Page 12 of Ember (Royal Harlots: Yonkers, NY Chapter #1)

“I can’t help it,” she almost shouted. “What if whoever broke into Jack’s place is still there?” she asked.

“Sorry,” she mumbled around her finger.

“Why does his sister think that he wasn’t your stalker?” he asked.

“Because he told her so. After we broke up, he told his sister that he was good with letting me go. She said that his best friend, Keith, was the one who encouraged him to come after me and chase me all the way up here. After a while, it became a game, him trying to get me back, and Keith seemed to be the one playing all of us.”

“Okay, where is this best friend now?” Hurricane asked.

“No clue,” she admitted. “I went home to visit Jean after she was involved in a car accident. That was when I found out that Marco was dead. I asked around about Keith, but no one had seen him.” She paused and looked at her fingernail, making a face at it for not cooperating.

“The real question is—why would Keith even give a fuck about me? I wasn’t dating him or anything.

Do you think that he might have been behind the break-in at Jack’s place? ”

“You’re asking questions that I have no answers for, Ember.” He pulled onto Jack’s street, and she was surprised to see that the cops were already there. But of course they were, since Jack probably called in a few favors.

Hurricane parked his truck in the driveway, and Ember got out and ran into the house, ignoring Hurricane's shouting for her to wait. There was no way that she wanted to wait one more second to find out if Jack was safe or not.

“Jack,” she shouted as she ran into the kitchen. Her things were everywhere, and she wondered why someone would go through her stuff and then toss it around the kitchen.

“Hey,” Jack breathed. He walked into the kitchen from the family room, and Ember was sure that she had never been so happy to see anyone in her life.

“You’re okay,” she whispered.

“Yep, I’m fine. Your stuff has seen better days, though.

” Ember couldn’t help herself. She crossed the kitchen and practically threw herself into Jack’s arms, and of course, he caught her.

He always caught her. Since arriving in town, Jack had been her one constant.

Jack and fear, and with him around, her fear wasn’t as bad.

“Who would do this?” she asked.

“I’m guessing Marco’s friend, Keith, but we can’t be sure.

Until we know what’s going on, you’ll need to stay here with me,” he ordered.

It was almost comical to watch him demanding anything from her.

He reminded her of a little boy who stomped his foot to get his way.

The truth was, she wanted to stay with Jack—forever if he’d allow it, and now was the time to come clean with him.

He deserved that much from her, and probably more.

“I’d like to stay here with you, Jack, but not because someone did all this to my stuff.” She framed his face with her hands, loving the way his beard felt against her palms. She missed touching him, and that wasn’t something that she’d take for granted again.

“I’d like to stay here with you because I have feelings for you too, Jack.” He pulled her up against his body, and Ember forgot that his house was swarming with cops and Royal Bastards. None of that mattered—it was just her and Jack, and that was all she needed.

He broke their kiss, leaving them both breathless. “Well, it’s about fucking time you admitted that,” he teased. He was right—it was about time that she admitted how she felt about him, and from here on out, she was going to remind him daily.

Ember decided to let Jack catch up on some sleep before his next shift.

Since she got back to town weeks ago, he had been burning the candle at both ends.

She walked out to Jack’s truck to grab her purse and walked right into what felt like a wall.

“Hello, Ember.” She’d recognize that voice anywhere—Keith.

“What are you doing here, Keith?” she asked.

“Well, with Marco dead, I thought that maybe you and I could have a chat.”

“A chat?” she asked. “What kind of chat?” She had a sick feeling that Keith didn’t want to talk at all. “Why are you doing this? Why get Marco to come after me?”

“You ruined my life and deserved to pay the consequences. Marco went and died on me, so I guess it’s up to me to make you pay,” Keith spat. He grabbed her arms and shoved her into Jack’s truck, pushing her over to the passenger seat as he slid into the driver’s seat.

“You can’t take Jack’s truck,” she almost shouted. She looked back at the house, hoping to find Jack coming out the front door for her, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen. Jack slept like the dead.

“You have no idea what I am capable of,” Keith spat. She watched as he quickly hot wired the truck, the engine roaring to life. She needed to think of something fast if she planned on getting away from Keith.

“For example,” he said, smiling over at her.

“If you do anything to run from me, Ember, I’ll go in that house and kill your new boyfriend while he’s sleeping.

” She didn’t hide her gasp. All she could do was sit back and watch Keith as he pulled out of the driveway and started for the highway.

She chanced one more look back at the house, knowing that might be the last time she saw it, or Jack made her feel physically ill.

But she couldn’t think about that now. No, now, she was going to have to figure out what Keith wanted from her—and hopefully, somehow, she’d find her way back to the man she loved.

Ember had lost count of the days she had spent locked away in the dark room that Keith was keeping her in.

He came in to check on her once a day, bringing her food and letting her use the bathroom, but other than that, he had left her alone.

The part that was killing her was that she still had no answers as to why he was keeping her against her will.

Every day, she told herself that she’d get answers from him, and every day, she was met with silence from her kidnapper.

She heard the front door open, and her entire body went rigid. It was the cue that let her know that Keith was making his daily visit. She wondered if today would be the day that she got answers, or better yet, was let go.

“Oh, good,” she breathed as he walked through the door, “you’re back.”

“I’d really love to stay and catch up, but I have things to do. How’s your day looking? Are you busy?” he chuckled at himself, and she rolled her eyes. Keith was always a smartass. It was the only thing she liked about him.

“My day is wide open,” she sassed, taking the bag of food that he handed to her. “How about you tell me why I’m here, Keith?” she asked.

“And ruin the end of the story?” he asked. “I bet you like to read the last page of the book first.” She wasn’t about to tell him that he was correct. She hated surprises, and knowing the ending kept her from accidentally running into them.

“How about a hint?” she asked. “I mean, I’ve figured out that you forced Marco to come after me.” Ember knew that if she could get him talking, he’d tell her everything. Keith was always a blabbermouth, and when it came to him feeling superior, he’d do just about anything to have that happen.

“Yeah, he wasn’t too keen on chasing you down. Marco, may he rest in peace, wasn’t as in love with you as I thought he was. But a little bit of prodding, and he was stalking you like a pro.”

“And why would you want him to stalk me, Keith? Is it because you didn’t have your own woman to stalk?

” she taunted. His face gave away the fact that she had hit a nerve, and she knew that pushing him further would either get her the answers she was looking for or she’d end up with another bruise.

He seemed to like to smack her around as much as her ex had.

“Marco was a pussy. You broke up with him, and he didn’t want to play anymore. We weren’t writing new music, and the band even dropped some gigs,” he admitted.

“So much for him not being in love with me, huh?” she asked. “Sounds to me like he took our breakup pretty hard.”

“You rejected him, and he practically quit the band. I needed the old Marco back. I needed the fire that pushed him to make great songs and play with all his heart. You stole that from him—from all of us. The band suffered, and I lost everything. They repossessed my car because I wasn’t making money to pay for it.

I had to give up my apartment lease and even spent a few nights on the street until I came up with the plan to have Marco stalk you.

I moved in with him, and that’s when things really took shape.

The old Marco started to reappear, and we started writing again.

He seemed to be his old self again—well, until he went and got himself killed.

Now, I have nothing. The band is gone, and I have nothing more to lose.

Making you pay for what you did to me is my only solace.

” Yeah, knowing Keith’s plan didn’t make her feel any better.

In fact, she was worried that he might just pull off making her suffer for what he felt was an injustice done to him.

“I had no idea that he stopped performing once I left, but I couldn’t stay with Marco. You saw what he did to me.” Keith had a front row seat to all the abuse she suffered at Marco’s hands.

“You treated him like shit,” he shouted. “You deserved everything that you got, and more,” Keith insisted. It looked like rationalizing with him wasn’t going to work. The longer Keith talked about Marco, the angrier he got.

“Please, just let me go home, and I won’t tell anyone about this. You can just go back to Florida and start another band. You were really the talent behind everything,” she lied.

“I’m going to make sure that you get what’s coming to you, Ember.

You won’t be going home again, so stop asking,” he spat.

Keith turned to leave, and she wasn’t sure if she should beg him to stay or be glad that he was leaving.

She sat silently on the old chair in the corner of the room watching him go, and when he shut the door, she broke down.

For the first time since Keith took her, she let the tears flow, and Ember wasn’t sure if they would ever stop.

The thought of never seeing Jack again kept playing through her mind, and that was the part that hurt the most. Ember had felt hopeless before, but this despair was almost too much for her to handle. This hopelessness broke her damn heart.