Page 115 of Heir

“Okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’m sorry I freaked out earlier.”

“Hey, don’t apologize for that, got me?”

She looked down, her lips curving slightly. “I’m not allowed to apologize for overreacting or for freaking out?”

“That’s right. When you find yourself feeling too much, you come to me, got it?”

Her breath caught, and I didn’t know what I had said to get that reaction out of her.

“I have a problem with feeling too much sometimes,” she said quietly. “You want me to come to you every time?”

I noticed her wringing her hands together. I took one hand and set it on my lap so she couldn’t abuse herself any further.

“Every time, Gemma. You did right when you came to me this afternoon. Though I wish you would have called me to pick you up.”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t really thinking.”

“You and me, we’re gonna talk. Not now, but once we get home and after I take care of you. Then we’re going to talk.”

“About what?” she asked.

“Everything,” I said. “We’re going to talk about everything.”

From what andwhomshe was hiding from, to what got her freaking out so badly this afternoon, and fuck, even us. We were going to talk about us, so there would be no misunderstanding going forward.

She was going to know exactly whom she belonged to.

Mine.

I had to swallow down the urge to growl the word to her.

I didn’t want to scare her, but fuck, if only she knew just how close I was to doing what Dad had with Emmy and kidnapped her, keeping her in my apartment indefinitely.

I brought her hand up to my lips and kissed the back of it before I faced forward and started the car, pulling out of the parking lot.

I watched her from the corner of my eye as I drove. The bag she’d packed this morning was in the back seat of my car.

I had to bite back the urge to tell her to pack everything she owned when I took her back to Blue’s, waiting for her to get ready for work.

My grip tightened around the steering wheel, reminding me I couldn’t just plow through her life.

But the reason why not was getting harder to hold on to.

I shook away the thought and glanced in the rearview mirror, my eyes narrowing at the black SUV behind us. It had been following us for two blocks now, and I was sure that wasn’t a coincidence.

Fuck.

We were being followed.

Gemma turned to me, smiling sweetly.

Fuck me, but how the hell could I protect her when I didn’t know how many bastards I was dealing with?

My hand moved beneath the steering wheel for the Glock I stored there, and I put it on my lap.

“Baby,” I said, and something about my voice must have clued her in. She tensed.

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