Rising Storm (Westin Force #2) - Julie Trettel Page 0,60

worked.

It was late and I felt badly about calling Cal to pick me up even though he’d told me it was no problem. When Shelby asked if I wanted to stay the night so I wouldn’t be alone, I readily agreed.

She apologized that their small house didn’t have a guest room, but the couch in the living room did pull out into a bed. She helped me get it set up and then, with a big yawn, apologized for not staying up and headed off to bed.

I laid down and stared up at the ceiling wondering where Painter was and what he was up to.

Painter

Chapter 19

I wasn’t the best at administrative stuff, and certainly not with politics, so I had no idea why Silas had thrown me under the bus to work with O’Connell and Winthrop on this one. I should have been down with the grunts sifting through documents and cataloging artifacts. Even running perimeter checks would have been better than this.

Since we’d arrived, I’d sat through five meetings, all discussing the exact same things. It wasn’t until the fifth one that I realized why they had chosen me for the job. They wanted inside details they’d hoped Emma had confided in me. I was going to murder Silas the second I had the opportunity.

“So, Painter, how is Emma really adjusting to life on the outside?” Jacob asked. He had his pen and notepad ready to write down whatever tidbit I would give him. He was, after all, a scientist. I knew he couldn’t be trusted.

“Like I said, she’s adjusting just fine.”

“We found this journal that one of the guys had kept on her. Perhaps you’d like to read it ?” He pulled out a notebook from his bag and passed it to me.

I held my hand ups. “No thank you. Anything Emma wants me to know about her time with them, she’ll tell me.”

He and Martin shared a look that made me feel uncomfortable, but I wasn’t going to cross that line. I trusted Emma and if she had something to share, she’d share it in her own time. I wasn’t going to go snooping into her past. We all have our skeletons to bare.

“Are you aware she killed one of the humans there?”

“Of course I am. I’m the one who found his body.”

He shook his head. “I’m not talking about Frank. I’m talking about Vinnie. He was another one of the Raglan on the inside. According to this she viciously attacked him. A sliced artery caused him to bleed out.”

“If Emma viciously attacked anyone it was out of self-defense or to protect someone she was close to. Be very careful about your accusations. That’s my mate you’re speaking of,” I warned them. “Gorillas are peaceful creatures, unless provoked.”

It was both an explanation and a warning. I wouldn’t sit there and let them talk badly about my mate. I’d killed plenty in my lifetime and they cheered and paid me to continue doing it. But Emma? There’s no way she would kill just to kill. I may not have known her long, but that much I was positive of. I’d seen her temper flare, but it was always short lived, too short to do any real damage to anyone. The kind of malice they were talking about, especially in close contact by her hand, could only have occurred out of sheer fear or blinding protective instincts.

Was she capable of it? Most definitely. I’d seen that proof for myself with Frank. I’d also seen what he’d done to her to provoke that action. She’d nearly died. If she hadn’t killed him, I would have done the deed without hesitation or regard for his life.

She wasn’t the one they needed to be worrying about, I was. Each of us on the Force was. We not only had the capability of killing, but we were bred and trained for it. Sometimes I feared they all forgot that fact.

I didn’t like killing. Anyone who did needed to be put down quickly as far as I was concerned. I only killed when my life or that of my team was threatened, but I trained hard to ensure I was ready both physically and mentally to do that when the time called for it.

“I can see this was probably not a topic worth bringing up,” Jacob conceded, no doubt reading my emotions.

“All creatures are capable of killing, Jacob. You’re aware of that. I doubt there’s a clean hand in this room. It’s the circumstances