Page 17 of Owning Emma

Chapter 10

SHAW

My fingersfrantically dialed the home number, praying that Emma would take the two fucking seconds it took to answer the damn phone; hoping that Krank’s scare tactic was just that. A scare tactic. If anything happened to her because we left her alone, fuck. I would never forgive myself. Judging by the way Roman’s jaw was drawn tight and the speed at which he drove through the property, I was guessing he felt the same way.

I glanced across the truck’s cab, watching Roman as he tapped on the steering wheel, releasing some of his nervous energy. The drive from the gates to his house was not far, but it was curvy and his place was toward the very back of the land. “She’s not answering,” I stated, hitting redial for the hundredth time.

I felt the truck jolt as he increased the speed a little more. Anyone who didn’t know him would think he was calm, not fazed by the stress of the morning, but I knew him. I probably knew him better than he knew himself. Despite his serene exterior, he was a wreck, already creating a hundred and two possible scenarios of what could have gone wrong, and completely disregarding the possibility that it could be nothing. She could be safe. She probably was, but without her answering the phone, there was no real way to tell. Without seeing her in front of us, assuring that not a single hair on her head had been touched, there was no way to convince him otherwise.

He parked the truck and jumped out without even bothering to turn off the engine, and I followed behind him, sure everything was fine but preparing myself for the worst, regardless. He didn’t slow his pace as he threw open the front door, not bothering to care that the strength he used behind the motion most likely caused a hole in the wall from the handle and would have to be patched later.

“Emma?” he called, storming toward the kitchen while I branched out to inspect the living room. His voice was echoing through the house, whereas I forced myself to stay calm, find my center, and not feed off the possible stress of the situation.

After searching the whole downstairs, we reunited by the staircase. “Anything?” he asked, the stress of the morning present in the lines under his eyes and the way he brought his hand to his scalp, rubbing at the barely there stubble of hair.

“Nope.” I confirmed what he already knew, and as we climbed the stairs, I too began to feel his anxiety slipping up through my stomach and making my throat tight. I told myself that I didn’t doubt her safety, there wasn’t an easy way to slip onto our property and exit without being noticed. But, how could she not hear the phone, or Roman calling her? And, someone had slipped in and killed Boots, hadn’t they?

Once at the top, I followed behind Roman, letting him lead the way as he tossed open the doors, each one with a little more force than the last, until he got to her room. He opened her door a little more slowly and I wasn’t sure what he expected to find in there, but maybe it was out of respect for her space. His head pivoted from side to side, searching her out. My head followed his, but came up short.

“Nothing?” he whispered, more to himself than to me.

“Bathroom?” I asked, noticing the slight humid heat that was clinging to the bedroom’s air. He didn’t respond, just made a slow stride toward the door that was left ajar on the other side of the room, hesitating before pushing it open.

It was a cliché, she was a cliché, but saying she took my breath away was the only explanation I had for standing there, unable to breathe. Unable to force my lungs to contract. Unable to move.

But it wasn’t just me, Roman was equally frozen next to me, a slight slip of his usual control. He made no move to speak or warn her, no move to be the gentleman his mother raised him to be.

We both watched, taken back by our awe as Emma reached for a towel off the nearby rack. She rubbed droplets of water off her skin before wrapping it around her body, unaware of the show she was giving us, oblivious to trance she had us under.

Despite the apparent regret I knew I would suffer, I had to be the one to break the silence. It was evident that Roman wasn’t going to. I cleared my throat, pretty much at a loss for words but knowing something had to come out. She spun around at the sound, a look of shock and embarrassment crossing her face. Scarlet colored her cheeks and spread down to her chest as she faced us while struggling to use a towel to cover her body.

I swallowed through the dryness in my throat and pushed past the guilt of watching her. “Looks like you forgot your Cardigan.”

That, as it turns out, wasn’t the right thing to say in this situation. But, in all fairness, there probably wasn’t a good thing to say when you’ve been caught being a sleaze ball and spying on a naked lady.

“Get out!” she screamed, her voice hitting a pitch I didn’t know was possible before she reached over, grabbed a shampoo bottle, and hurled it at us. Roman covered his head with his arms as some conditioner barely missed his skull.

He put his arms out in front of himself in an attempt to calm her down. “Okay, okay, stop. We need to talk. We will wait in the room, come out when you’re ready.”

A bar of soap pegged his shoulder as we walked backwards out of the room. He reached for the knob blindingly. Pulling the door shut the moment his hand met the metal. He leveled me with a disapproving look. “That went smoothly.”

“What? I panicked,” I admitted.

“She’s going to be spitting fire when she comes out, and I don’t blame her.” His hand ran over his scalp, a slight tell to let me know he was nervous.

“Do you care if she does?” I asked, curious and testing the waters.

“I don’t mind it.” He slowly lowered his body to the bed.

“It’s fucking hot, seeing her angry.” I sat down beside him, stretching my legs out and crossing them at the ankle.

Anger overtook his features before he reined it in. “She’s an employee.”

Knowing it would only fuel him further, I responded, “Your employee.”

“You’re not fucking her.” His voice a little too harsh.

I shrugged. “I might. Who knows? I’ll see where this thing leads.”

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