Page 57 of Lost the Handle

“You were two seconds from catching a charge! She’s the type to put you in jail. Gets you out of the way so she can have him.”

I shake my head, and when he tries to hug me, I push him away. My eyes find Elli, who is watching with her hands clutched around Shea’s. “This isn’t right. Something…she has something on him,” I say between sobs.

Apparently, everyone agrees, but no one knows what to say. A whole blended family that is built on honor and love, but no one knows how to help him? This is ridiculous!

Overwhelmed and utterly pissed, I yell, “We have to help him!”

“Emery, I’ve tried. I don’t know—” Elli’s voice breaks, and my heart hurts in my chest.

Dad takes hold of me once more, wrapping me in his embrace. “Sweetness, we can’t help someone who doesn’t want help.”

I know his words are true, but that doesn’t mean I have to accept them.

No. I’m Emery Elaine Brooks. I’m considered the crazy baby of the family. I’m almost a billionaire before the age of twenty-five, I have two businesses, and I’m a brilliant hacker. That’s right. I am. I can find out anything I want to know. I will figure out what is going on, and once I do, Ava won’t see me coming.

Well, she might hear me, but it won’t matter.

Because she has fucked with the wrong woman.

A woman who didn’t fight for the man she loved before, but now, one who won’t ever back down.

Chapter

Twenty-Five

Quinn

I feellike I just played ten back-to-back game sevens and still didn’t win the fucking Cup.

I hear Emery yell something, but I close the door behind me quickly, hoping to contain her and the rest of my family. While my family stepped aside to let Ava and me through, I didn’t miss the looks of disappointment in me or of disgust for her. I’m surprised she made it out of there without someone other than Emery trying to take her out. My money would have been on Posey, but I think she feels too bad for me.

Which is a fantastic feeling. Not.

I rub my hand over my face as I follow Ava down the driveway. I don’t want to be anywhere near her. I want to be completely done with her, but she holds my balls in a vise grip. I hate that she caught me with Emery like that. I wasn’t trying to embarrass Ava; I was only trying to resist Emery. Which is getting harder by the day, but I can’t forget my agreement with someone else. No matter how much I want Emery, I can’t keep on like this. I need her to move out.

I just don’t know if I can ask her to.

I don’t want to.

My heart sinks in my chest, but then I look up to find Yvette in her car, parked behind mine. I pull in my brows as I take in her slim figure, her wide shoulders, and her long blond hair. She has stunning blue eyes, more icy than my dark blue. Her face is all hard angles. She wears a baggy tee with what I assume are baggy jeans, but I can’t see her bottoms from where I’m standing.

Is Ava serious right now? I’m seething as I bark out, “You brought Yvette here?”

Ava turns, her hands striking her hips. “Yes. I assumed you’d wanted to stay with your family for a bit, and since I got done so quickly, I had her come get me. I was bringing you your keys when I saw you fucking her against the door.”

I scoff. “Oh Jesus Christ, you’d know if I was fucking her—hell, the whole neighborhood would have known.”

“Cute,” she spits out.

“Fuck you,” I snap, glaring at her as I hear a car door opening. “You have crossed the line, Ava.”

“I crossed the line?” she yells, her hands shaking. “You embarrassed me throughout dinner, stuck up for your ex, and then had her against the wall? How do you think that makes me feel?”

“You embarrassed your fucking self!” I yell back, taking a step toward her. “How dare you think you can speak on matters that have nothing to do with you? My sister’s business is hers, not yours.”

“She’s being s?—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” I warn in a low, dark voice that I don’t even recognize. Hell, if I’m honest, I don’t know who I am anymore. At least, the person I am with her. This isn’t me. I hate feeling like this, like my life has no damn purpose. My heart slams into my ribs as I come to that realization. Fucking pissedshe’s speaking ill of my sister, I bite out, “It’s her choice. No one else’s. And you don’t get to give any opinion on the matter. Nor can you tell my mother how to decorate her own house. Do you know how insane that is?”

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