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“You don’t look happy,” she said.
“I’m not.” I didn’t want to lie to her, which was another reason I wanted to avoid her.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
I looked at her, waiting for the questions to start. They didn’t. All she did was dip the spoon into the tub and start to eat. Her tongue came out, licking the bottom of the spoon.
“You’re not curious?”
“You know I am,” she said. “But I also know what it’s like to just want to be alone with my thoughts. I’m guessing something big went down, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, it did.”
“You also want to protect me.”
“Always.”
“You’ll tell me if you feel I need to know.” She cupped my face, rubbing her thumb back and forth.
“You know, the last seven years were the hardest of our lives,” I said.
“I know.”
“We only did what we had to in order to protect you.”
She licked her lips and I saw the tears shining in her eyes. I didn’t want to make her cry.
“I get it, Vadik, I do.”
I stared at her. There was no judgment, no anger, no resentment. It was like she was a different person. Whatever Drake had said to her, it had given her a new perspective.
“We fucked up.”
This made her pause in eating her ice cream. “What do you mean?”
I pressed my lips together, fighting with the decision of if I should tell her or not. It wasn’t going to do either of us any good, and finally, I decided to tell her.
“Your life is in danger.” I told her everything. I told her about the dads’ escape, the attackers, and the call to Earl Valentine. “He’s coming here. He’s bringing Ashley with him. So long as we don’t take her from him, he’s going to help us. He wants to settle an old score with them. They made promises to him that they didn’t keep.”
“Wait.” Emily held her hand up. “Ashley’s coming here?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to let him leave with her.”
I took her hands, kissing each of her knuckles. “We’re going to do everything we can to save her. I promise.”
She breathed out a sigh of relief. “Wow, no wonder you’re eating ice cream.”
“I didn’t want to tell you.”
She chuckled. “Oops.”
“I don’t like keeping secrets from you.”
“Good. I’m glad.” This time, she kissed my hands. “I don’t like you keeping secrets from me either.” She took a deep breath. “So, Ashley is coming here and there are at least five people who want me dead.”
“No, four.”
She smiled. “If you killed an attacker, as did River and Caleb, that means there is at least one more on the loose.”
Before I had a chance to speak, one of the soldiers crashed through the door. Gunshots rang out, and I quickly dived to my woman, getting her to the floor as the man who’d just taken out at least one of our men charged forward. I didn’t recognize him, but I knew the sort of man he was. A trained killer, hired to do a job. Our dads weren’t wasting any time. I kicked the gun out of his hand, sending my fist into his gut, which made him bend, giving me the perfect shot in the face. He blocked the punch, shoving me back hard. I was off-balance as he slammed me into the counter. It would all sting in the morning.
I wasn’t one to go down lightly. Grabbing him around the neck, I took him down with me. We knocked chairs to the floor. He hit me twice in the face, and the third time I head-butted him, it was so hard I saw stars.
Emily screamed my name. There was no way I could let this bastard get to her.
The gun went off and the man grunted. He head-butted me twice until I let him go. Dazed, he climbed off me and I heard more than one gunshot ring out. Getting to my feet, I saw our attacker was on the floor. Emily pressed a hand to her shoulder, blood seeping through her fingers.
I went to her as Gael, Drake, River, and Caleb each appeared in the kitchen.
“We need a doctor!” I put my hand over her wound, hating that I’d failed her. I’d never been bested in a fight and this was a harsh reality to deal with. Drake tossed his cell phone at River, going toward the dead body.
“I’m fine,” Emily said.
She swayed a little on her feet. Picking her up in my arms, I carried her through to the sitting room, putting her down gently on the sofa. She pulled her hand away and winced. “Ugh, it hurts.”
“What the fuck happened?”
“We were attacked on our own land. One of our men is already dead, and Em’s hurt. Can’t you see what’s going on?” I tore at Emily’s pajama shirt to expose her wound. It looked clean, it was just bleeding profusely. After removing my shirt, I wrapped it around her, tightening it as best as I could.
