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“Emma,” I huff. “The Lucianos are clearly after you for begging them for a deal, pulling out of it, and coming to me instead. Lucky came to kill you. Good thing you weren’t home.”
“I know why she came for me,” Emma snaps. “You’re meant to protect me from this shit.”
A chuckle escapes my lips. “Why does Lucky know where you live?”
She takes a short step back, avoiding my gaze, but the answer is on her reddening cheeks.
“Ah. Well, you’re the girl stupid enough to invite a lethal woman into your bed. Not my problem, is it?”
“You could at least pretend to fucking care.”
“Nate,” Kay backs her up. Oh, they’re definitely becoming friends. “We can’t just let the Lucianos kill her for helping you.”
“Helping me kidnap you, baby. Remember that before becoming best friends with her.”
Kay pins me with a stare. “Nate.”
I flatten my lips, showing my wife I’m not happy with her participation. “To be clear,” I tell Emma. “I don’t care, and I won’t pretend to. But I’ll protect you.”
“Good. How? Are you gonna kill Lucky? Send Sam?”
“Kill—” I bark out a laugh. “Are you fucking crazy? There are some people in this business you know to stay away from. Just because you didn’t, doesn’t mean I’m going to risk my very useful enforcer. Lucky is fucking insane, and that’s coming from me.”
When she doesn’t get it, I add, “No, Emma. I am not sending anyone to kill Lucky.”
“You can stay here,” Kay adds. “In this house. There are guards everywhere.”
“Uh, no,” I correct right away. “You can’t.”
“Nate, her life is at risk.”
“I don’t care. What is it you two don’t understand?”
“I do.” And all it takes is her begging pout to break my will.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Kayla,” I grumble. “Fine,” I tell Emma. “You’ll take the farthest fucking room from me in the house.”
Emma’s shoulders drop in relief. “Thank you.” She turns to Kay, and they smile at each other like two kids who convinced their moms to have a sleepover.
“Now get the fuck out of my office.”
They both turn around, walking away before I cut them off. “Not you, Kayla. I’m taking you to see Dr. Karls in fifteen minutes. And come give me a kiss for keeping your new bestie alive.”
The second Emma is out, she huffs. “I don’t want to see Dr. Karls.”
“Tough.”
Last week, she got her dyslexia diagnosis, and apart from the fact that I was right, the speech therapist I hired to help her said she could work with her even though there’s only so much she could do. It would have helped even better if she had been diagnosed as a child, but I guess that wasn’t really her main worry growing up on the North Shore.
“Dr. Karls looks at you like she wants to fuck you. She asked a thousand questions about you during my first session. The bitch would die for you to come in with me. She hated that you waited outside.”
I smile at her mockingly. “Maybe I should, then. Would that make you behave?”
“I’ll stab her in the neck. Would that make you behave?”
The laugh bursting out of me takes us both by surprise. It keeps happening around her, and I have no idea how to control it anymore. She walks to my chair, not hesitating one second before straddling me. The red Prada dress she’s wearing hikes up her thighs, and she wraps her arms around my neck.
“Please.” Giving me those sweet eyes, she takes off my glasses and puts them on the desk behind her. “I don’t want to go.” She kisses my mouth, my cheeks, my forehead. “I really, really don’t want to go.”
