Chapter Thirty-Nine
Emerson
Fury doesn’t even begin to cover how I’m feeling. Jamie might be glad to see us, but there is still a hint of fear in his gaze, and he’s clinging to the door for dear life.
“Uh, Patch,” he says after a second. The door is rattling in the frame. “Do you mind?”
“Yeah, I…” Patch shuffles past me and grabs the door handle. It rattles again. Someone shouts.
Whoever is on the other side of the door, they aren’t Gideon. He’s not nearly strong enough for that.
I approach Jamie slowly. When I gently touch his face, he winces, hissing through his teeth.
A slap, though… That’s certainly Gideon’s style.
“He only got me once,” Jamie says. “Gotta say, it’s not how I imagined meeting your family.”
Patch frowns. “Family?”
“Well, the rest of them are dead, so…” I murmur. I want to cry. I also, maybe just a tiny bit, want to commit fratricide. I think that’s fair, given the circumstances.
“He hit you?” Patch says. Well, he growls the words, and when I look at him, my breath catches in my chest. His eyes aren’t dark the way they usually are. They’re silver.
“Breathe,” Jamie says firmly. “We need to think about this for a second, okay?”
“Nick went to get Kieran. We don’t have all that long.”
“I’ll kill him,” Patch growls.
Jamie sighs. He takes a step forward and I bring my arms up around him, holding him close. Just for a moment.
“No, I’ll handle this,” I say. I turn my head and drop a kiss on Jamie’s neck. I can’t help it. Jamie sighs again, but he sounds more content this time.
“I think he might have been stirring up trouble for a while, you know?” he says. He leans back and looks between the two of us. “All he’s done is ask me about you. For hours.”
“Yes, I thought he might.” Though I can’t for the life of me work out why.
Gideon is my older brother. My only brother.
My only surviving immediate family, and I haven’t seen him since the day I graduated from university.
I left and didn’t look back, and it’s not as though he’s looking for a reunion because when our father died a few years ago, I found out through his obituary just like everybody else.
“Right,” I say. I let go of Jamie and run a hand over my face. “Right. Patch, open the door.”
Patch growls. “No.”
“Patch.” Jamie and I speak at the same time, but he sounds vaguely more amused.
“Who’s in there?”
“Gideon,” Jamie says, “and some guy who works for him, I guess. Big guy. Strong.”
“Did he put his hands on you?”
Jamie crosses his arms over his chest. “No. He just… exuded menace, I guess.” He pulls a face. “I really got the impression this was their first time trying something like this, you know?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I say. “This should never have happened. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t you dare take this on yourself too,” Jamie snaps. “I applied for the job before you even got here. Sheer fucking coincidence that it was him, that we met, all of it.”
Patch narrows his eyes as though he isn’t sure about that, but when I approach the door, he sighs and stands aside.
The man who storms out comes to a sudden stop when he sees Patch standing there. He clearly doesn’t know me, either; his eyes slide over me just like they do Jamie.
“Inside,” Patch snarls, and he doesn’t touch him. He doesn’t have to. His sheer physical presence has the man backing down and as Jamie and I follow him into the rooms, I take a deep breath.
I will not allow Gideon to get to me. He will not get under my skin. He will not harm Jamie and Patch just because he has some strange desire to meddle in my life.
He’s sitting at his desk when we walk into the office. I fight to keep my expression even. Any twitch of muscle will give away how angry I really am, and he might be able to guess at that, but I don’t want him to know.
“Emerson!” he says, voice deceptively light. “What a pleasure to see you! It’s been…”
“A while.”
“A while.” Gideon waves at the chair opposite his desk. “Please, sit.”
“No.”
“Suit yourself.”
Patch growls. Gideon’s gaze swings to him, amusement flaring in it. “Well, you do have some interesting friends.”
I sigh. Fuck this. Fuck him. I drop into the chair and cross one leg over the other. “Right. Enough games. Enough schemes. Frankly, you’re terrible at them. Just tell me what you want so I never have to fucking see you again.”
The mask Gideon always wears remains intact, at least for a few seconds more, as he studies my face. I’m not wearing mine at all. It’s been years since I’ve had to. I think I’ve forgotten how.
His expression shifts. There’s no kindness anymore, not even a pretence of it. “I want your money.”
“You… what?”
“The money Mother left you,” Gideon says, in the tones of someone who doesn’t care at all. He does, though. He’s desperate for it.
“Oh,” Jamie says quietly. Gideon’s gaze shoots to him, and he narrows his eyes. I look up at Jamie, raising my eyebrows in question. “I read that the company was going through some difficulties, but I just thought… It’s worse than I thought, isn’t it?”
Gideon huffs. “At least you made some clever friends, I suppose.” He flicks his eyes over Jamie, then Patch. “Common, but clever.”
“There’s no money,” I say. “Certainly not enough to, what, save the company from your mismanagement.”
“Yes, there is!” Gideon roars. He leaps to his feet, bringing his fists down on the desk. Patch growls, but he still has the big man by the arm. Jamie steps in front of me. I take hold of his wrist and gently tug him back.
I don’t fear Gideon. I never really have—I’ve hated him plenty, and there was a time when he was bigger than me, sure, but he’s never been one for excessive physical violence. He uses his personality to get what he wants.
He used our father to get what he wanted. There was a man with a temper. But he’s dead now. No coming back.
“No, there isn’t,” I say, bored. “Call your solicitors. They can check. I’ve got a couple of hundred in a savings account. If it means I’ll never see you again, you can go ahead and take it. But I don’t have enough to bail you out of yet another fuckup.”
Gideon gapes at me. I shrug and get to my feet. I’m so done.
No, wait.
“You sent someone to Cate’s workplace, didn’t you?”
Gideon’s gaze darts away, then back.
“Jesus! What was even the plan? You know you’re not listed as my next of kin, right?” I shake my head. “You didn’t get any money when Mum died. What made you think I did?”
“Because she loved you more!” Gideon’s chest heaves, face red, and I blink at him in stunned surprise. After a second, he seems to realise what he’s said. He leans back in his chair, fingers of one hand pressed against his mouth.
Jamie reaches out and touches my shoulder. When I glance to my left, Patch is watching both of us, but his body language tells me he wants us all out of here.
I shake my head. “Looks like we got one each then, didn’t we?
” I want to feel sorry for him, but any sympathy I might have had for my older brother, growing up in that same cold, angry house as I did, is long gone.
Has been long gone, but I buried it for good the moment I saw that mark on Jamie’s face.
“We’re going,” I say. “Don’t bother me again. Don’t bother any of us. And if you ever—ever—think about laying a hand on someone I care about again, it will be the last thing you do. Do you understand?”
Wordlessly, Gideon nods. I don’t think the threat got through. I think he’s coming to some realisations about himself, but I don’t much care.
I want to go home. Home. And it’s not Cate’s sofa, or some dinky flat I rent month to month. I want to stay in that house with Jamie and Nick, and have Patch…
Patch growls and shoves the burly man away from him. He mostly looks angry and confused, so he won’t be much trouble.
Voices sound out in the room beyond. The office door swings open, and Sam enters the office first, Kieran a step behind him. His gaze lingers on Jamie’s cheek and his eyes darken.
“We heard you ran into some trouble,” Sam says. He’s looking at Jamie too, but then he turns his attention to me. “Introductions, if you don’t mind?”
“Ah, yes. This is Gideon Hartford. My brother.” I point at the other man. “I don’t know who the fuck that is.”
“Great,” Sam says. He grins like a shark might and steps around me to take the seat I was just occupying. “Mr Hartford. We have so much to talk about.”