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“What? She can’t talk for herself? I should have known she was chickenshit…”
“Yo,” I snapped, reaching out, grabbing the bat from his hands, flipping it, pointing it at him. The shock on his face, yeah, it was more than a little bit satisfying, I won’t lie. “Let me be more clear here. You don’t fucking call her or text her or email her. You don’t talk shit about her. In fact, you forget you even know her fucking name from this point on. She is done getting hurt because of you and your revenge mission.”
“My father…”
“Yeah, bud, that sucks. It’s not fair. Something should be done about it. But you can’t hide behind Gemma anymore. Step the fuck up if you want to change it. She’s done. And I won’t stand by and let you whittle her down with guilt for not doing more. She almost got killed for you. That is all she is going to risk for this.”
“She’s fine.”
“Yes, she is. She has a lot of people in her life who have her back. Luckily. For her. But also for you. Because let me tell you, Ry, if something had happened to her, and I found out about your part in it, something would happen to you too.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Yes.” He didn’t seem to be expecting that. He’d likely thought I would backpedal, assure him that I was all bluster.
I wasn’t, though.
And he needed to know that.
I didn’t, as a rule, just go around killing people. I’d done it to save my ass. I had done it in the name of my country. But never for revenge.
For Gemma, though, I would do it.
Without a second-thought.
Without an ounce of guilt.
“Fine, she wants out, fine. She was too much work anyway.”
“And by that, I know you actually mean that you’re sorry she was hurt because you pushed her too hard, and you understand that she has done more than enough for your cause, so you will leave her alone. Right?”
“Yeah, whatever, right.”
“You have enough, Rylan,” I told him. “Believe me. This is coming from someone who deals with scandals every other month. You have enough to go nuclear. Go home, get a shower, get some food, get some sleep. Then come back to this with a clear mind. You will see it for yourself.”
To that, his shoulders slumped, looking defeated.
“This is important.”
“I agree. Which is why you need to get a hold of yourself before you lose your fucking mind. I don’t know how much you know about people, but they don’t tend to believe raving lunatics who look like they haven’t slept in a month. Get your shit together. Then avenge your father. But leave Gemma the fuck alone.”
With that, satisfied he wasn’t a threat, and that he believed in my threat, I turned, made my way back out of his makeshift office.
I drove back to the office feeling lighter than I had when I left.
It wasn’t over.
I still had to deal with Blairtown Chem.
But this was a step in the right direction.
There would be time to handle them later.
Right now, I missed my woman.
I heard voices as I reached for the keypad.
Figuring it was the ever-chatty Bellamy and Gemma, I thought nothing of it as I let myself in.
I froze inside the door, though.
Because while Bellamy was in the room–standing in the kitchen texting on his phone–that was not who Gemma was talking too.
“Well well well,” a very familiar, slightly accented voice said as she turned to face me, brow raised. “I stopped in to say hello. And I have been getting to know this lovely young lady here.”
I knew that tone.
She was pissed that I was keeping things from her.
She’d always been nosy about my personal life.
As my acting mother figure, I imagined she thought it was her place to do so.
“Aunt Cat, things have been busy, and I haven’t been able to…”
“Find five minutes to call me and tell me you have finally found the woman who will put an end to all that foolish bed-filling?”
This was never going to be a comfortable conversation. My aunt was an outspoken woman, someone for whom boundaries didn’t exist.
And there were some things I hadn’t explained to Gemma yet.
I had a feeling it was all about to come out now, though.
TEN
Gemma
Lincoln and I did a lot of talking.
It never occurred to me that there was a fair chunk of his life that I actually didn’t know much about.
We had this tendency when we talked to fall into common topics. Like our friends and family members, like the inside jokes we had shared, the things we were passionate about in life, the places we’d still like to see, the things we would like to do.
I guess that happened because he knew so much about my life before the office since Jules and I used to talk about it all the time. There wasn’t much left that he hadn’t heard about. And he even knew my parents pretty well.
