by A. K. Evans
We made our way downstairs and back out into the kitchen where we found Levi and Cruz. I could tell they were happy to see that things were ok with Emme and me, but they had some shit that wasn’t good to tell us.
“I’m sorry about earlier, Levi,” I heard Emme say from beside me.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, babe. There’s no reason for you to apologize.”
She nodded her head and leaned into me. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her in a little tighter.
“Alright, Levi, we’re ready to hear it,” I said to him.
Cruz chimed in, “I just found out about it, Zane. I think we should go sit down somewhere.”
Fuck. This wasn’t going to be good.
We walked into the great room and sat on the sectional. Emme and I were on one side of it; Levi and Cruz were on the other.
Levi looked to me before looking to Emme with a pained expression on his face. “Emme, babe, there’s no easy way to tell you this. We found the place Miller has been staying at for the last several months, since July to be exact.”
“Wait, that was only a month after Charley and I moved here. He’s been here all this time?” Emme said, panic already filling her voice.
“I’m afraid so,” Levi answered her. “He’s no longer there. In fact, it looks like he left in a hurry. The place was ransacked and was an utter disaster. We found a few things that we’ve already taken back to the offices to look into further, but they’ll take some time. Most interesting to note was the smashed laptop and the several large external hard drives. All of the files on the hard drives are password protected, but I immediately put Trent to work on getting into those files. Earlier today I had Lorenzo and Dom go over to your condo to get the security system put in for you and Charley. Everything was going fine until they got to your room, Em. They found several small cameras set up and hidden in your bedroom and bathroom. They searched Charley’s room, but her room was clean.”
I felt Emme begin to tremble beside me. I pulled her closer to my body.
Levi took in a deep breath and continued, “I’m sorry, Emme, but Trent called me when I was on my way here to let me know he unlocked the files on the hard drives. We recovered a total of five hard drives. They are large so they’ll store a lot of files. There are hundreds of files on each of the drives. Every single one that he has seen so far is from inside your bedroom or bathroom. It looks as though at some point your ex got into your place, set up the cameras, pushed them to a live feed that he had access to, and recorded all the data. He’s been watching you for months, Em.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered as her body really began to shake violently.
“Fucking motherfucker,” I seethed.
I grabbed the blanket from behind us on the couch and wrapped it around her. I didn’t think she was cold, but I’m sure she already felt too exposed. If this girl hadn’t already been violated enough and now she had this to come to terms with. I was going to fucking kill this guy if I ever saw him.
“Do you know when the most recent videos are from?” Emme asked, fear laced through her voice.
“As recently as a couple days ago. If you are wondering if there are any with Zane there, the answer is yes,” Levi answered honestly.
What a sick fuck.
Emme’s voice was barely a whisper when she spoke again. “Um, will Trent, you two, or any of the other guys have to…” her voice trailed off.
“No, beautiful. We aren’t going to be watching the videos,” Cruz reassured her, knowing exactly what she was concerned about. “Trent will scan them for anything out of the ordinary and confirm that there aren’t any other files that aren’t from your bedroom or bathroom saved on the hard drives.”
“In addition,” Levi began. “We took the smashed laptop and are trying to see what we can get off the computer’s hard drive. It is possible that he saved things there or in the cloud as well. If the files from your place were saved in the cloud, Trent will destroy them so that there’s no chance of them being accessed by anyone else.”
“Well, I guess there’s the silver lining,” Emme said, sarcastically. “At least I won’t have to worry about anybody else seeing me naked today.”
My body froze as my arms tightened around her. “Anybody else?” I asked.
Her eyes came to mine and she said, “Well…um, Cruz may have seen me naked this morning.”
My jaw clenched and I snapped my head to stare down my brother. Levi had a look of confusion on his face as his eyes went back and forth between Cruz and me.
“Bro, it’s not what you think,” Cruz said.
“Care to enlighten me…quickly?”
“Zane, calm down,” Emme said from beside me. My eyes came back to hers and she continued. “I told you upstairs about the nightmare. As I said, I woke up screaming. Cruz was in there immediately. I was slightly disoriented when he first came in, and didn’t instantly realize it was him. He came over, sat next to me, and wrapped his hands around me trying to console me. I initially freaked and tried to pull away from him. As soon as I realized it was him I relaxed enough for him to be able to hold me while I settled. The nightmare was bad, so it took me a while, Zane. And I wasn’t cognizant of anything other than my concern or worry for you in that time after I woke up.”
“Ok. I would expect that. I don’t understand how this translates into him seeing you naked.”
“You are forgetting one thing.”
“And that would be?”
She leaned into me and said quietly, “I’m not sure if you remember, but last night after our fun on the chaise sofa you carried me to bed.”
“Of course, I remember that.”
She continued, “I slept naked last night, Zane.”
Fuck.
My eyes went to the opposite side of the couch. Both Levi and Cruz were smirking. Fuckers.
Emme’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts and back to her. “So, I was curled up in a ball crying while he held me. I don’t think he saw much.”
Fuck.
“You were naked and he had his hands on you?” I bit out.
“Really, Zane?” Cruz interrupted as he stood. “What the fuck did you expect me to do? Let her sit there in the middle of the bed terrorized with nobody comforting her because my brother thinks I’m an asshole and would cross that line? Fuck, man. She’s a beautiful woman; I’m not going to deny that, but my concern in that moment was making sure she knew that she was safe. I really wasn’t taking your feelings into consideration at the time since her well-being was the top priority.”
“Zane, baby, relax please. I wanted to tell you to be honest with you about it, but I don’t want you to freak out over it. It wasn’t Cruz’s fault that I slept without clothes on or that I had a nightmare. He really was a gentleman about it,” she said, her eyes pleading with mine to have a little more understanding about the situation.
Cruz began to walk out of the room when I yelled, “Cruz, wait.”
He turned to look at me.
I took in a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry, man. You give me shit all the time and yank my chain, but I know you’d never do anything like that. I feel like I’m going out of my fucking mind right now with all the shit we just learned. It’s like every time I turn around I’m learning that Emme’s been violated in another way. Would have preferred I was here for her this morning, but since I wasn’t you were the next best thing. Thank you for taking care of her.”
“Apology accepted. And, you’re welcome.”
I didn’t want him thinking I was happy about the situation so I added, “But if you ever look at her like you’ve seen her naked I’ll knock your fucking lights out.”
He grinned and shook his head as he walked back over to sit on the couch by Levi.
“Levi?” Emme’s delicate voice called.
“Yeah, Em?”
“What happens next?”
“We’re going to continue looking for him and we’re going to keep you and Zane cove
red until we find him.”
She nodded at him and said, “My schedule changed from yesterday when we met at your office. On Saturday, Zane has a half day of training.”
“Already knew that. I’m going to be with you on Saturday while he’s training.”
“Ok. Well, just wanted to make you aware that I won’t be at home. I’m going to be going to Wes’ place. He won’t be there, but Charley and Wes are flying our friends, Nikki and Monroe, in from California. They’ll be there Saturday morning and she wants me to come over for a day with the girls, Wes’ sister, Elle, and Charley’s friend, Greg.”
“No problem, babe,” Levi said.
“We’ll be wedding planning,” Emme added.
Levi’s head dropped down to the floor as he said, “Fuck me. And here I thought I lucked out by getting the half day.”
Cruz and I laughed. In turn, Emme laughed. As sure as I was that Levi was not looking forward to spending the day with a bunch of women and a gay man talking about wedding plans and truly meant what he said I was grateful for his reaction and the fact that I was hearing my sweet girl laugh for the first time that day.
Two hours later, Levi and Cruz were getting ready to head out for the day. They had stayed so long after giving Emme and I the news about her condo and the hard drives because despite everything that had been thrown at her, my girl insisted on making food for everyone. I had always admired her strength and told her on many occasions that she was the strongest woman I knew, but today Emme blew me away. I’m not sure where she found mental toughness to set aside each and every devastating blow, but it was evident to me that she was, if nothing else, determined to find at least a shred of happiness or beauty in each day. If cooking for other people brought her that happiness, I wasn’t going to take it away from her.
“Thanks for breakfast this morning, beautiful. And the food just now — everything was awesome,” Cruz said.
“You’re welcome, Cruz. Thank you for helping me this morning.”
“Don’t mention, Em,” he responded.
Levi looked to Emme and said, “Thanks for feeding me, too. And, don’t worry, Emme, we are going to find him. I promise you.”
“You’re welcome. It’s the least I could do after everything you guys are doing for me,” Emme said.
He smiled at her before turning to me. “Locke’s here with Emme tomorrow; Tyson’s with you. Told Tyson to follow you here afterward and then come in to meet her if that works for her.”
I nodded to him. “Sounds good, man. Thanks. See you Saturday.” I then turned my attention to Cruz, “Thanks again for what you did for Emme today.”
“No problem. You’re a lucky man, Zane. Don’t forget that.”
My brothers left and after I shut and locked the door I turned to Emme. She had a confused look on her face.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
“Who is Locke?” she asked.
“Holden. Last name is Locke. A lot of the guys are referred to by their last names. Pierce’s last name is Reynolds, Lorenzo De Luca, Dominick Moore, Tyson Reed, Trent Michaels, and Gunner Hayes.”
“Got it. Though, I’ve never understood that. I mean, I can understand using a nickname or a middle name, especially if someone is named after a parent or other family member, but why the last name. I’ve never gone around calling the girls by their last names, Meadows, Archer, and Drake. And, nobody has ever called me by my last name.” She paused a moment, thinking, before her eyes got big. She asked, “Would you call me by my last name if I asked you to from now on? I think it’d make me feel like a total badass.”
I laughed. Really laughed. This woman was fucking crazy sometimes.
“Love you a lot, Emme, but not sure I can see myself being inside you calling out ‘James’ as I’m about to come.”
She burst out laughing. I fucking loved it. I wasn’t going to tell her that if it would make her that happy I’d call her anything she wanted me to call her. When her laughing ceased, her smiling eyes came to mine.
“Christ, Em, how do you do it?” I asked.
“How do I do what?”
I searched her face, and to my amazement there wasn’t a trace of worry in her features. “With everything that has happened to you prior to moving here to Rising Sun and then everything in the past few days, most recently a few hours ago, you have every reason to have a complete and total breakdown, but here you are lighting up my world with your laughter. How is it possible?”
She tilted her head to the side and asked, “You really don’t know?”
I shook my head.
She smiled big at me and said, “I’ve got you, baby.”
In stunned silence, I stared at her.
“Months ago, I was living in total darkness, Zane. There are still plenty of dark, ugly moments and bad things happening around me, but since you’ve come into my life I get glimpses of light. I hold on to those glimpses because I know that if I can get to a place where I’m in the light with you all the time, everything I’ve endured will be worth it.”
“Emme, as beautiful as what you just said is, you shouldn’t have ever had to suffer through a single moment of pain, heartache, or darkness.”
“Yes, I did,” she began. “Because not only did that all of that lead me to you, but it also taught me how much to appreciate the beauty that you give me every single day.”
“Sweetheart,” I said, my voice a deep growl, as I bent down and picked her up in my arms. “Need to love you good now. You alright with that?”
She nodded and smiled at me.
I carried her up the steps and to the bedroom where I loved her good. And my sweet girl gave back just as good as she got.
Emme
I was in Zane’s bed on my back, looking up at the ceiling, feeling deliciously sated. He had just given me some good love and I was basking in the beauty of that. I was also basking in the beauty of having Zane’s body next to mine with his arm draped across my abdomen and his head resting by my shoulder. It would have been easy to dwell on the horrific news I received from Zane’s brothers today, but I decided that focusing on the good I had surrounding me would reap much greater rewards. It was early evening and I had a feeling I wasn’t done receiving beauty from Zane.
“Zane?”
“Yeah, Em?”
Damn, but did I love his voice when he said that.
“Want to bake a cake with me?” I asked.
Zane chuckled and said, “Excuse me?”
“Cakes are celebratory. I want to bake a cake.”
“Ok, what are we celebrating?” he asked.
“Are you suggesting that there should only be one thing to celebrate? Baby, there are lots of things to celebrate right now. First, I don’t think we’ve officially celebrated the two of us. We’ve traveled quite a road to get to this point. It hasn’t been easy, but that’s worth celebrating, don’t you think?”
“Sweetheart, we’ve definitely fucking celebrated the two of us. I just think our definition of what constitutes a celebration is different.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Ok, well we never celebrated your win out in Aspen. We also haven’t celebrated surviving our first real disagreement slash argument.”
“Emme, that wasn’t a disagreement or argument. That was me being a complete and total jackass to you. You want to celebrate the fact that you were gracious enough to forgive me, I can work with that.”
I smiled inwardly and asked, “Favorite flavor?”
“Chocolate cake,” he answered as he lifted his head off my shoulder and looked at me.
“Please tell me you love it with vanilla frosting.”
“I love it with vanilla frosting.”
“Do you really?” I asked, overly excited and sitting up in the bed next to him.
He grinned at me and nodded.
“Same exact taste in favorite cake and icing flavor — if that isn’t a reason to celebrate, I don’t know what is! Come on, we have to go bake it now,” I said as I hopped
up off the bed and began throwing my clothes on.
I looked back to the bed after I had pulled my pants on and saw Zane hadn’t moved and was just watching me.
“What?” I asked.
“I fucking love you, Emme.”
I pulled my top over my head, walked over to the side of the bed, leaned over, and kissed him. “I love you, too, baby. But, you’ve got to get up if we are going to enjoy any cake tonight.”
With that, Zane got up and put some clothes on. We went downstairs and I got out the ingredients we’d need to bake the cake from scratch. After mixing all of the ingredients, we poured the batter into two eight-inch round pans and popped them into the oven. I set the timer and we went to work on the frosting. We finished the frosting and not long after the timer went off letting us know the cakes were finished. We pulled them out and set them out to cool.
It was at that moment that my cell phone rang. I walked over, looked at the screen, and felt my heart squeeze at what I saw on the display.
“Hey Mom,” I said into the phone as my eyes came to Zane’s.
“Emme, my dear. You sound happy.”
I sighed into the phone and said, “That’s because I am.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve heard from you. We miss you so much.”
“I know. I miss you both, too.”
“So, what is going on? There’s got to be something going on for you to sound so happy.”
I took a deep breath and answered, “I met someone.”
“Oh no,” my mother said and I heard the panic rising in her voice. She was scared.
“Mom, calm down.”
“My dear, how can I calm down? I’m so worried about you.”
“I understand that, but I promise you that you don’t have to worry about Zane.”
“Zane?” she inquired. “Ok, tell me about him.”
“Well, his name is Zane Cunningham. He’s a professional snowboarder and he’s best friends with Charley’s fiancé, Wes. He’s incredibly handsome and generous. But, best of all, he loves me, he makes me feel safe, and he enjoys my cooking.”
My eyes went to Zane’s and his were smiling back at me.
“He almost sounds too good to be true, dear.”
