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James looked at me across the dining table. “I need you and Adrian in my office after breakfast,” he told me.
I nodded once. If he was calling a small meeting between us, then he had found something out.
Juliana looked worriedly to me, but I aimed an easy-going smile at her, instantly calming her nerves. She smiled at me before she opened her mouth and took the last bite of her pancake.
Slowly, but surely, her appetite was increasing, which I was happy as fuck for. She was at a healthy weight, but her appetite was near nonexistent a few days ago.
I finished off my food as she drank her water and cranberry juice. Emmaline – bless her sweet soul – did her best to engage Juliana in conversation, though Juliana was completely mute, only nodding or shaking her head in answer. I noticed James gently cup the back of Emmaline’s neck, his thumb brushing the column of her throat.
His wife was distressed over Juliana’s lack of voice.
I knew Emmaline was aware that it had nothing to do with her but had everything to do with Juliana’s past, which I also knew bugged Emmaline.
After Juliana finished her water and her cranberry juice, I led her out of the room and up the stairs. She crawled onto the bed as soon as we got in the room, her eyes shutting as she clutched my pillow.
Seemed like social interaction took a lot out of her.
It was a common sign of anxiety and depression, both of which I had no doubt in my mind that my woman suffered from.
I leaned over the bed, bracing my hands on either side of her. She slowly opened her pretty, dark eyes to look up at me. “You okay?” I asked her.
She nodded. “I’m tired,” she mumbled, letting her eyes fall shut again.
I leaned down and brushed my lips to her forehead. “Get some rest, then.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and set it beside her on the bed. “If you need me, call James or Adrian. They will let me know,” I assured her. She tensed, most likely at the thought of having to speak to someone that wasn’t me. I brushed my hand over her side. “Easy, baby girl. You don’t even have to say a word when you call. I’ll know.”
She nodded, relaxing again. I leaned down and kissed her before pulling the blankets over her and leaving the room to go find out what my brother had learned.
~*~*~
“Tell me what you know,” I ordered as soon as I shut my brother’s office door behind me, closing the three of us into the room together.
He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his slacks. “Apparently, he’s been searching for Juliana ever since she escaped from him,” James explained. “According to Gemma, your girl never left the club once she got there – not even for necessities she might need. She always asked Gemma to get them for her.” I frowned at that bit of information.
“She had to have known our club was safe,” I finally noted.
Adrian nodded in agreement. “My guess, too. Just wonder if she knew who owned it,” he mused.
I shook my head. “I don’t think she has any idea because she would have known who I was,” I told them. “When I disarmed that fucker in the alley and knocked him out, it freaked Juliana out. She had no idea who I was until that day.”
“Well, this shit gets worse, brother,” James told me.
I gritted my teeth as I cut my eyes to him. “Well?” I demanded.
“There’s a cash reward for whoever returns her to him alive – a fucking million.”
“Jesus Christ,” Adrian spluttered. “She really fucking worth that?”
Anger pulsed through me, his words sending me over the edge. I shoved him – hard. He hit the floor. James jumped between us before Adrian could come back at me. “Lock it down,” he growled at us. He glared at Adrian. “That was a dick move, and you fucking know it. I would have hospitalized you for saying a hell of a lot less about Emmaline.” James looked at me. “Rein it in, brother.”
I glared at Adrian, fucking seething. “She is worth that,” I snarled at him. “She’s worth a hell of a lot fucking more. She’s worth every fucking life in this goddamn house and then some.”
He gritted his teeth but didn’t say anything more. James looked between us. “We good?”
I nodded once and stepped back, stalking to the other side of the room. “We need to discuss some kind of fucking strategy,” I spoke into the tense silence, turning to face James and Adrian again. “We need some kind of intel on what the fuck we’re going up against here.”
James nodded in agreement. He cut his eyes to his best friend. “You with us or against us on this, Adrian?”
“With you,” Adrian said. He inclined his head to me. “I’m sorry, Darren. I didn’t realize how much the woman meant to you.”
He should have known considering men like us didn’t just bring random women home. Instead of arguing like I wanted to – or knocking him on his ass again – I nodded once at him before looking back at James. “I’m good at getting intel,” I told him. “You know that. If you let me go, just make sure there’s extra protection on Juliana in place of my absence. And I know you like having Emmaline by your side, but I’m asking you to let her be with Juliana instead while I’m gone.”
James clenched his jaw, but I knew he understood why I was requesting it. “You sure Juliana will be comfortable with that?” James asked me.
I nodded. “She hates being alone more than she fears being around Emmaline. She’s fine now because she knows I’m close, but I’m worried about what will happen while I’m gone.” I slid my hands into the pockets of my leather jacket. “Besides, she may not have been saying much to Emmaline at breakfast, but she wasn’t tense. She was relaxed. She somewhat trusts Emmaline.”
James sighed but nodded. “I’ll suffer for a couple of nights for her sake,” he said jokingly, though I knew he would. He liked having Emmaline as close as possible at nighttime.
I nodded at him. “Thanks, James.”
“You’ll need to be ready to go by nightfall,” James warned me. He looked at Adrian. “Make sure everything he needs is in his car.”
Adrian nodded once, all of us taking our cue to leave. I went straight back to my room. When I got in there, Juliana was leaning against my headboard, her knees pulled up to her chest. She looked up at me, her eyes seeking mine out.
I walked straight over to her and pressed my lips to hers in a soft, soothing kiss. “I’m here, little girl,” I soothed, knowing that term would fully relax her.
I leaned back up and walked over to the closet, pulling down a small duffel from my closet to pack. Juliana jumped up from the bed, her panicked eyes finding mine.
Fuck.
“You’re leaving?” she choked out in fear and panic.
