Page 66 of Emeric

“I do.” Barry lifted his hand. “Nothing gets by me.”

Patting around next to me, I found a chair, pulled it out, and sat in it without taking my eyes off our visitor. “I’m floored. I never thought I was going to meet you.”

“That was on purpose,” Jordan stated. “He wanted it that way. It supposedly added to his air of mystery.” I didn’t need to look at Jordan to know he was rolling his eyes. Hartley wore off on him.

“I can’t believe it,” I said. “Lawson… Here…” Then my brain started working again, and my eyes narrowed. “Why?” There had to be a reason he was here, and we were being introduced to him in person.

Jordan took a seat across from Lawson. “It took you longer than I thought it would. I’ll let him explain.”

“The person who has been threatening Emeric, who put the address of the safe house online, who has been increasingly getting worse in their exposure of us, they came after me,” Lawson said. “I received an email stating that if I don’t figure out who they are very soon, they’re going to expose me. No timeframe, which isn’t helpful.”

“I don’t have to tell you how much of a threat that is,” Jordan told Sheldon and me. “If people know who Lawson is, there won’t be anywhere he can hide. The things he’s done for me would make him a target of criminal organizations everywhere. He’ll have to go into hiding and won’t be able to help us for a long time to protect himself.”

“What do they want?” Sheldon asked Lawson.

“Me.”

That had my eyebrows going up. “What?”

“Emeric was never the target, nor was Jordan, Sylvan, or the house. They were slowly getting bolder in the hopes of dragging me out of hiding.”

“It worked to an extent. You’re here in broad daylight.”

“Yes, but I drove myself in my stupidly expensive, showy car, parked out front, and walked into the building like I was here for a meeting. Tell the truth, would you have ever expected I would look like this?”

I immediately shook my head. “Never.”

“It’s on purpose. When you picture a hacker or someone who spends the majority of their days behind multiple computer screens, you look for a person who would fit that description in your mind. Maybe it’s from a television reference or what you’ve read in a book. Either way, it wouldn’t be me. I’ll go unnoticed because I look like a rich asshole who can do as I please.”

“And you’re not?” Sheldon asked.

“Oh, I’m wealthy. Not only do I have money from Jordan, but I have it from other avenues. More than you can imagine.”

30

SYLVAN

“How are you going to figure it out so fast when you haven’t been able to yet?” I asked.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” Oleander said dryly. “This isn’t the first nor will it be the last time we’ve been given a deadline of a handful of days. I think they like seeing us rip our fucking hair out.”

“I’m sorry. I just want it to be over.” The whole thing had been a nightmare. So many people were involved now, and finding out Lawson was the target was shocking. Here we were hoping to find this person, so this could end, and we were thrown a curveball.

Jordan had apologized to me for being tied to him, at least that was what some knew. It wasn’t a big surprise. I’d been seen with him before. The worst part was I lost my home, and Jordan lost the place he and his guards could escape to and feel safe if they had nowhere else to go, where no one knew where they were. Not only was Jordan insisting on buying me a new house, but he had to find a new safe house and another name for the deed. He couldn’t put it in mine again.

Emeric slid closer to me on the couch and put his arm around my shoulders. “We’re all feeling a lot of things. Don’t apologize for expressing what’s on your mind.”

I leaned against him, taking comfort in the warmth he provided. Oleander walked over and sat on my other side, putting his weight against me so we were both leaning on Emeric. Lawson said he would work tirelessly to figure this out and dig wherever he needed to until he found the person responsible. He didn’t like having someone go after him any more than Jordan did.

Instead of letting my mind continue to wander through thoughts about what was going on, when it would end, where I would live, and what this meant for the three of us, I relaxed. I practically melted against Emeric. This wouldn’t make the problem go away, but for a little while, I was happy to let it drift to the far back of my mind.

Nuzzling my nose along Emeric’s side, I let out a sigh. “This is nice. Can we not talk about anything of importance right now? I’d like to forget for a bit.”

Oleander wiggled against me until he ended up behind me, so we were both next to Emeric, and Oleander had his arm around my waist. “I’m here for that.”

“I’d say we could take this to the bed, but I don’t want to move,” Emeric said.

I hummed in agreement. This was going to turn into sex. It always did, not that I was complaining. I was more than on board with sex right now, especially since my cock was stirring from feeling Oleander’s pressed to my ass. Glancing down at Emeric’s waist, he was quickly perking up too.