Page 87 of From the Embers
But with my daughter on my hip and Bree at my side as we headed home to our family, I knew I’d saved exactly the right one.
BREE
“Hey, Sug, have you seen my keys?” Eason asked, his broad shoulders filling my doorway.
I rolled my eyes at his incessant use of the silly nickname. He only called me that when he was trying to wind me up. And with Eason, as soon as he got the reaction he was hunting for, he’d lean in and kiss me breathless. Being called Sug was a small sacrifice to make.
I peered up at him from the ground, where I was taping up a box of my panties. “Check on the hook by the back door. I had to move the Tahoe to the garage when the packers got here.” I paused and tried to suppress a smile. “And stop calling me Sug.”
“You know I can’t do that.” Grinning from ear to ear, he prowled over to me. Cupping the back of my head, he folded at the hips and dipped low to make good on his Sug routine.
I nipped at his bottom lip, asking for more, and Eason was never one to deny me anything. His mouth opened, his tongue snaking out for an all-too-brief tangle with mine.
On a low growl, he asked, “They aren’t taking the beds tonight, right?”
I let out a laugh and rested my hand on the side of his face. “No, just packing things up. Movers will be here tomorrow. Though our best bet is going to be a shower after everyone passes out.”
It had been two weeks since Rob had been arrested.
Two weeks of trying to figure out why he had done the things he had done.
Two weeks of trying to relax without the memories of those hours while Luna was missing ravaging our thoughts.
The betrayal of finding out that your husband was in love with your best friend was a dagger through the heart. The reality that they hated you so much they were willing to have you killed was more like being hit by a train.
With Rob in custody, Doug sang like a bird, throwing my ex-husband so far under the bus it hit him with every single wheel.
Based on Doug’s statement to the police, he confessed to introducing Steven Barton to Rob but maintained his innocence about anything that had happened after that. Though the fact that he had still been sending a supposed dead man money every month said otherwise.
If Rob hadn’t been such a greedy, power-hungry maniac and gone after Luna, he probably could have gotten away with all of it too.
It still boggled my mind that he’d chosen to take her. Not Asher or Madison—the children he’d raised from birth. But then again, he’d thought Luna was his daughter with his darling Jessica.
It was purely speculation, since Rob had refused to cooperate with the police. But I thought there was a part of him who just wanted to punish Eason. Seeing him succeed on that Grammy stage, knowing his dreams were coming true while Rob sat alone in hiding, his good name on a tombstone, had to have ignited him into a jealous frenzy.
Rob had always seemed so supportive of Eason’s music, but looking back, I was starting to think that their friendship had only existed because Rob had always expected Eason to fail. Rob got to play the part of the hero, encouraging Eason, preaching to him that the world was at his fingertips, meanwhile finding peace in his assumption that Eason would never be able to best him in any aspect of life.
Until he did.
And Rob went off the deep end.
Honestly, Rob’s inferiority complex made up the bulk of his issues. He’d hid it well, but he couldn’t stand the idea of his wife being more successful than him. Before I’d stepped down after having Asher, I made more money than he did. Held a higher position than he did. Prism was mine, and while I viewed our work together as a partnership, clearly he did not. I never once asked Rob to stand in my shadow, but he proved to be just an insecure man, scared of the darkness cast by his wife.
Eason and I still had a lot of questions. Most of which started with why. But regardless of how many answers we got or, as it turned out, didn’t get, the insane and deranged actions of Rob and Jessica would never truly make sense.
Together, Eason and I could accept that. We were adults with extreme therapy bills. The kids were having a rougher go at things. Luna was experiencing nightmares to the point that Eason had moved her into our room. Deep down, that had as much to do with his fears as her own. But again, together, we were working our way through it.
