Page 62 of Love Gamble

Corey grins, and I shake my head, then grab her and kiss her.

“What’s going to happen with Tatum?” she asks when she looks out the window toward the garage.

“We are going to get information out of him and use him for leverage. But we’re going to move him out of here later tonight,” I explain. “Our goal is to get something to use to make them all leave for good. And then we can be done with these assholes.”

“Corey! I know you betrayed me!” Tatum calls out at the top of his lungs. He’s outside, being taken into the garage. “I wouldn’t have hurt her!”

Yeah, sure.

I take her away from the window. I know this must be hard for her.

We don’t want him here because it’s the first place they will come look for him.

And theywillcome.

So we need to be ready.

“How weird, my brother is in the garage, being tortured by my other brother,” she muses, sighing.

It hits me then how hard this must be for her. She might not know, or be close to Tatum, but he is still her blood. “Are you okay?” I ask, brow furrowing.

Her chest rises sharply as she takes a breath. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. The whole thing is pretty messed up. And I sent my mom a message when I found out that he was headed there.”

“What did she say?” I ask her, rubbing her nape gently.

“She said she’s fine, and she didn’t think he would do anything to her. And that’s it. No ‘how are you,’ no ‘it’s nice to hear from you.’ No anything,” she says, her hazel eyes sad.

“I’m sorry, Corey. Maybe she will sit on it for a while and reach out when she’s in the right head space,” I suggest, holding her against me. “And if not, it’s her loss. She should be proud to have a daughter like you.”

I don’t know how she accepts her psychotic son but rejects Corey, who is sweet and loyal and talented and smart.

I will never understand it.

And it’s so shitty that I have to try to protect her feelings from her own mother. The woman who birthed her, named her, and raised her.

“Thanks,” she replies, looking up at me through her thick lashes.

Even sad, she is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

“You’ve got me now, and I’m always going to be here for you,” I say, lifting her up in a bear hug and carrying her into our bedroom.

I know that nothing will stop the hurt from her relationship with her mother, but I can at least try to love her enough to make up for it. And maybe one day, they will be able to reconnect.

But until then, I got her.

With the adrenaline from today still pumping through my veins, I throw her on the bed, and lock the door behind me.

I’m going to show her just how much I missed her.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Corey

The perks of the MC owning so many properties and businesses is that when you need to hide someone, you have the facilities to do so.

But before Tatum is long gone to an undisclosed location, with River as his number-one captor, I ask if I can have five minutes with him.

That doesn’t go down well, but just like in most situations, I win.

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