Page 108 of Jesse

Johnny looks at Joey and makes a face of don’t-be-an-asshole. “You know why, Joe.”

“Wait, hold on,” Emma says. “I don’t know why. Fill me in!”

“Why are you here?” Johnny snaps at her.

“I don’t know either,” I say. Not because I want to know. I have decided maybe I don’t need to know this shit. I say it because I don’t want Johnny looking too close at Emma. She’s the one who started this night. She’s the one who opened the can of worms. She’s the reason…

“Hey,” I say. Narrowing my eyes at Johnny. “What the fuck is up with you and me? Do you fuckin’ hate me or something?”

“Yeah,” Emma says. “Whatever with your creepy money ritual. You’re the reason why the tabloids are talking about us right now. You gave them that footage.”

“I had to,” Johnny says. “I needed…” He pauses to take a deep breath and look me in the eyes. “I needed the cover.”

“Cover for what?” Zach asks.

Johnny swivels his chair around, gets up, and starts walking away. I grab him by the arm and grip it tight. “Where the fuck are you going?”

“Yeah, answer the question,” Joey says. “Cover for what?”

He glares at Joey. Joey glares back. His eye almost swollen shut. And it hits me that for a moment there, I forgot who Johnny is. I only saw him for who he was.

But he had a gun to my brother’s head when I walked in.

Was he going to kill him? Or was it just a threat?

“That… you really do not want to know.” And then he shrugs me off and disappears down the hallway.

The rest of us stand there and look at each other. Emma is taking breaths like she’s about to have a panic attack. Zach is shaking his head and Joey grits his teeth.

“Come on,” I say. “Show’s over. Let’s go.”

“Go?” Joey says, grabbing me by the arm. “We need to set him straight. Like… now.”

“What do you want to do?” I ask. “Kill him?”

“No,” Joey says.

I shrug. “Then what? What are we gonna do? We don’t have any leverage and even if we did—“

I stop, because Emma is suddenly walking through the door and heading back downstairs.

“Shit.” I look at Joey and Zach and say, “Hey, if you two are stupid enough to confront Johnny again tonight, be my guest. But I’m not gonna lose one more goddamn thing because of that asshole.”

I brush past Joe and follow Emma down the stairs. She’s already pulling the fire stair door open when I catch up to her. Heading down to my floor.

“Emma wait,” I call.

But she doesn’t wait.

Her feet fly down the stairs and she disappears inside my apartment.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN - EMMA

I rush down the hallway, no idea where I’m going. The tour yesterday is all a bit blurry from the drugs, I guess. And my heart is beating fast with panic because I need to do this before Jesse catches up with me and tries to talk me out of it.

But the doors are all closed. I start opening them, quickly peeking in, then rush off to the next one.

The fire stair door slams open, hitting the wall with a bang. “Emma!” Jesse calls. “Wait!”