“He did terrible things to Chase,” Pierce said, staring down at his hands. “I tried to stop him. Most of the time, I couldn’t. Not until I was older and stronger. But then it seemed like such a stupid idea to stay. So…we ran off. It was just the two of us for a long, long time.”
“Pierce, I had no idea,” I gasped, my eyes beginning to swim with tears. No kid should ever have to go through something like that, and it shed so much light onto why Pierce was the way he was now. Closing himself off was probably the only way he was able to survive all those horrible years.
“Chase and I stuck together, but when he got older, the consequences of the abuse started to show.” Pierce rose his eyes to mine, and I could see so much pain there. “When something upsets him…he doesn’t know what else to do. He doesn’t mean to, Emma, it just happens, and he always feels even worse after he does these things. He’s been better in the last few years though. I think starting a family gave him the stability he always needed, but I’m worried all that will go away now that his wife has turned against us all.”
I breathed out a long sigh and tried to make sense of all this new information. I’d known there was a history, and I’d known there was something he had been hiding from the world, but this was so far outside what I’d expected that I wasn’t sure how to respond.
“The case with Alison Meadows, the one you settled,” I said. “You were protecting Chase, weren’t you?”
“I’d told him that day that I thought I saw Rachel with another man. He flipped out.” Pierce nodded, his entire face crumbling with sadness. “He did a terrible thing, but he immediately regretted every moment of it. I had to protect his face from getting plastered all over the newspapers. Our foster father is still looking for him. He wants to kill him. And even though he might not recognize him now that he’s grown up, I have to do whatever I can to keep that asshole from connecting the dots.”
“Pierce,” I said, sliding my hand around his. I knew it wasn’t my place, but I had to say what was on my mind. “I know you want to protect him, but maybe the best thing would be for him to get help. And you could afford to get him the best care possible. He sounds like he’s not entirely stable, and what if you’re right? What if this Rachel thing sets him off again?”
“If it were going to set him off, it already would have,” Pierce said with a heavy sigh. “Somehow, he’s fine. He’s not drinking or smoking, and he hasn’t gone off the deep end into a pit of self-loathing. The tone of his voice changes when he flips the switch, but right now he still sounds like my little brother.”
“Are you sure?” I frowned. “Could he just be trying to hide it from you?”
“Emma.” Pierce squeezed my hands and gave me a smile. “You don’t need to worry about Chase. Despite all his explosions, he’s never done anything to me, and he wouldn’t do anything to someone I care about.”
A smile tickled my lips despite myself, and my heart resumed its frantic pace. “Someone you care about, huh? Not just someone you’re protecting because you feel guilty about getting her involved?”
“I do feel guilty about getting you involved, but…” he said as he slowly began to remove the sheet from my shoulders. The material dropped to the bed, putting my naked body on display. My breasts ached for his lips, and my thighs begged to be wrapped around him again. All it took was that one heated look from him, and nothing else in the world existed but the two of us.
“But what?” I asked.
“I do care about you, Emma.” He shifted my body onto his hips, spreading my thighs to open my pussy for his ready cock. “I can’t help myself. Whatever it is you’ve done to me, I don’t want you to stop.”
He slid inside me and held my body close. Everything about the feel of him seemed brand new. The way his hands gently caressed my back, the way he stared into my eyes. His lips brushed across my neck, and he took me as slowly and softly as he could. Pierce and I had already had sex many times, but this didn’t feel like a meaningless fuck. A way to pass the time. A way for him to get off with another random girl he’d forget in two weeks.
It felt like much more.
Emma’s body drove me wild with desire. She rode my cock, her breasts bouncing. The way she dropped back her head and moaned made the need to come almost impossible to ignore. But I held on, focused on her pleasure. She was dripping wet, tightening and tightening with each and every thrust. Feelings rose up inside me I’d never felt before, things I couldn’t voice but that I could show her with my body.
This girl was going to be the end of me, and I couldn’t help but love every moment of it. I didn’t want the wall built around my heart anymore. I didn’t want the goddamn playroom of toys. I didn’t want a one-night stand ever again. I just wanted this girl, over and over, in my bed, staring at me like I was the best man in the world.
We came as one, and afterwards, she fell asleep once again in my arms. I drew soft circles on her back as her breath deepened. She looked so peaceful with her hair and hands splayed across my chest. I hated that we couldn’t stay like this forever. The situation with Rachel wasn’t over with yet. She had gotten away, and I knew she’d try to strike again. Next time, it could be at Chase. Or she might go for Emma again.
The only way to keep everyone safe was for all of us to stay locked up inside this apartment, but for how long? Until Rachel was found and caught, Emma would be living in constant fear. And no one could get on with their lives.
I eased out from underneath Emma and dropped a kiss on her forehead before putting on my suit. In the living room, I found Chase and Cynthia both perched tensely on the couch. When I strode toward them, Chase looked up and frowned.
“You’re actually fucking the private investigator you hired to follow my wife?” Chase shook his head in disgust, tipping back his cowboy hat to glare up at me. “Honestly, Pierce, I thought you’d have learned how to keep your dick in your pants by now. Rachel said she bet you were sleeping with that girl, but I didn’t believe it. I thought surely there were some lines you wouldn’t cross. The private investigator? Really?”
I frowned. Chase’s mental state was apparently deteriorating, just as Emma had worried. “When did Rachel mention this to you?”
Chase glanced away, his jaw clenching. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Emma isn’t actually a private investigator,” Cynthia said. “She’s Max Weather’s receptionist. The only case she’s ever done is the one for Pierce.”
“How is that any better?” Chase shook his head. “So, this Max Weathers guy. Was he involved in this at all?”
“No. He had nothing to do with it.” I crossed my arms over my chest and cocked my head. “Why?”
“So, it’s just these two girls here who know anything about it?” Chase gave a nod. “Good. You packing any heat, big brother?”
Frowning, I moved away from the couch. I never kept anything from Chase but I felt like this was one thing I should keep held tightly to my chest. I didn’t like the way he was acting. And his questions set off some alarm bells I didn’t want to believe. “You know I’m not a gun person, Chase.”
“That’s what I thought.” His gaze landed on Cynthia, who was staring out the window at the dark sky, her face as white as a sheet. The poor girl.
“I’ll be right back. I just need to check on Emma.” I left Cynthia with Chase despite my reservations. As I moved down the hallway, I could hear the shower in the bathroom. Every cell in my body wanted to go in there and slide off my clothes, joining Emma underneath the spray of hot water. But not right now. It would have to wait. I had a feeling something terrible was about to happen. I entered my office and unlocked my safe, extracting the gun from its dark depths. Sliding it into the waistband of my suit, I gave a nod. I wasn’t the best shot in the world, but it would have to do.
The hot water invigorated my skin and my lungs. I stood there under the shower, letting the spray cleanse my mind from memories of that morning. The explosion of blood on the floor. Rachel’s creepy smi
le. All I wanted was to scrub those thoughts from my mind and watch them go down the drain along with the dirt underneath my nails.
After I shut off the shower and dried off, I heard the doorbell ring. A moment later, harsh voices began shouting from the living room, though I couldn’t make out the words. Fear crawled along my skin, and the memories I’d thought I’d washed away came roaring back into the forefront of my mind.
“Where the hell is she, Pierce?” Chase’s voice shouted from somewhere down the hallway.
I swallowed hard and wrapped the towel around my body just as the door flew open. Chase stared through the thick mist, his eyes raking across me.
“There she is,” he said, his voice sounding harsh and dark, so unlike how he’d sounded before. He’d come across as rough around the edges but an easy-going cowboy type of rough. Now he just seemed scary.
“What’s going on,” I asked, backing up. But I had nowhere to go.
“You. Come into the living room now.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the bathroom, my feet slipping on the wet tiles. Pierce stood in the hallway, glowering with his arms crossed over his chest. He shot me a look of concern, his jaw rippling with tension.
“Let go of her, Chase,” Pierce said in a low growl. “Stop being so rough with her.”
“Like you aren’t rough with her, big brother,” Chase said with a laugh, but he let go of my arm. He pushed at me from behind, and I made slow steps down the hallway, bees roaring in my ears. I didn’t know what was going on, but it couldn’t be anything good.
When we entered the living room, a gasp of air got caught in my throat. Rachel Donovan stood there. Her eyes were wild and red, and this time, she had two guns.
“What’s going on?” I whispered, glancing to where Cynthia sat hunched over on the couch. “Pierce? I don’t understand.”
“Go over there and sit with the other girl,” Chase said with a push. I stumbled over to her side and sat down on the very edge of the leather, shaking my head as I stared up at Pierce. He stood there, silent and unmoving, as if he were just going to let this happen. Why wasn’t he doing anything to stop them?
“You girls have presented us with a problem.” Chase glanced at Pierce who continued to stare silently at the wall. “Pierce here thinks you’ll keep the peace, but I’m not convinced myself.”
I shook my head, blinking at the hot tears that threatened to escape my eyes. “I don’t know what’s going on. Why is she here?”
“You both know she killed Michael Astor that night,” Chase said, shifting toward his wife, who passed him one of the guns. “You saw her with him and took the photos.”
“Wait. I don’t understand.” I held the towel tighter around my trembling body. “You knew she killed him?”
Rachel moved in front of Chase, a mirror image of what Pierce had done earlier. “He was blackmailing my husband. We couldn’t afford to pay him what he wanted, so there was only one thing we could do.”
My eyes popped wide, and my heartbeat thrummed hard in my neck.
“Rachel pretended she wanted to sleep with him. It was the only way to get him alone,” Chase said. “He fell for it, the stupid schmuck.”
The two of them were just talking about their murder of a man as if they were casually discussing the latest changes in the weather. And there was one alarming possibility that came along with this. Since Chase was involved, and since Pierce had covered up all his crimes in the past, then what would he do now? Chase was looking at both me and Cynthia as if we were pesky bugs he needed to squash. We knew what they’d done. Would Pierce let his brother take care of us the way he wanted?
“Why?” I couldn’t help but ask, my eyes moving to Pierce.
Pierce clenched his jaw so hard, his entire face looked ten years older. “Michael Astor connected the dots about some things Chase did in the past. He realized I’d been covering for him, and he threatened to go public with the information.”
“Wait.” My body froze as my heart began shuddering in my chest. “You knew about this?”
“No, Emma. No, definitely not.” Pierce shook his head. “Rachel showed up while you were in the shower so they could fill me in.”
“I’m sorry, big brother,” Chase said. “I should have come clean about the blackmail ages ago. I see that now. But I didn’t want you to get involved in my troubles again.”
“Chase,” Pierce sighed and closed his eyes. “None of this had to happen. If you’d just come to me when he blackmailed you, I could have given you the money. You know I have plenty. That’s what I’m here for, and you know it.”
“No,” Rachel said, her voice ice. “You’ve done enough damage to our relationship. I wasn’t going to have you holding something else over our heads just to keep us indebted to you. You keep trying and failing to break us up, and I knew that if you got involved in this, you’d just try to do it again. And you know what? I was right. You had me followed. You had some girl who isn’t even a private investigator take photos of me. You had no right to do that, Pierce.”
Pierce’s eyes flashed with pain, but he covered the emotion quickly with an iciness of his own. “Let me guess. You were the one who came up with the idea to murder the man instead of sucking up your pride and asking for my help. You wonder why I want you away from my little brother? This is why. You’re a viper.”
Rachel let out a harsh laugh. “Don’t cast stones, Pierce Donovan. You’re hardly an angel yourself.”
“Can we just stop this bickering now?” Chase asked, moving forward with his gun raised. “Pierce, I think you know we don’t have a lot of options here. These girls know everything. They’re a liability, and you know what’s at stake.”
I sucked in a breath as Pierce’s sad eyes raked over me. He gave a nod and pushed away from the wall, moving to Chase’s side. “Chase, little brother, you know I’d do anything to protect you. You know that, right?”
“You always have.”
“All I want is what’s best for you.” Pierce glanced at me, his gaze hard and unmoving. He was no longer the guy who had stared at me adoringly. No longer the man who had brushed soft and loving kisses on my skin. He’d gone back into his cave of ice, hiding himself from me. And he was going to let me die, all to protect a brother who clearly needed a different kind of help.
Pierce was going to let Chase Donovan pull that trigger.
Emma looked at me, and I could read every emotion on her face. She thought I was going to betray her. She thought I was going to let her die. But I couldn’t let her know that I had a bigger plan, one that would save us all. It meant turning my little brother against me. He would never see me in the same way. He might never talk to me again. But Emma had made me realize something I might not have on my own. Chase needed real help. He wasn’t okay. He’d proven it to me with this horrible plan. Murder? It hurt my heart to know that this was what things had come to for him.
“Give me the gun.” I held out my hand and was glad that it remained as steady as it ever was.
“What?” Chase glanced up at me, confusion in his eyes. I hated what I was about to do, but I forced myself to keep my eyes firmly on his face, cold and unfeeling with ice around my heart. I had to bottle everything up if I was going to go through with this.
“Give me your gun,” I said again, calmly. “I can’t let you be the one to do it. If they trace it back to anyone, it should be me. Or Rachel, since she’s already killed someone in my fucking hallway.”
“Pierce?” Emma gasped, but I couldn’t bear to meet her eyes. If I did, I might let the wall around my emotions crumble and expose me for what I really was. A traitor to my only family.
Chase nodded and handed me the gun, and a sigh of relief went through my body. I glanced at Rachel, who frowned at me. Her eyes danced across my face, and I could tell she was looking for some crack in my facade. She didn’t trust me the way Chase did, and she shouldn’t. Because I was about to bust both their asses for trying to kill my Emma.
“Do you
have some explanation for the cops?” I asked calmly. “You know, for why you tried to kidnap Emma and Cynthia? I imagine they’re scoping out your home in Connecticut, waiting to see if you show your face.”
Rachel frowned. Clearly, she’d assumed she’d get away with that.
“Getting rid of Emma and Cynthia here only solves half your problem,” I said with a smile. “The cops probably wouldn’t be able to connect you to the murder of Michael Astor. But there’s the whole incident from this morning that will be fairly difficult to explain.”
“They don’t know she had anything to do with that,” Chase said in a tight voice.
“No, I’m certain they do.” I gave my brother a pat on the back. “There are security cameras in the hallway.”
“Fuck,” Rachel said, her hands shaking as she lowered her gun, clearly distracted by the bombshell I’d just dropped. As smart as she thought she was, she was a massive idiot for thinking I’d let her get away with this. I’d had security cameras installed when I’d first moved in, and even though I technically hadn’t handed the footage over to the cops yet, she didn’t need to know that.
“I thought you’d keep me out of this.” She turned to me, voice raised. “For Chase’s benefit. If I’m implicated, then his name will get in the papers, too. That man you’ve been hiding him from all these years will know exactly how to find him.”
“Our foster father won’t be able to get to him if he’s been put away some place safe.”
Rachel’s mouth dropped open, but as she tried to raise the gun, I spoke something softly underneath my breath to the cell phone I had in my front pocket. Moments later, the door burst open and in strode a half dozen of Manhattan’s best.
“Pierce?” Chase’s eyes flew wide as the betrayal set in, as he took in the swarm of cops surrounding us. I had to glance away. This was the best thing for him, but even though I knew that, it didn’t stop the guilt from pouring through my veins. In my entire life, I knew I’d never forget the way his face looked in this moment, crumbled and defeated, as he realized the one person he trusted the most in this world had done the unthinkable.
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