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“I don’t know what you want.” She hissed, her chest still heaved as if she were ready to run. “I don’t know who you are.”
“Yes, you do. You do.” I encouraged her, taking her face with both hands, so gently.
“Did you fucking send those men after me?” She looked at me with purpose, carefully watching my face, her body ready to uncoil and spring if needed.
“Emma.” What words could I even find to convince her to trust me? There weren't enough words in the English language to convince her. So I just simply answered, “Of course not.”
“Then who the fuck did?” She snapped. “Who?”
“I don’t know. Emma. I don’t know.” I kept my eyes on her as I inched a bit closer. “But I have that hard drive, and I could really use your help. Everything we need is on it.”
She waited for a moment before responding, “Why did you attack me that night?”
I blew my cheeks out. Here it was, the big question that had brought it all crashing down. “I told you, I did it to protect you.”
“Bull-fucking-shit.” She tried to jerk away, but I held her face firmly.
Now I spoke more sternly. “You know as well as I do that Viktor does not give two shits about you.” I could see that she recognized that as the truth in her eyes. “You fucked up. Big time. Viktor was sending a team to deal with you. And if I didn’t give Viktor what he wanted, you would have been done.” Something in her shifted. I was gaining a little bit of ground here. “They were going to fuck you up, and then the agency would have dropped you, and your deal, your contract keeping you out of prison, would have been gone.”
She didn’t say anything.
I continued, “Would you have preferred that I let you go to prison, huh? Would you have preferred to I let the team fuck you up?” I looked at her. “Why… are you covered in blood?”
“I trusted you, Mason.” Her voice was softer, edging on crying.
I dared let my eyes rake over her and I slowly started checking her for injuries. “You can still trust me.” I gently worked my way over her arms, and then her bare stomach. If she was injured, it was under her leggings. I couldn’t see anything so far. Nothing around any vital organs was bleeding, at least. I nodded my head to her blood covered hands. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”
She looked at me for a long moment, her eyes discerning, and deciding. “You didn’t send those men?”
“If I wanted you dead, don’t you think I’d have done it by now?” I asked with a raised brow. “Were you followed?” I realized the length of time we’d been in the closet. If someone had attacked her, she’d likely led them here.
She pulled her lips between her teeth and watched me, trying to decide if she was going to trust me. “I don’t think–”
Suddenly, a noise came from downstairs. I looked at her. “Don’t move.” I pressed a finger to my lips, motioning for her to be quiet, and I softly shut the closet door with her tucked inside.
I stood at the stop of the stairs, listening. Nothing. It could have been the wind shifting the door into the garage. I cautiously made my way downstairs, going straight for the kitchen island. I grabbed the gun off the counter and swiftly reloaded it.
Then I spun around and fired.
A big masked burly man laid on the floor, no longer moving.
I glanced up at the top of the stairs and shook my head. Despite my instructions, Emma stood there, silently, with no reaction or shock on her face. She was surprisingly calm for what had just happened.
“Is this?” I motioned to the man, and she nodded. I pulled the weapons off his body and looked at Emma. “We have to go. Now.”
I sprinted up the stairs and quickly returned with a handful of clothes. I shoved Emma into one of my hoodies, and she let me stuff her into it and I threw a baseball cap on her head. This would have to do until we got to my safe house. Hopefully, we didn’t have to make any stops, and hopefully we didn’t get pulled over. I grabbed my go bag out of the downstairs closet and my laptop off the counter and took her hand guiding her out to the jeep that she’d parked right in the driveway. She only hesitated for a moment before getting into the car with me.
I started the engine and peeled onto the road.
“Where are we going?” She finally asked.
“My safe house.” I responded.
26
MASON
It wasa little over an hour to the beach house and Emma sat silently, looking out the car window. Finally, I spoke first. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”
