Page 82 of Ravage

“Okay, that seems fair enough.”

Only it didn’t seem fair. I’d finally had a taste of her, and now, I had to decide exactly what I was putting on the line to have her. It felt like we were standing in the middle of her room with a lit match in our hands, and it was only a matter of time before it hit the floor, engulfing us in flames.

And the worst part was, I wouldn’t even try to stop it.

14

EMERY

Icouldn’t believe it finally happened.

My dreams became a reality, and it was more than I’d let myself hope for. Being with Cole was everything. It was hot and overwhelming, tender and sweet at the same time. He took his time, worshipped me like he had nowhere else to be, and left me aching for more. I think there was a part of me that knew it would be like that with him.

That’s why I’d waited.

And he was more than worth it.

It was hard to believe that one of my worst nights was intertwined with one of the best. That was the story of my life. Mayhem and peace came at me hand in hand. Thankfully, the studio wasn’t a complete loss. Coop and the boys spent the better part of the night piecing it back together.

And they’d done an amazing job. You couldn’t even tell that the place had been ransacked. The shelves were straight, the tables had been wiped down, and the pottery wheel was neatly tucked into the back corner. Even the little pieces of dried clay had been mopped from the floor. To anyone else, it probably looked like nothing had happened.

But I could tell.

I walked over to one of the now empty shelves and ran my fingers across the space where several pottery pieces used to be. A little clay turtle, a lopsided yellow bowl, and a tiny house with a crooked roof. None of them were really worth anything, not in the money sense, but they’d belonged to my kids.

They’d worked hard on them, shaping them meticulously with their little fingers, and they were proud of them. They were pieces of their hearts and souls that they could keep forever, and now, they were gone. My voice was strained as I told Cole, “They’re gone.”

“I know.”

“They’d worked so hard on them.”

“I’m sure they did.”

I fought back my tears as I looked down at the empty shelves and muttered, “How could someone do this?”

“It would take a cold heart to pull a stunt like this.”

“It isn’t fair… Those babies didn’t do anything to deserve this.”

“No, they didn’t, but this wasn’t about them.”

“Then, what was it about?”

I turned to face him, waiting for an answer I knew he couldn’t give.

He’d been there most of the morning, helping to make sure everything was back in place, but there was something different about him today. He seemed harder, more guarded, and I wasn’t sure why until he said, “Emery, you can’t stay here.”

“What?”

“You’re going to have to stay with Knox for a while… or the clubhouse.” I could tell by his tone that he wasn’t liking this any more than I was, but that didn’t make hearing it any less difficult. “It’s not safe.”

“So, you don’t think this was random?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Why not?”

“The details aren’t important.”