Page 59 of Desire

Chapter Eighteen

EMMA

Emma nestled against Dante’s side, her fingertips tracing idle patterns across his sweat-slicked chest. She tilted her head to gaze at him, noticing the faraway look in his eyes as he stared at the ceiling, lost in thought.

“What’s wrong?” she murmured, propping herself up on one elbow. “You seem distracted.”

Dante exhaled heavily. He turned to face her, his expression grave. “Kiki is dating Joey. And he’s showing signs of PTSD. I’m worried about him.”

Emma sat up in bed. “What? How do you know that? Did he come to see you?”

“No. Kiki had her claws into him at a club she hangs out at in New Haven. The way Joey flinched anytime someone walked too close to him and the way he was reacting to noises and loud stimulation was telling. I’d have to talk to him more to be sure, but I’ve seen that look before, in guys coming back from war zones.”

“I’ll talk with him. Make sure he sees a doctor.” Emma knew it was just like Joey to suffer something like this all by himself. She had known something was up. It was almost a relief to know she hadn’t been imagining things.

“Why was he with Kiki?” she asked. “Was he trying to hurt me?” That was almost unthinkable, but Emma wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

“No,” Dante said. “He hadn’t known about the memes and Kiki claimed she was hacked.”

“Bullshit,” Emma snorted.

“Has Pepper been giving you any problems?”

“Pepper Dayne?” Emma thought about it. “No. She and Kiki were frenemies though.”

Dante grunted. “Kiki tried throwing her under the bus as the one responsible for the posts.”

“I’ll talk to Joey,” Emma said again. “Remind him that Kiki has been a bitch to me since I’ve gotten here.”

“He might not believe you,” Dante said.

Emma’s mouth opened and closed for a moment in shock. Of course he would believe her. She was his sister. But then she recalled how hurt he had been when they talked at the diner about Dante. Emma had asked Joey to butt out of her love life. What if he said the same thing to her?

“I want to protect Joey,” she said. “Just like he wants to protect me. But I can’t, can I?” Just another thing she seemed to be failing at.

“There is a way.” Dante paused, seeming to choose his next words carefully. “If we want Kiki to back off and leave the two of you alone, she’s got to believe that you and Joey don’t matter to me.”

“Is she in love with you?” Emma asked, caught between jealousy and misery.

Dante snorted. “No. She’s a toddler who is pissed her toy got taken away from her. But unlike Ezina, no one has ever shown Kiki the proper way to act when something like that happens. I tried, but she didn’t want to hear it. I was already trying to transition her out of my dungeon when she pulled that stunt in Colleen’s office.”

“Did you sleep with her?” Emma hadn’t meant to voice that aloud, but now that it was out there, she both wanted to know the answer and dreaded it.

“No.”

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