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I looked toward Caleb.
“You’re being a dick to her, why?” Gael asked.
“She hates my guts right now.”
“You’re not the only one who made the decision and yet she’s targeting you. Why?” Gael asked.
Caleb laughed and got to his feet. “Why do you think? I’m the easy target. I’m the one who makes the final decisions. I’m the one who fucking agreed with that piece of shit that Ashley would go with him. It’s all on me.”
“Let’s stay on track,” River said. “You had something.”
I focused on Gael. I didn’t like how weak we were looking or sounding. We had our disagreements. What family didn’t? But getting Emily back wasn’t supposed to tear us apart.
“He’s got her out on one of his ships. The Valentine. He made sure we were busy with Emily. He took off. Our men were given the slip. He had some body doubles go to the home we agreed upon. While we were distracted, as were our men, he took Ashley out of the port, and he’s now sailing somewhere. I’ve already called in a few favors. We’re going to get a location within hours.”
Caleb launched the bottle across the room. “I’m going to kill him.”
“We can’t do anything that will risk her life. We know that. He knows that.” I tried to reason with him.
“He knows jack shit,” Caleb said. He ran a hand down his face. Suddenly, he started to laugh. “Do you realize how stupid we sound? We jumped on the first man to offer us a chance to get our woman. It makes us look weak.”
“When it comes to Emily, we are weak,” River said.
“We don’t even know if the threat is truly gone.” Caleb growled. “When I find him, he better hope he’s killed himself because I’m going to make him pray for death long before I grant it.”
“We can’t do anything rash,” I said.
“Have you found her?”
We all turned toward the door at the sound of Emily’s voice. She stood in the doorway. I’d been too distracted to hear her come in. She was messing with all of our heads, but if we weren’t careful, we were all going to get killed and it wouldn’t be her fault, but ours. She hadn’t come back to us. We’d gone to her.
“We know where he’s taken her,” Caleb said.
She nodded. “Good. What’s the plan?”
“You’re not part of it.”
“I want my cell phone,” she said. “I want to know if I can at least get in touch with her.”
“We don’t have it,” Caleb said. “We trashed all of your possessions.”
“You’re infuriating.” She ran a hand down her face, clearly struggling to stay in control. She held her hands out. “I don’t want to fight anymore. I … can we just all agree to work together to get Ashley back?”
“You want to be friends?” River asked.
“Yes.”
“Friends that fuck?” Gael asked.
She winced.
Caleb snorted. “So, you’ve fucked my three best friends but are leaving me out.”
“I don’t want to argue with you,” she said. “I don’t want to fight.”
“And you think I do?”
“How did you expect this to go, Caleb? You got me at the price of my friend. You had to know I wouldn’t accept that.”
“I did what I had to.”
“At what price?” She sighed. “Do you even know if he kept to his end of the bargain? I can’t leave the house, can I? I don’t know the full extent of your fathers’ powers, but I’m not safe here.”
“You are safe.”
I didn’t like where she was going with this. It was a fear that we all had, but I didn’t like her voicing it.
“I can’t hide in here forever, Caleb. Neither can all of you. You’ve got a town to destroy.” She took a step out of the room and I watched her go, wanting to help her, to offer her comfort, but there was nothing I could say. She was right, like always. We were fucked.
Caleb stared at the door. In the brief second he stared at her retreating back, I knew he was in pain. He hated being a disappointment to Emily, but that was what we all were. With Ashley gone, we had all fucked up, and we had to pay the price.
“I’m going to reach out to some of my boys,” I said. “See if I can find out about any movement or agreement of a kill on a female.”
I couldn’t stand to be in the room anymore and I left, not looking back. There was only so much pain we could all stand, and I had to make it right, once and for all.
****
River
I found Emily in the music room. She sat at the piano, her fingers touching each key, letting the sound linger in the air before moving onto the next one. She stared across the room at me.
“Do I have to go to my room for being naughty? I didn’t see any soldiers.”
