Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Terra heard her mother begin sobbing openly.
“I thought…I thought something had happened. I thought I’d never see them again.”
“I know. I know, Mom. I thought the same thing,” Terra said.
“Please bring my grandbabies home!” Lucy cried. “Please, Terra, my heart can’t take this!”
The words sent a fresh surge of fear through Terra. God, she hadn’t even thought about what this kind of stress might be doing to Lucy, and she already had a heart condition!
“I’m bringing them right now,” she promised. “Mom, sit down. Please sit down and breathe. We’re leaving right now.”
“Hurry,” her mother begged.
“I will. I promise.”
Terra ended the call and looked at Taurex.
“I have to bring the kids home to my mom. She’s freaking out, and with her heart…”
“Of course you do,” he said immediately. “You should go.”
Terra paused for a moment. Part of her expected him to add something like,
We need to talk later. Or maybe, Call me. Or, Come back when your mother is settled.
But Taurex said none of those things. He simply rose from the table and put her now empty tea mug in the sink.
“Come. I will help you gather the younglings,” he rumbled.
Terra followed him into the living room, feeling strangely deflated. SpongeBob was winding down and both children had finished their cookies, leaving only crumbs on the plates and little milk mustaches above their lips.
“Come on, kids,” Terra said. “Nana wants to see you.”
Lisa immediately hopped down from the couch, a worried look on her face.
“Is Nana crying because she missed us?”
“A little,” Terra admitted. The question didn’t surprise her. Lisa had always been extremely empathetic.
Cody stood and looked toward Taurex.
“Can the Bull-man come too?” he asked. “I bet Nana would like to see him, too.”
Terra’s heart gave a painful little twist. She wished she could bring the big Monstrum home with her—he deserved to be thanked for what he had done.
But Taurex shook his head.
“Not this time, youngling. Your grandmother needs to see you and know you are safe.”
Cody looked disappointed but nodded.
“O—kay,” he sighed.
Terra gathered the children and walked with them toward the door.
Taurex followed, opening it for them and standing aside as Cody and Lisa stepped into the foyer.
Terra hesitated for an instant and then she turned back.
“I just can’t thank you enough,” she said. “If there’s anything I can do—anything at all…”
“There is nothing I wish for in repayment,” Taurex interrupted gently. “It is enough for me to know that you and your family are safe.”
Terra swallowed hard.
“All right. Well…thank you,” she said awkwardly.
Taurex inclined his head.
“Goodbye, Terra.”
The finality of the words hit her almost as hard as “Have a beautiful life” had before. He was basically saying they weren’t going to see each other again.
And why would he want to see you again? whispered a mean little voice in her head. You rejected him and hurt him. Why would he take another chance on a single mom with no prospects? He’s richer than God—he could have any woman he wanted. He could have someone young with no kids to worry about.
“Goodbye,” she whispered. Then she followed her children into the elevator.
As the golden doors slid shut, Terra caught one final glimpse of the big Monstrum standing alone in the doorway of the enormous penthouse. He didn’t wave or call after her. He simply watched until the doors closed between them.
Terra should have been nothing but happy—her children were alive, Orlov was gone, and her nightmare was over.
And yet as the elevator carried them downward and Lisa tucked her small hand into Terra’s while Cody leaned against her other side, Terra felt a hollow ache growing beneath the enormous relief in her chest.
She had gotten her children back, but somehow, she had a terrible feeling that she might have lost Taurex for good.
39
TERRA
The weeks after Orlov’s death—or disappearance, as Terra still sometimes thought of it when she didn’t want to face the exact reality of what Taurex had done—were strangely quiet. Too quiet, really.
The danger was gone, Cody and Lisa were safe, and Terra could walk out to her car without scanning the street for Viktor Orlov’s black sedan or wondering if someone was watching her from across the road. She ought to have felt free, and in some ways she did—but the relief came with an emptiness she hadn’t expected.
Taurex didn’t call. He didn’t text. He didn’t appear at her house or send another absurdly generous payment or find some business excuse to bring her back to the penthouse like a hero in a RomCom or a romance novel would have. He had told her there was nothing he wanted in repayment for saving her children, and apparently he had meant exactly that.
Unfortunately, Cody and Lisa refused to let her forget him.
“The Bull-man would know how to fix this,” Lisa announced one afternoon when the chain came off her bicycle.