Page 11 of Desperate Victory

Interestingly, Karagiani still said nothing at all as I collected my purse. “Did he have a phone?”

Pretty Boy nodded to where the weapons had been laid out on the coffee table. Yes, there was a phone. I picked it up and studied it then waited for it to ask for facial ID. It didn’t. Just wanted a passcode.

Disappointing.

We’d figure it out later.

“Em, you want another coffee?”

She was staring at Karagiani again, but Ezra actually moved into her line of sight and broke it. I threw him a smile. There was more stiffness to his motion than I cared for, but I would get a good look at his chest later.

Blowing out a breath, Emersyn glanced at me, then shook her head. “Not really sure I could drink it.”

“Come with me while I make mine?”

She gave me just a small reproachful look but I didn’t back off on the offer. In my opinion, Em was one of the strongest people I’d ever known. She’d had to be, to survive everything her family had put her through.

Thankfully, she offered no argument and followed me into the kitchen. The silence from the other room was more telling than anything. Karagiani had a broken arm and he wasn’t making a sound. Pretty Boy was ready to gut him, but he wanted answers for Em.

Ezra? I’d never seen him so angry. He could barely take his gaze off Karagiani. Then again, he’d been the one to hire him to look after me.

I tilted my head back and closed my eyes.

“Hey,” Em said as she slipped an arm around my waist. I leaned into her, accepting the offer of support. “We’re okay.”

Yes. We were. We stood like that for a long moment. “We are okay,” I repeated. “We’re going to keep being okay.”

“Of course we are,” she said. “Because who would dare argue with us?”

It was my turn to chuckle. “Every single man we’re involved with and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“You have a point.” Still, we didn’t pull away from each other. I needed the comfort as much as I needed to offer it.

“I talked to Tally today,” I told her. She knew what Tally had done, and who she was involved with. It had been Em who said she didn’t believe Tally could know who King really was or how it would affect us.

She was right, but I just couldn’t find it in me to forgive it. Gross oversight or no, Tally’s choices had hurt people I loved. I wasn’t sure I could ever forgive them or her.

“I’m sorry,” Em murmured. “That had to be hard.”

I nodded. Tally and Emersyn were my oldest friends. Emersyn had been my secret best friend and Tally had been my public one. Neither ever begrudged the other. Even now, I suspected I could call Tally for help and she would drop everything.

It didn’t change anything and that was the part that left regret souring in my stomach. I was still turning that over in my head when Em started making the coffee.

“I was going to do that,” I told her and she gave me a small smile.

“I know. But we take care of each other. It’s what we do.”

Yes, it was. “I’m sorry you found him here.” This piece of her past that brought her uncle to mind.

“I’m sorry he’s anywhere near you.” The fierce declaration made me smile.

“You know,” I told her. “It occurs to me that he’s made a grave mistake.” She didn’t ask me what it was and I didn’t have to explain. After the coffee was ready, I took a sip and we stayed in the kitchen long enough for Em to pull herself together again.

The scars were there. The places where the knitted together tissue of her life pulled taut. She’d survived so much brutality and betrayal. More, she’d begun to thrive and I hated that anything threw a wrench at her, much less something like this.

At the same time, I marveled at the way she gathered her composure. When we walked back out to the living room, she seemed far more like her. Karagiani, however, was bleeding from more wounds.

Ezra’s knuckles were bruised and bloody. Funnily enough, Pretty Boy looked neither annoyed nor moved. Karagiani listed hard to the right, but defiance was still etched into his face.