Intense

I was done wanting to run away. I needed to protect Mason, but I was finished being too afraid. Everything had happened so quickly, so intensely, and it took me so long to really process it all. At the end of the day, though, I wasn’t going to back down.

And that was all because of Emory. He gave me strength. He made me feel something more than just fear. Before him, I was just living my life, going through the motions, but he made me see that there could be so much more than just existing. The things Emory did and could do, he was important, he was strong. I wanted to be more like him, but I also wanted to be near him.

“You awake?”

I glanced up and saw Emory looking at me in the rearview mirror.

“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“No problem. You needed rest.”

“How close are we?”

“Not far. We’re stopping soon, getting ourselves set up.”

“What’s the plan from here?”

“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk about.”

I yawned and stretched. “Okay, I’m listening.”

“I want you to go stay with a friend.”

“What?”

“I don’t think you’re in any more danger,” he said. “Omar and his people are likely with your parents or at least getting ready to try something. If we’re not too late, we’ll be able to stop them and help, but I can’t be worried about you, too.”

“No,” I said, surprising myself with how seriously I said it. “No way am I sitting on the sidelines.”

“Do you have somewhere you can stay?” he asked me, pressing.

“My friend Lindy would let me stay with her, but Emory, I’m not backing down.”

He grinned at me. “Look at you, princess, growing a backbone.”

“Shut up, asshole,” I said.

He laughed. “God you’re so fucking sexy when you talk dirty.”

“I’m not messing around. I can’t just give up on this.”

“Do you have some secret training I don’t know about?”

I clenched my jaw, annoyed. “No.”

“Then you can’t help. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth.”

He was so patronizing. It was driving me insane. “I know my parents,” I said. “I know the area too. I can help.”

“No,” he said again. “It’s not happening. You’re just too much of a distraction for me.”

“That’s not my fault.”

“It is your fault,” he said. “It’s that fucking body, that pussy, the way you look at me like you can’t wait to feel me fucking you again soon.”

“Emory,” I said, ignoring him, “I’m not getting left behind.”

He drove on in silence and finally let out a sigh. “Mason then. We have to at least leave him out of this.”

“No,” I said quickly. “I’m not separating myself from him.”

“I can’t do this with an infant to watch, Tara. You have to understand that.”

“I’ll watch him.”

“Then I’ll have to watch you, too.”

“I can’t leave him,” I said. “I just can’t. I have to make sure he’s safe.”

“I wouldn’t suggest this if I didn’t think it was safe.”

“You thought my parents would be safe too, didn’t you?”

I regretted that as soon as I said it. His eyes narrowed and he looked out over the road, not saying anything for a bit.

“Mason is my son,” he said finally. “I’m not taking chances with his life or with yours. You have a choice: You either stay at Lindy’s with Mason, or you leave Mason and come with me.”

He said it so simply, but I could tell that there was an angry edge underneath his words. I knew that he wasn’t going to let me do exactly what I wanted and that fighting him was going to be useless. It pissed me off, and I wanted to struggle, but that wouldn’t get me anywhere.

Emory had made up his mind, and he wasn’t the type of man to change it easily.

“Fine,” I said finally. “I’ll leave Mason with Lindy.”

“Okay.” He turned back toward driving.

I wanted to scream at him in that moment. I felt like he was forcing me to tear off my own arm, but I also understood why he needed this from me. If I was going to insist on coming along when he didn’t want me to, I was going to have to prove that I could follow directions.

And besides, he was right. We couldn’t be worried about Mason while finding and fighting terrorists. Leaving Mason with someone, even Lindy, sounded pretty damn horrible to me, but I couldn’t argue with his logic.