“Peter is the one who helps run the whole operation and who we are actively trying to shut down. Archer and Killian have their own reasons, as do I, when it comes to why we do what we do. The things I’ve done and will forever do are questionable, but please believe that it’s for the greater good. I’d never hurt someone if I didn’t have to. Never women and children, but I’llnever hesitate to take a piece of shit who sells and rapes women out of this world.” Emris’s chest is rising and falling deeply, like he can’t get the words out fast enough, as if he needs to know he’s not going to lose me over this, to make sure I don’t see him as the devil he sees himself as.
Tears leak out the side of my eyes, and I want to wrap my arms around him and let him know he won’t ever lose me.
“Emris—” I try again, but once again he interrupts me.
“Please, Brielle. I was only keeping this stuff from you because I didn’t want you to think of me differently.” He squeezes my hands.
“I already do think of you differently, Em.” Hurt fills his eyes as he nods, defeat filling the room. Emris stands from the bed, but he doesn’t understand what I’m struggling to say.
I’m not fucking good at this shit, either.
“I understand.” Emris nods as he keeps his eyes trained on the ground. I stand up and move in front of him before he can try to leave the room.
“I think of you as a man that I’m happy to have in my corner. One who has shown me his true colors. Who has taught me so much in the short time I’ve known him,” I tell him, and his head shoots up.
“I think of you, the man that—” I hesitate because this might be way too much too fast, but I’ve never felt this way for anyone before. He makes me feel like I’m breathing in fresh air with every breath I take. I love him. I love him so much, and he deserves to know that.
“I love you, Emris.” It’s my turn to look toward the ground, not wanting to see any kind of rejection that might come with admitting my feelings.
Emris leans down and wraps his arms around my waist, picking me straight off the ground with a smile plastered to his face. “I love you.” He shoves his face into the space between myneck and shoulder. “I fucking love you so much.” Emris lets out a laugh and twirls us around before setting me down on my feet.
When he pulls back, he doesn’t waste any time pressing his lips against mine. We kiss for everything that’s happened this past week, for all the hurt and the sorries.
The secrets.
Everything.
He shows me in this single kiss that he does love me.
“I promise from here on out I won’t keep anything from you.” I look up at him. “I have to go back down there and talk to Susie, and I want you to come with me.” My eyes widen because he can’t be serious, right?
“Are you sure you’re okay with that?” I ask.
“Yes. I want you to know that I’m not lying about being honest with you about everything. But I want you to be prepared that it’s not going to be fun or easy. I won’t kill her, but that doesn’t mean I won’t use any necessary force to get the answers we need.”
“I understand.” And I do. Will it be a hard pill to swallow? Yes. Susie has meant a lot to me for a while now, and to find out she’s not who I thought she was hurts. The one question that keeps going through my mind, though...
Would I have been next if Emris didn’t take me when he did?
37
BRIELLE
Emris doesn’t letme ask anything before gripping my hand and pulling me out of the room and down the hall to his own.
“Aren’t we going downstairs?” He keeps hold of me until he closes the door and plops down at the end of his bed.
“Not yet,” he says, hunger swimming in his eyes. “You remember when you pointed that gun at me back at the hotel?” Emris asks, pulling me onto his lap until I’m straddling him. “That sight almost sent me to my knees. But not from fear—from the need to worship you in every goddamn way. You looked so sexy on the other end of that gun, baby.” His teeth bite down on the sensitive skin of my neck, and I gasp, my head falling to the side to give him more room.
“My cock has never wept in agony as it did that night. I wanted to fuck you so bad, Brielle—and I want to fuck you so bad right now.” His hands run along any part of my body he can get his hands on. “I want you to do something for me,” he whispers in my ear before pulling back and looking into my eyes, mischief lingering there.
“Anything,” I tell him, because he could ask me for whatever he wanted right now, and I’d probably do it.
“Go to my nightstand and open the drawer.”
I climb off his lap and take my time rounding the bed. When I pull open his drawer, there are only two things in here—a Bible and his gun. I look back at him with a puzzled look.
“Get the gun.” All his teasing is gone, and replaced with only desire and hunger. My eyes grow wide at his request, but I listen anyway. The gun is heavy in my hand as I walk back over to where Emris is leaning back against the bed, his thighs spread open and waiting for me.
