7. Emma
Emma
Inearly got on a bus to Austin.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
I lie on my back and glare at the ceiling while the last of the sedative drags at the edges of my thoughts. My shoulder throbs beneath the ice pack. Every breath pulls at the bruises along my ribs.
None of it hurts as much as Liam’s voice yesterday.
I just didn’t think you’d ever be too busy for me.
He is the only family I have left.
My parents are gone. Mark turned out to be a monster wearing my uncle’s face. I lost Maggie. I lost Danny. All of us lost Thomas.
And no matter how hard my heart tries to convince me otherwise, I lost Alex the day I left Riverside Falls. Whoever this man is who found me, he is not my Alex.
Liam is all I have, and I let him believe I no longer care enough to show up for him.
That thought tore through whatever common sense I had left. When I told Alex I was going to the store, I had no intention of buying groceries. I planned to find the bus station, get on the first bus to Austin and get to Liam.
Common sense caught up with me a few blocks from the penthouse.
The world does not stop being dangerous because I am upset.
If they take me, Liam is next.
So I did not go to the station. My feet carried me to the bodega instead, following a route they already knew while my mind kept circling the same questions.
How do I see him?
How do I protect him without destroying everything he worked for?
Dante promised he had people watching Liam. If that was true, how had a black sedan managed to linger near the campus? How had a stranger walked around asking questions about Liam and Emma Clarke?
What kind of protection allowed someone to get that close?
At the bodega, Yvonne made a joke while she rang up the groceries. I answered without hearing myself, and whatever I said made her laugh. I smiled because she did.
I tried the card again because the bank representative told me to. When it failed, I called from the store and followed every instruction.
Then I became so busy arguing with her that I stopped watching the street.
Stupid.
Careless.
The man could have taken me.
He would have, if Alex had not been there.
Alex.
I close my eyes.
My memory gives me rain, blood on his mouth and his arms closing around me before I hit the pavement.
Baby, look at me.
His voice had broken on the word.
For a few seconds, I saw him again. My Alex. The man who once held me as though I was his entire world.
Then Frank and Steven arrived, and we remembered the last ten years.
The glimpse of the man Alex used to be has left me with emotional whiplash. I want to trust it. I want to believe the arms around me were real. But his anger always comes back. How do I hand him the truth when the truth is the one weapon sharp enough to destroy Liam?
I do not know where to run anymore.
I am so tired of running.
I should call Pam. She is my official contact with the Marshals Service. Every location change, employment record and identity document is supposed to go through her.
But I have always called Mel first.
It annoyed Pam for years. She would remind me that Mel was FBI, not Marshals, and that she was the one assigned to keep me alive.
I kept calling Mel anyway.
Pam has mostly stopped taking it personally.
I close the bedroom door, lock it and dial.
Mel answers immediately.
“Emma.”
“Hey.”
Her voice changes. “What happened?”
I press the phone against my ear and stare at the ice melting inside the plastic pack.
“Someone tried to take me yesterday.”
Silence.
Then Mel becomes all business.
“Where?”
“An alley near the bodega.”
“How many?”
“One that I saw.”
“Weapon?”
“I didn’t see one.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Bruised ribs. My shoulder is strained. The doctor said nothing is broken.”
“What doctor?”
“A private doctor came to the penthouse.”
Another pause.
“How did you get away?”
“Alex intervened.”
The answer sits between us.
“Hartley was there?”
“He followed me.”
Mel says nothing for long enough that I know she has heard more than I intended.
“He stopped the man,” I add.
“Where is the attacker now?”
“He got away.”
“Police?”
“Alex’s security searched the area.”
“That was not my question.”
“No police.”
Mel exhales through her nose. “Are you secure now?”
“I’m in my room. The building has good security.”
“Is Hartley in the apartment?”
“Yes.”
“And you feel safe enough to remain there?”
My fingers tighten around the phone.
Do I?
He has taken control of my life, my work and nearly every decision I make. He has threatened people I love to keep me under his roof.
Yesterday, I clung to him like he was the only safe place left in the world.
“Yes,” I say.
Mel hears the hesitation.
“Emma.”
“I’m safe here.”
“You were attacked less than a mile from his building.”
“And I’m alive because he was there.”
The words come out sharper than I mean them to.
Mel goes quiet again.
When she speaks, the anger has drained away. That is worse.
“I spoke to Pam last night.”
My stomach tightens. “Why?”
“Because the relocation package is ready.”
I sit up too fast. Pain grips my side, and I have to wait for it to ease before I can breathe properly.
“You told her?”
“I told her there had been enough activity around your current location to justify preparing an emergency move. She still believes the position in Dallas was authorized.”
“She doesn’t know about the blackmail.”
“No.”
Mel broke protocol for me. She recorded Alex’s job offer and my move as approved changes instead of reporting that I had stepped outside protection.
Pam thinks I chose this.
Only Mel knows how little choice was involved.
“If Pam learns what you did?—”
“I’m aware of the consequences.”
“Mel—”
“This is not about me.” Her voice hardens. “Pam can have you and Liam moved as soon as you agree. New documents, a clean location and full protection during the transition.”
A photograph of Liam and Diego, the one that was posted on Diego’s socials, flashes before my eyes. Liam’s hair is blonde, just like it was when we lived in Riverside Falls, smiling carefree into the Texas sun with no idea how many men may be searching for him.
“You want me to take everything from him.”
“I want you to keep him alive.”
“He would lose his school.”
“Yes.”
“His team.”
“Yes.”
“His name again.”
Mel’s silence answers for her.
I walk to the window but stay behind the curtain.
Liam would disappear from the roster. His photograph would vanish from the university website. No games. No broadcasts. No scouts writing down the speed of his pitches.
Another packet of documents. Another life rewritten in a government office.
Another name he would have to answer to without knowing why.
“He can’t remain visible,” Mel says. “Not when people are asking questions. Not when they know enough to connect Emma Clarke to him.”
“He does not even know what he is running from.”
“That has to change.”
“I know.”
The admission leaves me tired.
“He is an adult now,” she says. “Keeping him ignorant may have worked when he was a child and you were there to watch every door. You are not with him anymore. He needs enough of the truth to recognize danger and protect himself.”
“I was going to tell him in person.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“You almost lost the chance yesterday.”
I close my eyes.
“I know.”
“Then let Pam move both of you before there is another attempt.”
“No.”
“Emma.”
“I can’t do that to him.”
“You are choosing baseball over his life.”
“No. I am trying to save the life I spent ten years building for him.”
“That life is already compromised.”
“Then I’ll find another way.”
“What way?”
I do not answer.
Dante’s offer comes back to me.
A stranger with money, men and motives I do not understand. Protection without paperwork. No stated price, which only means the price has not been named yet.
And the protection may already have failed.
If Dante truly had people around Liam, how did the sedan get so close? How did a stranger ask questions on campus without being stopped?
I cannot build Liam’s safety on the word of a man I barely know.
That leaves Alex.
The man who bought my friends’ debts, threatened them and trapped me in his home. The same man who followed me through the rain and put his body between mine and an attacker. And called me baby as if ten years had disappeared.
I am ashamed of how badly I want that man to be real.
Not the billionaire with the cold eyes. Not the man who calculates exactly where to press until I give him what he wants.
The one who held me.
The one who sounded terrified that he might lose me.
“I have to go,” I say.
“Emma, don’t make a decision while you’re frightened.”
“I’ve made every important decision of my life while frightened.”
“That doesn’t mean you should keep doing it.”
“I’ll call you.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
”Make the right choice.”
I end the call before she starts to convince me again.
For a moment, I remain beside the bed with the phone in my hand.
WITSEC would protect Liam by taking away the future I protected him for.
Dante might protect him, but trusting Dante means placing my brother in the hands of a man whose connection to us I do not understand.
Alex is dangerous. But I know him. His security reached the alley within minutes. His men can watch Liam without pulling him out of school or stripping away the gifts of his hard work.
Alex can keep him alive without destroying his life.
The cost will be me.
It has always been me.
I unlock the bedroom door.
Alex is standing at the windows with his back to me, one hand braced against the glass. His shirt is open at the throat, and the sleeves are pushed unevenly over his forearms. White tape crosses two of his knuckles. A bruise shadows his jaw, darker today than it was last night.
The bruises should make him look less dangerous. Somehow, they only sharpen the effect.
His reflection catches me in the glass. His head lifts, but he waits a moment before turning. His gaze finds the ice pack pressed against my ribs, moves to my shoulder, then settles on my face.
“What are you doing out of bed?”
“I need to ask you something.”
“You can ask from bed.”
“It can’t wait.”