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“He’s going to disappear,” Milo said steadily. “He was playing the high stakes in Vegas, on a bender, and then he went missing. It could take seven years for you to have him declared dead. You may want to wait a few months before you report him missing. We’ll have to see about that.”
“We spent a lot of time apart,” she said, pivoting slowly to look at Milo. “The last few years, it was just easier to avoid him rather than see him. I had no idea how much I hated him until just now.”
My heart ached for her. “You won’t have to see him again.” I wouldn’t have asked her this time if I hadn’t needed the answers.
“No, but I don’t—I can’t see Bra—” Distaste twisted her mouth. “Fuckbucket going to the Adirondacks. It’s far tooquaintfor him.”
I didn’t disagree.
“Ivy?” Milo nudged me quietly, and I glanced up at him.
“She’s right…nothing about the Adirondacks would appeal to him. They’re neat, but he’s caviar and champagne with expensive bourbon and maids who give him blowjobs on command. He wouldn’t—”
He wouldn’t go to the mountains when he had yachts.
“Hans Sachs.”
Mom straightened. “He’s on the Hans Sachs? If he’s there, we might never find him…”
Bile burned in the back of my throat. Awareness of the guys swarmed over me. They were paying attention to every word, every nuance. “Mom, do you want to go lay down for a bit?”
“I’m not going to break,” she countered, anger sparking in her eyes. It was the first real sign of her spirit I’d seen since they’d brought her in. “If you’re going after him, you’re not doing it without me.” The ferocity in those last few words made my eyes burn.
“I needyouto be okay and seeing—Sharpe was a lot.” I wasn’t quite braced for her to throw herself at me, but I met her hug and held her tight. “I’m going to be okay, Mom. But I can’t afford to worry about you right now. We will figure this out…both your situation and this one.”
It took some coaxing, but she finally let me take her upstairs. When it was just the two of us in her room though, she studied me with a critical eye.
“Emersyn… these men you’ve found. They’re dangerous.”
“I know.” I met her gaze without hesitation. “It’s part of their charm.”
“I’m serious.” Worry filtered through her eyes. “Are you sure you can trust them?”
An image of Kellan tackling me away from the speeding car in the garage flashed through my head. He hadn’t hesitated.
Taking her hands, I tugged her over to the sofa and urged her to sit before I slid onto it to face her. “I know I can trust them. When I was in trouble, they took me.”
That night in the alley, Eric had been furious. He slammed me into the wall and hit my head. If not for Vaughn intervening—then the guys coming to help…
“They punished the person hurting me and they took care of me. When bounty hunters tried to steal me back, they protected me.”
Rome never slowed down when he found me fighting the guy in the kitchen at the shop. Nor had he when those guys came at me in the park.
“When I was stupid enough to return to Fuckbucket to protect them,theyfollowed me.Theygot me out of Pinetree.Theyhave protected me over and over and over again. There isnothingthey have to prove to me.”
Mom stared at me, worry glittering in her eyes. “You’ve had such a hard life…This…” She motioned to the room or maybe the warehouse. “This is not anything I would have imagined for you. Nor wanted for you, but the life I gave you wasn’t what I wanted you to have either.”
Misery lived in her eyes.
“Baby…”
“I know, Mom.” Then I reached out to hug her. She closed her arms around me fiercely. “Neither of us deserved that life. So, no more. For you or for me.” Her shudder echoed in my soul. “We’re going to get through this. We will build the lives we want—meandyou.”
I pulled back to meet her tear-filled eyes.
“Trust me?”
“You truly trust those men?”
