12
XANDER
Shit. s**t. What the f**k had I done? When that man had said he wanted money out of Emily, I hadn’t thought about how he might be using her, but how she had been using us. I’d been stupid, f*****g stupid. She’d even leaned over the desk and lifted her dress up, expecting us to get p*****t from her p***y. I was no better than Ralph.
“Did Frank hit you?” I asked. I tried to calm my racing heart, to take deep breaths and try not to scare her any more than I already had. People would walk a wide path around me on good days; between the two of us, Tyler had the sunny disposition. Emily needed her men to cherish her, not scare the hell out her.
Tyler held her tightly as if he could absorb all her pain—pain that I’d caused. I had to know the shadows of her heart, to know how she’d b
