My heart broke for Emie as she let out a choked sob, her knees practically giving out from under her, as I pulled her into my arms and held onto her. I was sure that it must feel like she’d lost her family all over again. “I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with all of this, Em, but making yourself a target isn’t going to bring them back. You need to let it go, and we need to find a way to keep you safe.”
She pulled away enough to wipe away her tears. “I wish I could, Locke. But shouldn’t justice be served? I know my dad screwed up, but it didn’t warrant taking his life—and my mother and sister were completely innocent.”
“Em…I get that. I honestly do.” I let out a weary sigh, fighting back an onslaught of emotion. I was still so fucking angry with her, but I hated seeing her upset. And having her close…having her in my arms…I’d fucking missed her. “But no matter what happened to your family, you need to stop before they come after you. Because, I swear, I’m not exaggerating when I say that these people are dangerous, and you’ve gone and kicked the hornet’s nest.”
“I’ll manage just fine on my own. You shouldn’t be here worrying about me.” She bit her lip as I tucked a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear, my eyes wandering over her face as I did my best to ignore the way her curves pressed up against my body.
“There’s no way you can protect yourself on your own—and I do worry about you, Em.” I fucking hated this. “I meant it when I said that I had feelings for you. That wasn’t a lie.”
“I know it wasn’t. But I managed to screw that up, and now it’s over.” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and then pulled away from me, wrapping her arms around herself. “I don’t want to drag you into my mess of a life.”
“I can take care of myself. I don’t need you worrying about me.” At this point, she should be worrying about keeping herself safe. “I’ll put the word out that you’re under my protection, but it may already be too late for that.”
“And what about my family? What about finding the bastards who murdered them?” She sucked in a deep breath and let it out on a ragged sigh, looking to me for answers I wasn’t sure I had.
“You’ll need to leave it alone, Em. Even if you go to the cops, the rumors are just hearsay with no evidence to back up any of it, and it wouldn’t eliminate the danger you’re in.” I knew it was asking a lot of her not to pursue her family’s killers, and frankly, when I’d been put in the same situation with my father’s murder, I’d wanted revenge and justice. But her options short of dropping it were nonexistent.
“So…that’s it? I just have to be happy with knowing the truth and not being able to do anything about it?” She shook her head no, though it was clear by the look in her eyes that she knew she didn’t have much of a choice.
“I’m sorry, baby…I really am.” My anger with her was waning, though I was desperate to hold onto it like a layer of armor. Because one thing was clear—Emie was fully capable of breaking my heart…of destroying me. “Maybe you should get out of Seattle for a bit. A change of scenery may do you some good, and it might not hurt to let the dust from all this settle. You need to think about keeping yourself safe, above all.”
“And go where, Locke? I have no one who’d take me in for more than a few days, and I can’t put them in danger. And I could go to a hotel, but I don’t have the money to live there indefinitely.”
Except she did have someone…me.
“You can stay with me. Pack your bags.” It wasn’t ideal, but her options were limited and I’d never forgive myself if something happened to her. And at the very least, it’d pull Bear out of his funk.
She shook her head no. “I can’t. Not after everything I put you through.”
“Well, you can’t stay here, Em. It’s far too dangerous at the moment, and like you said, you have nowhere else to go.” I gave her hand a squeeze, trying to reassure her that everything would be okay. “We’ll find a way to make it work.”
She looked like she wanted to argue with me, but she resigned herself and quickly packed a bag. I had her follow me back to my place so she’d have her car, but as I drove back to my place, my thoughts raced and my emotions churned.
This was not going to be easy.
Needless to say, Bear was ecstatic to see her, practically knocking her to the floor as I hauled him away, though she still knelt down by his side, giving him a huge hug, holding onto him tight. Clearly, Bear saw no issues with having her stay with us. “He’s happy to have you back, Em.”
“I missed him too.” She gave him a final scratch behind the ears before standing and slipping her hands in her jean pockets, her gaze settling anywhere but on me. “I’m truly sorry, Locke. And being back here…it just reminds me of how horrible I was to you when you were nothing but sweet and kind and caring.”
“Apology accepted.” Not that it negated what happened between us, since I still didn’t feel like I could trust her when it came to anything more than simply being friends. Except that seeing her again was stirring up all sorts of emotions, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it all. “I’ll put word out that you’re now under the protection of me and my family. I’m not sure it’ll be enough to keep you safe, but it’s worth a shot.”
At the very least, it might buy us some time until I could figure out who was after her. And with her staying with me, at the very least, I’d be able to keep an eye on her and it’d be a hell of a lot harder for her to get herself into trouble.
“After everything I put you through…I can’t believe you’d do that for me. Why?” She chewed her bottom lip, her eyes gazing up at me in question, my body drawn to hers as if by an unseen force.
It was so fucking hard not to touch her, and I knew that if she was living here with me, I was going to have one hell of a time not giving in to what was still between us. Because the walls I’d built? They were already starting to crumble. “Like I said, I care about you, Em. It’d kill me if something happened to you. And…fuck. I’ve missed you.”
The moment the words were out of my mouth, I regretted it, even if it was nothing but the truth.
“Does that mean you’ve forgiven me for what I put you through?” She looked up at me, so hopeful that it fucking killed me.
“Forgiving you is the easy part, Em. And I do forgive you. I get why you lied to me. But…I’m sorry. The hard part is going to be learning to trust you again.” When her eyes shimmered with tears, it took all I had not to pull her into my arms. “I wish that weren’t the case, but for now…I’m afraid it is.”
She just nodded and grabbed her bag. “It’s late. I think I’m going to call it a night, if that’s okay with you.”
“Yeah, of course. You can take the room across from mine. It’s the room you stayed in when you were last here.” I grabbed her bag for her and led the way, though it was damn hard to resist the urge to drag her to my bed. No good could come of it, though it didn’t keep my body from wanting her…from remembering what it was like to have her tight body wrapped around mine.
She hesitated in the doorway of her room, looking uncertain. “Locke… When you’re feeling up for it, we should talk.”
I didn’t know what we had to say to each other at this point, but I nodded, still trying to come to terms with the fact that Emie was now back in my life—even if it was temporary.
Before heading to bed, I grabbed my phone and called Dane, needing information. If someone was after Em, I needed to know who, so I could put a stop to it before things got out of control.