“Emma?” Carter held me now.

I looked up at the concern in his voice. He was gazing down at me, his eyes already knowing. What did he know?

“Emma? Are you okay?” Theresa stood at the shower door. She was pale and her bottom lip was quivering. She held onto the door handle, but her hand was shaking.

I spoke, raw of emotion, “You told me he would sell me out.”

Carter closed his eyes. His shoulders dropped and a breath left him. He knew.

He’d been right. I had even hoped for it, but knowing it happened—feeling it now. It was different. I couldn’t have been prepared for the betrayal.

“Who sold you out?” Her hand started to rattle the shower door know. “What’s going on?”

I held Carter’s gaze. The world fell away underneath my feet. I didn’t feel the water anymore. “He told them, didn’t he?”

He nodded.

Reaching for him, my hands held onto his shoulders and he lifted me from the shower. He walked us both out and into a bedroom. Setting me back on my feet, he walked into the bathroom. Theresa touched my hand, her eyes grew wide when she felt my coldness.

She whispered, “What’s going on, Emma?”

Carter came back with towels. He handed one to me as he took a second to wrap around my body. Then he started drying off himself as he went back out the door.

“Emma?”

Ben sold me out. He was paid to sell me out, but what about Mallory? They were gone. Where had they gone? Was she okay?

Theresa inched closer and dropped her voice, “I know he killed Scott. Don’t worry, Emma. I’m going to call the police. I know you’re infatuated with him, but he’s not good for you. I’m going to take care of it. I’m going to get you away from him.”

I looked at her, but felt detached from myself. It was like I was watching us from a safe distance, outside of my body. I watched as I said to her, “He was going to kill me.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I won’t let him. I won’t let him hurt you.”

“Scott Graham was going to kill me. Carter saved my life.”

Her eyes widened. Then narrowed. “You’re in shock. I can see that. You don’t know what happened—”

My hand latched onto her arm and held it in a death grip.

She cried out and then tried to pry my fingers off her arm, one at a time. She glanced to my face and back again to her arm, back and forth, back and forth. Her eyebrows furrowed together and she bit her lip. “Emma, you don’t know what you’re saying. You think you’re in love with him, but you’re not. You’re blinded by his looks and his power. He’s dangerous, Emma. He’s very dangerous.”

“He’s my family.”

She got three of my fingers off, but they latched back on. She sighed. “Okay. Okay, Emma. I can see this is going to take longer than I thought. Don’t say anything to him. He’s going to come back any moment—”

“I killed someone.”

My words silenced her. Her arm dropped to her side and she staggered back a step. “Wha—what did you say?”

“I’m protecting her.”

She whirled around to see Carter in the doorway. A grim expression was on his face and he held dry clothes in his arms. Then he walked around me and peered close. “Her eyes are glazed over.”

“She’s in shock. She thinks she killed someone.”

“She did,” he snapped at her and tossed the clothes on the bed. “Leave and I’ll take care of her.”

She snorted. “Yeah, right. You might be buddies with Noah and you might’ve known Emma in a previous life, but I’m not leaving you alone with her. Not one second—”

Tags: Tijan Carter Reed Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net