Free The Strength of Three by Annmarie McKenna

would be this soon.
    TJ turned her face to his with a finger under her chin. Tears threatened to spill. She could hardly hold them back and didn’t want to. Let them see her in all her glory. If they couldn’t handle this then she would know once and for all that tonight really had been a fling for them, despite what they’d said earlier.
    A small amount of light illuminated the room. Since she didn’t believe for a minute either one of them slept with a light on, she could only think they’d left it on in deference to her being there. She was grateful for it. Those kinds of little things were the ones that made all the difference, made her feel special and not just like the next woman in a lineup of women.
    “Who did?” TJ growled.
    Shit. For a second it had gone away. “My father,” Chris breathed.
    How many times had she watched him beat her mother, only to wake up the next morning begging for forgiveness for what he’d done? How many times had her mother accepted those pathetic excuses and apologies? Despite the love she had for her mother, she was just one of the reasons Chris had had to leave. Watching your mother deny day after day the problem so obviously staring her in the face had torn Chris apart.
    “What do you know, Chris? Who was on the phone?”
    “My aunt.” She shook her head, dispelling the image of her mother laying motionless at the bottom of the staircase leading to the second floor of the home she’d grown up in. “They found her at the…the foot…of the stairs.” She sobbed and turned into TJ’s chest. His arms wrapped her in a warmth she’d never felt before. At her back, Jon added his extra strength. Who’d have thought she’d ever find herself seeking comfort from one man, let alone two? Still, even sandwiched between the two men who’d shown her so much pleasure throughout the night, her skin was cold and clammy.
    “I know he did it.” Her mother may have been many things Chris never wished to be, but clumsy or suicidal weren’t two of them.
    “What do the police say?” Jon tried to warm her by rubbing her arms, TJ started in on her legs. The shaking began almost immediately, racking her body with enough force to make her teeth ache.
    “I don’t know.” What could they say? What had they ever said when she’d called them? There’s nothing we can do until your mother files charges. Stupid!
    She sniffed and felt the claustrophobia setting in. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. “I…I have to go. I have to be with her. She’s all alone.” Chris fought her way out of their embrace, irrational thoughts clouding her mind.
    “No fucking way. You can fight us ’til you’re blue in the face, but no goddamn way are you going there alone,” Jon snarled.
    She gasped and spun to face the vehement face he presented.
    “Don’t even think about it. We’ll get up, take a shower, get dressed and then we’ll get underway.”
    “Listen to him, baby. No matter what you thought would happen tonight with us, we aren’t ready to let you go.” TJ’s lips caressed the back of her neck. “We’re here for you. Don’t shut us out.”
    She couldn’t handle this right now. A fling. A fling was what she’d been semi-prepared for, not shoving her sordid life down their throats and having them accept her, flaws and all. Her heart pounded against her ribs. Her brain screamed not to put her faith in them, but her body demanded she do the opposite. It all boiled down to trust, because trusting them not only affected her mind, but her heart.
    The last thing she wanted was for them to stomp all over her when they were ready to move on, leaving her in tatters the way her father had done too many times to count.

Chapter Five
    What exactly was it with the clichéd funeral in the rain? Chris stared at her mother’s casket. The flowers covering the silver box were beautiful, so unlike the life she’d led, one fraught with turmoil with a man she refused to stop loving no matter how