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“I’ll give you a moment alone,” he says, pausing at the door. “But tell me. Which do you prefer, Emma? Baby or sweetheart?”
I glance over my shoulder at him. “Baby, because—” I turn away, stopping myself before I say something silly, and reach for my toothpaste. “Because I do.”
“Because why?” he presses.
I squirt toothpaste on my brush but I give into the moment, I can tell he’s not going to let me escape. “Because,” I say, turning to face him. “I like how your voice sounds when you say it.”
His eyes light with mischief, and a mix of lust and affection that I don’t believe any man has ever shown me. This is real, I realize in this moment. We’re real and I have to decide how to navigate the narrow bridge between him and my brother.
“See you in a few, baby.” He winks and disappears into the room, while my cheeks heat pink, a detail I confirm by looking into the mirror. And my hair is poling out here and there, doing anything but laying flat on my head.
My teeth come first, I brush them, then wash my face, brush my hair, and run my hands down my jeans, a question Jax asked me while I was neck deep in whiskey, coming back to me. He wanted to know about York’s secret and I have a sudden realization that’s not a good one. A realization that changes how I responded. How I have to respond now.
I exit the bathroom to find the bedroom empty. Continuing on, I turn into the living area to find Jax sitting on the couch, a drink in his hand. He lifts it in my direction. I wave him away. “Not funny.”
He holds up my phone. “It keeps ringing. Your brother and an unknown caller.”
I inhale and let my breath out. “The unknown will be York, trying to get by me blocking him with another number. Of course, I don’t know why he would think I would answer an unknown call.” I close the space between us and sit down on the wooden table in front of him, right where the pizza box was before he clearly got rid of it. “You asked me what secret York wanted me to keep.”
He pauses with the drink to his lips, but then takes a sip. “Yes,” he says, lowering his glass. “I did. And you told me, you wouldn’t tell. You told me that I could use that information to hurt you.”
His tone doesn’t change. His expression doesn’t change, but I don’t miss the slight hardening of his jaw. He might have been tender and sweet in the bathroom but this is a point of contention for him. “This information could hurt my family, Jax, it could hurt me, but it could also hurt you, because you knew to ask me about it, because I spoke about it in front of you with York present. Now, you’re in his crosshairs. Now, he’s going to come for you and that’s my fault. You need to be ready.”
He downs his drink and sets the glass on the table next to him before leaning forward, his hands settling on my legs. “Don’t you think I need to know what it is he’s coming at me for, Emma?”
It’s a question that brings us to a moment of truth. If I tell him this secret, there are consequences to me and my family. If I don’t tell him, there are consequences to him with York.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Emma…
“York is dangerous,” I say, my hands pressed to the table, a way of grounding myself when I really want to just get up and change the subject. But those consequences I fear, won’t allow me to leave this alone. “But just as he will come at you, Jax, once I tell you this, you could come at my family.”
His jaw hardens, his hand on my knee flexing into my leg. “What if I tell you I won’t use the information?”
“I’ll believe you, Jax, but I also know you have a deep burn for some sort of redemption for your brother, a reason that makes what he did make sense. And even you, a man I believe to be a man of calculation and control are human. One piece of information about your brother and my family could hit an emotional trigger, and all good intentions fly out the window.”
“In other words, you still don’t trust me.”
“I barely know you, Jax and you clearly loved your brother as I love mine. Those two things could easily be at odds.”
“Could be if we let them, but we won’t.”
“Come on, Jax. If my brother did something that led to your brother’s troubles, to his death, then what?”
His brow arches. “I thought you didn’t believe your brother could do such a thing?”
