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I ignore the comment that doesn’t merit a response. “What have you found out about my mother?”
“I’ll have an update today,” he says. “What don’t I know?”
“Echo was obsessed with her.”
He arches a brow. “Is this common knowledge?”
“No.” My lips thin. “I never knew. None of us did, but my brothers and I were all kids when she left. My father trusted him. But the bottom line here is that I found a photo album on his bookshelves with an excessive number of photos.”
He crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Are we thinking that she didn’t actually leave of her own free will?”
“My father was not a gullible man, but he didn’t know about this obsession. I’m sure of it. And he believed she left willingly, but I don’t want to rule anything out. I’m also concerned about Echo’s anger toward Emma. If he was jealous of her father, then his comments about knowing who she is feel far more ominous.”
“Agreed, but why be jealous of her father and not yours?”
“I don’t pretend to know. Maybe he thought she was leaving my father for him and then found out she was pregnant with Hunter. There are only two people we know who can tell us: Echo and my mother.”
“And at least one of them might be dead. Echo still hasn’t used his phone, and it’s not pinging. To be clear, to us that means that he ran and wiped himself off the map, or someone else did it for him.”
“I assumed as much.”
“We’re doing what we can do,” he says. “Change of topic. What about Chance’s promise to come after you if Emma isn’t out of here in seventy-two hours?”
“Strike first, as Emma’s father used to say. Stick to my plan.”
“Does Emma know you’re setting her brother up for a fall?”
“No.”
“Because you want to be divorced before you ever ask her to marry you?”
Marry her.
Yes, I think. That’s exactly what I am going to do. I’m going to marry Emma Knight. I’m going to make her my wife, but she was right about our challenges. There are circumstances that must be changed to make us happen and they need to be changed now.
“Tonight,” I say. “I’m talking to her tonight, after I solidify the plan with Grayson Bennett, but bottom line, we need to act now. Randall’s statement about Emma ending up dead doesn’t sit well with me. If that DNA test is true, and Chance killed Hunter knowing he was his half-brother, Emma’s sibling status doesn’t keep her safe.”
“Agreed,” Savage says, his jaw tight. “Kill or be killed. I’m going to go get this new plan set into motion.”
“We started going through Echo’s bookshelves but ran out of time. That’s where he keeps his prizes. Look for the DNA test. Maybe he knew about it.”
“On it,” he says. “And, Grayson and Eric are meeting you in the library in an hour.”
I nod, and he heads down the stairs while I walk to the railing and lean on the wooden surface, staring out at the water, the crashing waves echoing in my mind. The wind taunting me, seeming to laugh at me for being so damn blind that I didn’t know the truth about my family. The irony—I still don’t.
The only thing I know with certainty is what I will do to protect Emma in all of this. And that means that I will do whatever it takes, without limits.
Chapter ninety-nine
Jax
Emma and I arrive at the castle to a line of cars waiting in front, and we do so in a gust of October wind that screams of winter fast approaching. Emma shivers, and I pull her under my arm. “Makes me think of the holidays,” she says, as we climb the stairs to the castle door.
The holidays. Holy hell. It was bad enough to endure them without dad. Now, Hunter is gone, too. But Emma is here, and I try to focus on that bright spot this season. “What do you do for the holidays?” I ask.
“My mother used to cook a big spread at which time we’d pretend to be a normal happy family. I’m pretty sure that won’t happen this year. I left her a message to see if she knows anything about, well, anything. Three times. Apparently, she’s not taking my calls today.” She glances up at me. “What about you? What are your holidays like?”
Memories cut with this question. “Not the same as they used to be,” I reply solemnly. “But back in the good ol’ days, my father always held a feast for the family, and to him, familywas everyone who works at the castle. Hunter maintained that tradition.”
