Page 58 of Savage Fire

Maybe she heard Jacob sending those men to get her and came to warn her?

“Is…ishewith you?” Tessa couldn’t stop the bitterness from souring her words.

“No! No, Condesa,mi amor, though I’m sure he’s looking for me. I left in the morning, while he was out doing ranch work. I told the others I was heading into town to grab more diapers and some meds. Carin has a six-month old.”

Of course, the old pervert was still impregnating his “wives.” Not only was he disgusting, but he was also fertile. The man could seed the whole town if given enough women. And Tessa wouldn’t put it past him to actually attempt that.

“I don’t know how his dick hasn’t fallen off yet, or how he can keep getting it up at his age.”

Her mom sniggered, “Those are some of the meds I was supposed to pick up. Little blue pills.”

That made Tessa retch.

“So, you’re in town. Does he know you’re here, are you staying—does that mean you left him, Mom?” God, please let it be that she finally left him and this was a whole separate thing from Asshole One and Asshole Two.

Her mom sighed, and Tessa could feel the woman’s weariness through the cell towers.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, Tessa. I only know that I want to see you. Can you meet me?”

Could she? It would mean either shaking off her protective detail which would be stupid as shit, or having her mom come to the clubhouse. Either way, she couldn’t sit and do nothing. If Jacob knew her mother was gone and had any clue she was in Vegas, he’d send his goons after her. And Tessa couldn’t fathom her mother taking a beating like Tessa had.

She should request one of the prospects to accompany her. They were far less likely to get all up in her business. That would work—she’d have her protection, and she could see her mom.

I should let Fang know.She discounted that immediately. It was bad enough that he knew all about Jacob and his designs on marrying her. He’d go ballistic and lock her in his room if he even got a whiff of news that her mom was in town. But if it was true that her mom had escaped, Tessa needed to do everything she could to help her mother—a woman who’d risked everything to help her escape a fate worse than death.

“Where do you want to meet?”

An hour later, Tessa—with Davey in the driver’s seat of a tricked out black Escalade—pulled into the seedy, rent-by-the-hour, no-tell-motel where her mother had said she was staying. Off the Strip—the motel—was exactly that, off the Strip. Waaaay of the Strip. About ten miles from the closest casino, the motel was conspicuously close to an equally seedy bar, a couple of rundown apartment complexes, and an abandoned convenience store. There were twenty units facing the street, and her mother was staying in room three.

Davey parked the truck and turned to give her a narrow-eyed look.

“I don’t like this, Tessa. What are you doin’ here? Are you sure Fang is okay with this?” Davey had the right to be concerned—the place was a visual STI, and it made her skin crawl just to be in the truck in the parking lot. But her mother was here, so she was here, too.

“Fang knew I was leaving; he doesn’t need to knowexactlywhere I am.” Lies. He would want to know every single detail, despite Tessa saying otherwise. “Besides, he’s doing ‘club business’, which means I’m minding my own. I’m going to room three,” she said, pointing at the door right in front of the parked SUV. “’You stay in the truck. I don’t think I’ll be longer than thirty minutes.” She was going to offer her mother sanctuary with the Savage Raiders, and she hoped it wouldn’t take longer thanfiveminutes to convince her mother to quit the motel and settle in a room at the clubhouse where Jacob couldn’t get to her.

Davey clinched his jaw, his expression displeased. “I don’t like this, Tessa. Fang will have my ass if something happens to you.”

Awwww.

“I can handle myself. If for some reason I need you, I’ll scream.” She was playing nonchalant, but she was actually tense as fuck. She was scared that Jacob followed her mom and was waiting inside, her mom a hostage of the man she escaped to come see her daughter. She knew Jacob wouldn’t appreciate his first “wife” leaving him without his permission. The fucking asswipe.

Not giving Davey the chance to argue with her further, she opened the SUV door, slipped out, and moved toward the ugly orange door of room three.

Suddenly, standing in front of a door behind which her mother was standing, Tessa was nervous. She hadn’t seen her mother in seven years. Did she look the same? Would she hate who Tessa had become since escaping? Would their reunion be all tears, weeping, and tension, or would it be smiles, laughter, and relief?

Running a trembling, sweaty hand down the distressed jeans she was wearing, Tessa took a moment to breathe deep, then she raised her hand and knocked.

There were muffled footsteps, then the sound of a lock disengaging, then the door pulled open wide enough for her to see a pair of eyes she never thought she’d see again.

The deepest, richest brown she’d loved desperately for years.

“Mama?” she choked, everything in her collapsing at once. She barely held herself up.

Her mom pulled the door open wide, giving Tessa her first glimpse of her mother in seven years. Her mom smiled, throwing her arms open wide.

Standing only an inch shorter than Tessa’s five-foot-eleven, her mother had lost a considerable amount of weight. She was nearly skeletal, but her muscles were wiry, probably from all the work of handling other women’s babies and ranch chores. Her face was still as beautiful as it always had been, but there was a hardness to it that Tessa didn’t like. Her skin was darker from the sun, and there were creases beside her eyes that weren’t put there from smiles.

“Condesa,mija!” she cried, and Tessa fell into her mother’s arms. Arms she hadn’t felt around her since that night she’d flown into the night. Arms that tightened around her. Her mother nuzzled her neck, speaking words in Spanish and English, words of sorrow, regret, happiness, relief. Behind her, the door shut, and Tessa remained there, in her mother’s arms.

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