For a moment, you could have heard a pin drop. Then, without breaking stride, Sadie handed me a glass of what I guessed was Irish whiskey.
I accepted and said, “Sorry. I’m just a little shaken. Thank you, Sadie.”
“Of course, dear. Now tell me what happened. Exactly as you remember it.”
Though sympathy filled her eyes, I could hear the anger in her voice, and I wasn’t sure if it was directed at me or the man the men had called Brendan.
I took a sip and sucked in a deep breath before I recounted the entire interaction, exactly as it happened. “Then I pepper sprayed him, locked myself in the house and called Jasper.” Sadie seemed satisfied with what I’d told her so I took another sip.
“Wait. I want to know why you called Jasper and not Emmett.”
Leave it up to Kat to worry about romance when clearly there was something more concerning happening.
“Because he lied to me. Well he didn’t technically lie, but he withheld the truth from me, and that’s the same damn thing.”
“Did he lie about banging another chick?” The young girl, Madison, had both elbows on the table, chin resting in her hand and an interested smile on her face. “Well?”
“No. He kept something from me because he thought he was protecting me.” I rolled my eyes, still angry that he even thought that was a good excuse for withholding information from me.
“Oh, that?” Maisie actually scoffed as if that was no big deal. “It’s the way things are with these guys. We hate it, and we give them hell about it, sometimes I even make Virgil sleep on the floor, but they still do it,” she said with a slightly annoyed sigh.
“Because they want to keep us safe,” Kat added with a bit of a swoon in her voice.
“And that’s fine for you if you accept that. I don’t. I won’t. I let Lance keep secrets about his work in the military, about his work with the family, and now he’s gone. I don’t want that kind of relationship. Not again.”
Kat sighed. “You know Jasper and Terry ordered him not to tell you, right?”
I didn’t know, but it didn’t make any difference. “But he still kept the secret once things between us changed. I get that Emmett is family to you, but I can’t forgive this.”
“Motives matter,” Maisie insisted. “Don’t they?”
“Sure, they do, Maisie, but other things matter, too. Emmett thought he was keeping me safe, right?” She nodded. “By not telling me that I was in danger. How does that make any kind of sense? Why didn’t any of you guys tell me?”
“We couldn’t. Doesn’t it matter that he was ordered not to tell you?”
“No, Maisie. If he’d told me, I would have been prepared for someone screwing with my gas tank. Attacking me in the parking lot. Showing up at my home.”
“She’s right to be angry.” Sadie’s words cut through their attempts to convince me that Emmett was doing what he thought was right.
“What? Ma, you can’t be serious!”
“I can and I am. Terry rushed straight to you and told you what was going on.” She turned to Maisie. “Virgil too, I’m sure.”
“But they weren’t an item yet,” Kat insisted.
“No, we weren’t, but once we were, he didn’t bother telling me that I was taking the job of a woman who was probably murdered for something related to the job.”
My gaze slid to Kat and she looked away, her eyes filled with guilt.
“I’m kind of tired.” It was abrupt and obvious but I didn’t care. There was too much betrayal to go around and I just wanted to be alone, preferably in my own home, but my own room would have to do for now.
“Vanessa.” Sadie’s voice stopped my feet in their tracks, and I turned, allowing my gaze to meet hers. “Men like Emmett feel things deeply, very deeply. However angry you are now, I advise you not to be so quick to give up on him because I can guarantee you, he hasn’t given up on you.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about Emmett not giving up on me. Did I want him to? Was I ready to give up on him completely? I didn’t know, and until I did, I would have to keep my own counsel.
“Thanks, Sadie. For your advice and your hospitality.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Emmett
Left. Right. Left. Right. Hook. Jab. Jab. Jab. “Fuck!” I’d been at it for two hours, smashing my fists against the bag while I waited for exhaustion to take over, to make me forget about Vanessa and the hurt that shimmered in her blue eyes before she walked away from me.
Nothing could erase that from my mind. Not sparring with my welterweights, not letting the flyweights practice takedowns on me, not even five miles on the treadmill. House of Ashby was my refuge, the place I came to find peace, but tonight it wasn’t fucking working. I should have just told her. It would have been better to ask forgiveness of Terry and Jasper later rather than keeping it from Vanessa.