SOPHIE WOKE ALONE BUTIT was okay. Something shifted when Emerson came home the previous night and made love to her, because that’s what it was. She didn’t need more experience to understand the difference between what they’d done and sex. She still didn’t know where they were headed—hell, the list of things she didn’t know was so long it was laughable—but whatever ended up happening, they weren’t over. With everything else falling apart around her, that would have to be enough for now.
Padding to the kitchen barefoot, she found a whole wheat toaster pastry on the counter and note that saidEnjoy breakfast ~Eddington. She bit her bottom lip as the smile lit up her face. His choice was the perfect blend of the two of them—whole grain for him and Pop-Tart for her, and he used the name she’d known him by before any of the rest of this started. They couldn’t go back there but if they could figure out how to get the Darah to go away, maybe they could move forward.
She’d played around with the idea of disappearing. She’d survived for five years when she hadn’t known she was supposed to be hiding. Surely she’d do even better when she knew she needed to keep a low profile. But that still wouldn’t be enough to guarantee her safety. And Emerson would follow her. They hadn’t made promises to each other—not verbal ones anyway. Regardless of how he felt about her, he wouldn’t rest if she disappeared. Which, as far as she could see, left her one option. She had something the cartel wanted. She just had to figure out how to give it to them.
A week ago, she hadn’t known she owned a pearl farm. She’d be perfectly happy not to own it again. Especially if it meant she got her life back and she got the chance to do things over with Emerson. Just the two of them, with no danger and a chance to make things work. Not that she had any idea how to go about it, but it was the first plan she’d had in a while. That combined with multiple orgasms and the promise of more had her feeling more optimistic than she’d been a day earlier.
Popping the pastry into the toaster, she dug in the cupboard for the tea. When the kettle started to whistle, she grabbed two mugs from the cabinet and made the tea. It was a day for firsts and she intended to hit it head on. Taking the extra mug, she went to the front door and peered out. Smithson was the man on duty, but instead of standing like a sentinel in front of the door, he sat on a bench at the edge of her view. Maybe he wasn’t feeling well, which made the tea an even better idea. She couldn’t pay the men assigned to guard her, but she could try to make things easier for them.
Careful not to let the door close behind her, she stepped into the hallway. The man on the bench didn’t look up, but she could tell by his uniform and his build who he was. Emerson’s mom had called him Daniel.
“Hey.” Sophie pitched her voice as a stage whisper and took a few steps closer.
He didn’t respond, which meant something was wrong, and she didn’t need to get any closer to know what it was. A thin trickle of blood ran down the man’s temple.
Sophie dropped the mug and the tea seeped into the carpet as she bolted for the safety of the apartment. Closing the door behind her, she threw the deadbolt and then turned, coming face-to-face with the man who in gentler times she’d thought of as an uncle.
“It’s good to see you again, Sophie.”
