“You’re a lying little cunt.” He leans down, his face closer to mine. The smell of alcohol on his breath turns my stomach.
“You’re drunk.”
“I can be drunk. I’m at my own house,” he points out as he presses down harder on me. I feel his hard cock press into my stomach. Of course, he’d be turned on. Overpowering women is his thing. “I bet no one even knows you're here.”
“Emma?” I hear Melody call my name. A second later, she’s there. “What’s going on?” she half-screams. Blake pulls himself off me. I gasp, jumping to my feet.
“I should haul your ass in.” Blake glares down at me.
“She was helping me look for Teddy. He got out and I can’t find him anywhere.” The lie slips easily from Melody’s lips. She really has been hanging out with me too much.
“Welp, he’s not here.” I slip past Blake. I keep my voice casual, but my heart's about to burst out of my chest.
“I’m watching you, Emma Charles,” Blake calls after me as I make it to the sidewalk where Melody is standing. I lick the cut I feel on my bottom lip. How the hell am I going to explain that?
“I’vebeenwatching you, Blake Finley,” I say right back. Melody grabs my arm and starts to pull me down the sidewalk.
“So he’s on to you,” she mutters when we make it back to her car.
I just put a giant target on my back. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I suppose it’s better than it being on some other girl’s back.
CHAPTER17
VINCENT
“You wokeup and decided to burn off some extra energy by jogging in the middle of the night. Because it was so dark you tripped and fell on your face on your way back home?” I repeat in disbelief. I’d woken up to find Emma’s side of the bed empty. When I went to check on her, I spotted her outside and went to find out what the hell she was doing lurking around in the dark, dressed like a bank robber. She proceeded to babble some ridiculous story that I wasn’t buying for a second.
Emma nods vigorously. “Exactly. I hope you don’t mind you’re dating a klutz.”
“I’m not worried about that in the slightest.” I’m mad she’s lying to me.
“Great.” She tries to smile but winces in pain.
My anger intensifies. Someone hurt her, and it’s my job to kill whomever did this to her. That she feels like she has to hide the truth tells me that it’s someone she doesn’t want me to know about. Unfortunately, I don't know the people in this town well enough to figure it out. Frank would know, but I don't think I should haul him out of bed in the middle of the night to ask. He’d probably give me a matching split lip.
“Best go inside and get some sleep then.”
She scampers to the door and pauses. “I probably shouldn’t be active tonight with my lip and all.”
“Not to mention your body aches.”
“Yeah but—”
I point to her head. “You have leaves in your hair. You must’ve taken quite the tumble.”
Even though it’s dark, I know she’s flushed. Her hand flies up to her head. “Right. When I fell, some must’ve gotten tangled up in my hair.”
As she enters, I call out softly, “Emma, when you get up in the morning and your mom asks what happened, you should tell her that it was a work incident. It’s more believable.”
Her silence is extra loud. After a long moment, she finally says in a small voice, “Good night, Vincent.”
“Night, babe.”
I watch as her dark form moves past the kitchen door and then down the hall out of my sight. I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight. Who cares if Frank belts me? Better that than to stay up and stew. I walk around to the back of the ranch house and find Frank’s bedroom window. I give it a sharp rap and count to ten. He’s at the glass in seven.
“What the hell are you doing?” he growls.
“Some reconnaissance. Come outside.”