“I don’t give a shit if he’s having a hard time at home or not. The next time he implies that my girlfriend deserved any of this, I won’t hold Reid back, I’ll join in,Detective,” Heath threatened.
Damon nodded. “I think we have everything we need. I will be visiting your ex-husband personally to see if he has an alibi for today. According to Miss Brookes, the cameras in the parking lot would have recorded what happened. I will review those when I get back to the station. I’ll call you if I have any news at all.” He gave us all one last look, lingering on Jill before he turned and was out the door.
Jill turned me around to face her and gave me a tight hug. “You’re not staying in that apartment where he can get to you. We’ll go and get you a bag, but you are staying with me this weekend,” she said with resolve.
Reid stepped up and grabbed her attention. “That won’t be necessary. She’ll be staying with us until they catch that fucker.”
Jill turned and went toe-to-toe with Reid. I cringed at the thought of both of their strong personalities clashing. “What’s stopping Tom from just taking his ass across the hall to your door? If he can get to her apartment, he can get to yours,” Jill said.
Heath took their arguing as an opportunity to scoop me up and take me to the office lounge. He sat down on the couch with me in his lap and ran his hand down my back in soothing strokes.
I could barely hear them going at it from here. Heath turned me to look at him. “It’s gonna be okay, sweetheart. We will figure out what’s going on, but in the meantime, Reid and I will take care of you,” he promised.
His sweet words were my undoing. I laid my head on his shoulder, burying my face in his neck, and started to cry. I hadn’t realized how much I was holding in. I hadn’t even really reacted when Tom hit me the other night. But I was letting it all out now. Heath kept rubbing my back and rocked me gently.
By the time my eyes ran dry, Reid joined us. He sat down next to Heath and leaned in to kiss me sweetly.
Jill came and squatted in front of us. “You’re going to stay with Reid and Heath for a while, okay? Reid told me that they are going to work out a schedule so at least one of them will always be with you at all times. If you need anything at all you call me, understand?”
I nodded as she leaned forward and smoothed my hair down.
I felt like such a burden at that moment. The fact that they felt obligated to take care of me made me feel guilty. Reid, Heath, and I had only been dating for such a short amount of time, and they shouldn’t have to deal with this. I didn’t know if they knew what they signed up for when they took me on.
We all left sometime later. I rode in Heath’s vehicle, pushed right up against him. My car was being towed to a local body shop, where it would be assessed for damages and turned in to insurance.
When we got home, they tried to get me to eat something, but the idea of food was repulsive. I just wanted to be done with this day and sleep.
They ushered me into their bathroom where we all got into the shower. They both took their time washing and holding me. There was nothing sexual about it, and everything they did was a comfort.
After I was dried off, Reid carried me to bed where he laid me down in the middle, and they both climbed in, surrounding me. I lay there for the longest time, thinking about the implications of this night. I wondered how much they would put up with before they decided enough was enough.
They signed up for a partnership, not someone else to take care of. I made a promise to myself as I lay there and listened to their breathing even out as sleep took them.
I promised that I would end things with them if I couldn’t get this Tom drama under control. They deserved to have someone who didn’t have so much baggage to carry around. It would hurt like hell, but I would do it to save them.
Chapter Eighteen
The next morning, I got a phone call from Detective Santos before I had even gotten out of bed. Reid and Heath sat up with me and listened intently to the conversation. Damon said he had viewed the security footage of the vandalism on my car but that led nowhere. Someone had cut the power to the camera right before the event.
My heart dropped as the thought of me being able to put this all behind me vanished. He also informed me that since Tom was still a resident of Georgia, he had to pass it off to the local sheriff in my old hometown.
I tried to stop the mortification from creeping up to my face. I came from a very small town, so I knew that once word got out about this, everyone and their dog would be talking about it for months. Damon promised to call as soon as he heard word from Sheriff O’Neal about Tom’s whereabouts.
Before we hung up the phone, he strongly urged me to have people around me at all times until they figured out what was going on. I guessed that meant I was staying in all weekend with the boys. Pulling my phone from my ear, I leaned against Heath as he brought his arms around me.
“It’ll be okay, Kate, we won’t let anything happen to you. Hopefully, Detective Santos will get to the bottom of this quickly,” he said quietly against my cheek.
I tried to find comfort in his words, but all I came back with was guilt. Reid sat in front of us as he reached to push my hair behind my ear. He tried to smile to reassure me, but I could see his anger simmering beneath the surface.
I still couldn’t fathom what I had done to earn this type of loyalty from these men. We had barely known each other for a couple of weeks, but I knew with every fiber of my being that these two would go to war for me. That alone should have made me feel secure in all aspects of this relationship, but instead, it made me feel like such a burden.
Reid mistook my look of guilt for apprehension as he grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. “You don’t have anything to worry about, bunny. We’ll figure this out, but in the meantime—” He grabbed ahold of my ankles, pulling me away from Heath’s arms. I was on my back with him on top of me before I could even yelp.
He looked down at me with a sly grin. “How about we take your mind off of all this and express how happy we are to be able to spend the whole weekend with you”—he looked from me to Heath as he finished with a sinful smile—“un-interrupted.”
I couldn’t help the nervous giggle that bubbled up my throat as I watched Heath prowl closer to us. I had a ridiculous smile on my face as I glanced back at the man on top of me.
“You’re so beautiful,” he muttered right before his mouth descended onto mine.