Page 48 of Not Your Hero

Emerson

I don’t know how he does it, how he makes me rethink everything about myself. He always casts some sort of doubt in the back of my mind. In the short time he’s had me, he makes me think about my life and the things I thought I knew. And that unnerves me.

Up until I was kidnapped, I thought I knew who I was, what I was. I never looked at myself any other way, but Gannix seems to think there’s a side to me I’ve never seen before. Maybe he’s truly crazy.

He has my arm wrapped around his as he talks to some people when a few women come to pull me away from him. I’m actually surprised when he allows them to, although he doesn’t let me get too far.

“So, you’re here with Gannix. How did you two meet?” How the hell do I tell her he stalked me and then stole me?

“At a party with mutual friends.”

“Well, you’re a pretty lucky woman. I’ve never seen Gannix bring a woman to any of his events,” the redhead tells me.

“Why is that?” I ask.

“He’s very private. There’s been rumors,” she adds.

“Such as?”

“I shouldn’t say,” she replies, taking a drink from her glass. I can see the look in her eyes. She wants to tell me everything she knows, and all I have to do is press a little harder.

“I haven’t heard anything.”

“Nothing?”

“No,” I say, smiling at her.

“Well, I heard he’s somewhat of a recluse. Amber, the blonde over there,” she motions to another girl. I glance over and look back at her. “She knows some of the men who work for him, and supposedly, he has some secrets of his own.”

“Such as?”

“She said that she heard he was harmed as a child, in what way we don’t know, but that he is scarred from it.”

“Scarred?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve never seen any scars on him,” I add as I think back. Then again, I’ve never seen the man naked unless I was drugged. Is that what he’s hiding from me? He expects me to expose my scars to him, but he’s hiding some from me? I don’t know why that makes me as angry as it does, but it pisses me off.

“From what we’re told, they aren’t ones you can see easily.”

“And how do you know this?”

“Just rumors.”

“Maybe you should leave the rumors where they started,” I snap her before turning and walking back over to Gannix. I don’tknow why I feel like I need to protect him or why I’m pissed at him at the same time.

Gannix looks down at me, a strange look on his face as he watches me. I cross my arms over my chest, being as defiant as possible when he excuses himself from his friends. He rests his hand on the small of my back and leads me across the room into a dark corner.

“What’s with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you look angry?”

“I was told some things, and it’s annoying me,” I tell him.

“What things?”

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