But it’s just Emmett.
“Georgia?” His voice is gentle. “Can I come in?”
I swallow, my voice a rasp. “Yeah. It’s open.”
He pushes the door in. When he sees me, all his usual easy humor drains from his face. He zeroes in on the half-packed bag and the trembling phone in my hand.
“Shit,” he says. “He called, didn’t he?”
I nod, unable to speak. My mouth won’t even open.
Emmett closes the door behind him, crosses the cabin, and kneels at my feet. He puts his hands on my knees, thumbs stroking slow circles, anchoring me with the heat of his palms. “Tell me what happened.”
I can’t meet his eyes, so I just play the voicemail. The harsh words of my father fill the small space. Emmett’s grip on my legs tightens as it goes on, but he doesn’t say anything. When themessage ends, I squeeze my eyes shut, fighting the tears all over again.
“Catherine called him,” I whisper, voice catching. “She had to have told him everything. About us. About the…” I can’t finish the sentence, my face feeling hot with embarrassment all over again.
He pulls me into a hug so sudden I almost topple off the bed. “Hey, hey, hey. It’s okay.” His hands rub soothing patterns on my back. “He can’t hurt you, Georgia. Not anymore. You’re not a kid. He doesn’t get to make the rules. It’s your life to live.”
I want to believe him, but the fear chokes me. “You don’t know him,” I whisper. “He can make anything sound like it’s the end of the world, and this…thisis going to be really bad.”
“I know him, too, you know,” Emmett says, voice lower, more serious than I’ve ever heard him. “I know how he can be. But you can stand your ground. You can do it.”
The image of me standing my ground is almost laughable, but I hang onto the words anyway. I burrow into his chest, letting him hold me while I struggle to not lose it. This is the worst thing I’ve ever had to face.
He rocks me gently, then pulls back, framing my face in his hands. “We’ll face him together. Okay? I’ll get the others. You need all of us right now.”
I nod, tears leaking down my cheeks without me even realizing it.
He wipes them with his thumb, then bolts from the room, leaving the door swinging wide behind him.
I sit there for a few beats, missing the warmth of his arms around me. He made it sound so easy, like standing up to my dad is no big deal. But he has no idea what it’s like to have been under his thumb for my entire life.
As I start to feel myself spiraling all over again, I hear voices in the hallway. Footsteps, a shuffle of bodies. A minute later,Emmett’s back with Miles and Brody trailing behind. Miles’s jaw is set, his glasses perched low on his nose, and Brody’s eyes are bloodshot, his movements stiff as if he doesn’t know what to do with himself.
Everyone is feeling it.
“Hey,” Miles says, his voice painfully quiet, and sits on the other side of me. Brody stands back, arms folded so tightly across his chest I can see the veins popping out of his forearms.
I open my mouth, but no words come.
Emmett picks up the phone, taps the voicemail, and lets the guys hear for themselves.
After it finishes, nobody speaks for a solid ten seconds. Then Miles, ever the pragmatist, sighs, “How long do we have?”
I try to think, my mind snapping to logistics. “He’s driving from Savannah. If he left at first light, maybe an hour. Two, tops… I don’t know.”
Miles nods. “We should get ahead of it. Decide what we want to do before he gets here.”
I can’t tell if he means run, or fight, or just hunker down and hope my father isn’t really coming. I look to Brody, searching for any sign of what he wants. His face is carved in freaking stone, but his eyes are a storm.
“I can’t face him,” I say, shaking my head. “Not after what Catherine told him. Not after…” My voice breaks.
Emmett squeezes my shoulder. “We’ll face him with you, just like I said. And you’re tougher than you think.”
Miles reaches over, smooths my hair back. “If you want to go, we’ll help you. If you want to stay, we’ll stay. But for the record, running won’t make the situation go away.”
I know he’s right. But the fear of my father is so damn heavy, and it roots me to the mattress, paralyzed.
