Page 16 of Owning Emma

Chapter 9

ROMAN

Eric: We have a situation sending pics now.

Fuck. Of course, we have a situation. When was there ever not some sort of situation when I’m enjoying a moment of downtime? Never, the answer is never. So why did I expect to get to enjoy a full breakfast experience with Emma and Shaw, when I knew damn well that something would come up?

And it was an experience, watching her get nervous at my closeness. Listening to her inhale her quick breaths, watching her chest rise and fall, experiencing the shock on her face when I offered to help; she was an experience. And although I enjoyed the time between us, I didn’t even mind when Shaw stumbled in, searching blindly for coffee. His presence, most likely because he lived here, too, made the moment complete. Whole. A full circle.

My phone buzzed again in my hand, and I glanced down at it, clicking the file of pictures Eric had sent over. It seemed like an eternity to load, picture files always did, but maybe it was more than just that. Perhaps it was the fact that I knew the second the data loaded, this would all be over, and I was anxious to get the disappointment over with.

My stomach dropped at the image in front of me, making the food I just enjoyed moments ago churn. It was a picture just outside our compound’s gates, of a tree to the left of the entrance. Hanging from the tree was a long strand of Nylon rope and at the end? Well, at the end hung a cat. A black and white stray that ran around our property, feeding off whoever felt like tossing it some snacks or leaving it some water. Its stomach was sliced open, letting its insides spill to the ground from the slit that ran from its neck down to its hind legs. Words that I couldn’t make out from the photo were smeared in blood on the tree, and as much as I hated to leave and abandon this moment, or Emma, I had to know. I had to know what those fucking words said and what this all meant.

I was already on my way out of the kitchen when Shaw’s phone buzzed, and I knew it was only a matter of moments before he experienced the same nausea-inducing feeling that I did. He liked that dumb cat, always saving it from the dogs’ chases and giving him tuna. He’s too damn soft for any of this, but I couldn’t even bring myself to push him away because in a time of need, there was no one as loyal and willing as he was to be at my back. There was no one I trusted more.

* * *

I spentthe short drive to the gates mentally preparing myself for the scene, but it didn’t help. Nothing prepared me for the up-close scent of copper or the buzzing of flies that had already begun to swarm, traveling in groups through the air and sticking to the cat’s open wounds and the thick pile of gore below.

I slammed my truck door a little too hard as I got out, trying not to let the rage consume me. I knew that rage would only alter my ability to think level-headed and would lead to unwise decisions. But fuck, it was hard. It was so fucking hard not to let fury win when I knew someone had come to the gates of my home, our home, and threatened my family. I didn’t want to give them a victory; I didn’t want to care, but the actions were so damn personal I wanted to fucking destroy them.

Eric approached me, his hands on his hips, making his jacket flare out. “Phillip and I discovered it about an hour ago. We did a quick search of the perimeter, but came up with nothing.”

“Check camera footage?” I asked, knowing it was an obvious question, but I had to cover every angle.

“I checked in with Jackson, we searched through the camera footage and saw nothing. Our systems were down last night between one and two; we think maybe that’s when it went down.”

Fuck. I remembered. We had scheduled an update, but what were the actual odds of anything happening during that one fucking hour with no camera? Pretty damn good because there was a gutted cat strung from our tree.

Shaw approached me from behind, not making his presence known until he spoke over my shoulder. “What the fuck did they do with Boots? Aw man, he didn’t hurt anyone. What type of heartless bastard would do something like this?”

Eric leveled Shaw with a questioning gaze. “You named the stray Boots?”

“He didn’t seem to mind,” Shaw replied.

“Whatever man,” Eric scoffed as he began to walk away. “See this shit? This why I don’t become attached to anything.”

When Eric was out of earshot Shaw lowered his voice, “You know, the odds of this happening while the camera was out were slim. Someone had to have known the cameras were down.”

I rubbed my chin, wishing I had time to shave this morning. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”

He let out a sigh, “Do you think it could be the same person involved with the money discrepancy?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them,” I admitted and hated it. I hated this situation where I was suddenly forced to question the loyalty and trust of all my men, the men who I grew to think of as family, the men who I would side with a hundred and ten percent of the fucking time. “Are you any closer to finding the mole?”

“I’m trying, but the paper trails take forever to go through and every time I think I’ve made progress, it turns into nothing but a minor clerical error. “

I shielded my eyes from the glaring sun. “I don’t envy you, man.”

He straightened his stance, bringing his eyes back to the cat. “I don’t envy you much either, big guy. Shall we?”

He gestured with his head to the tree, indicating that we should get a closer look. We took the necessary steps forward, ignoring the conversation between Eric and Phillip going on at our backs as they sat on their tailgate and shared a bag of Cheetos. Disgusting. How could they eat that shit when an animal’s guts were in a pile mere feet away?

The scent increased the closer we got, and I had to fight not to gag. I knew it’s just a cat, but I was also not a complete monster and death of any sort bothered me. Especially when the death was so dumb and senseless like this one. What was the point?

“Fuck!” came Shaw’s curse from beside me the moment my eyes drew to the lettering on the tree. The words written in dried blood, that had dripped rivers down the tree trunk, but still successfully delivered a message. A message that caused my blood to chill and stop me mid-step.

“Keep an eye on your pussy,” I read out loud, knowing damn well what they meant and who they were from.

But, I suddenly didn’t care about the dead cat or the pile of gore, and I most definitely couldn’t care less about the swarms of flies buzzing around, invading my space because all I could think of was her. Emma. How we left her alone, completely vulnerable, exposed. All because Krank felt the need to be superior and threatened what he couldn’t have. What’s ours, because right now at least, that’s what she was. Ours.

My eyes met Shaw’s knowing he was on the same page, knowing he understood the internal panic eating at me because his eyes reflected the same. In unison, we both spoke her name, “Emma,” before he rushed to dial the house phone and I jetted to the truck.

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