“I can’t do that.” I shake my head.
“It’s not your decision.” Her fisted hands start punching my chest.
I grab her wrists and yank her to me. I wrap my arms around her and hold her shaking body against mine. She buries her head into my chest. “Shh.” I run my hand down her back. “It’s going to be okay,” I lie. “I’m here for you.” That’s not a lie, but it’s also not what she wants to hear right now.
She’ll run. I know her well enough to know that she will take off. That’s just what she does. What she knows.
She can try to hide all she wants, but I’ll find her. No matter where she goes. A King always finds his queen.
_______________
I sit nextto her at the funeral. Her mother passed three days ago, and she hasn’t said anything to me. I don’t think she’s spoken to anyone. This is the Emilee York I know—completely closed off.
I get up and button my suit jacket and walk to the back of the church, giving her a chance to say goodbye to her mother alone.
“Have you heard anything about George?” Bones asks me the moment I walk through the double doors to stand in the entryway of the funeral home.
I shake my head. “No. You?”
“Same. It’s as if he’s fallen off the face of the earth.”
“Well, he couldn’t have gone that far,” I whisper, turning to face the glass. I see she’s still in the same place I left her, but now Jasmine sits on her right and Haven to her left. “Wherever he is, he’ll come back. Especially now that Nancy has passed.” He’ll want to collect on that trust we found. Legally, he was her husband and is now entitled to everything.
“Do you think this was accidental?” Bones asks.
“She was terminally ill. I think it was just a matter of time.”Very bad timing.He runs a hand down his face. I turn to look him in the eye. “You think it was intentional?”
“I don’t know. It just looks …” He trails off.
“Suspicious,” I finish.
He nods once. “How do we know George wasn’t here that night?”
“The detail didn’t see anything,” I remind him.
“Why wasn’t an autopsy done?” he asks.
“Emilee didn’t want one.” She hasn’t spoken to me directly, but she’s spent most of her time on the phone making arrangements. She wanted her mother buried as quickly as possible.
“Didn’t she learn her lesson with her father?” he growls.
“Titan? Bones?”
We both spin around to see a man standing before us.
“Yes?” I acknowledge him.
“I’ve been calling Emilee for the past few days now with no answer or return phone calls. Will you have her contact me, please?” He reaches his right hand out, and there’s a card in it. Bones takes it.
“Regarding …?” I question.
“I’m Yan. Her mother’s attorney. I need to meet with her regarding her will.”
Bones and I exchange a look. “Will do.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
EMILEE
