Wake Me Up (Love Knows No Boundaries) (23 page)

Her
eyes take on that beady look, and her face goes stone hard.

Barry jumps up.
“Calm down, Mum,” he says.

“Don’t tell me what to do, Barry. This is my house
, and here my word is law. Emma is my daughter, and he’s not going to poison her against me,” she snaps.

Aiden moves to stand in fr
ont of me. I suck in a painful breath. I need to try and calm her as well. “He’s not, Mum.”

“
Emma,” Aiden says, “let me handle this.”

I
peek up at him, then at my mother, and I think I’m going to be sick. I grab hold of his arm, and I try to focus on something else, the ink underneath his shirt, just beneath my fingers. I wish I could see it now.

“
Mrs. Walker,” he starts. I cling harder and press my face to his arm so I don’t have to see her. “Emma is not yours. She’s twenty-three, a grown woman. She has a life, one she’s going to live with me. She doesn’t need y’all’s permission. Emma has me,” he says. He faces my mother head on, and my vision goes dark around the edges as I press my face into him.

“You do not come into my house and talk to me like that!” she spits.

Oh God, please help. I know exactly what she looks and smells like now. Her face is distorted with anger and alcohol.

“Mum,” Barry says.

“Take your hands off me!” she screams at Barry, and I snap my head up. She’s never raised her voice to Barry before. She points her finger at me, her whole body is shaking with anger and I shrink back behind Aiden. “If you leave here you are dead to me. Dead.”

“Mu
m?” I whimper.

“Don’t call me that! You don’t know the meaning of the word,” she hisses.

“That’s enough,” Aiden’s voice is deadly soft. He takes a step back and I stumble. His arm goes firmly around me, and he stops me from falling.

I blink
, and prickles run over my head. I watch my mother turn her back to me. Barry’s shaking his head at me, and my father is just staring ahead of him.

I drop my eyes to the floor
. Aiden’s arm is tight around me, and I walk with him. I don’t pick up the suitcase. I don’t want anything from this house. I don’t even want the last bit of air to breathe, so I hold my breath as long as I can, until I’m outside, and then I gasp at the fresh, cold air.

~*~

Aiden takes me straight back to his hotel room. It’s nice. It’s all I can take in at the moment. Oh, and it’s warm. There are flowers, too.

I stand in the small lounge
, looking into the bedroom. I stand with my hands clutched to my chest, because I’m trying to keep my heart from breaking.

When I close my eyes, I see the image of my mother turning her back on me like a horror mov
ie stuck on replay. I can’t believe she did that. She really didn’t love me, not even a little bit. I can’t believe I still had hope after all these years, that maybe she could love me, if I just kept trying every day. I must be the biggest fool.

W
hen Aiden comes out of the room, his jacket is gone. He’s wearing a black sweater and my eyes zoom in on his arm as he pushes the sleeves up to his elbows. I can finally see some of the ink curling around his arm.

He walks right at me
, and I keep still as his eyes lock onto mine. I can’t tell if he’s still upset. I am, so I’m guessing he is. I feel hollowed out, as if someone had taken a blunt object and dug out every last piece of me. His arms fold around me and he draws me against his chest, locking my arms between us.

“Tell me
what you’re thinkin’?”

I have no words of my own so I repeat his, “I need someone to wake me up when this is all over. It’s too hard.”

“Okay,” he whispers. “You wanna go sleep a little, and we’ll talk some more when you wake up?”

“Please,” I whisper
. I’m starting to feel like a zombie. My eyes won’t blink when I want them to. All I can do is stare.

I don’t know how I get to the bed. I can’t remember walking to it.

I only remember feeling gut-wrenchingly sick.

~*~

Chapter Twenty Two

Aiden~

She hasn’t fallen asleep yet. She just stares. I expected her to look like this after they kidnapped her for a whole damn week, not after I save her from her mother.

I don’t understand. She was strong then. She didn’t blink when they could’ve done God-knows-what to her, but now that she’s free, she’s breaking.

Emma
’s body suddenly jerks. Just once.

“
Emma?” I say, a little too loudly, and I push away from the wall where I’ve been standing, watching her.

“Yes,” she croaks. She
starts to blink rapidly.

“Talk to me, s
weetheart,” I say. I kneel next to the bed so I can be eye level with her.

“She ne
ver loved me. Not even a little.” She starts to cry, her breaths coming out in quick little puffs, and it makes my heart break for her. “I tried so hard to do everything she wanted. I just wanted her to love me. Just one percent of what she loves Barry. If she could just once have looked at me the way she looked at him.”

I slide
onto the bed and pull her into my arms. I cradle her against my chest, tucking her head in under my chin, and I let her cry everything out. I don’t talk. I just hold her, caressing her back, then her hair.

“What makes me so unlovable?
” she croaks.

“No, s
weetheart. No. You’re plenty lovable. You’re so easy to love. Just look at me,” I whisper into her hair, “I started lovin’ you from the first moment I saw you, and I’ll be lovin’ you in this life and beyond.”

“It hurts so much, Aiden
.” My eyes burn with tears for her. “It hurts to hate her.”

I hold
her for a long while. I think of ways I’ll have to teach her how life is really meant to be.

“
You wanna put on one of my shirts?” It’s starting to get late. “We’ll go get you some clothes tomorrow morning, first thing.”

She pushes away from me and her face is blank. I can’t read her.

“Sure. Thank you.” Her voice is emotionless, I can’t pick up anything, and it’s starting to worry me. I lean forward and tip her face up to mine.

“Hey
, you?” There’s nothing. She’s switched off. It’s like she’s not in there any more. “Don’t do that. Come back. Don’t go hidin’. It doesn’t help you don’t deal. It’s just all gonna pile up on top of you.”

She gets up and walks to the bathroom, as if
she’s in a daze. I hear her open a faucet, and then I hear a thud. I walk to the bathroom, and when I see her hitting at the wall I rush forward. I pin her arms in mine and she fights me, thrashing wildly. Her breaths are strangled, and I take us to the ground, so I can pin her body better.

She fights for a good few more seconds before she curls into me, crying hard. She needs to, she’ll feel better afterwards.

~*~

I ge
t her into one of my shirts. She curls into a small fetal position, and I frame her with my body. I watch Emma sleep and I wait, but she doesn’t have a nightmare.

I wake up to soft kisses trailing over my chest. Her fingers and mouth are tracing my tattoo.

“How do you feel?” I decide to test the waters first.

“I’ve just woken up next to the man I love. I’m getting to kiss him. I’m going to see you today. Th
at makes me happy.” I can hear she means it.

I swallow hard. She lost her family yesterday. She gave herself only one night to mourn them.

“It’s okay if you’re sad, Emma.”

She looks up at me
, smiling. “I know, but some really smart bloke once told me time is precious. I can’t change yesterday. It doesn’t help to worry about tomorrow, my worrying won’t change the outcome. So I’m going to enjoy now, this second I have with you.”

As great as it sounds, as strong as she so
unds, I can’t help but worry about her. How much can she take before she’ll break?

There’s another thing that’s been worrying me since I saw the weight she’s lost. And the fact that Emma didn’t have a nightmare just adds to the worry. “Did she start you on the Toplep again?” I hold my breath as I wait for her answer.

“She tried. I didn’t take them.” She looks right at me. “I just ate less so she wouldn’t notice, but I didn’t take them. I promise.”

I grind my teeth to keep my anger in. I take a deep breath as I pull her down, back into my arms.

“All that matters now is that I have you. I can finally take care you. It’s just us from here one out.”

~*~

After
breakfast I find her on the balcony. I’m just about to ask her if she’s ready to go shopping when I see the phone pressed to her ear. My heart stops.

“Chloe, stop. I’m really sorry I wasn’t there for you,” she says.

I don’t know if I should be relieved that it’s not her mother, or, damn, I don’t know what? She’s going through hell and she still apologizes for not being there for someone else?

“I’m al
l right. Really.” She takes a breath. “I have something to tell you, but I need you to promise not to get angry with me.”

I frown. Her mother really did a number on
her. She’s scared of other people’s opinions?

“I’m…” She swallows hard. “Aiden’s here. He stood up to my mother and-”

I hear her blow out a breath.

“Really? Yes. Yes, I’m with him now.” She laughs, and it sounds good. I take it Chloe’s response was a good one. “
I’m going back with him.” She blurts the words out fast, and cringes as she waits for the response.

“Don’t cry.” Her voice cracks, and I can’t stand still. “I’ll phone you. We’ll te
xt every day, like we always do.”

I walk out onto the balcony, but before I can put my arms around her sh
e grabs hold of my shirt and buries her face against my chest.

“We’ll be friends forever,” she mumbles against me.
Her shoulders jerk and I hold her tighter. “I’ll let you know what happens. I promise. You know you’re the best, right?”

I think they’re finished, cause she curls into me. A few seconds later she lifts her head, giving me a wavering smile. I don’t know how she does it, where does she put the pain?

“Let me just wash my face,” she says, looking uncomfortable.

“You don’t have to hide what you feel from me. I want you to share the good and the bad with me.”

She smiles again, nodding. I think she’s so used to hiding what she feels that it’s going to take a lot of hard work from my side to get her to open up.

S
peed-shopping with Emma, or so I thought.

Emma
stares at the clothes. Then she glances at me, then back at the clothes.

“Take what
you think is pretty,” I encourage her. I’m sure as hell not going to dress her.

She stands and looks for a few more minutes
before she moves. She takes three pairs of jeans and three shirts, and I watch her count. I get an overwhelming urge to punch something.

“
Emma,” her head snaps up, “do I have to drag you to the nearest court right now and marry you? Will you feel better then?” My voice is too sharp. “I’m going to walk away for a few minutes to calm down. When I come back, please have the clothes you want, and it better be enough to last more than a week. Warm ones! There’s no limit.”

I
know it’s only five a.m. back home, but I phone Zac as I walk out of the store.

He answers after a few rings.
“Morning, give me the news.”

“Hey, Zac.
” I say his name because I need to hear it. I’ve always been the older brother, the strong one in the family, but when he came in after marrying Laurie, I finally had someone I could talk to. He became my older brother. “It got ugly, like dog ugly. I have Emma, but damn that mother of hers, damn her to hell and back.” I hiss the words out.

“Where
y’all at now?” he asks.

“I left
Emma to get some clothes. All but dragged her out of that house without anythin’. As soon as we’re done here I have to find out where the consulate is at, and get her visa sorted.” That’s the only thing I need to worry about right now.

“So I was thinking
, right,” he starts. “She’s a witness to our case. I can say that she has to appear as a witness. They have to let her come if she’s part of an ongoing investigation. I’ve looked into it.”

Everything else becomes
a blur but Zac, and what he’s telling me.

“
Are you telling me to bring her in?” I ask, making sure I heard him right.

“Do you have
a better idea, Aiden?”

No, I don’t. I don’t have one that will get her in
to the U.S. tomorrow. Everything else will take time.

“No, no I don’t.”

“I’ll get Jake on it first thing. We’ll subpoena her as a material witness. I’ll email it to you as soon as I have it. Should be before lunch, my time. You can get her back here with it, just keep that in mind,” he says.

“
Okay. Speak to you later.” I head back to Emma, not feeling any calmer.

I’m going to subpoena her
. Dammit.

~*~

She did as I said and got clothes. She has everything she needs. We even stopped at a
chemist
for her to get her personal stuff. I’m feeling all domesticated right about now.

It comes through after three. I get it printed at the fr
ont desk, and steel myself to face her. I tell myself she’ll understand. I tell myself a lot of things, but the second I walk back into the room I feel like crap all over again. Why does it have to be this way?

S
he’s out on the balcony, looking out at the rain. I glance down at the formal document in my hand and just push through. My heart is pounding as I walk over to her.

“
Emma,” I say. She looks up at me, smiling softly. She must see something on my face. Nerves or confidence, I don’t know which one. “I have a way to get you home fast.” I wait and she doesn’t say anything, her smile doesn’t waver. “I’m going to subpoena you as a witness to testify against Colton and Katia, so they have to let you back into the U.S.”

“Al
l right,” she says. Just like that. “Can I ask a favor, Aiden?”

“Anythin’,” I say
quickly. I’m waiting for the outburst. This means she’ll have to face Colton and Katia in court, she’ll have to testify. Maybe she doesn’t understand.

“Can I see G
ran before I go?” Her smile is still in place. She is too calm, as if we’re standing in the eye of a storm, and I’m waiting for the second wave to come.

“Of course.”

~*~

I take her to see her gran the following day. It’s surprising how fast things get sorted out when the law gets involved. I can take
Emma home. Finally.

The small smile she has playing around her lips is starting to bother me. That something that’s not right,
I think I know what it is. That’s no peaceful look I see in her eyes, it’s too calm. When I wondered how much more she could take before she’d break, I should’ve looked closer. Since Emma lost it in the bathroom, she’s been like this – poker faced. Then there was the goodbye with Chloe, and now her gran.

I have to get her back home. I can protect her better there.

When we get to her gran, there’s a flicker of hope. Emma’s face lightens up. I feel bad for taking her away from her gran, but I’m not leaving her here.

“I heard what
happened, love,” her gran says, and Emma goes straight into her arms. They hold each other. “She’s just stubborn, that one. She’ll come around, you’ll see.”

“She can come around all she wants
, Gran. I’ve finished with her. I have no mother.” I can hear the hate in Emma’s voice.

W
e go in, and it gets really emotional when Emma sits down next to her, holding her hand.

“I’m leaving
, Gran.” Emma’s eyes are alive with love and regret.

“It’s all good. My time is almost up
, and then you would’ve been alone.”

I feel like I should give them this moment
, but I sit rooted. I can’t bring myself to leave Emma, not even for a second.

“Look in that box there,
love.”

Emma
gets the box her gran points to. It’s decorated with butterflies and one big dragonfly. She handles it with care. Her gran opens it with old, shaking hands, and takes a book from it.

“I want you to have this, while it’s still mine to give to you. It’s my most
precious possession.” She hands it to Emma who has that look of awe on her face. She caresses the book.

“It’s your bible,”
Emma whispers.

“My first one. It
’s never let me down. Soon I’ll be up there watching over you.”