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She swallows hard. “You matter to me, too,” she whispers. “So much that it scares me. He’s my brother, Jax. If he was involved, he doesn’t deserve my support, but I don’t want to lose him.”
“I know, baby.” My hands settle on her hips. “I know. Look, Emma, I have my own version of demons. Things that fuck with my head, just like you have yours.”
“I know that. I’m not trying to make my world more important than yours.”
“Our world now, Emma. Let me go take care of Kent, and we’ll talk all of this out. We need to decide together, if A, B, or C, happens, here’s what we do. Fair?”
“That is about as perfect as this gets. I don’t want to fight like this again.”
“And that’s why we’re going to talk this out.” I kiss her and step away, grabbing my shirt and slipping it on. She stays leaning on the wall, watching me.
My cellphone rings again, and I grab it from my pocket where I’ve stuck it to find Savage’s number. “Savage,” I tell Emma, and she pushes off the wall and sucks in a breath.
“Savage,” I greet, my eyes holding Emma’s.
“No poison, but asshole that I am, I want to keep you alive. I had a look at Emma’s little gift.”
My eyes meet Emma’s. “And?”
“Let’s have a man-to-man pow wow, and by man-to-man, I mean without Emma.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Jax…
Savage is pissing me the fuck off.
I told him to wait. I told him not to look in the damn envelope. And I told Emma we’d do this together, that we’d open the envelope together. But I swear as I stare into her beautiful eyes and see the fear there, I hesitate in my response. I hesitate because I know where that fear comes from. It comes from her confession about being alone. It comes from her need to hold onto her brother. It comes from her desire to run before I push her away, because that’s what she thinks is going to happen. And so I hedge, I hedge while my mind chases my right move.
“I have a meeting,” I state. “I’ll contact you when it’s over.” I don’t give him time to push me while Emma is watching. I move on. “Are your men in place?”
“They’re here and ready to kick ass, but let’s talk about your meeting. Kent Sawyer. I took the liberty to do some research. That’s another reason we need to meet.”
“I know who and what he is.”
“Want to bet a date with Emma on that?”
He’s testing my patience. “You think you’re funny, Savage—”
“I put things in real terms. There’s rarely anything funny about reality. But let me be clear. You don’t know everything you need to know about Kent Sawyer. Be careful or you’ll lose more than Emma.”
“Says the man who can’t follow instructions.”
“My directive, outside of a paycheck, is to keep you and Emma alive,” he says. “Who gave me that direction? Me. That’s who fucking gave me that direction. And I’m the king. I listen to me as you should. I’m the almighty on this. Because I’m not good at living with dead people on my mind. Call me selfish, but I don’t want to try. So, what I’m telling you is not to shut Emma out. I’m telling you that my job is to keep you and her safe. She is going to react to what’s inside that envelope and that reaction could get her killed.”
I inhale a breath and let it out on my answer, “I need Sawyer out of here. We’ll talk when he leaves.”
“Yes,” Savage agrees. “You need Sawyer the fuck out of here. Hit me with a text when you’re ready.” He disconnects, and I slide my phone in my pocket, my decision about what to do next, coming easily now that Savage isn’t yacking in my ear. “He wants to see me alone.”
Her eyes go wide. “He opened it.”
My lips thin, and I give her a short nod. “Yeah, baby, he opened it.”
“And he wants to see you alone?” She presses her hand to her belly. “Okay. Well, we now know it’s something that damns me and my family. And us.” She tries to walk away.
I catch her arm and step into her. “Do you blame me for what Brody did last night?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why would I blame you for anything your family did?”
“I didn’t die.”
“That fool could have killed you,” I say. “He could have gotten you both killed. We are not responsible for anything our families did. Nor are we damned. Stop doing that to us, baby.” I stroke her cheek. “Please. Stop running every time something comes at us.”
She breathes out a shaky breath. “I did that again, didn’t I?”
“Yes. You did.”
She presses her hands to her face and drops them. “I didn’t realize this was my thing, Jax. I don’t want it to be my thing.”
