Theirs to Love (The Last First Kiss Menage #2)

Travis

I t was too quiet and that made a little jumpy. He had Emily up in his office above his auto shop and she looked like she wasn’t worried about a thing, but he knew that she was. She was terrified that Jack wouldn’t come back to them or that he’d get hurt trying to protect her from whatever danger her father had planned for them. Em had her doctor’s face firmly in place and that pissed him off. He didn’t want her to pretend around him. He wanted all of Emily, even her fears and she wasn’t sharing right now. He knew that he was spoiling for a fight, he always did when he was nervous about something. It was one of the ways that he coped with not being able to control the situation, but Em didn’t need that right now. Instead, he channeled his nervous energies towards making sure that no one got past him to hurt Emily.

“Has he texted you?” Em held up her phone and checked it for what felt like the millionth time for a text from Jack.

He sighed, “No. You just asked me two minutes ago.” Emily shot him a look and stuck out her tongue at him making him chuckle. His girl always knew how to defuse the situation, but she still looked too calm. He knew that she was screaming on the inside.

“Em, it’s okay to let go and not pretend that everything is okay. You know you can fall apart with me, and I’ll just help you pick up the pieces.” Emily stood and crossed to where he had been pacing, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Thank you, but I’m good. I just want this all to be over,” she whispered. “Everyone that I trusted from my childhood lied to me and that stings a little.” kissed the top of her head and held her to his body.

The door chimed that he had a customer, and he growled, “We’re closed. You’ll have to come back tomorrow.” He turned to see who had come in and Emily gasped when she saw a man with a gun standing by the side entrance.

“Dad, what are you doing?” Emily’s father smirked at her.

“Hello, Emily. I’m sorry to just pop in on you like this but I figured with your cop boyfriend out of the way I’d come here to personally take care of boyfriend number two.” He motioned for them to both back up pointing the gun at Emily as if daring to make a move.

Em’s father was a tall, thin man and he dressed in a three-piece suit even to hold his daughter at gunpoint. “What’s the plan here Dad? You shoot and then what, go on with your day as if nothing happened?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have to get my hands dirty if all the people in this godforsaken town weren’t so incompetent. I tried to resolve this situation for me, but everyone went and screwed that up.” He smiled at Emily and knew that neither of them was going to like his plan.

“I’ve decided that it’s time for you to settle down with the right person, of course. But you can’t do that while you’re having this little tryst with these Neanderthals. I’m simply helping the process along and making sure that the future of my family is safely secured into the right hands. You’re going to help me build an empire, my dear girl.” Emily barked out her laugh as if daring to disagree with her father. knew that he needed to do something, and he needed to do it fast. At some point, Em’s dad was going to stop talking, and then he was pretty sure his time would be up.

“You will never make me do what you want,” she hissed. “You tried that once and I left, what makes you think that I will willingly go with you and marry a stranger?” Mr. Jude laughed, the sound sending chills down ’s spine.

“Well,” he pointed the gun at and Emily shrieked, trying to block his body with hers. There was no way that was going to let her take a bullet for him. He pushed Em out of the way just as her father pulled the trigger. The bullet went into his right shoulder and the force of it knocked his body back to the wall. He slumped to the ground just as Emily rushed to his side.

“No, . Tell me that you’re all right,” she cried. He wanted to, he tried to get the words out, but the pain was searing through his shoulder.

“I see it like this, you want him to live then you come with me. Otherwise, I’ll finish your oversized play toy off, and then you can join him.” Emily closed her eyes, leaning in to kiss ’s cheek. He knew what she was about to do before she even said it. He wanted to stop her, to tell her that he’d rather die than live without her, but he still couldn’t speak past the pain.

“Fine,” she whispered. “Just let him and Jackson live, and I will do whatever you want.” tried to reach for her, to pull her against his body but he couldn’t move. His focus faded and his world started to turn black just as Emily stood to walk over to her father.

“I knew you’d see things my way,” he growled, shoving the gun into her back. ’s world went completely black, and his last thoughts were of Emily and Jackson—his whole world summed up in two people.