Page 33 of Thaddeus

“Emerson?” I barked.

Her gaze swung my way and for a fleeting moment all I could see was extreme pain. Then she closed down and the hurt I’d seen was replaced with anger.

“I don’t see what the past has to do with anything.”

“Then you’re blind,” Declan told her. “I assumed he knew. If he doesn’t, Max is right, he needs to. And that’s coming from you.”

“I’m in the fuckin’ room so stop talking about me like I’m not. What about Autumn?” Emerson flinched before her eyes drifted closed. “Where’s Autumn, Emerson?”

I’d never met Emerson’s younger sister—Autumn was attending UNLV at the time—but I’d spoken to her over the phone and had seen pictures of the girl. She and Emerson were only fourteen months apart in age and looked almost identical. They’d worn their hair styled the same way, long and straight and not needing to do a damn thing to it for it to look great.

The two women had been close. The only two children born to Mr. and Mrs. Pierce, they’d grown up doing everything together.

“Where the hell is Autumn?” I repeated.

The way Emerson kept her silence gave me a chill. Did something happen to her sister, or did Autumn turn her back on Emerson’s new life?

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

“What do you mean, you don’t know? When was the last time you talked to her?”

“A long time ago.”

I looked at Max for answers. Something. Anything. His features were blank. That in itself said a lot. He wasn’t frowning at her with his normal skepticism. I didn’t like it, not one fucking bit.

I was done playing twenty questions. I wanted the truth, all of it, and I wanted Emerson to tell me without me having to draw every answer out of her.

I walked the few feet separating us, tagged her hand, and yanked. She had no choice but to move with me at the fast pace I’d set or I would’ve dragged her. We made our way down the hall and into the back bedroom. When we cleared the threshold, I slammed the door behind us, giving us privacy.

Then I turned to her.

I should’ve waited. Calmed myself down before I launched into my tirade but I didn’t.

“I want to know what the hell is going on and I want to know now. Why does my boss have information on your sister? Did she kick your ass to the curb when she found out what kind of men you were dating? And who is David Duncan? Another sad sap you played and fucked over? Tell me, Emerson, so we can put this shit to bed and move on. I have a job to do. One that does not include an ex-girlfriend and her fucked-up choices.”

If I would’ve taken a two-by-four and hit her with it, it would’ve caused less pain than my words had. Her pulse pounded on the side of her neck and her breaths came in short pants like she couldn’t draw in enough oxygen.

What in the actual hell was going on?

“Autumn’s gone.”

Two words that looked like they cost her.

“What does that mean?”

“It means… She. Is. Gone. Just gone.”

“Explain that.”

She didn’t explain. She stared at me.

New tactic. “Why’d you leave me?”

Nothing. Silence.

“I deserve to know why you played me. I wasn’t some rich fuck you could get money from like Garcia. I couldn’t buy you the lifestyle you obviously want. I had nothing to offer you, why’d you pick me?”

“You gave me everything,” she whispered.