A Little Harmless Rumor (10 page)

J
aime watched
Emma work on her laptop, still stunned by the turn of events. Sean had always been secretive, but as their relationship had progressed, she thought he had been more open. Now, she knew there were probably other things he had kept hidden from her. The fact that he knew Royce was her father was bad enough. She wondered just how long Sean had kept that little secret.

“Is there a reason you keep staring at me?” Emma asked, not taking her attention away from the screen.

Jaime still wasn’t sure how to take Emma. Sean might have been secretive, but he had always been so giving with his affection. Emma seemed to be the direct opposite. “No. I’m just wondering how many other secrets your brother has.”

“And your father. I understand being irritated with Sean, but he had no idea until after you dumped him. He had no reason to tell you.”

It took a few seconds for Jaime to catch on to the dig. There was no anger in Emma’s voice, and she continued to work as if she hadn’t just blamed Jaime for hurting Sean.

“I don’t believe you should be passing judgment on things you know nothing about.”

She shrugged and continued to pound on the keys. “I know he didn’t feel comfortable enough about contacting you. That’s enough.”

“He was trying to protect me.”

Emma finally turned to face her. “He doesn’t think you can handle it.”

That slap hurt more than the last one. “I can handle it.”

“You can’t have it both ways. He didn’t trust you, or he thinks you are a liability. Either way, just know this: If you hurt him again, I will ruin your life.”

Jaime snorted, but her smile faded when Emma kept staring at her. “Did you just threaten me?”

Emma didn’t hesitate giving her answer. “Yes.”

“I was trained to kill with my bare hands.”

The younger woman studied her. “And I not only took out Sean but also Delano. They are bigger.”

“You would have to get the jump on me.”

“Ah, but see, that’s where I got you beat. I might not be as good in a physical confrontation, but I can ruin your life online. I am a world class hacker.”

From the way she talked, Jaime was pretty sure Emma was proud of her threat.

“Before you knew what happened, I will have erased your entire life. The one I will give you will force you to hide. No way to travel or earn money. Stranded with a name that will be a weight around your neck. So, just remember that. Oh, and tell Randy he’s on the line too. I will not hesitate to ruin you both if you hurt him.”

Jaime studied the younger woman and realized that she was being dead honest. She would do anything to protect her brother. It kind of irritated her, but knowing Emma cared so much about Sean was heartwarming. They had both lost so much early in life, and it was good that they could have each other.

“Understood.”

“Good.”

Emma turned back to her computer and started to work again. She was definitely an odd duck, but she could handle that. Emma was honest and that was something Jaime found priceless.

Sean came back into the room and looked at Emma with a frown. “What are you doing?”

“Checking stuff.”

Sean must have been accustomed to answers like that because he took it in stride.

“Del said he’s ready to take you to Cat’s.”

Emma said nothing as she continued to work. Sean looked at Jaime. “So nice to be paid attention to.”

The sigh Emma released told Jaime she was irritated with having to explain herself. Jaime was pretty sure Emma rarely had to do that.

“Emma?” Sean asked.

“You said we couldn’t find Lassiter. I’m looking for him.”

Sean moved closer, as did Jaime.

“You have a bead on him?” Sean asked.

She shook her head and glanced at Jaime.

“Well, don’t start being considerate. I wouldn’t know how to react,” Jaime said, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

“It isn’t that I am not considerate. It’s that I don’t always know how to act in social situations. You, on the other hand, do, and so you are the one being inconsiderate,” Emma said.

Jaime blinked. She had just been talked down to by a little slip of a girl. Well, not girl, but a tiny woman.

“Listen, we don’t have time for this,” Del said. “What do you have, Taylor?”

For some reason, Emma’s ruffled feathers seemed to calm. She drew in a deep breath and answered. “It’s that there is no activity at all. Nothing on his credit cards or passport. You gave me three names…does he have any more than that?”

Sean looked Jaime. “Do you know of any?”

She shook her head, realizing what Sean had said was definitely possible. Royce was missing.

“Do you have anyone else to contact?” Emma asked.

“No.” She cleared her throat, but the knot was still there. “Not really. You know how he works, Sean.”

Randy walked in. “What’s up?”

“Royce is really missing.”

He glanced at Sean. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Not just off the grid but truly missing,” Sean said.

“Now, don’t get all mental on me,” Emma said. “I said the chances are high that he is missing. But, if I know anything about Royce Lassiter, it’s that he is always working the game. Just give me a few hours and I can make sure.”

“You need to do it at Cat’s though,” Del said. Del and Sean shared a look that told her there was a lot more going on.

Emma frowned. “I want to continue working here.”

“Too bad, Taylor,” Del said.

Emma didn’t spare him a glance. She turned to face the computer and started working again. Sean apparently knew how to handle her. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. She paused in what she was doing and closed her eyes. After a few seconds, she seemed to gather herself and opened her eyes.

“Okay.”

Del stepped in at that point. Jaime had only just met the man, but she didn’t think this was normal behavior for him. He seemed preoccupied with Emma, but then, the woman did break his nose. If Jaime had been in his position, she would keep a keen on Emma.

“Let’s go, Taylor.”

Emma slanted the man a dirty look. “I don’t like that you talk to me like I am a recruit,” she said as she hit a few more keys, then shut the top to her laptop.

Del said nothing to that as he waited, he looked at Sean and nodded. Sean let loose a breath and Jaime realized that during all of this, Sean had had one worry, and that had been Emma.

Jaime didn’t exactly know how to feel about that, but she wanted to know more. Once they were alone, Randy and she could make sure they learned the whole story.

I
t took
than less than ten minutes for Sean to get Emma out the door and on her way with Del. He hadn’t had enough time with her, and he was already regretting making her go off to hide. It was the best thing for both of them to get her out the door and off with Del. Still, he wanted her there where he could see her.

He sighed as he watched Del’s taillights disappear around the curve.

When he turned around, he found Randy and Jaime studying him with identical expressions. “What?”

Randy grinned. “It’s kind of cute seeing the way you act around her.”

“Yeah. If I didn’t know any better, I would say you had the makings of a great father in you,” Jaime said.

“Agreed,” Randy returned.

He felt his cheeks heat. “Stop.”

He walked past them and into the house. They followed him, shutting the door with a definite click. He heard the front door alarm being set. It was already getting late, and they had figured waiting until tomorrow night to go out would be best.

“No, really. You seem to handle her well,” Jaime said.

“You sound surprised.”

She shrugged. “Not really, but…yeah I am. You are often impatient.”

That was nothing short of the truth. He had always had a bad temper. But, Emma had changed him somehow. “I had a few months to learn how to deal with her. I knew she had issues, I just didn’t know how much she had been through. Plus, if you think Del looks bad, you should have seen me.”

“She wasn’t that easy to deal with.”

He made his way to the kitchen.

“What was it like?” Randy asked.

“What?”

“With her, when you first found her…what was it like?”

He thought back to that week. The rush to get them both to safety, then the discovery of who she was to him and it was a blow. The constant fear of her being hurt, of trying to figure out if Lassiter had sold them out…it had all taken a toll on him.

“At first, I didn’t know who she was. There was something so oddly familiar about her. I didn’t know what it was, but her eyes…” he shook his head.

“She has your eyes,” Jaime said.

He nodded. “But I didn’t make that connection—not at first. Of course, being knocked unconscious might have something to do with it. Damn near felt like I had my brains scrambled.”

“Your dad had green eyes?” Randy asked.

“Yeah, I guess. I don’t remember him at all, but it is one thing we have in common.”

“But other things must have happened,” Jaime said, filling the teakettle with water.

“Yeah. She has issues.”

“I noticed,” Jaime said.

“She’s pretty smart, but her social skill set is in need of some work. She was even worse when we first met. It comes from being mainly homeschooled by her parents. She has off-the-chart IQ numbers, but she has issues with people. So, they decided to enroll her in a correspondence school. Her mother was apparently brilliant too. Dad worked all over Southeast Asia, and it made it easier for them to travel.”

“What did your dad do?” Jaime asked.

“Something with electronics. A lot of the patents are for things to do with computers. Most of it I don’t understand, even after Emma explained it to me.”

“I’m still trying to wrap my mind around surviving something like the Tsunami,” Randy said.

Sean nodded. “Yes, and that situation just made things worse. Trusting is not something she is good at.”

“Color me surprised,” Jaime murmured, and Sean smiled.

“Yeah, the first time I met her, she hit me with a two-by-four, handcuffed me, then interrogated me when I finally came to.”

“Still, I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her after the disaster,” Randy said.

Of course he wouldn’t, because he had a good relationship with his family. “They were her whole world.”

“Then she lost them in the Tsunami,” Jaime said with a shiver.

“Yes. I don’t know how she did it, but she picked up and went on.”

“And she really had no idea she was rich?” Randy asked.

“No. None. Remember, she was only fifteen at the time. I’m sure my father thought he had plenty of time to talk to her. After they died, Thailand was a mess. Remember how long it took to get aid? I don’t even want to think about what she went through.”

There was a beat of silence and then the kettle blew.

“Anyone want any tea?”

Both Randy and he declined, to which they were labeled as unappreciative Americans. They shared a look as she doctored her drink and sat down next to Randy at the kitchen bar.

“So, you aren’t mad at your father?”

He shrugged. “I was in the beginning, but that’s a waste. I could be pissed at him forever, but it doesn’t let me face him down and ask why. Also, when I got to know Emma, it really didn’t matter.”

“Yeah, about that? What did you say to her?” Randy asked.

“I reminded her that we would get our vengeance on Letov.”

“That’s important to her?” Jaime asked.

“Yeah. For Emma, being kidnapped was…well for people who don’t have some of her issues it would have been horrible. For her, she almost had a meltdown. When she has them, they are not pretty, and she gets embarrassed. She really wants us to make Letov cry. And she wants video of it.”

Randy smiled. “That tells me she really
is
your sister.”

“Do you know what will happen when you get this all resolved?” Jaime asked.

Sean shook his head. “Not really. We haven’t talked about it. Our focus is getting through this; afterwards, we said we would talk it all out. I’m assuming that she won’t want to live on an island after her experience, but she never does quite what I expect her to.”

Jaime chuckled. “I can appreciate that.”

Sean felt his smile fade. “I’ll completely understand if you both want to stand down. This truly isn’t your fight.”

Randy said nothing, but Jaime’s eyes narrowed. “Indeed?”

Damn, another misstep, but he didn’t know exactly how to get his point across to them. So, he decided that honesty was the best way.

“Protecting Emma is part of who I am. I love her, although, it wasn’t easy to do in the beginning. But, it is my duty to keep her safe. We’re family, and the only ones we’ve got. She got pulled into this mess not by me but because she is related to me.”

“And you think we’re just going to walk away, leave you here to fight this on your own?”

The moment she said it, his temper ignited. “It’s what you’re good at.”

She looked as if he had hit her. “How dare you say that to me?”

“Listen, I get the whole, let’s let things go and forget about the past. But I didn’t know what to expect and you can’t expect me to trust either of you fully again. You both walked away from me, and you explode back into my life like all is to be forgotten. Well, it’s going to take a little time for me to get over that.”

She opened her mouth, but Randy stepped in. “He’s right, Jaime. Neither of us treated you very fairly.”

Jaime turned around to face Randy. “What?”

“Fuck, Jaime, he asked you to marry him and me to move in with him. The moment he did, we both split. If I were in the same spot, I would be leery of both of us.”

She sighed as Randy walked to stand in front of Sean. He cupped Sean’s face and looked him in the eye. “But know this. We are here to stay. We are not leaving; we will get you through this. If anything, you know that we have your back. We both want more…and I know you do as well. Just get used to the fact that we are here, and we are staying.”

Randy didn’t wait for Sean to respond. Instead, Randy leaned forward to brush his mouth over Sean’s. He deepened the kiss and Sean felt it then. Everything Randy had said, everything that Sean felt, was right there for him, for all of them. Sean wrapped his arms around Randy and deepened the kiss. They pulled back and both of them looked at Jaime. She hesitated until Sean held his hand out to her. She came willingly and he pulled her close, kissing her.