Page 89 of Monster

There wasn’t a lot that needed to be done. Lucy ran a tight ship when it came to the kitchen, and she would no doubt do more cleaning once she got here tomorrow morning.

I could feel Emmy’s eyes on me the whole time. She hadn’t left like I’d expected.

Once I was done, I turned around and leaned against the sink.

I was usually good at reading the expression on her face, but I didn’t know what she was thinking after I’d told her so much about a significant part of my life.

Veronica wasn’t someone I liked to think about.

I was fucking grateful for her, sure. She had a hand in giving me the two greatest gifts in my life, but sometimes, I thought it would have been better if the bitch just dropped dead.

Emmy swallowed, and I watched her throat bob before she opened her mouth and said, “What’s going on with the investigation?”

“Investigation?” I asked, pushing away from the sink and walking over to her.

She tracked me warily, taking a small step back before she seemed to think better of it, and stood still.

She tilted her chin up stubbornly, her hazel eyes flashing. It might be a trick of the light, but I swore her eye color changed along with her moods. Right now, they were a burning green that I was so fucking fascinated by. The left one was more green than the right one.

Fuck me, but I wanted to lose myself in them.

I tried not to show any expression, not letting her see just how badly she affected me just from standing there.

“You know,” she said, shifting slightly on her feet. “The investigation on who was chasing Braxton. You’re still looking into that, right?”

“You think I would stop looking into that?”

She shook her head. “Where are you on that?”

I took another step toward her. We were so close now, all it would take was a small move from either one of us and we would touch.

She let out a small breath of air.

I kept my hands to myself. “Why do you want to know about that, wildcat?”

She shot me an incredulous look. I bit back a grin.

“Because they’re after me, too!” she said.

That took away all my amusement. “You don’t think I can protect you?”

I cupped both hands around the balls of her shoulders.

She felt so fucking delicate in my hands.

Emmy blinked up at me. “That’s not it.”

“Are you hoping I will soon find those bastards and you can leave the safety of my house?”

She said nothing to that, confirming I’d guessed right. I also realized that after I found them, after I made sure they wouldn’t ever again pose a threat—not only to Braxton, but to her—I couldn’t let her go.

It was her fucking bad luck to catch the attention of a monster.

Because when something was mine, it stayed mine.

I shook my head and said darkly, “Don’t worry about the investigation.”

Not only because I didn’t involve women in club business—and this was fucking club business, no matter how personal it was—I wasn’t going to give her any more reasons to fight me.

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