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I swallow hard. It’s out. This is blowing up. “We talked about this,” I say, and to give Jax a heads up on what’s happening, I add, “I thought there was something going on between Marion and dad.”
“Yeah well, this shit just got heavier. Someone sent photos of them together to mom, He’s dead and they still did that shit. She called. And she heard that I was having lunch with York, and that really set her off. She’s worried about you with York. I don’t know what that freakout was all about but I told her you hate him. And of course, how he hates me, too.”
I go cold inside. “What does that mean?”
“I met with him today, for old times’ sake, I gave him a heads up about what’s to come.”
“Which is what?”
“I told mom we’ll fight for her. Marion is out. I’m going to Monroe and telling him everything, and of course, York is afraid Monroe will divorce Marion and pull his funding.”
“He will, and you can’t do this, Chance.”
“I sure as hell can and am,” he assures me. “Why do you even care? You hate York. I don’t know why, but you do.”
“What if Monroe blames us and pulls his business? I have good reason to believe the Sawyer brand is coming after us, which has to be a topic for another day, but don’t do this now. Just wait. I need to deal with this. If you value our brand, wait.”
“What the hell is this, Emma?”
I turn away from Jax. “Nothing good. York already called me. He left me a message. A coded threat. He’s got something on me, Chance. It could hurt our business. Please trust me.” I rotate and face Jax again. “I need you to back off and give me a few hours to sort this out.”
“He’s blackmailing you? Is that bastard blackmailing you? And us? Is he blackmailing us?”
Jax hears the question, I see it in his face, and he arches a brow, silently asking me the same question. “He’s got something on me, Chance. Something that could hurt you and the company. And anyone else in my life. I need to talk to Jax.”
“Jax? Are you fucking kidding me? He’s probably behind this.”
Anger stabs at me, hard and fast, and punches through my words. “Jax didn’t make our father sleep with Marion. Jax didn’t do the things to me that York did to me. If you choose to move forward, well, I’m glad I’m not the CEO who will have to fix this.”
“Damn it, Emma,” Chance says. “What the hell did that bastard do to you?”
“What he did isn’t what matters. It’s what he can do to hurt the business. I need to do what I can do on my end to control York. You can’t do that.Ineed to do it.”
“How?”
“I’ll call you back.”
“When?”
“An hour. Give me an hour.”
“If you don’t call me back in an hour,” he warns, “I’m going to the airport to come and get you.”
“Don’t give me deadlines,” I say. “That’s what York just did to me by voicemail, and I don’t need that right now.”
“I’m worried,” he says. “About you and the business.”
“Then don’t talk to Monroe yet. For once, I need a member of the Knight family to actually trust me.”
“I trust you. Where the hell is that coming from?”
“Prove it.”
“Fine. Fuck. This is killing me. You there, me here. These secrets.”
I think about his offer on the castle and how off his excuse about the will reads to me. “Yeah. Well. Secrets really do suck, Chance. We shouldn’t have any.” I disconnect and meet Jax’s stare, aware that I may or may not have bought us time. York knows my brother. They went to college together. He knows that when Chance decides to act, he acts. And I know how York will spin this because I know a man that evil far too well. I have to tell Jax my secrets now before TMZ tells the world. I have to make him see why he has to let me go and let me go now.
Chapter seventy-one
