me.”
“I can’t tell you.”
She stamped her foot.
“Ashley was the price,” Caleb said, surprising the both of us.
I turned to see Gael, Vadik, and of course Caleb on the steps leading toward where we stood.
“What?” Emily asked.
“Earl came to us. He knew your location and how to keep you safe.”
She burst out laughing. “Let me get this straight, you made a deal with a man who was willing to pay millions for a virg…” She stopped talking and looked at all of us while shaking her head. “No. Tell me no. Tell me you didn’t bargain my best friend’s virginity on this man to get me back.”
“It wasn’t just to get you back,” Gael said.
“He offered to help out with what our fathers had done. The arrangement he’d made to keep you away from Crude Hill.”
Tears were in her eyes. “You’re all fools,” she said. “He wants what he feels was taken from him, doesn’t he?”
None of us confirmed her assumptions. There was no reason to. She already knew the truth.
“Where’s Ashley? Tell me you got her before he could put his hands on her.”
None of us spoke.
Emily turned away and started to pace. “Where is she?”
“We don’t know that,” Vadik said.
Caleb held his hand up as if to stop him from talking. “No, I’m not going to keep this shit from her. We fucked up. We made a deal and jumped in because we only saw what we wanted. This is our mess. This is on us, not on her. This is our fault.”
“What’s happened?” Emily asked.
Caleb sighed. “Earl Valentine has gone missing, along with your friend. We don’t know if he has stuck to his arrangement or if he’s made a fool out of us.”
This, for some reason, had Emily laughing. It was more on the hysterical side. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”
None of us laughed.
This made her stop and look at us. She pressed her lips together. “She’s innocent.”
Again, there was nothing we could say to make her feel any better. We’d fucked up, we all knew that.
She turned on her heel and started toward the stairs. I followed her; however, Caleb reached out, capturing her waist.
Emily slapped him hard and fast right across the face.
The guards came forward, guns raised, and Caleb held up his hand to stop them.
“I hate you,” she said. “She is better than all of us. She’s kind, good, and sweet, and you sold her as if she was worth nothing.”
“You’re worth everything.”
“Not compared to her. I promised myself she would be free. She’d know only happiness.”
“We’re going to find her.”
I knew Caleb was talking out of his ass. There was no way we could find her, otherwise, we’d have done it already.
“Good, I want her back and now.” Emily stormed away, and I had no choice but to follow close behind her.
She entered the house and made wet footprints across the carpet until we got to the hallway.
She put her hand on the door and stopped.
“You can’t leave,” I said. “You’re no good to her dead.”
“I can’t believe you’d be stupid enough to make a deal with that man.” She turned accusing eyes at me.
I nodded for the soldier who was close to the door to leave. Grabbing Emily’s arm, I marched her into the room we used as an office, slamming the door closed and shoving her up against it.
“I get that you’re fucking upset, but you need to start being careful about what you say to us and when.”
“Bite me!”
Sinking my fingers into her hair, I pulled her close to me, and I just couldn’t help it, I took her lips. Biting down onto the plump flesh, I heard her moan. After plunging my tongue into her mouth, I traced across her lips, tasting her. My cock was already rock-hard and all I wanted was to be inside her, to fuck her.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and with her body flush against mine, I just didn’t fight it anymore.
Picking her up, I carried her to the desk, throwing off everything that was in our way. I dropped her down on the edge as she tugged my shirt over my head.
I flicked open the catch of her jeans and yanked them down her thighs until they were all the way off. She moaned my name as I pressed my palm to her wet core. The panties she wore were soaked. Sliding a finger beneath the fabric, I traced over her clit, hearing her gasp as I went