Total pages in book: 213
Estimated words: 202770 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1014(@200wpm)___ 811(@250wpm)___ 676(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 202770 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1014(@200wpm)___ 811(@250wpm)___ 676(@300wpm)
“To find out what they want. And Emma can help, but not if you make her the enemy she’s not. I’m telling you, man. You make her the enemy, you make me the enemy. I don’t want that.” I release him and step back. “Leave, Brody. Leave now. Out the back door.”
His eyes burn through me. “Hunter’s message was clear. He wrote it down: ‘The Knights cannot get the castle.’” Brody pushes off the wall and steps in front of me. “You’re fucking her, and she’s going to fuck us. Mark my words. I’m not letting your pussy high ruin us.” He steps around me, and I rotate to watch him leave the room. And holy fuck, at least he listens and cuts toward the rear exit, away from Emma who I hope like hell is in the main foyer waiting. I’m already walking, trying to get to her before she can get a car here and leave.
I reach the door, and Savage, who I’d left at the airport to follow us here in a private car, only to have him disappear, steps in front of me. “I got in this place through the side door by the parking area. You need men, Jax, because this place is a bad guy’s wet dream.”
“Right now, I need you to go back the way you came in and make sure my brother leaves. Silver Porsche. He just held Emma over the ledge of the landing and damn near killed her. Go now.”
He curses, and I cut left while he cuts right, the lost time for that conversation lengthening my strides. When the main foyer is in sight, and Emma is not, I step inside the office to find Jill behind her desk. “Where’s Emma?”
Her brows furrow. “Isn’t she with you?”
Emma can’t get out of the front door without a code; Jill would have had to give it to her, which means she’s still in the castle, just not here, where Brody could still be as well.
Chapter forty-three
Emma
The wind blows over the high stone wall into the open courtyard that’s right here in the middle of the castle. I hug myself against the chill that I’m not sure is from the wind, but rather, the fear that I’d felt on that landing. The fear that I can’t quite shake. Saltwater settles on my lips, teasing my tongue, reminding me of how close the ocean is to our location. In turn, I wonder how close I came to falling down on the rocks that I suspect line the oceanfront. That’s how out of my normal head I am right now. Salty air has me picturing myself broken and dead on an oceanfront. Resisting the urge to go back the way I came for fear of running into Brody, I scan another hallway and decide it might actually be the path I should have taken in the first place.
“I just can’t get rid of you, can I?”
At the sound of Brody’s voice, I freeze, adrenaline surging through me, my options punching at my mind. I could run down the hallway in front of me, trying to escape another near-death experience, but I don’t even know where it leads me. I could end up cornered. And what does running do for me? Brody is Jax’s brother. I can’t leave Brody behind unless I leave Jax behind. And this family has a connection to my family that clearly has them screaming accusations of murder, while Brody seems to be willing to commit one himself. My father’s words scream in my head, demanding I listen. I have secrets, but his journal says that they’re nothing compared to his own secrets. What about my brother? I’m not running. I’m facing this, starting with Brody’s threats.
I rotate and bring him into view, and he’s close, way too close for comfort, not more than a foot, but I don’t back away. I stare at him, tormented by his uncanny resemblance to Jax, a reminder that this man is his brother. And brothers matter, they do, but that only stokes my fury. At Brody for being an asshole and a potential killer. At my father for putting me in this position, for making me a target.
“I already told you I didn’t know who my father really was until he died,” I bite out, my voice vibrating with anger and that steady stream of adrenaline. “He’s dead, and he barely tolerated me when he was alive. Killing me would ruin your life and get you what? Revenge on a dead man?”
His lips thin. “I don’t believe for a minute you’re innocent.”
That does it. I’ve had enough of this man. Fear fades fully now, and I step toward him. I push that space limit I’d wanted to set only moments before, glaring up at him. “You know what I think?” I demand and don’t wait for an answer. “If killing me was your answer to Hunter’s death, then you’re the one who is like my father, not me.”