dark eyes but didn’t fall as he winced then let his hand curl around my waist. His voice was broken and barely a whisper when he spoke. “I was so scared I’d lost you, and I’d only just found you.”
That was it. All I could take.
It was all too damned much.
Tabby was dead.
Addison had been tortured.
Jonah had lost Helen.
I almost lost him. This perfect soul. The other half to my broken one.
And that was when I threw my arms around him, shoved my face into his neck, and soaked up his woodsy and fresh linen scent until there was nothing else but him surrounding me with protection and love.
Jonah Fontaine.
The man for me.
The man I loved.
And I wasn’t going to wait even a moment before sharing this revelation with him. It wouldn’t be right. Not after everything we’d gone through. Not after what Tabitha sacrificed in order for me to have this.
“I love you, Jonah.”
“Baby, Jesus.” He locked his arms around me. “Christ, Simone. I’ve loved you since you lost your mind on the ferris wheel, so wrapped up in kissing me you forgot where you were.”
He has loved me since our first date. I convulsed against his frame, body-wracking sobs pouring from me in endless waves. But he didn’t let me go. He held on tight. Gave me what I needed until I found enough strength to pull myself together. Once I had, he led me to the paramedics, but held my hand as they tended to me. Then Jonah got the paramedics to load me and Addy into the same ambulance, saying something about the FBI needing us together and he’d be our escort.
Whatever he had to do to keep us together, he did. Putting me and Addy as his priority, making sure we felt safe after the horror we’d just experienced.
I loved him even more because of it.
Turns out, getting whopped upside the head is the reason I’d been so nauseous. I had a full-blown concussion from taking the hit to the temple. I’d been seen, stitched up, bandaged, and given instructions on how to deal with this new ailment.
Not that I gave two shits. My focus was entirely on seeing Addison and finding out how Sonia was.
Dutifully, Jonah brought me to Addison’s room where my entire family was stationed. They’d put Addison in a private room instead of handling her in the ER because she was related to a senator and we were informed the news vans were already parked outside. I’d seen Mama Kerri when I was being checked out in the ER but not the rest of my sisters.
I was bum-rushed by Sonia first. When she wrapped her arms around me, I returned her hold just as tight.
“I love you, SoSo,” I croaked into her hair, emotion coating my throat.
She sniffed, nodded, and pulled back. “I love you more than anything.” She smiled half-heartedly but I figured for a long time the Kerrighan clan would be half-alive after sustaining such a loss.
Mama Kerri was next. Heartbreak and grief felt thick in the very air around her form. It would take us all a long time to find any sort of peace after Tabby’s loss.
Blessing, Liliana, Charlie, and Genesis each hugged me. I told every last one of them that I loved them, needing them to know it and hear it from my lips.
“Rory?” I scanned the space and didn’t see my niece.
“Aunt Delores has her at Kerrighan House,” Genesis confirmed.
After the round of hugs, I went over to Addy’s bed. She was staring vacantly out the window even in a room filled with her family.
“Hey, sis. How you doin’?” I took her hand, careful not to touch the bulky bandages running up both arms from wrist to bicep.
She blinked slowly and turned her head toward me as if she’d just realized someone was there and holding her hand.
“I’m alive,” was all she said. Though it sure as hell didn’t sound like she was any happier for it.
“Yeah. Me too,” I said flatly. There was no judgement. No score. No positives in any of it.
We’d made it out alive. Tabby did not. Now the two of us had to live with those circumstances.
“Do you remember her last words?” I asked softly.
She nodded. “My love will never die.” The phrase left her chapped lips as though each word sliced straight through her heart.
“And it won’t. We’ll make sure of it,” I promised.
A tear slipped down Addy’s cheek. “No. Her love will never die, and ours for