Chapter 39 #2
Emily could picture it so clearly. That angry old man, his mouth twisted into a permanent expression of distaste, setting a deadly weapon on one of his so-called dung-heap scripts, for his son to find and use. A man like that, with a heart so cold and shriveled...
But she’d spent her whole life hating them both, so whatever pang of sympathy she felt for a boy whose father so clearly wanted him dead... It was just that. A pang. At least it should’ve been. God damn it, she didn’t want to feel anything for him.
All she really wanted right now was for him to be gone. He’d already vanished, her Mick. This man who was sitting across from her was just an empty shell, and having to look at him was a constant reminder of all that she’d lost.
But he turned back to her now, after getting the news from Rod that Cassidy and Starrett were about an hour away.
What was going to change when they arrived, she honestly didn’t know.
Were they going to roam the streets of Palm Springs, searching for the black SUV that contained the man who’d shot at her and Mick?
When she’d first arrived at Rod’s home, after she’d been shown into a bathroom to shower off Mick’s blood, she’d borrowed Kevin’s phone and spent quite a few minutes googling Troubleshooters Incorporated.
No one had objected to her having access to a phone, which was a good sign that she was in the company of at least some of the good guys.
Finding out that TS Inc was a very real, very highly regarded personal security firm run by a former Navy SEAL commander was also a good sign.
The group’s second-in-command was a Black woman who was both former Navy and FBI, which Emily found appealing.
In fact, the company’s roster included quite a few women.
Starrett of the phone calls in the car—his first name was Sam—was listed there, too.
He was a former SEAL as well. Jules Cassidy wasn’t listed, but according to Kevin he’d been an extremely high level agent in the FBI before the world had gone to hell in a handbasket.
Mick had hired Cassidy and Starrett to “find” her—which they’d clearly done.
But now what? Was she supposed to hide here, indefinitely? Was she ever going to be safe again?
Probably not.
She met Mick’s eyes now—he was sitting there, looking at her as if he could read her mind.
“I’m so sorry,” he said again.
“You’ve said that, like, four thousand times,” Emily told him. “Do those words even have any meaning to you?”
“They do,” he said quietly. “My father made me believe I killed your mother. I spent four years struggling to forgive myself, to figure out how I could live my life in a way that honored her. And when I found out the truth, well, I still asked myself how could I best serve her. And it always came back to... protecting you. Which I clearly have failed to do. So yes, I am so very deeply sorry.”
“Protecting me,” she said. “By bumping into me at Gelsen’s and worming your way into my life?”
“Em,” he said. “That was an accident, at Gelsen’s. And then, you pursued me. I tried to keep my distance—I...” He shook his head.
To be fair, he was not wrong about that. She’d gone after him, enthusiastically. And of course, she was the idiot who’d just asked him to marry her. Still... “God, I made it so easy for you,” she said. “Didn’t I?”
He rubbed his forehead. “No, you did not.”
“Do you really expect me to believe that this wasn’t your way to keep your inheritance?” she asked. “That you really were surprised that your father left it all to me?” How could he have not known?
“I swear to you, it was a total surprise.”
“Oh,” she said. “Well, then. As long as you’re swearing to it...”
Mick leaned forward. “I will sign a prenup right here, right now,” he said. “I do not want his money. I do not want Devonshire Place. I don’t want any of it. Not now, not ever.”
She looked at him. Prenup. Did he honestly still think...?
“If I live through this,” she said, “if I survive—”
“You will,” he promised, but she could tell from his eyes that he’d heard himself say prenup too, and he knew what was coming.
Still, she said it as plainly and as clearly as she could. “There will never be any need for any kind of prenup,” she told him.
He wasn’t an idiot. He knew what she meant. No prenup because there was no chance in hell they’d ever get married. Not now. Not ever. He closed his eyes briefly before saying, “Em, I’m still me. I know you love me—”
“No,” she said. “You’re not and I don’t. I loved someone who you were pretending to be. He’s gone. And... we’re done.”
“Em,” he started.
She cut him off. “I’m sorry, I thought I was being clear.
Apparently not. We are done if I live—we’re certainly done if I die.
We’re done if I get shot, we’re done if I don’t.
We’re done if this is all some kind of big joke.
We’re done if I really am going to inherit the asshole’s fortune.
We’re. Done. I think that says it all, except oh, wait.
Let me add: Fuck you. There it is. Message delivered. We’re done, fuck you.”
She picked up her book, forcing her hands not to shake as she opened it to page seventy-three.
Mick, however, didn’t leave. Not for a good long time. But he finally stood up. “I’m going to fix this,” he said. “I’m going to make this right—at least I’ll make sure that you’re safe.”
“Conversation over,” she said. “I am reading in here, find someplace else to wait.” She finally looked up at him because Jesus. “Now, Milton.”
“I’m so sorry, Em,” he whispered again, and left the room.
Over on the end of the sofa, Kevin shifted. “I think... maybe...? He finally got it?”
Emily glanced at him. “I’m not interested in talking about this.”
“Understood,” he said. But then he asked, “What if you’re wrong?
And don’t answer that. I don’t mean to disrespect your boundaries.
But... I don’t know. It seems like it’s worth putting a pin in that question and maybe circling back to it after the searing anger and hurt has faded a tiny bit.
” He stood up, stretching. “I’m hungry again.
Which happens pretty much nonstop after a super-sized shift like yesterday’s.
You want anything from the kitchen, Boo? ”
Emily shook her head, and he left her alone, too.
She stared at the words on the pages of the book, but for the life of her, could not make any sense of them. So instead, she just sat there and breathed.