Chapter 14

Emma

I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t concentrate. As I looked out the windshield my mind was fixed on Mark invading the interrogation room and the look in his eyes when they landed on me. It was equal parts determination and hatred, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what he might do and worse, what he would find.

There’s nothing to find, I told myself, but I didn’t know that without a doubt. Sure Slate and his biker brothers had cleaned the house thoroughly but who knew what was under the wood flooring? Who knew what was left over that none of them had thought to get rid of? Mark might’ve been a dirty cop but that didn’t mean he was bad at other parts of his job. I tried to think back, what could forensics find if came to the house? Sure, they’d find Alex’s hair, but it looked like Slate’s friends had cleaned up well, taking away the rug he’d died on. I tried to think back to that night, it seemed like forever, but it was less than two weeks ago.

In just nine days my life had changed beyond recognition.

It all made me so angry. Alex had made my life a living hell when he was here, and the one time I stood up for myself, it turned my life even more upside down. And instead of enjoying Ash’s childish laughter and her excited conversation with Slate, I was worrying about the Edwards men. I was starting to think I was destined to be a prisoner forever, one way or another.

The car came to a stop, and I glanced up to find us in the parking lot for a family friendly chain restaurant. The neon sign of a pirate riding a wolf flashed on and off. The place looked so happy, and I forced a smile on my face until I felt it permeate my entire body.

“We’re here, Mommy!” Ash’s excited voice was just what I needed to make the smile genuine.

“Yes we are, and I am starved.” Dinner was something normal. Dinner with my daughter was exactly the type of normal we needed in our lives right now. Everything was so upside down, so chaotic that this mundane activity was just what we both needed. Though spending time with Slate was a double-edged sword. While I loved his easy company, and found myself warming up to him, and not a little bit attracted—scrap that, a lot attracted—it also brought home to me the fact that I was keeping things from him. Huge things.

Massive earth-shattering things.

“Me too,” she shouted. “Are you hungry too, Slate?”

He turned to face Ash and smiled. “I’m a man, I’m always hungry.” He laughed when her brows dipped in confusion.

“Men are always hungry? Why?”

A giggle escaped as we all exited the car and headed inside. “Men aren’t always hungry,” I told her. “They just eat all the time because they can.”

The bubbly hostess scanned the room for a free table, when two hands suddenly shot up near the back of the dining room. “Friends of yours?” she asked.

Slate nodded. “Yeah.” He motioned to where Diesel sat with his family. “Can we join them?” He flicked a gaze my way to see if it was okay.

I nodded. “It’s fine with me.” Leo was there which meant that Ash would have another kid to interact with and wouldn’t be bored the entire meal. Though I was a little disappointed it wouldn’t be just us.

He gave me a weak smile and a nod which made me wonder if he was thinking the same thing, before he turned to my daughter. Our daughter, I reminded myself. “Come on, Ashlyn. Let’s go say hi to Leo.”

She perked up. “Leo’s here? Yay!” She bounced up and down a few times in search of her new friend. “Where?”

Slate bit back a smile and pointed to where Diesel sat with Ellie and Leo, their adorable twin girls, Lucy and Lila, were in a stroller parked beside them. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

We got settled at the table while Ashlyn and Leo took off to the play area that was—thankfully—in full view of our table. My mind was full of thoughts of Mark, and I couldn’t focus on any single thread of conversation.

“What’s wrong?” Slate’s question was so low I wasn’t even sure I heard it. “Talk to me Emma.”

I shook my head, not wanting to get into it while we were out in public in case my emotions got the better of me. “Nothing.”

“Liar.”

My jaw clenched and he laughed, which caused me to face him. “What’s funny?”

“Nothing. Instead of getting angry just talk to me.”

Ellie and Diesel looked at us with two opposing expressions. Diesel looked concerned and Ellie was smiling.

“C’mon, let’s go check on the kids,” Diesel said as he rose from his chair. Ellie followed him, giving me a weak smile.

“Well?” Slate asked, once it was just us at the table.

“Fine,” I groaned. “Alex’s brother, Mark. He’s a private investigator and he showed up during my interview that felt more like an interrogation with the police yesterday.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

I shrugged. “Nothing to say, not really. He accused me and when the cops admitted they had nothing, he promised that he would find proof that I did something to his brother. Been on my mind a lot.”

“I got a bad feeling from that fucker too,” he muttered.

“What? You didn’t say anything.” He’d told me about Mark’s visit but hadn’t said anything about there being trouble. “What happened? I thought you said he just came to see where Alex was. Are you planning something?”

“No Emma, I’m not planning anything. He was being a belligerent asshole, I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you to worry about it. And because I might have used a profanity-laced threat in front of Ashlyn to get him to leave.” He shrugged with an adorable smile. “I figured she told you.”

“She didn’t. She likes you and probably didn’t want you to get in trouble for your potty mouth.”

He laughed. “I simply explained to him why it would be a bad idea if he showed up at your house again.”

While I appreciated his effort to keep us safe, I realized something else. “I can’t go back to that house. I won’t.” It wasn’t safe for us. It never had been and even though Alex was gone, it never would be, not if Mark had anything to do with it. “I’ll pack some things and that’s the last time I’ll ever set foot inside that house.”

“Emma,” Slate began and rested his big, slightly calloused hand on top of mine. “That’s your home. You’re his wife.”

“No,” I whispered, my voice shaky and half-watery with unshed tears. “You don’t understand. Nothing is in my name, and he’s probably left all kinds of conditions on everything. The house probably goes to Mark along with everything else which means it’s only a matter of time before he has the right to come inside without my consent.”

“How’s this gonna look to the cops?” he asked.

I shrugged, “I don’t know, but Sheriff Cross saw how Mark lunged at me yesterday, I can say I’m scared of him. He might have a key, I—”

“Shit!” He blew out a deep breath and sat back in his chair, his eyes were on the kids, but I could tell he wasn’t really seeing them. He was thinking.

Mark’s threat meant I had less time than I thought to set up our future. “I need to find a job. Any job. That has to be at the top of my list. I need to be able to support us.”

“You can stay with me.” He sat up taller, seemingly shocked by the words that came out of his mouth. “Yeah, you two will stay with me until you get on your feet.”

I shook my head. “No. I can’t ask that of you.”

“You didn’t ask.”

He was right. But still. “I can’t put my whole future in the hands of another man.”

“You’re not,” he shot back quickly. “You’re using my home as a steppingstone to put your life back together again. I’m not looking to control you, Emma, just keep you and Ash safe.”

The last time a man made a promise like that to me, I ended up married to him and abused by him regularly. I know Slate’s not like that, but still. The thought of putting my trust in him. I sighed, “I don’t know.”

“No pressure. It’s not as big as your place but there’s room for two more. And I have an excellent security system.”

I turned to him and stared into those gray-blue eyes for so long that I lost myself in them for a long moment. The last time I’d been truly happy with a man was the night I spent with him. That night had given me the most precious thing in the world to me. And he still doesn’t know, my conscience taunted. I had to tell him, but it seemed that each day was bringing me yet another obstacle. “I’ll think about. I promise.”

“That’s all I can ask.” His gaze searched my face, and he looked as if he wanted to say more, but instead he turned back to the table with a smile. “Are we sharing some appetizers or am I pigging out alone?”

And just like that everything went back to normal. I laughed along with the adults when the kids did something funny, joined in conversation and enjoyed a meal not cooked by my hands for once.

It was nice.

But thoughts of Mark and prison never left my mind fully.