Page 109 of When He Defends

“He was in the way.” Owen remained in the open doorway. “You said a divorce wasn’t possible back then, that it would cause a scandal if our affair was discovered. It was an easy way out for you. I planned it all perfectly.”

This man had killed her father. “He never had schizophrenia, did he?”

Owen’s head slowly angled toward her, like a snake, following prey. “You saw the files on him. Read reports from shrinks.”

Yes, she’d read them. Over and over. Always, with terror in her heart.What if I’m like him?That fear had haunted her for so many years. And all along, Owen had known the truth.I never needed to fear that fate.But she had needed to fear the man pretending to be a protector for her and her mother. “With the right pressure, those files can be faked. I’m sure you knew how to apply the right pressure.”

The lines on Owen’s face deepened.

“You kept me afraid all of these years. You knew I feared turning out just like him…and you had someone terrorize me. You set the scene so I would question my own sanity.” She shook her head.“How many times? How many people?”

“Emerson…”

Maxine began to cry.

“Your mother wanted you close,” Owen explained with a voice that cracked. “I was just trying to—tocontrolthe situation.”

Rage built inside of Emerson. Battling with her grief. “You wanted to control me.”

Once more, Gray’s arm brushed against her. “Who the fuck cut Emerson’s throat when she was seventeen?”

A gasp escaped her mother. Her tear-streaked face turned to Emerson, then back to Owen.

“He’s long dead,” Owen assured them. “Some crazed protestor who wanted Maxine to change her vote in the senate. I eliminated him the day after the attack. No one will ever find his remains.”

Nausea rolled inside of her.All of these years…Owen had pretended to care. To be—to be family. And he’d made her doubt her own sanity. Made her so afraid.

“Emerson…” Her mother’s weak whisper. “I didn’t know.I didn’t know!”

Owen advanced. His attention was on the senator. “I love you,” he told Maxine. “I didallof this for you. You wanted your husband gone. I made him go. You wanted your daughter close, so I kept her controlled. You wanted?—”

“Hey, asshole!” Gray called out.

Owen jerked. His head snapped toward Gray.

“You don’t control shit,” Gray informed him. “Now put your fucking hands up because you’re under arrest for murder. Multiple damn murders.”

That was when the rest of the FBI agents swarmed. They rushed into the suite because Emerson and Gray had been wearing wires. They’d just caught every bit of the former SEAL’s confession.

Owen was shoved to the floor. Cuffed.

Her mother kept crying. Begging Emerson to forgive her. Saying that she hadn’t known. That she couldn’t have known. And Emerson…

Owen looked up at her.

“Go to hell,” she told him because that bastard had killed her father.

He wouldpay.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“There has to be more to the world than just monsters. I want that more. I’ll fucking have more. I’ll have Emerson.”

– Gray Stone

She wasn’t a tickingtime bomb.

Or…maybe she was.