Chapter 14
Emma
“Thanks for letting me stay here,” I tell Kennedy as she pours hot water into two mugs to steep some tea. My throat is raw from crying, my body sore from swimming who knows how far. Even if I wasn’t the one doing most of the work, the ache is still there.
As is the nightmare of opening my eyes and looking down into an abyss ready to swallow me whole. After making that mistake, I’d kept my eyes shut until Dylan squeezed my hand to tell me we could surface.
I’ve never been so happy to be on a boat in my life.
“Of course. Don’t even mention it.” She takes a seat on the couch beside me. Ash is cuddled up on my chest, purring and kneading biscuits into the shirt Kennedy let me borrow after my shower.
Even though I should be overjoyed that I escaped the fate Gio had laid out for me—at least for now—my heart is heavy. My soul worn.
I saw Dylan differently tonight than I have before.
I used to think he’d just changed so much that he didn’t feel the same for me anymore. But now I see the truth: he’s too broken to consider himself worthy of love. And that is so much worse.
“I can hardly stomach being touched—do you know that? Do you know that whenever I feel hands on me, I’m thrown back into that cage? Every tiny contact leaves acid on my skin.”
I blink rapidly to try and keep the tears from forming in my eyes.
What a horrible existence, to be surrounded by people yet feel so alone.
“Are you okay?” Kennedy asks, tilting her head to the side to study me.
“Yes,” I reply quickly; then the guilt over my lie has me shaking my head. “No. I’m not.”
“Let’s talk about it.”
Bradyn is back in their bedroom, likely getting himself cleaned up after the long day, but I glance around anyway to make sure he’s not near.
Not that I wouldn’t want to share anything with him, but when it comes to Dylan—I just can’t.
I know they struggle with who came back from that deployment too.
“It’s just a lot,” I tell her. “I wish I knew what happened to Felicity after she helped me escape. Then there’s—”
“Dylan,” she finishes.
“Yes.”
“Bradyn said that he’s the one who went after you. Tucker tried, but Dylan insisted that it had to be him.”
I nod. “He told me that he can’t stomach being touched. Is that true?” The tears fill my eyes now, and my throat constricts. “Did everyone know that but me?”
“It’s true,” she says sadly. “The occasional hug from his mom or his brothers seems to be okay, but aside from that—it costs him in ways we can’t understand.”
“Doesn’t that break your heart?” A tear slips down my cheek.
“Absolutely,” Kennedy replies. “But God is the only one who can help him, and Dylan seems pretty set against going to Him for help.”
It’s honestly a surprise to me that he’s struggling with his faith. “Why? He’s in church on Sundays.”
“Sure. But he doesn’t go because he’s seeking God. He goes because he knows it’ll break his mother’s heart if he doesn’t.”
Which is so completely Dylan. He would never want to do anything to hurt her.
“I just wish—even if it’s not with me—he could find happiness. He deserves it, and he doesn’t think he does.”
“I feel the same.” Kennedy covers my hand with hers. “We all do. But you can’t make someone surrender and seek peace. He has to want it for himself. And right now, Dylan’s familiarity is in the pain. He doesn’t see a way out.”
After a night of sleep riddled with nightmares, I’m sitting at Ruth and Tommy’s dining room table, a steaming mug of coffee in my hands. My stomach is full, thanks to the delicious breakfast Ruth made for all of us, but all the pancakes in the world can’t fill the hole in my chest.
Especially in those moments when I’d glance over at Dylan, only to find him staring down at the plate of food he barely even touched. Did he sleep at all last night? Or was he troubled too?
“Okay, it’s time for me to head into town.” Mrs. Hunt dries her hands on a towel, then hangs it back up before crossing over to me and kissing me gently on top of the head. “I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see you sitting here at this table.”
Forcing a smile, I look up at her. “Me too.”
She smiles happily, then leaves the kitchen. With her gone, it’s the brothers and me, along with Nova and their dad, Tommy. I know what they want from me, and I’m prepared to tell them everything. Especially if it means I get to go back to my normal life as soon as possible.
“Any idea about when I can go back to life as usual?” I ask Bradyn, hopeful that they already have a plan.
According to what Bradyn told me last night, we still can’t let the town know I’m back.
Gibson is the only one who is privy to the truth.
Everyone else has to believe that I’m still missing so that, if Gio comes looking, he finds nothing.
It hurts my heart to know that my friends are going to suffer, thinking I’m still missing, but if it keeps everyone safe, then I’ll do it for as long as necessary.
“I’m not sure,” he replies. “Felicity Karver said something about keeping you safe until the first of November. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but she made it sound as though the threat to you will be over by then.”
“She said the same thing to me,” I tell them.
“How could she know that?” Nova asks.
Bradyn shrugs. “There seems to be a timeline on whatever plans Gio had for Emma.”
A timeline? And then it hits me, along with stomach-churning nausea. “The wedding.”
“What wedding?” Dylan demands. It’s the first time he’s spoken all morning. His attention is no longer on his plate but firmly fixed on me.
Since I’d still been pretty shaken even on the plane ride home, no one pressed me for information.
I spent the entire time wrapped up in my own thoughts and praying my way out of the dark corners of what could have happened to me.
So I haven’t had the chance to fill them in on what happened while I was being held.
“Felicity told me that she paid a nurse to tell them I died after birth, then put me up for adoption to keep me away from Gio.”
“Oh my.” Nova shakes her head sadly. “She gave you up to protect you.”
I take a deep breath. “Yes. She had no idea they’d brought me there until Gio paraded me into the dining room for dinner. He played off the fact that his son—my brother—drugged and kidnapped me. He just told me that Mattheus got a little ahead of himself in his excitement to bring me home.”
Dylan emits a low growl. He pushes to his feet and leans back against the kitchen counter. More space. Always more space.
“Because drugging and kidnapping is an entirely logical reaction to wanting to meet your sibling.” Riley rolls his eyes. “Unbelievable.”
“Based on what I read, in that family, it’s typical.” Tucker crosses his arms. “The Karvers are bad people. Sorry,” he adds to me. “I know they’re your birth parents and all.”
I shrug. “Patricia and Emmit are my parents. Felicity and Gio are simply the people who brought me into the world. They didn’t raise me.
I appreciate what Felicity did for me, and I pray she’s okay, but that doesn’t mean I look at her as anything more than a kind woman trapped in a terrible circumstance. ”
“Good logic to have,” Elliot says with a smile.
“Thanks.” I clear my throat, then continue, “Felicity warned me that they were watching the cell phone they gave me. She told me that she would deliver a message for me, so I gave her Bradyn’s name.” I briefly look over at Dylan, whose expression has hardened further.
Where’s the man who smiled at me yesterday? Who held my hand as he swam us to safety?
“Since you run the search and rescue company, I figured you’d be the easiest to get in contact with.”
He nods. “She did call. Told us that you were safe, but if we didn’t get to you in time, then you wouldn’t be. Right after that, she told us we needed to hide you until after November 1st. That once it passed, there would be no more threat to your life.”
“I don’t understand what that means though. Wedding dates can be changed, so there must be something else.”
“Okay, expand on the wedding,” Tucker says. “Whose wedding?”
I glance at Dylan a moment, only to find myself staring into his troubled hazel eyes, unable to look away. He clearly can though because he breaks the eye contact first, freeing me from the hold he had on me.
“She didn’t say a wedding exactly. She said that my fate would be to marry someone like him—or worse—and she couldn’t stomach it, which is why she gave me up.”
“An arranged marriage is common in crime families,” Elliot says, shaking his head.
“But I’m in my thirties. I hardly fit the bill for that. I’m not a wide-eyed nineteen-year-old with no life experience.” I scoff. “I’m basically an old maid at this point.”
“Hardly,” Dylan says, his tone low and gruff.
I have to fight the urge to look at him. “She promised to get me out and told me I had to play the part until then. Which was easy until Gio introduced me to Heath Slater the next morning.”
“Heath Slater?” Tucker questions as he writes his name down on his notepad.
“Yes. I’ve never seen a man more intimidating.” A shiver runs through me just thinking of him. “He managed to suck all the light out of the room just by entering it. I could feel the darkness rolling off him. I’ve never experienced anything like it before.”
Nova reaches over and gently takes my hand. “You’re safe now.”
“I know.” He haunted the nightmares that plagued me last night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Dylan die at his hand before the snake tattooed on his face devoured me whole. Is it my mind playing out my worst fear? Or what is coming my way?
“What do you believe Gio’s intentions were by introducing you to him?”
“It seemed an awful lot like—” I trail off, trying to find the right words. “Like Gio was putting me on display for purchase. But it was done so subtly that, if Felicity hadn’t told me what she did, I probably wouldn’t have noticed.”
“He was going to sell you?” Nova’s eyes go wide. “His own flesh and blood.”
“We’ve seen people do far worse than that,” Elliot says softly.
“That’s horrifically true,” his wife replies. He snakes an arm around the back of her chair and rubs her back softly.
“They didn’t say anything that confirmed it, but when Felicity came in and asked me to go shopping, Gio looked at Heath before giving permission. And it was only after Heath nodded that Gio said we could leave.”
“I’ll figure out who Heath Slater is and what we’re dealing with,” Tucker says.
“We need to know what that timeline is. Maybe Felicity went to the cops and they’re planning on moving in on Gio?
We know he’s being watched and someone scraped everything about the family offline.
It could be in preparation for making a move on him. ”
Bradyn nods. “I’ll call Frank and ask him to see if he can poke around a bit.
He has more contact with the feds than we do.
Until then, you need to stay here on the ranch.
And honestly, it’s better if you’re inside more than not.
We have to keep you shielded from view on the off chance they manage to track you here and send someone to get eyes on you. Since you called us—”
“It’s not a far reach to believe I’d come here,” I finish.
“Exactly.”
I take a deep breath. “Okay. I can stay inside.”
“I’ll bring you books,” Riley offers. “We need to avoid your house since they’ll probably be watching it. But you can borrow mine.”
“Thank you.” I smile at him, grateful for the kindness.
“And I have clothes you can use. I’ll grab you some other necessities from town,” Nova adds.
“I’ll see what I can find out about your betrothed.” Tucker stands. “What, too soon?” he asks after Dylan storms out of the kitchen, moving so furiously I’m surprised the floor didn’t catch fire in his wake.
“He’s already having a hard time,” Nova scolds Tucker. “You could have been more delicate.”
Tucker shrugs. “Sometimes, you need to give someone a good, angry jolt before they wake up.”