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“She seemed to think I was only getting close to each of you,”—cue bright red cheeks—“for protection,” I muse aloud. “She said she was giving me a chance to realize we’re supposed to be together.” Meeting Kai’s eyes, I state, “I think she’s hoping I’ll come to her on my own.”
“Except you don’t know how to reach her,” Hawk says, pointing out the obvious.
“No, but she’ll be watching.” Kai leans forward, and I see a plan taking shape behind his eyes. "I think we should play her game—for now. Let her think Emilia is doing what she wants. That she might be coming around to her way of thinking.” His stare bounces between the three of us before settling on me. “No more fake dating.” He flicks his gaze at Hawk and holds it as he states, “No real dating.” When he focuses back on me, he continues, saying, “You live your life here with minimal input from us. The temp teaching job is yours for the year, so continue with that. Plus, it gives her a window of opportunity to reach out to you.”
“Hold on a second,” Hawk barks, smacking his hand against the table. “You’re talking about using Em as bait for this psycho?”
“Can’t we just call the cops on her?” Wilder drawls, sounding bored with the entire conversation. It’s as though yesterday never happened. Today, there is no sign of whatever forward progress I thought we were making, and any time he talks or moves where I’m reminded of his presence, the hurt scraping at my chest intensifies.
“No,” Kai growls, frustrated. “The cops won’t do jack shit. We have no proof. We don’t know where she’s staying, and if she catches wind that Emilia called the cops on her, it will only serve to piss her off. Not to mention the fact that if what Hawk suggests is true, this woman is a ghost. There would be no way for the cops to track her down.”
Kai’s incessant rant is met with silence, and I get the impression his dislike of the police is about more than just any professional dealings he’s had with them.
“There’s no other way to play this,” Kai states, turning to Hawk. “Anything else will only antagonize her. For now, she believes Emilia just needs time to… I don’t know, fall in love with her or some shit. We want her to believe that Emilia is heeding her words. Then, when she gets in contact, we’ll be ready.”
“Basically, we’re luring her into a trap,” I summarize.
“Exactly.”
“Yeah, with Emilia as the bait,” Hawk snaps, shooting to his feet.
“It’s fine,” I say, trying to reassure him.
“No, it’s not fucking fine, Em. You’re not doing this.” He turns his glower on Kai. “She’s not doing this.”
The unrelenting demand ringing in his words gets my back up, and I push to my feet. Admittedly, the move doesn’t have quite the desired effect, as instead of bringing us face-to-face as I’d imagined, I end up staring at the bottom of his chin. Tilting my head back diminishes the effect I was going for, but I still try to incinerate him with my gaze.
“Excuse me,” I snarl, shoving my finger into his chest. I remember doing the same move once before—back when we were at Pac—and being absolutely terrified that he was going to tear me to pieces for daring to touch him.
This time, I’m not afraid. I’m fucking angry.
We might be sleeping together. Dating? I don’t know, but whatever it is we’re doing, it doesn’t give him the right to dictatemylife.
“The old, jerk-face version of Hawk must have inhabited your body,” I snark, ignoring Wilder’s snort of laughter. “Because you didnotjust tell me what I can and cannot do.”
“I won’t let you put yourself at risk to catch this freak,” he spits, his nostrils flaring.
“I believe that’s my call to make.” He opens his mouth, no doubt to spew more asinine protests, except I cut him off. “And if Kai thinks this is the best way, then I trust him. Don’t you?”
Hawk appears as though he’s chewing on something disgusting before he hisses, “Of course I do.”
However, still not done arguing his point of view, he turns to Kai. “But you know you wouldn’t condone this sort of move if this were a job.”
“No,” Kai agrees. “I wouldn’t. Nonetheless, the majority of our jobs are extraction. We’re removing the client from the situation. If you prefer, I can set Emilia up with a false identity and hide her up in the outer reaches of Alaska.”
“No,” Hawk and I—and shockingly, Wilder—all blurt at once.
“No,” I repeat. “That’s not an option. I’m not running again. I…” I chew on my bottom lip before assuredly saying, “I want to stay here.”
Kai nods, accepting my decision—because, unlike Hawk, he is areasonableadult. “Then, I think this is the best plan.”
“How are we going to keep an eye on her?” Hawk argues, still unconvinced. “We're going to have people tailing her, right? And is she going to be able to stay here? I don’t want her living alone somewhere!”
“We can probably keep the plants we already have in her class, but if we have someone following her 24/7, then Mel will likely notice that,” Kai reasons. “And yes, I think she should stay here—for her own safety more than anything else. If Mel questions it, then Emilia can just say that we wouldn’t let her move out or something else that shifts the blame from her.”
“But if we’re supposed to be keeping our distance and we can’t have anyone tailing her, how are we supposed to keep her safe? We’re not going to know if she’s in danger!”
“I’ll get her a bracelet or something with a tracker in it. And I didn’t say I wouldn’t have anyone tailing her. I said we couldn’t have someonefollowingher.” My brows scrunch together in confusion, not understanding the difference. “We’ll take a page out of Mel’s book and use the cameras,” Kai explains. “Set up a round-the-clock team to constantly monitor the security cameras on campus, as well as the traffic cams from here to the university.”
