Mine for Eternity [Council Enforcers] (Siren Publishing Classic)

work gathering all the evidence he needed to take down an enforcer.

Chapter 3
     
    Tessa sighed as she turned over and blinked her eyes through the shining sun on her face. She felt relaxed and refreshed after the good night of sleep she had in the soft bed. She hadn’t slept that well since the night before she witnessed a woman being killed, and she had Mitch to thank for that. Tessa shuddered and squeezed her eyes closed trying to block out the memories. Instead, she focused on trying to make herself get up so that she could get her and Nico’s things together to leave.
    She was saddened at the thought of leaving, but if Tessa was honest with herself, she didn’t know if it was because she was leaving the first place she had felt safe since she had started running, or if it was the thought of leaving Mitch. Just thinking of the man sent shivers down her spine. Tessa couldn’t figure out what it was about Mitch, but there was some unexplainable connection drawing her to him. She wondered if it was all one-sided or if he felt the same strange pull as well. Judging by the way he had looked at her the day before, she would have said yes, but it could have been just because she was naked.
    Tessa rubbed her face with her hands and groaned. She didn’t need to be thinking about Mitch. She needed to think about what she was going to do to keep her and Nico safe. She knew they couldn’t keep running forever. It was only a matter of time before whatever was chasing them finally caught up to them. There had already been too many close calls as it was. Tessa feared she was going to have to do the one thing she didn’t want to do and that was find a place to leave Nico. Her heart broke just thinking about it, but that thing was after her, not him. She would die if something were to happen to her son because of her.
    The only problem with leaving Nico somewhere safe was that Tessa didn’t know where to take him. She had no family herself, and as bad as it was to say, she didn’t even know where Nico’s father was. Her son was a product of a brief fling she had when she was twenty-one, but Tessa had no regrets. She finally had something that she could call her own and would love her unconditionally. She had spent her entire life hopping from one foster home to the next until the system turned her out on the streets as soon as she turned eighteen. She had gone a little wild after that and partied most nights up until she had found out she was pregnant. From that point on she had gotten her life together because she had someone else that was going to depend on her. She never once thought of giving Nico up because she knew what life was like growing up in the system. Tessa was able to use her high school diploma to get a secretary position at a family-owned company and rented a small apartment. The pay wasn’t much and it was hard to make ends meet with rent and baby expenses, but somehow Tessa managed. It was the first time she had felt like an adult.
    Unfortunately, now Tessa had to contemplate giving her son up all because she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She felt tears prickle her eyes but refused to give in to them. Crying wouldn’t solve anything. There had to be a way to fix the mess she was in without having to give up her son. She just had to figure it out. It would be so easy if we could just stay here forever. Mitch and his lion would keep us safe. Tessa laughed at the thought. If only it were that easy. She rolled over to shake her son awake and froze when she realized he wasn’t in the bed with her.
    “Oh no, Nico!” she yelled, feeling like her heart was about to beat out of her chest. Tessa dove out of the bed and ran to the bathroom but immediately knew he wasn’t there because the light was still off. Panicked, she raced to the bedroom door and flung it open. “Nico!”
    Tessa ran down the steps screaming her son’s name. By the time she reached the bottom, she was practically hyperventilating. It hadn’t slipped past her that the bedroom door had been unlocked although she had locked it before she went to bed. She didn’t know if Nico had unlocked it himself, which was highly unlikely, or if Mitch had come in during the night.
    “Nico!” she screamed again.
    “Hey, hey. Calm down. What’s wrong?”
    Mitch held his hands out as if he didn’t want to spook her, but Tessa wasn’t having it. “Where is he!” she yelled, slamming her hands into his chest. “What have you