Chapter 25
Cas
I keep stealing glances at Emmy as I drive the three of us over to my parents’ house. My heart still hasn’t stopped pounding since I got the call from Irene yesterday when she told me that Emmy had left crying after being ambushed by Stephanie.
Fucking Stephanie.
A trouble-causer as always, but this time, this was different, and I am almost sure whoever is fucking with Emmy is somehow responsible for yesterday. I hold on tight to Emmy’s hand, not wanting to let her go. Thankfully, Hayleigh told me exactly where she was and told me to give her the night. I could do that, but I had to let Emmy know that what she was doing was hurting me. Hayleigh cuts through my thoughts.
“Will…um…everyone be here today?”
it takes me a minute to realise she means Nate, and so I put her out of her misery.
“Everyone apart from Nate and Arch, they’re racing today.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
She sits back, looking a little deflated.
Emmy looks at me. “Racing?”
I laugh. “Yeah, but when I say racing, I don’t mean Formula One cars; I mean go-karts,”
Emmy barks out a laugh.
Hayleigh snorts as she says, “Wow, how very manly…I cannot wait to rib him about this.”
“Now I’ll have you know it still poses a risk,”
they both cackle harder, and I can’t help but join in.
As I pull into my parent's drive, I see Vik waiting outside for me, and Emmy bristles slightly. I bring her hand to my lips as I murmur across her skin, “Don’t worry.”
We climb out of the truck, and Vik makes a beeline for Emmy before wrapping her up in a bear hug; he’s so damn big he dwarfs her, “Oof, nice to see you too, Vik.”
He smiles at her “Lovely Emmy, I hope you’re ok?”
She nods, and he then notices Hayleigh. “Who is this beauty…you look very familiar.”
She points at him as she says, “Same.”
I introduce them both. “Hayleigh, this is Vik, my best friend and business partner at Club Envy; Vik this is Emmy’s best friend, Hayleigh, also Tanya’s friend.”
The connection clicks into place.
He snaps his fingers. “That’s right! Did you enjoy your night?”
She nods. “It was the best; we’ll have to come in again sometime.”
Vik, ever the businessman, links arms with Hayleigh, and they both head into my parents’ house, chatting like old friends.
I pull Emmy closer and kiss her head. “Come on, let’s get inside before Lacey storms out here. I can see the curtains twitching already.”
Emmy looks over to the window, and sure enough, Lacey is behind them, watching us not so subtly. As soon as we walk over the threshold, Lacey springs out and hugs Emmy, who, for the third time today, gets squashed in a bear hug.
She laughs into Lacey’s hair as she says, “Lacey, I’m fine.”
She looks at me, and I shrug as I say, “They were worried.”
She pulls away from Lacey, patting her head just as my mum hurries over, a tea towel flung over one shoulder and oven mittens over the other; she wraps them both in a hug. When they pull apart, Emmy’s eyes are shining with tears that threaten to spill over.
My Mum notices and wipes them away before lovingly patting Emmy’s cheek. “Now, now, there should be no tears. Not when I’m cooking us a lovely roast dinner…with Yorkshire puddings,”
Emmy smiles, and Lacey pulls her off into the living room, where Cole sits on the couch. They say their hellos, and I walk off in search of my dad, whom I find in the kitchen.
Vik and Hayleigh are walking in from the back garden, and I catch the tail end of their conversation, “We can do it for this weekend; it’s just an open mic night.”
Vik explains.
Hayleigh smiles. “That would be great; I’ll send out the invitations.”
With that, she goes off to find Emmy and Lacey.
I raise a brow at Vik, “Want to tell me what this weekend is?”
“One, it’s good business to acquire other events. Two, Hayleigh thinks it would be a good idea for us to host her pre-wedding party. A chance for everyone, including you guys, to come together…and I have to agree,”
he gives me a pointed look.
I don’t like where this is going. “Emmy cannot come between the crossfire of whatever plan you have,”
I said, my tone no-nonsense.
He claps my shoulder. “I’m close to opening that file, Cas. I wouldn’t put Emmy or any of you in harm’s way”
I nod to him and leave it at that. We fall into a conversation with my dad about our family business, but I can’t shake the feeling something is brewing.
After spending some time with my dad and Vik, I wander back into the living room to find Cole smack in the middle of the ladies discussing makeup and a new book they’re all considering reading. I make eye contact with him, and he pleads for me to come in and save him; I look him over and shudder, thinking a couple of bruised and stiff muscles are not so bad compared to what could have been.
Vik had told me he had his eyes and ears open and offered my dad a business card; all he would say was that it was a friend who owned his own security company, and they were trustworthy. I knew my dad was scared, not for himself or the business but for the rest of us, and so he promised Vik he would give them a call. I nod my head to the side to get Cole to follow me, and my eyes follow him as he looks at Lacey; she jumps up and then realises everyone is staring before she sees me looking and sits back down. We walk out the back door and down to the bench at the bottom of the garden.
“So, wanna tell me what that was all about with Lacey?”
I ask Cole and waggle my eyebrows for effect, and he groans.
Rubbing his hand down his face, he winces when he catches a bruise “Ow shit”, I stay silent and wait for him to go on. “It’s been nice, CJ, really nice being with Lacey, but I need to get out and get my own place soon. She’s so caring, kind and beautiful and sweet, and her lasagna is to die for…”
He drifts off, and I roll my hand as I say, “And this sounds like a bad idea. Why?”
He looks at me as if to say, ‘Come on,’ but instead, he shakes his head and looks up at the sky. “It just isn’t in the cards for us, man,”
With that, he gets up and goes back up to the house. I sit there for what seems like half an hour before I hear the back door slide open. Laughter filters out, and the door slides shut again. Then I can smell her flowery perfume, and before I know it, Emmy walks into view.
“What are you doing out here by yourself?”
she asks as she comes and sits next to me.
I grab her hand and idly stroke my thumb along the back of her hand. “Nothing, I’m just sitting here thinking about everything that has happened and where we are now”
She smiles, but it isn’t a happy smile; it’s more of an ‘I’m sorry’ smile, and so I take my other hand and slide it along her jaw before pulling her in for a kiss, we break away, and I say to her “don’t”
I don’t want her to think she is the cause of any of this. Even if she were, I’d redo everything just to have her in my life.
She looks up at the sky and watches the clouds drift by; in that moment, she appears carefree and beautiful. I trail my fingers along her arm and watch as her breath hitches. She looks at me out of the corner of her eye, and a soft smile plays on her lips. I look up towards the house and see that everyone is still inside. From where I am, you can see the top windows, but the bottom ones are blocked by the hill that slopes down to the bottom of the garden. My parents' house is a detached home with a sprawling back garden. To our left and out of sight is an old greenhouse that is no longer used, filled to the brim with my dad’s failed gardening attempts. Behind and running along the outside of the greenhouse is a workbench at waist height. I quickly make the decision; standing up, I grab Emmy’s hand and pull her along to the left.
“Cas, what are you…”
I don’t let her finish what she’s saying before we’re at the greenhouse, and I spin her around, taking her lips and tongue and kissing her hard and fast. I break away from her, leaving her dazed, and she touches her fingers to her lips. I take a moment to look at her before I pick her up and sit her on the workbench, scattering some of my dad’s empty plant pots.
One of them crashes to the floor, and we both freeze; when we’re sure no one is coming out, we both burst into laughter; then we look at each other, and the love shining in Emmy’s eyes makes me kiss her again, but this time I’m gentle and slow and not at all hurried.
She fumbles with my belt and jeans and pushes them and my boxers down; freeing me, she grabs hold of me and starts pumping, and a groan bubbles up in my throat. She grabs me tighter, and I know that if I don’t move now, I am definitely going to make a fool of myself.
I open her button and zip and pull her pants and underwear down and off her legs; she’s bared for me from the waist down. Gently parting her legs further, she falls back onto her arms, her head falling back as I take a long lick of her centre before bringing her sweet bundle of nerves into my mouth and sucking hard. She bucks against me as I do it again. I want to be able to take my time, but this needs to be fast, and as I spear her with my tongue, she breaks apart in my mouth; before she has finished coming down, I stand up and gently pull her to the edge of the bench before guiding myself to her entrance.
We both watch as I slide inside; she’s warm and tight but ready for me, and her breathing changes again as I draw all the way out and slam back inside over and over again, setting a punishing pace. I can feel the pleasure building at the base of my spine, and my legs start to shake; Emmy’s mouth hangs open in a silent scream, and she bites her lip as her pleasure takes over, and that’s all I need for my own release to come barrelling down me, and I spill into her. We stay locked together for a few more minutes, catching our breath before I grab her pants and help her back into them.
We get Emmy off the workbench when the door slides open on the house, and we both freeze as if we’ve just been caught in the act, but whoever it is doesn’t come down.
Instead, we hear Archie shouting down, “Hey lovebirds, if you’re finishing trampling Mum’s begonias, then come up because she is just about to serve trifle...oh, and she made three this time because she said we’re growing in size!!”
we both start laughing as we hear the door slide shut again. I look down and groan as I realise we did indeed trample Mum’s flowers.
Emmy bends down and tries but fails to straighten them out as she says, “Maybe we just need some sticks and string?”
I laugh as I help her up.
We hear a rustling off to our right, and both our heads snap up in that direction, but we don’t see anything. Then we hear my parents' next-door neighbour shouting about snooping, but because the hedges are that tall, we can’t see anything.
Emmy’s brow is creased, and she worries her lip, so I put my arm around her shoulder, “Emmy, come on, let’s head in.”
She wrings her hands before whispering, “You don’t think someone was snooping on us, do you?”
I shake my head and say, “Not unless they’re the Jolly Green Giant”
This pulls a smile out of her, and we both head back up towards the house. The hairs on the back of my neck prickle when we arrive at the house, so I turn around and peer down towards the hedges, but I don’t see anything.
We walk into a very full kitchen, where everyone is shouting and cheering, and that's when I notice Archie conducting a game of charades. My family is split into teams: Hayleigh and Nate stand in one corner, arguing about what Archie could be. My Mum and Dad are on another team, Cole and Lacey are on another team, and then Rafe and Ethan are on yet another.
Rafe catches us walking in and shouts, “Emmy! You’re with us.”
She hesitates for a moment but then crosses the room to join them, each of them high-fiving one another. It warms my heart to see her fitting in, but more so that she did it on her own.
Content: I sit on the sidelines and watch her animatedly act out what Archie is trying to tell them without words. He stands on one side of the room and waves his hands for everyone to stop, and the room falls silent. He holds up one hand in front of his face, and the other rotates in a circle. The room shouts, “MOVIE!”
He nods furiously and holds up five fingers. The room shouts again, “5 WORDS!”
He nods again and smiles, clearly enjoying himself. He makes a T with his hands, and everyone shouts, “THE!”
He nods again, moves into a fighter's stance, and starts boxing. Hayleigh shouts out, “PUNCH BAG!”
Nate looks at her as if she has three heads, and she goes bright red before he bursts out laughing just as my dad shouts, “Boxer!”
Archie holds his hand up and moves it side to side as if to say sort of. Emmy starts conferring with my brothers, and even stone-cold serious Ethan gets into it, but they miss their turn, and it moves to Cole and Lacey, the latter shouting out, “ROCKY!”
Archie nods again, and Cole and Lacey high-five, causing Cole to wince slightly.
Archie holds up three fingers for the third word, and then he tries imitating that painting with the screaming face, and Rafe shouts out, “SCAREDY CAT!”
Emmy looks at him in disbelief as she says, “Since when is there a film called The Rocky Scaredy Cat?!”
Rafe shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t really watch films.”
Her face is a picture as she says to him, “We can unpack that later, but for now, we need to work together to win this thing…there’s a trifle at stake”
I laugh at the look on Rafe and Ethan’s faces. Ethan catches me watching and mouths, “We’ve created a monster”
I smile because I love how she fits in but also that she’s comfortable enough to be herself around my family and not shy away.
The rest of the room throws out ridiculous guesses, and then it’s back around to Emmy, Rafe and Ethan. Emmy high-fives my brothers as she triumphantly says, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show!”
Archie runs over to her and gives her a bear hug, lifting her as he says, “We have a winnneeerrrr!”
the other teams grumble as Emmy takes her winning trifle.
Nate mutters, “Oh shit yeah, that makes sense now”
Hayleigh taps his face and sticks her bottom lip out just as Mum clips him round the back of his head and barks “Language, Nathaniel”
Nate has the good grace to dip his head and apologise.
Hayleigh whispers, “Nathaniel?”
He shakes his head, but I see the secret smile they give each other. I notice how relaxed they are around each other, and I can’t help but think that Hayleigh might be making a colossal mistake by marrying Pete.
**********
I wake up to the sound of a chainsaw… wait, no, not a chainsaw, but definitely something that sounds like it. I look down to find Scruff asleep across my legs, pinning me to the bed, and Emmy’s head resting across my chest. The only thing I can’t figure out is which one of them sounds like the chainsaw. We left my parents’ house pretty late last night and practically fell into bed and straight to sleep.
I decide to let Emmy sleep a little longer and covertly try to extract myself from the bed, which I manage just as I fall on the floor; I cringe at the noise, but when I look back up over the bed, the both of them are still far away.
Making my way downstairs, I open my phone and decide to call Vik, and he answers as usual on the third ring. “You know, it’s really weird that you always answer my calls on the third ring”, I say by way of a greeting.
His voice is groggy on the other side. “It’s because I love you so much, sugar pumpkin.”
I laugh back at him as I say, “You’re such a dick. Where did you escape to last night?”
He sighs on the other end of the phone. “I had some things I needed to take care of; Ma Peterson packed me a to-go bag, though”
We both laugh at that, and I set about making coffee, resting the phone against my ear and shoulder. I grab two mugs.
“So are you going to tell me about this party you’re throwing for Hayleigh and any reason it’s at the club?”
He clicks his tongue as he says, “I have a theory that this prick stalking Emmy is her ex, and so I want to weed him out, see if he does anything whilst we’re all there.”
I have to tamper down my boiling temper. “You best not be fucking thinking of using Emmy OR Hayleigh as bait.”
He chooses his following words carefully. “I’d never put either of them at risk, CJ; you know that, but this guy…Jesus, if this guy is as unhinged as I think he is, then he will show up, and I can guarantee it’s someone she knows. What’s next, CJ? He’s already proven dangerous by jumping Cole; who’s next?”
I know he’s right, but I don’t like it, so I tell him, “I have a bad feeling about this, Vik; something isn’t right.”
But he soothes me by saying, “Who is going to try something so obvious with six brothers, your best friend, her crazy best friend, and not to mention Birdie behind the bar? Plus, we have a shit tonne of security and CCTV”
I guess he’s right, he continues “All we’re going to do is see who acts differently and don’t let either of them out of sight, deal?”
I think it over; “Yeah, okay, deal.”
With that, he clicks off.
I finish up our breakfast, and I’ve just put it on the tray when Emmy stumbles downstairs, her hair messed up and half asleep with a groggy Scruff trailing behind. I laugh at the sight of them.
She lifts her eyes to meet mine. “Morning”
she mumbles to me.
“I made us breakfast,”
I say, kissing her cheek. She sits on a stool and digs in. So, I sit next to her and start on my breakfast.
Emmy finishes up and turns to me. “What’s wrong?”
she rubbed her thumb between my brows, and I hadn’t even realised I was scowling.
I steel myself before saying, “Do you think Hayleigh’s party is a good idea this weekend?”
she sits up and thinks it over before nodding.
“Yes, I do. I think it could be risky because whoever has been doing whatever they’ve been doing could very well be there. Still, I think it would be a good idea to get together and let off some steam before the wedding rehearsal, and I know I will feel much better if we go to this thing and we find it isn’t Count Dickless. Does that make sense?”
I nod and kiss her as I tell her, “It does make sense, but I’m also worried about it.”
She cups my face. “I know,”
and her soft smile does me in almost as much as when she whispers across my lips, “I love you, Cas.”
I hold her close. “I love you too, Emmy.”
**********
It's been hours since I had breakfast with Emmy, and I’m brave enough to admit I’m missing her. My dad called after we had finished cleaning up our plates with instructions to meet him and Cole at the worksite, which is where I have been ever since. All my brothers are here, and we’re all pitching in to get everything finished. We have just four days until Hayleigh and Pete’s party, and Emmy is convinced it’s going to be okay and we will have fun, but I can’t shake the feeling that something is off.
I’m just finishing up helping one of the other guys with a wall when I hear Vik shouting for me. I walk around the side of the building, and he comes into view; he looks so out of place on the work site in his suit and nice shoes.
I nod towards them “Be careful, you might get mud on those fancy shoes of yours”.
He laughs at me. “Ha. Ha. Very funny. Do you want to see the present I have for you?”
he holds out his phone, and I take it hesitantly from him. I look at the screen and see a document with numerous black lines throughout, and I glance at Vik questioningly.
He nods to the screen. “That is the file on one of the Winters brothers, the one that was sealed, well it’s certainly unsealed or at least part of it is.”
I ask him, “What do you mean, partly sealed?”
He shakes his head and sighs, “I have no idea how they managed to get it redacted, but I’m working on obtaining the original document. All I know from reading it is that one of them, most likely Chad, was arrested under the suspicion of attempted murder, but because he was a minor, the files were sealed, and somehow, his parents managed to make it all go away.”
My head reels as I think of Emmy being with that creep for so long and what could have happened. I look back up at him as I hand his phone back to him. “We need to get this over to the police with our suspicions; it has to be him; we have to cancel this party.”
He puts his hand on my shoulder as he says to me, “Cancelling now will look odd, and I can’t exactly hand this over because it isn’t a full document yet, and I didn’t exactly get it by legal means”
he gives me a pointed look “don’t worry, you will be with Emmy all night, and there are plenty enough of us going to keep him away from her”
with that he gives me another tap on my shoulder and walks off, as I watch him go I see Cole coming over from his makeshift office.
His bruises are now a yellowish green, his brow creases as he takes in my face, and he asks, “What’s wrong?”
I wave him off, not wanting to drop Vik in it, so instead, I say, “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it. Are we done for the day?”
He gives it a moment of thought before finally realising he isn’t going to get anything more out of me. He nods. “Yeah, we’re done for the day.”
That’s all I need to hear before I head back to grab my tools and head home to Emmy.
**********
When I pull up to the house, I turn my truck off and sit for a few minutes to think over everything that Vik told me. How the hell am I supposed to go in there now and look Emmy in the eye without blurting out what we know? That her ex was done for attempted murder, and he probably is the creep that’s been messing with us all this time?
I told Emmy I’d never lie to her, but this isn’t the same; I don’t have proof yet. No, I’ll wait until I have evidence, and for now, I’ll try to keep what Vik told me to myself.