Page 95 of When He Defends
He was in love.
Emerson’s panties were in Gray’s pocket. He hadn’t meant to take them as a souvenir. Not like they were a trophy. He wasn’t one of the serials that he hunted. Truly, he wasn’t. No matter what the gossip might claim. But after he’d accidentally ripped her panties, it hadn’t been like she could put them back on, and he certainly hadn’t been in the mood to leave her panties for that overly muscled jerk Angel to find.
Angel is on my suspect list, too.He’d already texted Malik a list of individuals to investigate. Hannah, naturally, was at the top of the list. But then there was the bellhop, Justin.The friendly paddleboard guy, Theo. The freaking too attractive Angel. Everywhere he turned, a new suspect walked into his path.
He and Emerson were in agreement that they were after partners. Hannah set off every alarm bell he had, so he knew she was one of the potential killers. He’d bet her partner was a male, and that was why all of the other suspects he’d sent to Malik had been men. Hannah and her partner were probably sleeping together. So the next step was figuring out who seemed particularly interested in Hannah.
Back at the spa, Gray had intended toplaythe role of the jealous lover. Only when Gray had actually entered that small room and seen the other guy so close to Emerson, when he’d thought of Angel putting his hands on her…
Emerson belongs to me.
A savage thought, totally not rational given the situation, he got that.A freaking massage.But…
Maybe he wasn’t a rational guy. Maybe he was too savage. Especially when his emotions were involved.
I love Emerson.He’d realized that fact, well, to be honest, he’d been dancing around the truth since Emerson had taken him down in the training room.
She’d knocked him off his feet, literally. Figuratively. Every single way imaginable. And the tangle of emotion that he felt for her just got stronger with every moment that passed.
Was he still trying to understand her?
Hell, yes.
Still trying to unwrap the many mysteries that made her into the person she was?
Again, hell, yes.
But hewasfiguring her out.
Emerson wasn’t emotionally fragile as Nathaniel Hadaway had claimed. Quite the opposite. She was fierce. Determined.
She was loyal and strong and when he was with her, Gray could imagine a future for himself. One that wasn’t just focused on monsters and killers. He could imagine a future with a little girl on his shoulders. A girl with her mother’s unforgettable eyes.
He wanted it all. A marriage. A home. A family.Emerson.
If he worked hard enough, maybe he could convince her that dream was something she could want, too. He could prove himself to her.
Afterthey stopped the current killers they were after, of course.
“When did you start suspecting Hannah?” Emerson asked. They were on their way to the stables. Horseback riding. The next item that had been posted on River’s social media account during her honeymoon trip.
Gray glanced over his shoulder as they walked along the narrow trail. No one was close by. They could speak freely. Actually, when they’d left the spa room, no one had been around there, either. No sign of Angel.
Not even a person at the spa’s check-in desk.
His senses were on high alert. He had a gun tucked in a holster on his ankle, one hidden beneath the khaki pants he wore. A gun on the right ankle. A knife strapped to the left.
“Gray?”
He stopped in the middle of the trail and angled his head toward her. “I thought that, in order to get the home addresses of the vics, we would be looking for a perp who had full access to the information on all the guests. With her position, I knew Hannah would have that access. The woman is really good at controlling her tells, I noticed that the first time we talked.”
Emerson hummed. “I noticed that, too.”
“She did a half-step retreat today,” Gray remembered. Something that had immediately fired alarm bells in his head. “When you asked about signing the registry.”
“She knew we weren’t a real married couple. She didn’t want us to sign.”
He nodded, agreeing. He could have sworn that he heard some kind of…thunder in the distance. Weird, when the sky was perfectly clear. “It was like she was so physically against the idea of us being in the precious book that she couldn’t handle it. She retreated. An absolute denial. A physical reaction.”
