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My chin lifts defiantly. “You need to get me out of here.”
“Not until you tell me what the hell is going on,” he replies.
“I’ll go myself.” I try to step around him, and he moves his big ass body right in front of me.
“For all I know, you’re in danger if you walk out of here,” Savage says. “I’m not letting you leave until I know you’re safe.”
An infuriated sound escapes my lips, and I can feel Jax step to my side. God how I feel this man in ways I never felt with York. In ways I didn’t know I could feel another human being. I care for him. Already he’s a best friend, a lover. He’s a confidant, which only makes me fight harder in this moment. I whirl around on him and do so with challenge. “You wanted to ruin my family, and you don’t know? I’m the biggest liability the Knight hotels own. I’ll be that for you, too, if you don’t let me call York and do what I have to do to pull him back. I need to make that call.”
“You are many things to me, Emma, but a liability is not one of them. Tell me what’s broken, baby. I can’t fix what I don’t know. You need to tell me now.”
“Don’t make me do this, not now. Not in front of Savage. Give me the phone.” I reach for it, and he turns me and presses me against the island, touching me again, trapping me again. He holds up a hand. “Go, Savage.”
“I’ll be on the porch,” Savage says, footsteps following.
Jax sets my phone on the island behind me and then presses his hands on the stone on either side of me. “Now it’s just you and me, baby. Please talk to me.”
Please.
That word gets to me the way he gets to me. He’s everything a man should be: strong, even dominant, but unafraid to use that word, to share a moment or even the power.
I’m trapped in every possible way. I’m trapped in the certainty that the day I met York was the day I ensured I could never be with Jax. The panic fades into something darker, calmer, and far more brutal. “He’s going to tell the world horrible things about me that will destroy the Knight name and you if you’re with me, Jax. That’s all that matters.”
“What horrible things, Emma?” Jax asks, his fingers brushing my cheek. “You can tell me anything.”
“I don’t really have a choice now, do I?”
“You do. I don’t want you to feel that with me.” He pushes off the island, no longer trapping me, no longer pinning me. “You can leave. I can tell Savage to let you leave, but don’t. We’re good, baby. And I know we’re new, but we are full of possibilities. Please don’t let York Waters take that from us.”
Chapter seventy
Emma
He says that we are full of possibilities. I say that we are full of possibilities lost before they were ever found. But the only words left to speak are goodbye. Because that’s where my story leads us. “I wanted to say yes to moving in with you, even if it was a trial. It’s fast, but we have states separating us. I wanted to get to know you, Jax. I felt the possibilities, too. I did.”
“Felt? They still exist, Emma.”
“I wanted to say yes,” I repeat. I need him to know that. I need him to know that there was never a “no” for him. Ever. On anything.
“But you didn’t,” he responds this time. “You weren’t going to, you’re not going to,” he says. “We both knew that, and this is why, whatever this is.”
“Yes,” I confirm. “Well, this and your brother. This isn’t about him, by the way. No. We’re layers of complications. But back to the living situation. I had to tell you this first. It was the right thing to do because it’s that big and,” I swallow hard, “and the idea that we go to Germany before we move in together, I needed that. I needed to know that we were solid before I told you whatI have to tell you. And I knew I had to tell you about this—about my past, before I moved in with you. The right time, right?”
“Tell me just what you have to tell me for me to deal with this, Emma.”
My cellphone rings, and Jax reaches around me and grabs it from the island. “Your brother.”
“I have to talk to him. Please, Jax. If he’s calling right now, it’s not a coincidence. Look, York’s threat has merit. Something is going on.”
Jax hands me the phone but doesn’t let go. “Just your brother. Not York yet. We need to talk first.”
He’s right. I hate it, but he’s right. “Yes. I agree.” He releases my phone, and I take the call. “Chance?”
“If York calls, don’t take the call.”
“Why would York call me?” I ask, sharing a look with Jax.
“Because he’s pissed at me and I don’t want him using you to get to me.” He doesn’t give me time to respond. “Marion was fucking dad.”
