I didn't know whether to be angry that she put herself in danger or grateful that she cared enough about me to do it.
“How could she have seen?—”
“Turns out, she had a crush on you—so cute, isn’t it?—and followed you sometimes or some shit. On more than one occasion, apparently, which is why her testimony would've been so impactful.”
Lead filled my stomach. The whole picture was coming together now. And Pearl was in more danger than I thought.
I stood quickly.
“I came to warn you,” I said, trying to push all emotions down. It was easy. I'd been doing it my entire life. The only one I was having trouble with was anger. All I cared about was what he was planning on doing to Pearl. “If you keep down this path, I have contacts who will notify law enforcement that you've escaped. It doesn't matter if you kill me right where I'mstanding, they have instructions to do it if either of us is taken or injured.”
He sat back leisurely, not looking scared at all. In fact, he looked pleased with this outcome.
“That’s interesting, but I don’t think you have all the information.” He looked at his watch, a nice, new, and shiny Rolex. “It should be about time. Why don't we take you to see your little lady, hm?”
Panic and fear swirled in my stomach so violently I almost kneeled over. But I used it as the push I needed. I lunged forward, my hands grabbing his shirt.
“What the fuck did you do to her?”
He waved off the guy to his left as he moved, like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Me?” he asked with a laugh. “Nothing. I'm here with you. But I did run into someoneveryinteresting during my time in prison. Did you know that prisons get overcrowded easily and lots of prisoners get transferred miles away?”
“Get to the fucking point,” I spat at him.
“I got her stalker transferred to our prison and then released him,” he said with a toothy grin.How did I miss this? How did Jax miss this? Fuck!“When she left you, like I knew she would, I even gave him her new address. Now… Let’s see who's faster, hm?”
I reared my fist, but just as it was about to connect with his face, pain exploded from the back of my head, and my world went black.
Chapter 23
Pearl
Tears were running down my face, and sobs were going to burst out of my chest any moment. I was walking fast through the streets of New York and getting closer to my apartment with every second, but it still wasn't fast enough.
It felt like my world was falling apart all around me.
All because of Emerson.
I hated being without her.I’d hated it after leaving our small seaside town to come to college, but now I hated it even more because I had a taste of what it could be like to be with her. Together.
It was embarrassing, but I couldn’t stop thinking about sharing her bed. About being able to smell her. Feel her. Touch her.
I missed her more than I ever would have guessed. Sometimes I could swear I saw her around campus, but that was my mind playing tricks on me. She wouldn’t be caught dead in the middle of a student quad, and she’d stick out like a sore thumb if she tried.
I'd used the time to focus on my midterms and numb the pain, even if I fell asleep many times with my head in my booksonly to dream of her. Still, and while the grades weren’t out yet, I thought I had done pretty okay.
And now I was biding my time trying to figure out how to approach her again because there was no way I would be able to stay away from her.
Because of Emerson, I had enough money to just go to school full-time. I didn’t have to work at all. But I wasn't the type of person who was happy to sit around and not do much. At this point, school was not enough to take up all of my time, and I was itching to find something else to do.
So I thought about going back to my old shitty job. Even though I hated it, it would keep me busy enough to avoid constantly thinking about the girl I’d walked away from.
But then, when I stopped by the restaurant on my way home and found it closed, I knew I couldn't stay away from her any longer.
There was no doubt in my mind it had been Emerson who had done something to shut it down.
Don't cry about it. They never deserved you anyway.
