Page 95 of Teasing

“Emmie,” Camden snaps in a voice I’ve never heard him use toward Em, and I want to slam him into a wall, but I’m stuck here, shock holding me in place. “Tell him.”

She levels him with a glare so lethal, I’m surprised he’s still breathing.

“Tell me what, Em?” I drop the scrapbooks, one by one, unable to fathom what she’s not denying. “I trusted you.” I watch her face. Watch how it doesn’t flinch. “How could you not tell me?”

“Mav... I—” She bites down on her lip and closes her eyes. “I didn’t know how.”

“You didn’t know how?” I’m trying not to yell, but I’m losing the fight. “I trusted you.” I look at her, so utterly fucked, I’m not sure I know what to do. “I trusted you with everything. With Rosie. With my family. With my life. And you... what? Were you writing theKroydon Kroniclesthe whole damn time? Feeding them information? What the hell?”

“Mav,” her voice breaks, but she doesn’t say anything else, and Camden fucking groans and slams his palms against the desk.

“Jesus Christ, Emmie?—”

“Don’t,” she snaps at him, then turns back to me. “There’s more to it than that.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” My stomach turns, and I want so badly to understand what the hell is happening here, but I’m obviously missing something, and neither one of them is filling me the fuck in.

Her phone vibrates on the desk, but none of us move.

Locked in a stalemate.

“Em, it’s Dad,” Camden tells her, and she grabs for the phone.

“Daddy?”

What little fight she had drains from her face. “We’ll be right there.”

She ends the call, shoves the phone in her pocket, and looks right past me to her brother. “Come on. We’ve got to go. And don’t even try to not come with me.”

“Emmie.” I tug her arm as she brushes by.

“I can’t do this right now, Maverick.” She shakes me off, and I want to stop her but know I can’t.

“This isn’t over, Em.”

She looks up at me like she wants to say something but shakes her head instead. “TheKronicleshasn’t posted anything in months, Mav.” She presses her lips to my jaw. “I’ve got to go.”

Just like that, she walks out, and Camden stands there, staring at me like I’m shit on his shoes. “Fucking idiot.”

Tell me something I don’t know.

Jamie and Ryker let me tell them the whole fucking story before the two of them look as disgusted as I feel.

“She’s too young to be the author of the Kroydon Kronicles. She would have been like fourteen when they started. Can you imagine little fourteen-year-old Emmie sitting in a bar, dishing dirt on half the family?”Jamie argues.

“And what if she is? So what?”Ryker asks me.

I do a double take.Are they disgusted with me? “What the hell do you mean so what?”

“I mean so what?”Ryker gets right in my face so he can see my lips.“Are you mad that you think she’s writing the Kroydon Kronicles or are you pissed she didn’t tell you?”

“Both,”I admit.“I’m pissed she lied.”

“She didn’t lie,”Ryker pushes my chest, and the only thing keeping me from punching him is who he is.“She never said she was or wasn’t the Kronicles. You’ve never talked about it. That’s not a lie.”

She knew how I’d feel about this and still didn’t say anything.

That’s worse than a lie.

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