Lost the Handle (Nashville Assassins: Next Generation #8)

Chapter 24

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Emery

What am I doing? I’ve never actually had to put my hands on anyone except in self-defense class because my reputation precedes me. My heart is galloping in my chest. My whole body is shaking as my mind goes into overdrive. How dare she put her hands on him! I realize we were caught in a compromising situation, but use your voice before your hands.

Didn’t her dad teach her that?

Mine did.

Though, I’m ignoring that completely as I hold her hair back and have her wrists pressed into the wall. Ava’s eyes are dark, cunning, as she thrashes against me, trying to get me to let her go, but I want her to know I mean business.

“Do you understand?” I ask as calmly as I can.

“Quinn, get this crazy bitch off me!” she yells, but I press her body into the wall even harder.

“I’m not fucking around, Ava. Do you understand? Do not put your hands on him again. If I find out that you have, I’ll do worse.”

“Is that a threat?” she sneers.

I chuckle. “No, bitch. That’s a whole-ass promise.”

“Let me go!”

I hold firm as I look over my shoulder. Quinn is gawking at me, his mouth wide and his eyes even wider. “Are you okay?” I ask, my voice firm but also a bit a little shaky.

He holds his palms up. “I’m fine. Let her go.”

I don’t want to. I’d rather throw her into the wall a few times, but then I hear my name and it’s not Quinn doing the speaking. It’s my dad. I tense up as he closes the distance to me in three strides before snaking his arm around my waist and pulling me to his chest. “Quinn, get your fiancée out of here. I’m tired of this bullshit.”

“Dad, he didn’t do anything wrong,” I say, but Dad shakes his head. “She put her hands on him,” I explain.

Dad whips his gaze back to where they stand. With the way he’s holding me, I’m unable to see who he is really looking at. “The hell? What is wrong with you?”

Ava fixes her scrubs as Quinn says, “It was a misunderstanding. Everything is fine.”

I gawk at him. “What the hell!” I roar. “She put her hands on you. Don’t accept that behavior, Quinn!”

“I am going to handle it,” he insists, his eyes urging mine to calm down. “Everything is fine.”

“Nothing is fine!” I yell, my eyes clouding with tears. “You’re marrying someone who puts her hands on you, Quinn. What is wrong with you? You are better than this.”

“Enough!” Dad yells, shaking me a bit. His eyes cut to Quinn’s. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but figure out what you want or leave my daughter alone.”

“Dad, no. Stop!”

Remorse and pain fill Quinn’s face as he slowly nods. He looks down at the floor, like a kicked fucking dog, and it makes me ragey. “Yes, sir.”

“This isn’t you!” I yell, shaking my head. “Don’t you see she is ruining you?”

“Em, please,” he asks, his blue eyes lifeless as they meet mine. “You don’t understand.”

“Then make me understand,” I say, pulling free of my dad’s grip. He can’t contain all this crazy, and I almost fall into Quinn. I take hold of his hands, squeezing them. “What is happening to you? Let me help.”

He swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he holds my gaze. “Everything is fine.”

“No—”

He squeezes my hand, stroking his thumb over mine. “Trust me.”

His command is like being dunked in an icy lake. I feel his words everywhere. They take my breath away and leave me frozen. Because I do trust him. I trust him with my whole heart, but I don’t trust her—or the hold she has over him.

I knew something wasn’t right the moment he told me he was marrying her. I don’t believe for a second he loves her or even wants her. She has to be blackmailing him, and I don’t care if I have to sell my left foot, a kidney, and my pinkie on the black market—or, better yet, cross the line I have drawn for myself and steal all her family’s money to help him out of it—but I will.

I’ll do anything for him.

Because no one can convince me otherwise. I know Quinn Adler loves me.

Even as he stands there, staring down at me, caressing my thumb with his, I know he wants no one but me. Our connection is too damn strong, and no matter what, he is a part of me. My eyes burn into his as I whisper, “Please.”

He clenches his jaw, his throat working as he looks down at me. “Trust me.”

I shake my head. “Quinn?—”

But then he lets go of my hand and nods at me like I know what the hell he is about to do. Ava takes his hand in hers, and he goes with her, leaving me wholly confused. What just happened? Did he just choose her over me? Again?

Am I truly that surprised? I chose a life without him; why the hell would he choose me?

Because he fucking loves me.

Damn it.

I have to fix this. I have to figure this out. I can’t do life without him. I tried, and it was a clusterfuck. I need him. I start to follow after them, ready to go for round two, when Dad takes hold of my arm, stopping me. I watch as our families part like the Red Sea and let Quinn and Ava through. Everyone looks uncomfortable, confused, and angry.

Which is everything I’m feeling.

Tears explode out of me, streaming down my face as I turn on my dad. “I had it under control!”

“You were two seconds from catching a charge! She’s the type to put you in jail. Gets you out of the way so she can have him.”

I shake my head, and when he tries to hug me, I push him away. My eyes find Elli, who is watching with her hands clutched around Shea’s. “This isn’t right. Something…she has something on him,” I say between sobs.

Apparently, everyone agrees, but no one knows what to say. A whole blended family that is built on honor and love, but no one knows how to help him? This is ridiculous!

Overwhelmed and utterly pissed, I yell, “We have to help him!”

“Emery, I’ve tried. I don’t know—” Elli’s voice breaks, and my heart hurts in my chest.

Dad takes hold of me once more, wrapping me in his embrace. “Sweetness, we can’t help someone who doesn’t want help.”

I know his words are true, but that doesn’t mean I have to accept them.

No. I’m Emery Elaine Brooks. I’m considered the crazy baby of the family. I’m almost a billionaire before the age of twenty-five, I have two businesses, and I’m a brilliant hacker. That’s right. I am. I can find out anything I want to know. I will figure out what is going on, and once I do, Ava won’t see me coming.

Well, she might hear me, but it won’t matter.

Because she has fucked with the wrong woman.

A woman who didn’t fight for the man she loved before, but now, one who won’t ever back down.