I spoke, raw of emotion, “You told me he would sell me out.”

Carter closed his eyes. His shoulders dropped and a breath left him. He knew.

He’d been right. I had even hoped for it, but knowing it happened—feeling it now. It was different. I couldn’t have been prepared for the betrayal.

“Who sold you out?” Her hand started to rattle the shower door know. “What’s going on?”

I held Carter’s gaze. The world fell away underneath my feet. I didn’t feel the water anymore. “He told them, didn’t he?”

He nodded.

Reaching for him, my hands held onto his shoulders and he lifted me from the shower. He walked us both out and into a bedroom. Setting me back on my feet, he walked into the bathroom. Theresa touched my hand, her eyes grew wide when she felt my coldness.

She whispered, “What’s going on, Emma?”

Carter came back with towels. He handed one to me as he took a second to wrap around my body. Then he started drying off himself as he went back out the door.

“Emma?”

Ben sold me out. He was paid to sell me out, but what about Mallory? They were gone. Where had they gone? Was she okay?

Theresa inched closer and dropped her voice, “I know he killed Scott. Don’t worry, Emma. I’m going to call the police. I know you’re infatuated with him, but he’s not good for you. I’m going to take care of it. I’m going to get you away from him.”

I looked at her, but felt detached from myself. It was like I was watching us from a safe distance, outside of my body. I watched as I said to her, “He was going to kill me.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I won’t let him. I won’t let him hurt you.”

“Scott Graham was going to kill me. Carter saved my life.”

Her eyes widened. Then narrowed. “You’re in shock. I can see that. You don’t know what happened—”

My hand latched onto her arm and held it in a death grip.

She cried out and then tried to pry my fingers off her arm, one at a time. She glanced to my face and back again to her arm, back and forth, back and forth. Her eyebrows furrowed together and she bit her lip. “Emma, you don’t know what you’re saying. You think you’re in love with him, but you’re not. You’re blinded by his looks and his power. He’s dangerous, Emma. He’s very dangerous.”

“He’s my family.”

She got three of my fingers off, but they latched back on. She sighed. “Okay. Okay, Emma. I can see this is going to take longer than I thought. Don’t say anything to him. He’s going to come back any moment—”

“I killed someone.”

My words silenced her. Her arm dropped to her side and she staggered back a step. “Wha—what did you say?”

“I’m protecting her.”

She whirled around to see Carter in the doorway. A grim expression was on his face and he held dry clothes in his arms. Then he walked around me and peered close. “Her eyes are glazed over.”

“She’s in shock. She thinks she killed someone.”

“She did,” he snapped at her and tossed the clothes on the bed. “Leave and I’ll take care of her.”

She snorted. “Yeah, right. You might be buddies with Noah and you might’ve known Emma in a previous life, but I’m not leaving you alone with her. Not one second—”

“Noah.” Carter turned to the doorway.

“What?!” she squeaked as she was lifted in the air. Noah had been waiting in the background. He stepped forward, grabbed Theresa, and left the room with her. Carter called after them, “She can’t leave. Not yet.”

“I know,” Noah’s voice lashed out at him, over his shoulder.

The door was slammed shut a second later, and I turned towards Carter. I was still detached from my body, but he lifted his hand to my face. He cupped the side of it and ran his thumb over my cheek before he murmured, softly, “Come back to me.”

I shook my head. It was safer where I was.

“Come back to me.” He moved closer. His voice was a sensual caress against my skin. “Come back to me.”

I shook my head. It was better not to feel. There was no fear. No one betrayed me when I was like this.

Then he rested his forehead against mine and breathed out, “Please, Emma. I need you with me. I love you.”

I closed my eyes and the hurt seeped back into me. Everything hurt at once. It was too much, but I opened them again and I saw the relief in his. His hand closed around mine, and he tucked some of my hair behind my ear. I couldn’t handle it, not all of it, and I felt myself numbing again. Then I stepped back. I couldn’t do this if he was touching me. And I knew that I needed to hear it all. “Tell me what’s going on.”

He nodded, a look of surrender coming over him. “You’re not going to like some of it.”

“I have to know.”

“Okay.” He waited until I sat and then he started. “I told you before that I had an inside man with Franco, but I stopped hearing from him right before our first attack. He texted me that Ben sold you out so I doubled your guards after that, but I don’t think you noticed. Then when we were attacked, I knew something had happened to him. He would’ve let me know ahead of time.”

“They killed him?”

He nodded. “His body surfaced yesterday. It was delivered to one of the Mauricio houses.”