The Insiders (The Insiders Trilogy #1) - Tijan Page 0,102

talking and doing anything else. I just gathered her close, and I didn’t think I could let her go. I managed to break out, “You loving me the way you’ve already been is more than enough. I’m not going anywhere.”

We were both blubbering messes.

Chrissy was wiping at her nose.

Marie was blinking over and over again, then turning sharply to wheeze.

The men … I had no clue what they were doing. Kash was in the room, behind me somewhere. Cyclone had quieted. And Peter was there too, but like all the other times, he was in the background and still being quiet. Since my mom had arrived he hadn’t looked at me, but why would I expect otherwise? Past behavior predicts the future. Well, future meet the same. He was being the same.

Then Cyclone launched himself at Seraphina and me and the moment was done. He hugged us both, kissed us both on the cheeks, and tipped his head back again to yell out, “Pillow fight!”

And it was on.

Whack!

He got Marie right in the face.

Chrissy went for him, a pillow in hand. Seraphina was giggling, shrieking, trying to help Marie get him back. When they began advancing on Kash, he gave them a look, arched an eyebrow, and they took off.

We could hear Cyclone yelling down the hallway, “Theresa! We’re coming for you!”

Seraphina was still giggling right with him.

I looked up, but Peter had disappeared.

Chrissy saw, too, and I swear, if she’d been holding a balloon, it would’ve deflated from disappointment. Marie took it all in, then slapped her hands to her legs. “Right. Okay.” She said to my mother, “You come with me. We’ll find you a room on the estate somewhere.”

And that was that.

Kash and I went to visit Matt the next hour.

Kash had gone earlier in the day, giving me time with Chrissy, and I knew he was checking up on the Bonham situation. He didn’t share details when he took me with him later, and seeing how weak Matt was feeling, I didn’t say anything to add stress to what he was already going through. Instead, I told him all about my mother’s arrival, and he was grinning by the end.

Coughing, he rasped out, “I can’t wait to meet her. Seems like I’ll love her.”

He probably would, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. “The two of you will be like two peas in a pod. Troublemakers.”

He barked out a laugh, then winced. “Don’t make me laugh.” He looked to Kash, his lip lifting. “Can you imagine me taking Bailey’s mom to an orgy night?”

I was horrified. “God, no! Please no.”

Matt started laughing again, then began coughing, and a nurse came in to make sure he was okay. Kash thought it was time we headed back, and Matt was already closing his eyes by the time we were to the door.

There were conversations we didn’t have, and I felt the weight of them heavy.

They were with us almost as soon as we left the estate for the hospital, including how Kash was handling that he was firmly in the press.

The attention he got at the hospital affirmed all of the media.

I hadn’t looked online or watched television, so it was easy to forget. Not when we got to the hospital. All eyes turned to him. His face was on the television, even, and what was worse, no one stood to turn it off. They kept it running as we checked in to see Matt. Kash didn’t really need to; he had checked in earlier. They knew his name. But the new day staff needed my name for the visiting sheet. All the while, total silence in the lobby, except for a baby crying and the reporter discussing the rift in Kash’s family and how Peter Francis had taken him as a son.

I felt the pinch of tension in my shoulders as we left. Kash’s hand went there, smoothing over me, like he could feel it. I was thankful, once we were past the prying eyes back there, but it hadn’t really gotten better. Nurses quieted, watching us as we walked past. One nurse was coming out of a room as we walked by. She startled, saw Kash, and startled again, saying loudly, “Oh my God!” Her colleague hushed her, and both retreated back into the room they’d been leaving. The door was slammed shut behind us.

Then it was the elevators.

Waiting, we heard the whispers.

Getting on, we heard the looks. Yes, heard the looks. They