Page 86 of Knot for Sale

I’d spent a bit of time already poking around the old mansion, peering into disused rooms and exploring crumblingstaircases. After grabbing a heavy blanket from my guest room, I snuck up to the garret. No renovation had been done up here, and it had a certain creepiness common to forgotten and neglected places. But in my current mood, I was drawn to the sloping ceilings and cramped space.

I didn’t know what I’d expected out of the reunion. More, or maybe less. I hadn’t expected Nana Allen to be as angry about what Tommy had done as she was. Yet I didn’t get the feeling that she was angry on my behalf, exactly. More like she was angry on her own behalf—like what he’d done tomehad been disrespectful toher.

Trying to think about it hurt, so I stopped thinking at all and just huddled in my blanket in the cramped, angular gap between the floor and the sloped roof.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when footsteps clomped up the wooden stairs and the door creaked open. The reassuring scent of amber and myrrh wafted in.

“There you are, sweetheart,” Curran said. “Did the others let you hide away up here all alone?”

I nodded, not meeting his eyes.

“Your gran’s back home safe,” he went on. “She’s well fierce, but she’s also kind of a lot to deal with. Can’t imagine tryin’ to live with her, if I’m being honest. So, are you doin’ all right after all of that?”

My throat squeezed, like I was choking.

“No,” I rasped, my voice breaking on the word.

He crouched in front of me, callused fingers stroking my short hair back from my temple. “I figured. Come back downstairs, pet. Being on your own isn’t helping. Not sure it ever has, for you.”

Blinking back the burn of tears behind my eyes, I accepted his hand and let him pull me to my feet, still wrapped in the fuzzy blanket. I wasn’t sure what he thought he and the otherscould do to fix my fucked-up past, but as I followed him down the narrow stairs with my slender fingers clasped in his broad ones, I felt a tiny bit of the burden of carrying everything by myself slip away.

Maybe... as long as I was here, sheltering with Elijah among Gabriel’s pack... I could let myself lean on them. Let myself surrender, at least partially.

Just for a bit.

FORTY

Emma

CURRAN LED ME down to the pleasant living room that lay on the opposite side of the second floor from the guest bedrooms. Elijah was hunched at one end of the couch with his elbows resting on his knees, looking thoughtful. Gabriel was pacing, and Onyx was propping up the wall next to the massive marble fireplace.

“Found her,” Curran announced, as the others turned to look at us.

It was terrifying how quickly being back in their presence chased my sick panic away. I was in London, up to my neck in my family’s disgusting business. I was once againEmma Huntwellinstead ofEmma Hope. And yet... here and now, with this pack, I felt safe.

It wasn’t just the security guards and the bollards at the end of the road. The safety I needed wasn’t physical. It was emotional.

The kind of safety I’d never had before.

Gabriel came to a stop when we entered the room. He frowned, scanning my face, and apparently not liking whatever he saw there.

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