15. Ivy
CHAPTER 15
Ivy
E verything in me screeches to a sudden and immediate halt.
Did I hear that correctly?
No, there’s no way he just said that. No, it’s impossible.
My guilt must be playing tricks on me.
But as I turn my head to look fully at the large, perfectly calm and slightly smirking jerk beside me, I can see it in his eyes.
He knows.
He knows everything.
“E-excuse you?” I croak hoarsely, as if a large, rusty ball of nails is stuck in my throat.
Emmett’s sharp green eyes just watch me, not smiling, nor frowning, nor is there any disapproval either. He just looks… excited. Expectant. As if he’s watching a rabbit fall into a trap.
“What did you just say?” I whisper brokenly.
“Come now, Angel, an intelligent girl like you should know better than to fake deafness,” he says in a low, deep voice that if I’m being honest, I had missed the feel of after all this time of not seeing him, hearing him, being in his all-knowing presence that still unnerves me even after I practically grew up with the guy.
He holds my stare, studying every minute emotion that crosses my face, I’m sure, but I’m still stunned.
So, I decide to go for the most obvious defense tactic… “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Emmett actually smiles this time.
He shakes his head, making the rugged curly tussles of dark locks atop his head shake slightly and then fall back into place as if it were a choreographed move.
“Yeah, I’m sure you don’t,” he says with a chuckle. “Just as I’m sure you don’t know how impossible it is to a get a near-perfect score on those MCATs or whatever they are called.”
“What?”
“Like seriously, Angel, did you even do your research on this or were you just panicked and didn’t want to take a chance on being rejected again?”
My heart starts pounding, slow, hard, and almost knocking the breath out of my lungs.
“T-that’s not…”
“I mean, it would be understandable if you had changed the score to something a bit plausible from all your other previous scores. This… now this is a suspicious leap that no one will miss, don’t you think?”
It’s only then that I notice he’s holding an iPad, the page directly open onto my MCATs dashboard.
“How did you get into my account?” I demand. “Did you hack me?”
“And be caught for breaking all sorts of cyber laws? No way, Angel,” he denies easily. “Despite your knowledge of me, I do my best to avoid unnecessary troubles.”
That’s true. If nothing else, Emmett avoids anything that likens him to mere humans… torturous labor.
“Then how?” I demand.
Emmett looks at me this time, his inquisitive gaze set on my face so decisively that I don’t have a prayer of escaping.
I wasn’t expecting to see him on this flight but I sure as hell wasn’t expecting him to somehow know my secret…
“You want to know how?” he questions, as if it’s a dare and I should watch myself.
But by now, I’m feeling desperate, horrible, as if my entire life is now hanging on by a precarious, rotting thread that I can’t help but fall into the trap.
“Yes, how the hell did you get into my account if hacking is so beneath you?” I snap.
He isn’t moved at all by my emotions. Never has.
“Pandora.”
That one word almost makes me reel back.
I do my best to stay still and control my facial expressions.
I have a few regrets in my life and the biggest one, big enough to compete neck and neck with the day Gramps died, is the fact that I wore my heart on my sleeve and this jerk knew it.
He was aware I had feelings for him.
He was aware that I practically waited my whole life for him.
And he’s made it painfully clear that it’s never going to happen.
But now, in this moment, hearing him say that one word almost flings me back to a time where I was just a girl, pressing my ear against a boy’s chest to listen to the sound of his messed-up heart.
“After all these years, Angel?—”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” I quickly mutter, cutting him off.
He doesn’t say anything to that. He just watches me.
I stare right back, trying to think, trying to breathe, trying to move on from this asshole who broke my heart when it wasn’t even his to break.
“Have you been stalking me?” I demand.
“Why do you think I’ve been stalking you?”
“Because that’s something you would do.”
“What do I do?” he asks as if genuinely curious to know.
“You do this,” I say gesturing at the empty cabin. “Did you buy out all the seats in this lounge?”
“No,” he denies smoothly. “I bought out the entire plane.”
My jaw drops to the floor.
“You did what?”
“I charted the flight,” he shrugs, watching me with a frown as if he’s confused by my shock. As if us being the only two passengers on this flight is a common occurrence! WTF!
“Because you don’t know what to do with all that wealth?” I croak.
“No. I know exactly what to do with it…including securing your dreams, your entire deceptive life, but most importantly, my wealth can secure your attention, Angel.”
For some reason, that does something to me.
Not anger. Not annoyance… something.
Secure, not buy.
“Why?”
“You have to be a little bit more specific, Angel,” he says softly.
“Why are you going to New York?” I demand, suddenly feeling like I’m suffocating in slow motion.
“Same as you. To hunt.”
A chill goes down my spine. He’s not lying…and he knows what exactly I’ve been up to.
“Hunt?”
“Is it too far off from what you claim I do?” he questions with a half-smile at the corner of his lips that threatens to reveal something he never shows…the little dimple on his left cheek that I so often see in my dreams.
“Were you hunting me?” I demand.
“I don’t need to hunt you, Angel… unless you’re into that, then I’ll always adjust to accommodate you.”
My God.
Something is different.
The way he’s behaving, the way he’s looking at me, the veiled threats…the things he knows. What is going on?
“You just said you use your wealth to secure my deceptive life and my dreams…explain.”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
It takes me a beat to understand and when I do, I think I’m halfway to my grave.
“I…”
“Yes, Angel. Your hack job is not as flawless as you think. I’ve been warding interested parties off your scent for a while now.”
Jesus Christ.
Just when I thought I was clever and doing this in such a way that no one has yet caught me.
“H-how,” I stutter, then clear my throat as my entire body is covered with goosebumps. “How long?”
“Since you started your hunt.”
HE KNOWS EVERYTHING.
He knows I’ve been hunting.
And he knows who exactly I’ve been looking for.
“You’re wrong,” I croak, trying to deny it past the mess in my chest.
“Please, Angel. Your brother thinks you’re many things, but I know when you make a vow, you never break it.”
Fifteen years ago, I vowed to find my biological parents.
And he was the boy I made that vow to.
“You do know everything.”
This time, it’s a simple fact. No need to question…no need to guess. Emmett Easton knows all my secret schemes, the things I keep in the dark.
“But you’ve been silent about it all these years because…” I stare at him squarely. He calmly sits back in the large, comfortable seat and sips my champagne while watching me with a cunning look. “You are an asshole!”
“I am?” he smirks.
“You do everything for a reason, of course you’re an asshole!” I snap, as my heart triggers a chain reaction throughout my body dangerously close to a panic attack. “I know for a fact that you make it a point to know everything about everyone, feeling the pulse of every living thing in your cold, dead grasp just so you can use it to your advantage!”
“Is it?”
“You’ve obviously been watching me, keeping score, tallying up my misdeeds?—”
“You mean your crimes.”
“—and making sure to have them ready to use to blackmail me, threaten me, and make sure you trap me!”
I’m at the point of hysteria.
How long has this man been watching me?
How long has he known what I’ve been after when I’ve made it a point to keep a secret from everyone in my life, including my best friends?
This means even when I thought he was ignoring me, he was fully aware of my activities.
I feel exposed, laid bare…completely at the mercy of an unpredictable jerk that knows more about me than I want him to.
“Shouldn’t you be thanking me?”
“My God, Emmett, thank you for what?”
“The only reason why your life hasn’t been blown all the way to hell yet is only because I’ve kept it that way.”
I scoff. “Because you’re so moved by passion and care for me, huh?”
“Trust me, Angel, you don’t want to know what moves me concerning you.”
I fall silent, not knowing what that means, but I’ve since learned that with Emmett Easton, lowering your expectations to nonexistent is the healthiest thing you could ever do for yourself.
Another thing that I know about Emmett Easton…he doesn’t do anything for nothing.
To others he’s a quiet ‘kumbaya’ guy who never involves himself in petty things like Noah or makes trouble for the hell of it. No, Emmett is calculated. He’s a mastermind that sees spoils of war where others only see damage and no way out.
“Quit walking me in circles… you want to use me, don’t you?”
He doesn’t refute it.
“Why?” I ask, watching him directly.
This time, he doesn’t hold on to pretentious airs. He drops the smirks, half smiles and the pretense.
“I can go to the ends of the earth and even under it, but I swear, no one knows me the way you do,” he says smoothly, deceptively, with something akin to danger flashing in his cold, sharp eyes.
It’s not particularly a good thing to know someone like Emmett well. Nor is it safe. I already know.
“That’s what happens when you almost drown to death in the middle of a blizzard storm with a boy that didn’t give a damn whether I live or die,” I say seriously, “it’s crazy how you’ll come to know someone.”
The events of the past flash in my head like a black-and-white movie playing a parody of ghosts howling like the bleak wind, and I know the same memories just flashed in his eyes.
“You remember then?” he whispers.
“I’ll never forget.”
“Neither will I.”
The silence that stretches between us almost brings me down to my knees, so I immediately break it.
“Then what do you want?” I demand, tears pricking my eyes. “This is obviously you finally here to collect while holding the latest of my transgressions to use against me if I deny you.”
To this, he actually smiles and says, “The latest? Are you suggesting there’s more?”
“As the puppet master of all my affairs, you should know.”
To this, he actually laughs. A rich, deep laugh that snakes its way down my spine, to every nerve ending in my body, and then to other parts that laugh should never affect.
I want to bask in that sound.
I want to remember that sound…because in all the years I’ve known him, including the time no one knows about, he has never laughed like this.
“Angel, you’re making me sound like the devil,” he says, his green eyes alight with something dangerously close to delight.
Or maybe I’m dreaming, unable to see the mirth that’s there instead.
“Are you any different?” I whisper.
“May I remind you that it was your proposal, your idea, and then you disappeared, running away like a little coward?”
The bite in his tone actually awakens an ache in my heart.
“I was barely thirteen,” I whisper.
“Yes. So young, na?ve, and silly, and yet you still managed to single-handedly destroyed my life.”
Silence.
He just hit the nail on the head.
The thing is, there’s history between Emmett and me.
The kind of history that is unknown to everyone else but to the two of us.
Hidden and tucked away in the recesses of our watery past, only ever brought up in the confines of pressure and debt collecting between us.
I thought he had forgotten, because after almost fourteen years, he hasn’t once mentioned it…and yet, I kind of knew he would never break the vow he made that day.
“What do you want?” I finally ask, knowing I’ve been backed into a dangerous corner where I’m no doubt the prey and he’s the mythical predator that will consume me whole.
“Your assistance,” he says simply.
“That’s too vague.”
“That’s all you need to know for now.”
“Then no.”
He watches me carefully.
Without saying anything else, he takes out his phone and starts to punch in a number.
“Who are you calling?”
“The FBI.”
“WHAT?”
“I’m sure your brother will enjoy going after a tip that will definitely lead to arresting his own little sister. The same little sister that he has worked tirelessly all these years to protect, even after that blunder you made that almost ruined your entire family, twice.”
“No…”
“And I’m sure with all the government institutions you have hacked, including attempting to hack the very same bureau unit your brother works in, he will be suspected for helping you, then ultimately fired and charged as an accessory to your crimes.”
“No!”
“Not to mention how high up Spider is in the FBI. Remember, he’s also connected to other special intelligence organizations that I’m sure you don’t even know of, so to keep him quiet guess what they will do?” he says softly and then shakes his head. “I just feel sorry for Marie. At her age, the stress and shock of your crimes and the consequences your brother faces will surely kill her if not destroy her.”
“You wouldn’t…” I gasp, my heart now racing a million miles a second.
“Angel, you know me better than that.”
To that, he actually dials the number and hits the speaker button.
“Federal—”
I immediately snatch the phone and hang up, panting hard, fast, and painfully.
I look up and stare at Emmett, only realizing that everything has become blurry again.
“Fine! I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t tell anyone about me!” I cry, my body trembling.
Emmett is silent for a while.
Then, he moves.
“You know, after all these years, Angel, I would’ve thought you would have grown out of your pathetic habit of crying when you get caught,” Emmett’s wickedly soft voice speaks right against my ear.
I feel him wipe away the trails on my face, then he cups my cheek with his right hand.
I can feel the rough callouses against my skin. As well as the tightly restrained power in his palm…enough to break stone without flinching.
“Tears are nothing. You already know what works with me, Angel.”
A powerful shudder racks through my body, so strong that I know he feels it.
I hate that I know what he means.
“Emmett…”
“Just like you did then…you will again this time.”
I can tell that he means it.
I stare at his crafted drop-dead handsome face that features in both my fantasies and nightmares.
The face that has starred in all the vital and heartbreaking moments of my life.
The eyes that shock my system back to life.
The chiseled jaw that makes me want to write my name on it to claim it.
And those lips… the lips other girls have kissed but me.
“You bled too,” I point out, refusing to be the only one pathetic here.
“Yes. I’ll never allow you to bleed alone.”
I gasp, then blink, staring at the man who is far from the boy I met but yet, he’s just as cold if not more so.
“What the hell are you planning to make me do, Emmett?”
“Well, nothing that would surprise you,” he says as his thumb strokes from my cheek to my jaw. “You are going to tip the scales for me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll see.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” I cry.
After Emmett made it clear that there will never be anything between us and that he’ll never love me, I was sure he’d ignore me once again. But this…him going out of his way to threaten me, blackmail me… there’s a reason behind it. One he won’t reveal immediately.
“Because imagine my surprise when I discovered that you just so happen to be the perfect candidate.”
“For what?”
“For screwing the idiots who think they’ve outsmarted me.”
An unexpected chill goes down my spine.
Emmett is calm.
Not the type of calm that is forced or rehearsed but the type of calm that is commanded.
In every space he takes—sans the ones occupied by our friends—people seem to bow down to that calm. He never allows the reverse to happen. But now, hearing the lethal tone he just used… seems things aren’t going his way.
“Well, would you look at that,” I start, smiling bitterly.
“What?” he demands, not happy at all.
“You’re losing.”
He stares at me, the greens of his eyes suddenly darkening until they are almost black.
“I assure you, Angel, I lost long before I ever saw you about to kill yourself.”
Before I can reply, the flight attendant is back with a trolley carrying a bucket of chilling champagne, a new crystal champagne flute, and more strawberries.
She pours the champagne, then tops up my glass that Emmett was drinking from and passes it back to him.
“Should you be drinking that?” I ask, vaguely hearing my own voice as if it’s far away or like I’m underwater.
“You don’t drink either, but here we are.”
He passes me the new flute and keeps mine with my lip gloss on the rim.
Like a robot, I accept the flute. After the flight attendant disappears, Emmett turns to me and smiles…only with his lips. His eyes remain cold, sharp, and dangerous.
“Here’s to the beginning.”
“The beginning?”
“Yes. The beginning of the end, Angel.”
“The end?”
“You and I both knew it’s been coming, didn’t we?” he says with a sly look on his ridiculously handsome face. “What has to come will never be late and every debt must always be settled.”
This time, the pain that strikes through me is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.
Before I realize it, Emmett has unbuckled me and moved me out of my seat and into his lap.
Holy God! What the hell is happening?
He presses my head against the left side of his chest and then he murmurs against the crown of my head.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you your 3 minutes.”
Oh God…
Feeling overwhelmed but wanting those three minutes, I freeze.
But Emmett doesn’t care about my complicated feelings.
“I told you before, it’s still beating, Angel. And as long as it keeps doing that, you owe me your life.”