“No shit.”
Footsteps crept up the porch stairs, and when Delilah came around the corner, I held a finger up. Her sultry expression shifted, concern taking its place. I gave her my back. I couldn’t take her watching me during this. “You know how it is,” I said, fighting through the crushing feeling in my chest. “I just…I couldn’t…I wasn’t right after everything with Danny.”
Arms wrapped around my waist from behind. My eyes squeezed shut. My throat burned, raw like a ball of blades was lodged inside.
“And you think I was?” Jack snapped. The hurt in his voice punched the air clean out of me. “You dropped off the face of the earth, Emmett. Fuckin’ disappeared when I needed you the most.” My knees weakened, and if it weren't for Delilah holding me, I’d be in a heap on the ground.
“I know,” I choked out, voice breaking. I gripped Delilah’s arm. “I know I fucked everything up. Danny’s dead because of me. You and I haven’t talked because of me. You don’t need to remind me how big a dick I am. I’ve thought about it every damn day.” Delilah’s hand ran back and forth over my chest, a steady, soothing rhythm that calmed some of the chaos inside me.
“First off, Danny didn’t die because of you, and we both know he’d beat the hell out of you if he heard that bullshit. I’m half-tempted to myself.”
“You could try,” I said with a tearful laugh.
“And second, I get why you haven’t stayed in touch,” he continued, his voice a little gruffer. “Talking to you’s like pouring salt in the wound.”
“So kind of you.” But I knew exactly what he meant by it. The way I missed Danny was god-fucking-awful. Like a hole in my chest that’d never close. And talking to Jack made that hole go from cavernous to too goddamn big.
“That’s me, a fuckin’ ray of sunshine. Now I know you didn’t call to gossip, so what’s up?”
“I need a favor.” I then gave him the short version of what had happened and asked him to look into Sterling and Preston.
“Jesus Christ. These dudes sound fuckin’ crazy.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “They are. So can you look into them? I can pay?—”
“I’m not taking your money, you dumbass. But yeah, I’ll look into them.” A huge sigh of relief left me. “You want a full sweep?”
“If that’s not too much trouble.” He’d get access to everything. Bank records, communications, the works.
“Nah. Gimme a week and I’ll call you back. Sound good?”
“Perfect. I owe you one, Rem.”
“Just don’t let this be the last time I hear from you, and we’ll be good.”
“It won’t be,” I promised. And when we hung up, Delilah slid around to my front, her arms still around me.
“You okay? That sounded intense at first.”
I rested my head on top of hers, my eyes drifting shut with her in my arms. “Yeah. Everything is fine.”
I’d make sure of it.
15
Ch 14 - Delilah
My pen almost ripped through the paper as I crossed out another name for a potential sponsor in my journal. The sound of the creek didn’t do anything to ease my stress, either. It’d been four days of calls and emails and office visits, and I managed to scrape together seven hundred dollars. That’s it. Compared to Ethan’s million, it was a drop in the bucket. The ocean, really.
I buried my head in my hands, wracking my brain for something, anything I could think of. So much for proving that I wasn’t the fuck up of the friend group.
“There you are,” Emmett said from behind me.
I gave him a tight smile over my shoulder. “Hey.” My voice was flat, defeated.
He bent down to kiss the top of my head before sitting beside me. “You’ve been hiding again.”
“Yeah,” I sighed.
