Page 145 of The Tempted

“Where are you?”

“Made a stop, shouldn’t be that much longer until we’re home,” I said, running my fingers through my hair as we engaged in a normal conversation.

“Okay, I’m with my mom waiting for you guys,” she replied.

“Anthony?”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Drive carefully.”

“I’ll see you in a little while, Reese’s.” I ended the call before I fell back into old habits and told her I loved her. It’s not that I didn’t want to tell her how I felt but I didn’t want to get her hopes up that I could change this whole thing around and give her the life we never had. No, I needed a little time to get this shit sorted out. Then I’d tell her I loved her, never stopped, and never would and that she was mine. I’d promise never to let her go again.

I sighed, shoving my phone back into my pocket and went to pull Mike out of the store.

We were back on the road, driving in silence for nearly an hour and we were almost home when Mike broke the silence.

“I don’t even know why I’m going back. Logically, it makes sense to bury her with my dad, she’d want that, to be close to him,” he admitted earnestly. “But what the fuck am I supposed to do until then? Where am I supposed to stay, with Victor? I fucking hate that prick. It should’ve been him,” he said as he stared out the window. “All those years ago, it should’ve been him that died and not my father.”

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, he was pitiful, and just another person whose life was ruined by Victor and his organization.

“Stay with me,” I offered.

“What?”

I gripped the steering wheel, closing my eyes for a beat before looking out at the road ahead of me, knowing I would probably regret having Mike as a houseguest.

“I said you could stay with me,” I glanced at him quickly. “Until you figure it out.”

“He wants me to stay after the funeral,” he laughed sarcastically. “Can you believe that? He wants to give me a legit job.”

Of course he did, I thought, Victor was probably dying to sink his teeth into Mike hoping he’d be anything like his old man. Mike sighed when I didn’t answer and turned his attention back to the scenery passing by as we drove.

“I’ll think about it,” he said. Little did he know I had already decided he would stay with me, giving Victor less of a chance to get to Mike and corrupt him like he had done to me.

---