Page 90 of Take The Risk

​Jessamina. Amber-Rae’s best friend and a real estate agent in town.

​“That fucking bitch,” Wade snarled, cracking his knuckles. “Do you still have the envelope?”

​Getting up, I went to my purse and pulled it out, handing it to him. “How does she know, Wade?” I hadn’t been able to figure that out all afternoon. Some of what she knew was my own damned fault, that I knew. The pictures of me and Ty were damning, but I wasn’t as worried about them as I probably should be.

​We were going to tell Cady-Jo this weekend. Ty and I had decided to give Lock a couple of days to get used to the idea of us together privately, first.

​The rest…

​“None of that now.” Wade put the envelope down on the vestibule table, pulling me in for a hug. “Don’t cry, honey. It’s all going to be okay.”

​I hadn’t realized I’d been crying or that I was shaking until he tightened his hold on me, giving me the pressure I needed. It was one of the recovery actions I needed. He and Ty had learned, thanks to Alex, what to do when the panic took hold to this point.

​“If Ty thinks you’ve been crying, he’s going to blame me and try and beat my ass,” Wade joked against the top of my head, rocking me back and forth. “You don’t want to see my pretty face covered with bruises now, do you?”

​Sniffling, I murmured, “I think you can hold your own.”

​“You just want to see us duke it out, don’t you?” he accused, his voice strained. “I can see it now. You get us to fight, and then the next thing we know, we’ll be immortalized in your next book and have horny grannies chasing us.”

​We stood there until I could take a deep breath without feeling like I was choking.

​I tried to call Ty but kept getting his voicemail, so Wade promised to stay until I was able to get some sleep. He took the envelope with him when he left, promising me it would be all right.

​Fool that I was, I believed him.

Chapter 34

​“Where the hell have you been?” Wade stormed into my apartment.

​“Fuck off,” I snapped, stripping off my mud-caked jeans. “It’s been a shitty fucking twenty-four hours.” And all I wanted to do was see Phoebe, sleep, and eat. In that order.

​Wade looked me over. “What the hell happened?”

​“Besides my truck blowing a tire? A downpour hit, my phone died, and I couldn’t find my charger. Luke and I had to rework our plans all night because the dumb fuckers have decided to change the scope of the project last minute. Then we stopped to help a couple dig their car out of a ditch that was a mud lake. I’m starving, exhausted, and dirty as fuck.”

​“Well, suck it up because it’s not about to get better.”

​“Can I use your phone?” I asked. “I need to call Phoebe and let her know what happened.”

​“You need to hold off for a minute. Some shit’s gone down.” Wade unclipped his phone, tossing it to me, anyway.

​“What do you mean?” I stiffened.

​The banging at my door had me biting off a curse.

​Wade went to it, yanking it open.

​“What the fuck are you doing here?” Wade demanded furiously. “And why the hell is Delilah with you?”

​“Nice way to say hello, dickhead.” Rowdy entered, Delilah tucked to his side.

​“Delilah, why are you with Rowdy?” I focused on Rowdy’s arm that was wrapped protectively around my sister. My pale and shaking sister.

​Rowdy rolled his eyes at me. “Simmer down. I’m not here to cause shit. If I let go of her, she’s probably going to fall down.”

Delilah’s head snapped up, a severe frown of rebuke on her face.

“It’s true,” he told her. “Actually”—he looked around my living room—“let’s sit you down.”