I hang up. The moment I do, Emery is in my eyeline. “What the hell is going on? Why aren’t you telling me anything?”
“Because I have shit to handle. I don’t have time to explain every decision I make to you.”
“Am I your wife or not?” she snaps.
I raise my brows. “No, actually, you’re not.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t treat me like—”
“Like what, Emery?” I hiss in her face. “Go on; finish your thought. How do you think I’m treating you?”
Emery’s lips press into a stubborn pout.
I step closer. She moves to push me away, but I tip my head towards the employees still crowding in the front door of the adoption center. “Ah-ah—we have an audience. We don’t want it to look like we’re fighting, do we? Diane won’t like that, and if Diane doesn’t like that, Isabella doesn’t get her dog.”
She whimpers angrily, but her hand falls limp to her side.
“I’m happy to treat you like a proper wife… so long as you’re ready to commit to the role,” I say. “In every way that matters.”
“Your car just got broken into. Are you seriously thinking about sex?”
I ignore her question. “In my world, everyone has a role to play. Once you’re ready to step fully into yours, you let me know.”
If Emery dropped to her knees right now and begged me for my cock, I’d give it to her. In front of Diane and the police and a yard full of future service dogs. I don’t give a fuck who is watching.
All the better to have witnesses, actually. The police can run and tell Malcolm exactly how far gone his little “fiancée” actually is.
He thinks he owns Emery? He has another thing coming.
Emery steps out of my arms. Her cheeks are flushed. “I heard you say Malcolm’s name. What does this have to do with him?”
“He orchestrated this whole bullshit song and dance,” I explain. “He sent the police here to scrounge up some bullshit evidence against me. I’ll bet my balls they smashed my window on his orders. And I’d also bet that the security cameras in this parking lot are conveniently malfunctioning today.”
She nervously twirls her fingers around a strand of her long blonde hair. “I’m not sure Malcolm has that kind of power. He’s a politician, not a criminal.”
“The fact you think the two things are mutually exclusive is endearing,” I say. “But that kind of innocence gets you killed in my world.”
Her green eyes widen. “What has he done?”
“Himself? Nothing. He gets people to do his dirty work for him. Like these uniformed assholes.”
“But… they’re the police. They took an oath.”
I laugh in her face. “And then they sold their oath to Malcolm. It’s worth only whatever price it fetches on the market. Not a cent more.”
She looks horrified.
Good. She’s beginning to understand.
“Okay, I get the ‘how’ part,” she whispers. “But… why?”
I stare at her blankly until it clicks.
“Me?” she asks, incredulous. “This is about me?”
“What the hell else would it be about?”
She huffs. “I don’t know! None of this makes any sense. All I want is for Isabella to get the care she needs. I don’t want to be involved in any of this!”
“You were already involved in this,” I remind her coldly. “You were just too naïve to realize it.”
“I was not naïve!”
I exhale in irritation. “If you’re looking for me to spare your feelings, you’re wasting your time. I’m going to tell you the truth. And the truth is, if you don’t get a clue, Malcolm or me or someone else is going to come along and eat you up.”
She glares at me. “This still doesn’t make any sense.”
“Your daddy is rich. Malcolm is a lowlife worm who wants a pretty pussy to fuck and some easy cash. You could give him both of those things.”
Emery recoils like I threatened to hit her. “Don’t say it like that!”
I advance right into her space. “Don’t say what? The truth? I don’t have time to sidestep your delicate sensibilities, Emery. I’m trying to keep you alive. Unless you’d rather I didn’t waste that effort?”
She grinds her teeth together in deep thought. “You said you’d take care of Malcolm,” she says finally. “When we started this deal, you told me he wouldn’t bother me anymore.”
“I sent a message and told him to back off. He chose to ignore that message.”
“So what now?” she asks.
“Now, I need to make sure my next message is easier for him to understand. Face-to-face.”
She picks at her bottom lip. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Do you think that pompous fuck has a fraction of a chance of hurting me?” I scoff.
“No, I know. I wasn’t…” Emery bites the inside of her cheek. “I know you’ll be okay.”
“So then you’re worried about him?” It’s so ridiculous it’s almost funny.
“I just… I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
I sigh. “For fuck’s sake, you’re exhausting.”
“Sorry if I don’t understand ‘your world,’” she says, putting finger quotes around the words. “To me, this is all something out of a movie. It can’t be real.”
“It is real. Get it through your head: Malcolm is gunning for you.”
“Then we should ignore him, and he’ll—”
“Up the ante,” I finish for her. “He will try again and again. Today was a meager first attempt. Hardly a call for war. But if I don’t respond, then I look weak and Malcolm tries again. And if I bury my head in the sand like you want me to, then I’m dead or in prison on our wedding day, and you become Mrs. Senator Malcolm Waters. Is that what you want?”
Emery shivers.
“That’s what I thought,” I snap. “So get out of the way and let me do my fucking job.”
Just then, Stefan pulls into the lot. He cuts diagonally across the asphalt and pulls up behind Emery.
I reach out and yank open the passenger side door for her. “Get in.”
She stares at me, her green eyes filled with an emotion I can’t really decipher. There’s fear there, but I don’t know if it’s for me or for herself.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t change what I have to do.