Teague (The Family Simon 4)

“Think whatever you want,” Teague replied. “I don’t need your permission to do this and I certainly don’t need the Simon family blessing either.”

“Don’t you give a shit about Mom? And Dad?”

“That’s a stupid thing to say,” Teague snapped. “Our mother, more than anyone, understands why I have to go.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Jack ran his hands through his hair. “Are you telling me that Mom knows you’re going back?”

“I called her yesterday. As soon as I got off the phone with Bowen.” Teague shrugged. “She knows. She knows everything.”

“Everything?” Jack asked roughly. “Does she know that Dallas is most likely dead? Does she know that this mission of yours to track him down his ghost is probably going to get you killed?”

Tears stung the backs of Sabrina’s eyes and she bit her lip in an effort to keep quiet. But she’d known, hadn’t she? That Teague was leaving her?

“Jack,” Teague warned, but his brother wasn’t having any of it.

“Did you tell Mom about the kid?”

“Don’t go there,” Teague warned, but his brother plunged on as if he hadn’t said a word.

“Did you tell her the whole story? Did you tell her what went down? What you had to do? Does she know what it cost you to make that call?”

Teague stared at his brother for a long time. So long that Sabrina’s legs cramped. Her throat was tight and her chest heavy. She didn’t want to hear any of this, and yet she couldn’t stop herself from listening.

Teague’s mouth was so tight that the skin around his lips was white and when he looked to the side—when he swiped at his eyes angrily—well, her heart broke. It broke into shards because in that moment, she realized that sometime over the last few weeks, she’d fallen for this man and she’d fallen hard.

“Like I said,” Teague answered, his voice dangerously low. “She knows everything. Every fucking thing that happened over there. She knows that I hesitated when I shouldn’t have. She knows that if I would have done the job I was there to do, then Dallas would be home with his wife and kids. She knows that’s why I have to go back.”

Jack shook his head and muttered. “You’re unbelievable. Can’t you think of your family and all the people you’re leaving behind instead of some fucked up crusade that makes no sense to anyone other than you? Don’t you care that when you’re away and we don’t hear from you for weeks or months, Mom can’t eat or sleep? Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

There was silence then. A long period of silence that was so long it became a thing. It became a loud, hard, thing that pressed into Sabrina’s chest. She felt like screaming and maybe she would have except Bingo decided he’d had enough of the silent game and slipped out of Teague’s bedroom.

“Shit.” Sabrina lunged after the dog but the puppy was fast. It barked madly and flew down the stairs, not stopping until it was at Teague’s feet. It licked at his toes tail wagging happily before running to Jack and sniffing every inch of the man that he could reach.

“What the,” Jack sputtered. “Since when do you have a dog?”

Teague sighed, eyes moving upward. “It’s not mine.”

“Then whose is it?” Jack looked at his brother—who was looking up at Sabrina—and Jack turned toward the landing.

To say that Jack Simon looked shocked would be an understatement. He was shocked all right. Shocked, and as the moment wore on, his shock was replaced with something stronger. There was no more hiding.

“Hey Jack,” she said, voice way too bright for the situation. “Bingo belongs to me.” Sabrina hiked up her sheet. “I’ll just get dressed. Teague could you um…could you…”

Teague strode past his brother and gathered up her scattered clothes. He didn’t say a word as he headed up the stairs, but his body language spoke volumes. So did the continued silence and the intensity in his eyes. His fingers touched hers briefly when he handed over the pile of clothes. They were cold and he seemed so damned distant that a part of her wanted to take him in her arms and try to make things better.

But what was the point? Seemed as if the Teague she knew had already left and at this point she had no idea if he was coming back.

“I’ll make coffee,” Teague said after a few moments. “And then we should have that talk.”

“Sounds good,” she replied, trying her hardest to keep an even tone.

On wooden legs, she turned around and headed back to his room. The rumpled sheets and scattered pillows attested to an intense night of lovemaking. But the warmth was long gone.

God she was cold.

Teeth chattering, Sabrina got dressed, wishing she could just sneak out onto the patio and bypass dealing with everything, but one glance in the mirror told her that she needed to deal with this and move on, no matter how hard it was. She never wanted to see that look of hurt in her eyes again.

She exhaled and counted to ten.