Chapter 14
Sebastian didn’t say anything as she closed up the shop. Nothing as they walked across the street and into Montgomery Equities. The only thing he did say was in hushed tones to Natalie before he placed his hand on the small of Emma’s back and guided her towards the conference room.
Now she sat at the far end of the table, wringing her fingers together in her lap, waiting for the rest of the guys to show up.
“Here,” Sebastian placed a glass of water down in front of her.
“Thanks,” she whispered as he pulled out the chair next to her and sat down.
Stone and Hawk walked into the room, faced pulled tightly into sullen scowls as they both looked Emma up and down.
“Hey, Em.” Stone walked up to her, gently squeezing her shoulder while Hawk sat across from her at the table.
“Sorry I freaked out, Stone. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No way, gorgeous. Other than maybe giving me a mini heart attack with how white you turned. You feeling okay?”
“Not really.” She fiddled with the bandage Seb had wrapped around her hand, sinking into the rhythmic ache that seemed to be emanating from the cut.
“Can I give you a hug?”
Emotions burned in her throat. “Yeah, that’d be nice.”
And it was. One tear got away from her, then two, and before she knew it one set of arms released her and another wrapped her tightly against a solid chest. Sebastian. She needed to get herself together, but she had never felt so safe to just exist in the moment.
“God, I hate crying,” she tried to laugh as she swiped at the tears pouring down her face. “I’m not weak. I don’t need coddling or soft, sad looks thrown my way. I’m not going to break just because my mind and body betrayed me earlier and shut down. It won’t happen again.” As she looked around the room, she realized that Gage, Nash, and Gunner were also sitting around the table. Five sets of compassionate eyes were watching her with an intensity that made her skin burn.
“Are you ready to tell us what this is all about?” Gunner asked, in his usual cold, indifferent tone.
She took a big breath in, but before she could say anything, Seb reached out and took her uninjured hand in his. “Only when you’re ready, Sprinkles.”
Emma nodded. “I left some things out about my past. I’m so sorry. I honestly thought it was Lawrence. I thought he found me. I thought he was the one who tried to hit me with the car. That he was the one I could feel watching me,” she shuttered.
“But now you don’t think it is? Why?” Gage asked.
“I know it’s not. I saw…” her voice felt thick in her throat, her body physically unable to say the words out loud.
“What did you see?” Nash leaned forward as he asked.
“I saw my husband.”
“Your what?!” the guys all took turns reacting to her admission. All, except Seb, who she noticed just sat quietly staring at Gage, while he ran his thumb over the back of her hand.
“Who is he, Emma? And why are you running from him?”
“I wasn’t completely honest about everything that happened after my mother died and I found out about the loans my step-father had taken out to help with her treatments.”
“Okay. So tell us now.” Gunner’s scowl made her shrink back in her chair.
“Reap, I love you like a brother, but if you talk to her again like that, you and I are going to exchange some not so nice words.” Sebastian was still holding on to her hand, but he leaned into the table and glared at Gunner.
“She held information back from us, Cap! How are we supposed to protect her when we don’t know every detail of who we are facing? And why didn’t this show up in her background check, Tracker?” Gunner’s scowl turned to Gage.
“What background check?” Emma asked, searching his eyes for an answer.
“Why don’t we give Em a chance to explain things before we go off the deep end? You think that’d be okay?” Gage’s anger met Gunner’s challenge.
“Fine. Explain.” Gunner mumbled.
“You already know about my step-father. I didn’t leave any details out about that. The last time I ever saw him, he really did get drunk, and I really did hide in the bathroom that night for hours. But I didn’t leave on my own the next morning.”
She closed her eyes to steady her breath. She could do this. She could relive it one more time. She felt Sebastian’s hand slide onto her back in support, and she couldn’t help but smile softly at him.
“That morning, I heard Lawrence talking with someone in the kitchen. Another man, but I didn’t recognize his voice. I ran from the bathroom back into my bedroom and tried to grab my things for school. As I was rushing out of the house, Lawrence grabbed me and threw me against the wall. I landed wrong and hurt my leg, but that didn’t stop him from dragging me towards the man standing in our living room. I didn’t know at the time, but my step-father had gone to the Santoro family for a loan to pay for my mother’s treatments. When she died, and he decided to stop working and drank himself into a stupor, he couldn’t pay back the loan.”
“Shit.” Hawk said under his breath.
“The man standing in my living room that day was Marco Santoro. I was given to him in exchange for the debt my step-father owed.”
“Jesus, Emma. You didn’t think we’d need to know that one of the biggest crime families in the US was after you?”
“I-I didn’t think they were. I got away. I got a new identity. There’s never been any sign that they were coming for me. That he was coming for me.”
“Until now. And it might be too late,” Gunner scowled.
“That’s not helpful, Reap. She’s telling us now. We can figure it out from here.” Sebastian turned to Emma. “It’s time to tell us who you were before you were Emma Sullivan.”
“I-Imogene Summers. My name was Imogene Summers.” Emma sighed, looking at Sebastian to see how angry he was with her for lying. But all she saw returned in his gaze was unwavering support and understanding. “That naive little girl died the day she was dragged from her house in Michigan. She never graduated high school. She never became anything. Emma Sullivan did.”
“What happened when Marco took you? How did you end up in Bell Ridge as Emma?” Nash asked.
“The same day he took me, I was locked in a room inside the Santoro family compound just outside of Chicago. It was over two years before I was able to get away from him, and when I did, I prayed he just would never come after me. The first year I moved every few weeks, working odd jobs and putting away as much cash as possible for the next time I moved. But when I got to Bell Ridge, it felt like the first place where I could stay and be safe. I shouldn’t have been so naive.”
“No, Emma. You have every right to want to stay and settle down somewhere,” Gage said.
“We need to know more about your time with Marco. What is his roll in the Santoro family? Do you know?” Gunner asked.
“Gunner,” Nash warned.
“We need to know, Wings,” Gunner pushed back.
“Yes,” she felt her stomach clench. “Not at first. I was literally locked in my room for the first few months. After we were married, I’d only see Marco every few days, which I soon realized was because he was off taking care of things for the family in between those times.”
“Taking care how?”
“I t-think he was the person the family called if there was a witness that needed to be dealt with. Or if they needed to get information out of a person, they’d let Marco handle it.”
“And how do you know that?” Gunner pressed.
“I saw something the night I finally ran.”
“We need to loop her in,” Hawk insisted, preventing her from saying more.
“Loop me in with what?” Emma felt sick, the looks on all the guy’s faces told her they already knew something about Marco. He had to be the one hurting women in Clarence County, and she should have said something sooner. They were gone because of her.
She watched as everyone’s eyes fell to Sebastian. He looked so conflicted, but finally nodded in agreement.
“The project we’ve been working on with the FBI,” Gage started to say. “We’ve been looking into the Santoro crime family. There was a connection between Grace Boone’s ex and the Santoros. When our contacts learned about it, they looped us in on the operation. The Santoro family has been running illegal weapons and drugs for a long time, but recently there have been rumors of them trafficking women. And children.”
“Oh, God.” Emma’s stomach rolled. She closed her eyes as the sound of Marco’s knife slicing through skin overwhelmed her memory. Then the worry flooded in. Had he done something to their daughter? He told her she was with another mother, but she never thought he’d sell her. What kind of life was she living now? She just assumed it was with someone in the family. How had she never thought of that before?
“Are you okay?” Sebastian’s eyes were filled with worry.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Emma moaned as she folded in on her body. Her lungs ached for her to take in a breath, but she couldn’t. If her daughter had been sold…
“Breathe, Em. What’s going on?” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gage bringing the trash can closer to her. Probably the right move with the way her stomach was churning.
“I didn’t know. The trafficking. Kids.”
“Just be glad you got away before he trafficked you,” Gunner mumbled.
“I wish he had,” she whispered before her brain could stop the words from coming out. She would have given herself over to the monster a million times if it saved her daughter.
“Don’t ever say that, Emma. Don’t even think it.” Warmth was radiating off Sebastian as he rubbed circles on her back. “He’ll never touch you again. He won’t touch what’s mine.”
A soft kiss dusted her forehead and she finally pulled in a full breath. HIS. The possessiveness and finality of the statement didn’t suffocate her. It made her feel safe. Wanted. Cherished and protected.
A single tear burned her skin as it fell down her face. “I knew he was a bad man, but I didn’t know exactly what he did for them until right before I got away. The night I ran, I saw him with a man, bound and gagged in a room I wasn’t supposed to go into in the house. He w-was cutting…” she swallowed back her fear as the sounds of the man’s screams and the blade cutting through his skin overwhelmed her. “He was cutting the man over and over and over again. I had heard other members of the family mentioning the surgeon around me, but I never realized it was him until that night.”
“We need to talk to Sheriff Porter,” Gunner said. “And Agent Wilson. I don’t remember his name being on the list of family members they’ve been watching.”
Seb nodded in agreement. “Em, you saw him inflicting wounds on a person that match what happened to the missing women here? The women who have all looked like you?”
“Yes. This is all my fault, isn’t it?” Her arms wrapped tightly around her body. “I wanted to believe it couldn’t be him, that he was all the way in Chicago and I was safe here in Bell Ridge. My mind doesn’t know what to do with seeing him earlier.”
“And you’re sure it was him?” When she nodded in confirmation, Stone apparently couldn’t hold back the exact sentiment she was thinking too. “Fuck.”
Gunner started typing on his phone. “This is the first time we know for sure he’s been in town. He’s getting bolder, more reckless. He wants to be seen.”
“I agree. He’s escalating things. I think you should take Emma away, Seb. To the safe house up in Rockwell. It might be a good idea to get her out of the state,” Nash suggested.
“Rockwell?” she asked.
“It’s in Colorado,” Sebastian smiled at her. “And I agree. I think that’s a good idea.”
“But what about the bakery?”
“It needs to stay open, Sprinkles. I think we need to make it seem like it’s business as usual to see if we can lure him out again.”
“I can’t just leave. Who will run the shop? I have Melissa but she’s in school all day. I don’t want someone being in danger because of me.”
“Maybe next time don’t keep secrets from us,” Gunner growled.
Sebastian stood, and the tension in the room between the two men became unbearable.
“Seb, sit down. Gunner is only telling the truth.”
“This isn’t your fault, Emma. I don’t like the insinuation that it is. We aren’t here to judge your story or condemn you for anything you’ve done. All I care about is keeping you safe.”
Hawk pulled his phone from his pocket and began typing.
“My sister, Mae, worked at a coffee shop in New York City for a while. I was just catching up with her yesterday, and she was thinking about booking a trip out here to come see what we’ve been up to. Maybe she can come out earlier and take over for you?” Hawk offered.
“We need to leave today. So while that might work in a couple of days, it doesn’t cover the time between now and then,” Sebastian said.
“I’m not putting Hawk’s sister in danger. There’s no way. I need to stay, and we’ll just have to deal with things as they come. I-I can be strong, now that I know he’s here.”
“Em. No. We need to get you away from here.”
“That’s all I do, Sebastian. All I’ve done is run. I ran for two years. Until I came to Bell Ridge. The past few years have been the happiest of my life. I finally feel like I found home, and I don’t want to let him take that from me.”
“We aren’t going to let that happen, Em. But you have to know that if he’s here, you are in more danger than ever. He showed you his face. He wants you to know that he’s here and that he can get to you if he wants. That screams to me that he’s coming unhinged. I won’t have you around when he does. Please say you’ll go with me to Colorado.”
She didn’t reply right away, but she could feel every man in that room holding his breath, waiting for her response.
“Fine. If we have to leave today, I’ll agree to close the shop for a few days. I can just tell people I have the flu. No one wants baked goods from a sick baker. By the time it reopens, if your sister agrees to the task, Hawk, I can walk her through the major operating points and she should be good to go. We can just offer coffee and some simple pastries for a while and people will understand if she let’s them know I’m still under the weather.”
“That just might work.”
“I’ll need to go up to my apartment and pack.” Emma stood, her head slightly swimming from the exhaustion of the afternoon.
“You’re not going anywhere. I’m going to speak with Natalie and have her get the jet lined up. She’ll take care of making sure you have everything you need at the house.”
“Seb, you can’t do that. I can bring my own things.”
“It’s not a problem, and we don’t want anyone to see you carrying luggage out of your apartment when you’re supposed to be sick. It will raise too much suspicion.”
She fell back into the seat. “I guess you’re right.”
“Nash is going to fly the plane out, and we’ll bring Gage, too. Gunner, Stone, and Hawk will stay behind and work on a way to draw him out while we’re gone. If all goes well, we can have him before the end of the week.”
“That would be nice.” Emma’s eyelids drooped as exhaustion from her episode took hold. The guys all stood, apparently understanding their assignments from what little Sebastian had said. They left the room until it was just her and Seb. He still held her hand, tracing the veins in her skin.
“Why don’t you come upstairs? You can rest before we have to head to the airport.”
“I’m okay here. I need to talk to Hank, and I’ll have to text Daisy that I’m not feeling well. She and I had plans to talk about her baby shower tomorrow, and she’ll sniff out my lies if I see her face to face.”
“The guys and I need to speak with Hank, too. Maybe we can have him come here before we leave. I’ll ask him to keep things quiet for now.”
“I’m sure he’ll agree. He’s been driving Daisy crazy with how protective he’s been acting. Although, I can’t blame him. For the first time, I’m thankful my best friend is a blonde bombshell and I look nothing like her.”