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“Don’t tell Jill otherwise,” she says, leading me to one of the tower stairwells. “She might quit.”
I don’t catch on to where we’re going until she turns us left. That’s when I stop dead. “Emma? Where are we going?”
She steps in front of me. “Yes, we’re goingthere.”By there, she means the room where Hunter fell to his death.“But,” she adds, “I promise you. It’s for a very special reason.”
“I don’t like that room.”
She softens her voice. “Please?”
I rub a rough hand through my hair and take off the damn glasses, shoving them in my pocket. “Quickly. Then let’s go home and get naked. I’ll feel better after.”
“Every girl wants to get naked with Superman, so you’re on.” She turns and drags me with her.
We enter that damnable room, rain splattering outside that hellish ledge that took Hunter from me and almost took Emma. “Now what?”
She points to a jeweled cross with Hunter’s name on it. Holy hell, every emotion I’ve ever owned punches me in the chest. I close the space between me and it and read:King of the North. You will never be forgotten.
“Fuck,” I whisper, tearing up.
Emma steps between me and it and wraps her arms around me. “I upset you. I’m sorry, I—”
I cup her head. “No. It’s—perfect. I love you, baby.”
“I did it.”
At Brody’s voice, Emma and I turn to find him in the doorway. “You did what?” I ask, a cold sensation sliding down my spine.
He moves toward me, and Emma steps aside, the two of us, brother to brother, standing toe-to-toe. “I needed Emma out of here. I almost hurt her. I was afraid I’d hurt her again.”
“You’re telling me that you fucking had herkidnapped?”
“I didn’t want to hurt her.”
I lose my shit. I grab him and walk backward until I’ve shoved him hard against the wall. “She was naked when she woke up.”
“Jax!” Emma screams. “Jax, please. Just let him go. He’s being honest. He set me free. That’s all that matters.”
“Get back, Emma,” I growl when she grabs my arm, my gaze burning into my brother. “The people I hired said her ex was some pedophile, and she’d think it was him. I just—I just didn’t want to hurt her, and I was so angry at her. At that family. Hunter—they took Hunter.”
“Emma didn’t take Hunter.”
“I know. I know, and I almost hurt her.”
“You almostkilledher,” I bite back.
Emma is sobbing now, I realize, tugging on my arm. “Please, Jax. Please. Let him go. Let him go.”
“You need to leave, Brody.” I let go of him and back up.
Emma wraps herself around me. “There’s more,” Brody says, and he’s crying again, tears streaming down his face. “Hunter was trying to sell us out to the North’s. He was selling us out.”
“He was being blackmailed,” I say. “He was a victim, not a monster.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is true,” I say.
“Jax, let this go.” Emma pleads. “You two are too hot-headed right now. Do this later.”
