has his parole hearing in Texas,tomorrow.
“I’ll get the details of the parole hearing and call Miller. We’ll be ready to go within the hour.” He hangs up and my phone disconnects.
I glance over at the black screen, then out the window to Mimi’s house. I know she’s still sleeping because her bedroom lights are still off from when I left this morning.
I wrote her a note that I was going home to shower and change, even though my legs felt like cement bricks trying to leave this morning. The only thing that got me out of there was the fact that I have every intention of returning back to her bed before she wakes. I never want to leave her alone, but I know the more I cling to her, the more she’ll feel like I’m coddling her, which is exactly what I know she doesn’t want.
Before Rocco called, I was dressed and ready to head back over to Mimi’s, but when he told me about Nathan, I robotically grabbed my overnight bag, knowing I was going to be on the next flight to Texas with my guys. Already conjuring up a plan to make sure he never becomes a free man, by either finding out my contacts with the courthouse judge or doing it the old fashioned way the moment he steps outside the prison.
I’ve thought of a hundred different ways to kill Nathan since seeing the evidence and photos Rocco sent me yesterday. The fact that his request for early parole is granted is like giving me a winning lottery ticket. He won’t survive an hour outside those prison walls with what I have in mind for him.
I don’t know who the judge is or what the details of his parole are, but I’m surprised that Mimi didn’t mention anything about it after she told me, which leads me to believe she doesn’t know. She should have been informed and given the choice to stand in the courtroom and tell her story to the parole board.
Studying my bag, I stop myself again. If Rocco, Miller, and I fly to Texas to take care of Nathan the way I want to, I’m taking away her choice yet again. Something that’s happened far too much in her lifetime.
Fuck.
Thinking about the fear she’s lived in for the last decade—the trauma, nightmares, and memories she’s had to suppress tosurvive, the baby she lost, that was taken from her without choice. I pause, grieving for a moment for myself. Wondering if the baby she was pregnant with was mine, feeling just as powerless with the lack of choice.
I won’t be the one to take that away from her. Not now, not ever, in anything in her life.
I glance back over at the window, seeing the room still dim, but bright art fills the walls with only the light and love that Mimi brings.
She’s managed to become a strong, beautiful woman. Remaining to be the positive, giving person I knew when we were kids, never allowing that extreme trauma to define her, and she thrives regardless of all of it.
I pick up my phone, tapping on my photos app, bringing up the last picture I took.
Mimi is lying in her bed, one arm tucked under her head while the other is draped over the side of her body.
Her olive skin glows under the natural light, with her pink lips parted and a beauty mark that adorns the left corner of her chin. Her thick, dark hair splays over the pastel pink pillow cases, mixing with the ungodly sight of her ruffled, messy comforter. The contrast between the mess of the world around her and her ultimate perfection, defines who she is in every way.
I know exactly what I need to do.
Swiping out of the app, I click on my contacts and type in Christian, and click on the phone icon.
“Seamus.” He answers in one ring. I can hear in his tone my name was equally a statement, as it was a question.
I run security for the club he owns, but doesn’t manage. I should be calling Ember for anything related to Afterburn, so I know he’s surprised by my call. But I need the resources of our local billionaire, and I’m never ashamed to owe any decent person a favor if it gets me what I need.
“Everything is fine at the club,” I state immediately, so heisn’t concerned about Afterburn or anyone in it, but I cut through the bullshit because I know he doesn’t have time for it. “This is personal and I need a favor.”
“Okay,” his voice even and sure, “what do you need?”
