Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

43. Tessa

FORTY-THREE

TESSA

“I really think you should wait, Tessa. Trent’s on his way home right now.” Eden’s panicked voice covered me as she chased me back into her garage, begging me to listen to reason.

But there was no reason right then.

There was only agony and pain and the deepest, most brutal kind of wounds.

Had he done it? Had Milo hurt Bobby? Is that why he freaked out and left?

Horror cemented in my throat.

He’d…killed people before.

He’d admitted it.

Tossed it out. Proof that he shouldn’t be trusted.

And I’d ignored it like it was rational.

I gulped around the torment. Around his truth he’d confided in me. The confession I’d promised him I would hold.

My head spun through the anarchy that tugged my thoughts in every direction.

Everything I’d thought I’d known at odds with everything I’d discovered.

But Bobby’d had an accident.

He was hiking, and he’d fallen.

Hadn’t he?

“Oh my God.” A convulsion of pain wrenched through my body, and my arm went to my stomach like I could keep the sickness from overtaking me.

Like I could protect myself from experiencing it.

From feeling it.

Because I couldn’t handle it if this was true.

I managed to make it to Eden’s car and ripped open the door. She tried to stop me.

“I have to go, Eden. Please. I need to know.”

“Wait for Trent,” she begged.

My head shook, and I choked over the truth. “I can’t.”

“Tessa.” She looked behind her, torn between me and her children, who were inside.

I felt terrible for putting her in this position, but my soul wouldn’t let me wait.

I smiled at my best friend through the soggy blur of my eyes and my heart and my soul, and I whispered, “Mad love.”

In surrender, she moved back, giving me the space I was asking for. Tears streaked down her face. “Please be careful.”

“I’ll be fine.”

One day, I would be, but that was not going to be today.

I backed out, my pulse so loud I could hear it chugging in my ears as I drove to the little cabin tucked in the woods.

A cabin I’d believed a sanctuary. The place I’d thought was going to be my home. But Milo had destroyed that, hadn’t he? Robbed me of the one person I’d had left?

Bobby.

Grief nearly buckled me, but I forced myself to focus through the disorder, to be careful because I wasn’t going to be one of those selfish jerks who only cared about themselves and put everyone around them in danger.

I struggled to keep my breathing even, to keep my cool, to remember I was just coming for answers.

I did my best to convince myself those answers weren’t going to annihilate the last part of me, but I knew I was only lying to myself as I turned onto the windy, two-lane road that led in the direction of Milo’s house.

The man who’d warned me he would ruin me.

I’d refused to listen.

I choked over my stupidity, the belief I’d given so freely.

But my heart…my heart had assured me he was good.

I wanted him to be.

I needed him to be.

I needed him to wrap me in his arms and promise me it was all a misunderstanding.

I finally made it to the turn off to his property, and I turned onto the narrow, gravel road. The tremoring only got worse as I approached, my speed increasing, the chaos whipping through my brain, thoughts dragging me in a thousand different directions.

When I got to the end of his drive, I rammed on the brakes, the tires skidding on the gravel as I came to a halt.

At the sight of his cabin, panic laced with this love and desperation overtook me.

He had to tell me it was a mistake.

That I was wrong.

That those videos had lied.

I threw it into park, tossed open the door, and raced up the porch steps.

Even though both his truck and the rental SUV were sitting out front, I already knew he wasn’t there.

I could feel the emptiness echo back.

His aura gone.

His hope dimmed.

I tried the knob. When it was locked, I yanked at it in desperation before I started pounding on the wood since I didn’t have my keys.

I’d lost mine somewhere along the way last night. Fitting, since I’d lost the last pieces of my life then, too.

And I needed them back.

I needed this heart whole.

I couldn’t handle it.

Couldn’t.

“Milo!” I yelled it through the agony, his name a petition.

A prayer.

“Milo!”

I was begging for it not to be true.

“Milo, please!” I cried through the grief.

Tears flooded, and I choked over the sobs that wouldn’t stop coming.

A sea of them.

Wave after wave.

Rising higher.

Sucking in a breath, I raked the backs of my hands frantically over my eyes to try to clear the disorder.

Cheryl.

It clicked in an instant where he would go. She was within walking distance. He had to have gone there.

With purpose, I ran for Eden’s small SUV.

I had to get to him.

I had to know.

I was halfway there when I was ripped from my feet unaware.

No warning.

No way to fight or prepare for the arm that wrapped around my waist from behind and snatched me from the ground.

A scream tore up my throat, though it was muffled by a hand that slapped across my mouth. A second later, a knife was pressed against my neck.

Oh my God. Please no.

Panic skidded through my being.

Fear clouding my sight and terror shaking me to the bone.

Another man stepped out from the trees, dressed in a suit, completely out of place.

Ice slicked down my spine at the cold vacancy in his eyes.

He eased forward, so slowly.

Dread and disgust twisted my stomach in a fist.

It was him.

The man Milo kept warning me about.

I didn’t need any introductions to know it to my soul.

With a sneer, he reached out and dug his index finger into my cheek, and he dragged it down slowly, as if his whole purpose was cutting me in two.

Revulsion clawed through my senses.

“I guess I should thank you for leading me to Robert.”

Robert?

My heart crashed to the ground.

He was talking about Bobby.

Bobby.

Oh God.

Tears rushed down my face, and he continued like he was enjoying ripping out my tattered soul. “You know, I’d believed Immortal dead for all these years. And when we learned of Milo finding a new girlfriend, I decided I should have one of my guys check into you. Imagine my surprise when I was told Robert was still alive. At least we were able to finally take care of that situation permanently.”

“No!” It was muffled against the brute’s hand who held me hostage against his body.

“He’s lucky it was painless this time…so much less than he deserved for his betrayal.”

Rage and heartbreak cleaved through my soul, and I kicked and thrashed against the man, no chance of breaking free of his arms. But I wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

“No!” I shouted again. He held his palm so tightly over my mouth I thought I would suffocate.

Still, I fought.

Fought and wailed.

Every one of my cries was muffled and pained.

The monster in front of me cocked his head. “You see, I’m just not the type of man who can look the other way when people don’t honor their commitments to me. I’d taken both Milo and Robert in. Nurtured them. Gave them a chance. Treated them like sons. They’re the ones who turned their backs on me. Ruined what I’d built. I think it’s only fair that I’m repaid my generosity, don’t you?”