damned thing so we could sleep. The sun wasn’t even up yet; it was way too early for this shit, and Emmy needed her sleep after the day she’d had yesterday.
I picked up the phone and turned it over with the intent of simply turning it off, but a message from her dad popped up on the screen.
Emilia, you need to get back to Vegas. Now. He will find you, and it’s better if you cooperate. You can’t fight this.
A second message popped up a moment later from an unknown number. It was just a picture. A photo of a gun.
My heart stopped.
Emmy moved beside me, muttering something under her breath. A second later, her hand reached out and snatched her phone from my hand.
“What in the hell are you doing?” she asked. I turned to her, her curly hair wild around her face. Even with the bedhead and the scowl, she was still so fucking beautiful.
“I wanted to turn your phone off. It wouldn’t stop buzzing,” I explained. “But then I saw the messages. Are you in trouble, Emmy?”
Emmy looked down at her phone and her expression changed. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
“Emmy, what’s going on? Is someone after you?”
Her hand began to shake, and she put the phone down on the bed. “I need to go,” she announced as she rose from the bed, tossing the covers and quickly searching for her clothes.
“Go where?” I asked.
“I just— I need to go, Graham.” There was an urgency to her voice.
“Are you going back to Vegas?”
“No.”
“Then where?”
“I can’t tell you. I can’t tell anyone,” she said as she slipped into her pants.
“You’re not going anywhere. Not if you’re in danger.”
“You can’t tell me what to do, Graham,” she snapped. “I’m so goddamn sick and tired of everyone telling me what to do.”
I stood up and walked over to her. “What was the picture of the gun about? Was it a threat?”
She wouldn’t look me in the eye. Instead, she walked around me and grabbed her shirt, leaving my sweatshirt behind on the bed.
“Emmy, talk to me.”
“No, Graham, because it’s none of your business,” she snapped again.
“If you’re in danger, I’m making it my business.”
“Why?” she said, turning to gaze at me. “You hardly know me. Sure, the sex was amazing, but besides that, you don’t know the first thing about me or my life.”
“So what? When I see someone in danger, I help them. I don’t let them walk away when I can do something about it.”
“You can’t always be a hero, Graham,” she said. “I’m not putting your entire family in danger because of my problems.”
“This isn’t about me being a hero,” I countered. “Listen, Emmy, you don’t know much about me either - what I do and what I’m capable of. My brothers and I, we aren’t strangers to protecting people. That’s what we do for a living. We’re all ex-military and we run a security firm. This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve put ourselves in the line of danger to protect someone we hardly know.”
Emmy attempted to move around me, but I stayed in her way. She sighed, looking every bit as exhausted as I knew she must feel. “Graham, please, you can’t hold me hostage here.”
“You’re not a hostage, Emmy. Just let me help you. Where are you planning to go that will be safe? And how? Last I checked, your car washed down the river.”
“I don’t know, but I have to figure something out. I can’t stay in Liberty.”
“You can, Emmy. And you will.”
“Graham, my family is still here. I have friends here. It’s the first place they’ll look for me. It’s too obvious.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Let them come here. My brothers and I are all highly trained. We have guns of every variety, and a security system that no one can get past. I’d like to see someone try to enter our home, because they’ll be in for one hell of a surprise if they do.”
“You don’t know who you’re dealing with here, Graham. This is bigger than you and your brothers can handle.”
“I doubt that, trust me,” I scoffed.
Her eyes were wide, and she looked terrified. It physically hurt to see her so scared. I wouldn’t allow anyone - much less a woman - leave knowing she was in danger and knowing that I could help.
I closed the distance between us and lifted her chin up so she looked me in the eyes. I could tell she was