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

Chapter 37

Chapter

Thirty-Seven

Emery

I’m at my desk with my legs crisscrossed beneath me when my phone rings. I glance down at it, hoping it’s Quinn or Yvette, but finding it’s Shelli Adler. I groan. If Stella told her that Quinn and I are back together, I am going to beat her up as soon as she has my niece or nephew.

I feel kind of bad for being so excited for my sister’s baby when I already have two nephews and a niece, but it is what it is.

No one ever really expects me to do what’s considered right.

“Hello?” I answer as I pause my current progress on a threat risk detector for one of my companies out in Nantucket.

“Hey there, Emery Brooks,” she sings, and I roll my eyes. I like Shelli just fine; she’s spoiled and likes to get her way, but she makes my brother happy. She’s a damn good mom and a great sister to Quinn. So, she’s okay in my book. She’s not Posey, who I would literally carry a baby for, but that was shut down by my man.

He-he. My man.

“Yes, Shelli Adler-Brooks.”

She giggles softly. “Will you be Brooks-Adler when you marry my brother?”

No, I’ll be Emery Adler, but I don’t tell her that. “Is this why you’re calling, Shelli? I am a very busy woman and don’t have time to be gossip fodder in your group text with our siblings.”

She gasps. “Who told you? Stella! I knew we should have left her out!”

I laugh. “No, I’m a hacker and stalk all of you.”

“What?” she asks, a little bit of fear in her voice. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Not at all.”

“That’s not okay.”

“Well, be nice, or I’ll leak all those texts between you and my brother,” I tease because I’m not stalking any of them.

The only person I stalk is Quinn.

“You wouldn’t!”

I snort. “I’m kidding, but it’s awesome to know you and my brother sext.”

“We are happily married. How do you think we make babies?”

“ Oh my God , Shelli, to what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your voice?” I groan loudly.

Her laughter is like kids music, all cheery and sweet. “Mom was telling me that you’ve started doing cybersecurity. I wanted to see if I can schedule a meeting to get you to look at our systems.”

I grimace. “Shelli, I mean this with all due respect, but y’all’s security is nonexistent. I don’t know who this dude Brandley Wilts is, but he sucks. You get what you pay for, and his rates are low because he’s trash.”

I’m met with silence. “Okay, good to know. This means, as a descendant of a player whose jersey hangs in the rafters of Luther Arena, you’ll come help us.”

“I don’t think you asked. I think you just told me to come and help.” She laughs, and I roll my eyes playfully. I never know if we’re being serious or if this is all a joke between her and me. “You do know you can’t afford me.”

“Maybe not Emery Brooks, hacker extraordinaire. But Emery Brooks—whose diapers I changed and who my brother is going to marry—she, I can afford.” I snort at that. “So, tomorrow? Lunch?”

I agree on a groan just as someone knocks on the front door. I furrow my brows since I’m not expecting anyone, and if it were Quinn, he’d just walk in. As I head toward the door, Shelli tells me, “Hoping this wedding is called off soon so we can plan the one we all want to attend. Toodles, sis.”

The phone goes dead as I reach for the door, shaking my head. I haven’t even processed Shelli’s words before my gaze falls on Yvette. She stands before me, her arms wrapped around her middle, her eyes wide and full of apprehension. “Hey?”

She pushes past me. “We have a problem.”

“What’s wrong?” I ask, turning around and shutting the door behind me.

When Yvette faces me, tears spill from her eyes as she shakes her head. “She’s not going to call it off. It doesn’t matter what Quinn or I say.”

Blood drains from my body as I gawk at her. “She has to. Quinn is ending this. I don’t know what his plan is, but he wants us. We were just talking about having kids, so you best talk to your girl and get her to take the money.”

“You don’t understand.” Once more, Yvette shakes her head, her tears falling quicker.

“Ava called me crying ’cause her dad called and said her ailing grandma wants to see Ava walk down the aisle before she dies. They don’t think she has much more time, and he’s insisting they move the wedding up to this weekend.”

God forgive me. “Sorry, Granny, but I don’t give two shits Dean Winchester could come out of the damn TV and say, ‘Damn it, Emery, marry me.’ And I still would choose Quinn. He is mine.”

But even as I say the words, I can’t bring myself to believe them. I know Quinn; he’s got a heart of gold. He’ll marry Ava for the dying grandma. The fucking sap.

My sap, but damn it!

“You’re really chaotic, do you know that?”

“Well aware,” I say with a shrug. “Have you talked to her?”

“No,” she tells me, more tears and some snot ruining her makeup. “She wouldn’t let me speak. She’s so worried that Quinn won’t agree because of you.”

“He won’t,” I say, more like a prayer than a statement. “Why didn’t you tell her what we discussed? If she loved you, she wouldn’t be doing this to you. This is insane.”

Her ice-blue eyes narrow. “She loves me very much, and I know that. It’s just that she also loves her family.”

“I get that, but what is wrong with her family? They are musicians! Surely they know it’s okay to be gay. Love is love!”

“They’re old-school Southern,” she sobs. “They’ve never been accepting. Ava and I have been together since we were thirteen.”

How tragic. “And you never came out?”

“We did,” she says, her tears still falling. “And they shut us down. My parents are fine, supportive, but hers don’t want to hear or see it.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Life isn’t fair.”

Preach, sister. “You have to talk to her,” I stress, holding her watery gaze. “You guys don’t need anyone but each other. Don’t you believe that?”

“I do!” she yells, her hands shaking at her sides. “But she doesn’t.”

“Then she doesn’t deserve you, Yvette.”

She grabs the sides of her head and yells in such a soul-wrenching way, my eyes water. I watch as she crouches down, squeezing her eyes closed and shaking. My heart sinks into my gut as I witness her pain, and I feel the need to help her.

Great. Now, I’m a sap.

I close the distance between us and wrap my arms around her trembling body. I know I just met her, but I hold her close as she sobs in my arms. She leans her head into my arm, and I lean mine into hers. It’s a very friendly hug, and I know we aren’t friends, but I can’t let this woman sob like this in the middle of the living room. She’s breaking my heart that just got put back together. If I hated Ava before, I truly despise the woman now. How dare she make this sweet woman cry like this?

I pat Yvette’s back, and she hiccups before pulling back to meet my eyes with her watery blues. She’s so heartbreakingly beautiful. “What if I tell her to choose, and she chooses to go through with the wedding?”

I cup her face and run my thumbs along her cheeks. Why do I care so much? This woman is a means to an end, but I want her to know her worth. I don’t want her to know this kind of pain; I want her to see that she deserves to be loved by someone who would do it freely.

Like how I love Quinn and he loves me.

Tears burn my eyes as I think about how this might have been how Quinn felt when I walked away, throwing his love back in his face. How he couldn’t even focus on school because of how scared I was of not being enough for him. Yvette just wants to be loved by the only girl she’s ever loved. I get it, and I feel for her. But damn it, this girl could have the world.

“Then you walk away, and you mourn the years you gave to her. Don’t hate her, but mourn your loss. And then you move on, because someone out there will snatch you up in a second and love you more than you know how to love yourself.” Her lip wobbles, and I give her a soft smile. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Yvette’s eyes widen as I pull her up. “Where?”

“To y’all’s place. I’m sure Quinn is there.”

“But—”

“But nothing. This ends now.”