He hadn't answered my question. Come to think of it, I'd asked twice, and both times, he hadn't answered. I swallowed more beer, suddenly insanely thirsty and getting edgy on top of that. I bit my lip and peered at him over the lip of the glass bottle. "Emmaishere, though, right?"
"Well," Dain looked around like he might see her lurking. "Yeah, of course. She stepped out for more drinks, but she should be back." He gave me his full attention again. "For now, it's you and me. Emma seems to have a great time with you in Thornwind, and she's told me so much about you." Dain had one of those faces that looked simultaneously baby-like and perpetually middle-aged, so I had no idea what his real age was.
All I knew was that he was creeping me the fuck out. I pulled three big swallows of my beer and put it down on a butterfly-printed coaster. That did not scream Emma to me. She was a little grunge, a little feminine, and a lot of sass. She was not seventy-six years old with a hummingbird-watching hobby. Feeling uneasy, I stood from the couch. "Can I use your bathroom?"
"Sure thing," Dain smiled. He gestured for me to follow him deeper into the house.
My stomach grumbled with some kind of warning at that. But I knew this guy. He was Emma's boyfriend. He wasn't some stranger. Right? I followed him, passing by a gaming setup in an office to the right—that must be Emma's—and he led me to a powder room just past the kitchen. "Thanks," I smiled.
He stood just outside the door. When I closed it, I didn't hear him move away. As I sat on the closed toilet lid, my vision gave a concerning little side-tilt, like I was on a carnival ride, and I looked around the powder room with a worried gaze. Burgundy towels monogrammed with cursive Ls hung from the small towel rack, and the bathmats matched the towels. Emma's last name was Vanderbilt, but I didn't know what Dain's was.
Seriously,reallybizarre, this house. It almost looked like it belonged to a much older couple. As I sat on the toilet, too nervous to pee and suddenly way too woozy for five sips of beer, a horrifying thought occurred to me.
The gaming setup wasn't Emma's. Hers was pink. I knew because she'd sent me pictures before. Breathing faster now, I picked up my phone and pulled up Ruth's number. No, she was busy. Clearly. Rook had occurred to me first, but we were fighting. I was getting space from him. A knock sounded on the door softly. "Gemma?" Dain asked. "Are you okay? Do you need help?"
Do I need help?I thought with crazed incredulity.
This wasn't safe. Red flag after red flag had been thrown at my feet, but I'd ignored them until I'd found myself trapped in the powder room with a man I wasn't even sure was still dating Emma. And if she had texted me the address, then that meant…
"I'm sure you're wondering where Emma is," Dain said on the other side of the door.
Slowly, quietly, I stood, and trying to make it as surreptitious as possible, I clicked the lock into place. "Yes, I am, Dain," I said. But my words slurred. My vision was going blurry.Shit. Shit. Serious, fucked-up shit.
"I'm sorry," Dain admitted. "She made a new account a while back. But she left it logged-in on my computer after she left."
"Oh my God," I squeezed out, feeling my chest tighten and my lungs work for air. But it was like I was doing it from far away, and the world was receding from my sight. I started to float away from my body.
"We've been friends for months, Gemma," Dain said, his voice pleading. "You like me. We play Thornwind together almost every day."
I fell hard against the wall, my legs going numb. Desperately, I pulled up Rook's number, but I could barely see it, let alonetype words. With trembling fingers, I did the only thing I could think to do. I shared my location with him, mashed the keyboard with whatever nonsense my fingers could conjure, and then I hit send.
My hand went numb and dropped the phone. As it clattered to the ground, I heard Dain from the other side of the door, this time louder, like he'd pressed his mouth right up to the crack of the door.
"You already love me, Gemma."
Then my world went dark.
Chapter thirty
Knox
Rule #10: Respect your roommate's privacy.
Iwent up to an empty apartment, and it was the worst feeling I'd had in a very long time. No enormous beast of a dog greeted me. No lamb mewled. Gemma didn't assault me with some harebrained scheme for our evening. It was deathly quiet, and I wondered how I had endured it for so long.
I took off my shoes at the entrance. I made myself a post-workout smoothie, although the workout itself had gotten cut short, and Spencer had left with Arabella after I'd hung up with Gemma. I showered and got dressed in comfortable athletic pants and a T-shirt.
Then I stood in the middle of my room and wondered what the fuck I was doing. This wasn't right. This was Gemma's home just as much as it was mine, and the fact that she had felt chasedfrom it burned in my gut like a swallowed cinder. I didn't care if it made me an overbearing bastard, but I had to get a hold of Gemma and tell her to come home. I wouldn't have her pushed out of her safe place. I could stay with Spencer or stay in a hotel for as long as Gemma needed, but I wasn't going to let her run.
That decided, I paced into my dark living room and called Ruth. She picked up on the second ring. "Hello?" she asked breathlessly.
I pulled the phone away from my ear and frowned at it before asking, "Ruth? Is that you?"
The sound of Cal groaning in the background preceded him shouting, "Make it stop! For God's sake!"
Apparently ignoring him, Ruth said, "Yes, hi, it's me. What's up, Dr. Rook?"
"Knox," I corrected. "Is Gemma there with you?"
