Flawless Surrender (The Surrender Trilogy, #2)(54)
“Shit-fu-cker!” she gasped as she dropped the bowl and ladle she had been using on the counter, and rushed to the sink to run cold water over her burn.
A moment later, she heard Tanner’s voice rumbling from the bedroom where her phone was still plugged in on the nightstand. She had left Dalton sleeping in the bed, while Tanner was showering. It was Clint’s night to sleep on his own, because there was barely enough room in Tanner’s king size bed for three of them. Tanner claimed that because it was his bed, he didn’t have to give up his spot against her backside, so Dalton and Clint rotated who got dibs on snuggling her front. It felt right to have Tanner at her back while she slept. And for the first time in years she slept soundly, relaxed in the comfort of his and his brother’s protective embrace.
They were going to order a new bed soon, but Tanner wanted to knock out a wall between her old bedroom and the master first to enlarge it. Zoey had halted that plan for the moment, but only because she felt they needed a little more time before they started major remodeling plans. It concerned her that they hadn’t told their parents about their relationship yet, and for that matter, most of Stone River still didn’t know. As much as she loved them, she felt like they needed to move slowly as they learned about how a polyamorous relationship should work.
Patting her injury dry, she shut off the stove and scraped the now scorched pancake off the griddle into the trashcan. Before she resumed her routine of cooking breakfast for her men she figured she better find out who in the world was calling her before dawn had even cleared the treetops.
The moment she saw Tanner’s face, she knew something wasn’t right. He stood next to the bed, with a towel slung around his lean hips, and the phone to his ear. A dark grimace shadowed his visage, and she pressed a fist to her stomach as she moved closer.
“Tanner? Who is it?”
He turned to face her, with worry and fear in his eyes. Her knees trembled beneath her, and she nearly stopped breathing. Dalton was just coming awake at the noise surrounding him, but his body went on instant alert when he caught on to their tension.
“Zoey, kitten, sit down before you fall. Tanner, what the hell is going on? Who is that?” Dalton’s hands pulled her down until she sat on the edge of the bed. A steady shivering feeling was building in her muscles, and he began running his hands up and down her arms as though to warm her.
Tanner asked the caller to hold on for a moment, and he held the phone against his ripped abs. For just a moment Zoey let herself focus in on a bead of water as is raced its way down his body, between his pecks, and over the glorious ridges of muscles until it soaked up into the terry cloth material that hugged his Adonis belt. What she wouldn’t give to be that drop of water right now.
“Baby, listen to me. This is the police department in Wichita, Kansas. They are calling because your mom was taken to the hospital yesterday by ambulance.” She heard herself gasp, but she honestly didn’t feel anything. It was as if a cold, dark void settled in the middle of her chest, and stole her heart and her voice away. “Zoey, she overdosed. She’s in critical condition and they just now managed to track you down as her next of kin.”
A loud roaring sound filled her ears, and suddenly she felt like she was racing through a never ending tunnel. Tanner wasn’t talking to her anymore. No one was. All she could focus on was the white terry cloth material against his caramel colored skin. Was Dalton still holding her? Yes, she could feel the pressure of his hands, but not the warmth. There was no warmth left in the room. Only ice cold numbness.
“Zoey, did you hear me?” Tanner snapped at her, and she felt the odd sense of disassociation break free. Lifting her head, she nodded at him.
“I need to go to Wichita.” The words were soft, but steady, and she silently patted herself on the back for her lack of emotion. After what Eve did to her, she really didn’t deserve any more than that from her daughter.
Dalton spoke next to her ear, “No, pretty lady, we need to go to Wichita.”
Tanner was speaking into the phone again, confirming with the police department that he would bring his wife to Wichita as quickly as possible. The only thing Zoey heard was the word wife. She gave him an odd look as he hung up the phone and dropped the towel to tug on a pair of boxer briefs. To her surprise he took a seat on the bed on the opposite side of her from Dalton and wrapped his arms around her.
“It’s gonna be okay, baby. I know it’s a shock, but we’ll get on the first plane out of here. We’re going to get you there to see her.” He spoke to her like a child, while he rubbed her back and shoulder. His fidgety movements in direct contrast to the calm strength in his voice.
“You told them I was your wife.” It was a statement, not a question or accusation, but Tanner flinched when she said it.
“Yeah sorry, when it was a man on the phone asking for you at six in the morning I got a little jealous. I might have said that you were my wife and anything concerning you concerned me too. It’s nearly true. Or at least it will be true in the near future. I hope you’re not too pissed at me for it.”
She shook her head, and then turned to Dalton, “Will you get Clint?”
He nodded and bounded out of the bed and down the hallway without even pausing to put on clothes. The image of his naked ass running out of the room might have been humorous in any other situation, but right now it only served to ratchet up the tension in her body.