Bouch: Looks like they might be hooking up.
Nelly: Can’t believe him, of all people, broke the rules.
Evan: He’s human.
Fish: Pierre and Felix are going to kill him.
Bouch: He is a dead man walking.
Sully: Fuck. I’m going to have to go warn him. He’s not picking up his phone.
Fish: You can’t go alone. I’ll come.
Bouch: Me too.
Evan: Fine. I’m in.
Nelly: One in, all in.
I get dressed fast, jeans, hoodie, sneakers. The whole time, my brain is running a parallel track, one side focused on Emmett and the shitstorm that’s about to rain down on him, the other side screaming at me that everything happening to my captain right now is a preview of what’s coming for me. Except mine is worse.So much worse.
Evan: I’m downstairs.
Fish: Coming.
When I walk out of my elevator and see Evan waiting for me, he gives me a look.
“I know,” I tell him.
“Look, at least you’re not the only one,” he says.
“This might be a foreshadowing of what’s to come for me.”
This makes Evan laugh. “You’re so fucked.”
Thanks.
We meetSully in the lobby, Bouch, and Nelly are right behind us. Nobody says much, the elevator ride is tense. Sully has a key to Emmett’s apartment, but as soon as we step out of the elevator, we hear the screaming, which has us rushing to the door. He pushes through, we file in behind him, and the scene stops all of us dead. Emmett is on the floor, not moving. Jo is on her knees beside him, crying, her hands on his face. Pierre is standing over them, fists still clenched, face red, breathing hard. Collette is there, pale, arms crossed. Felix, Issy, and Harper are in the doorway beside us, frozen.
“What the fuck happened?” Sully asks.
“Pierre knocked him out,” Collette says flatly. Her eyes find mine for a split second, and I see everything in them, fear, anger, and the unspoken message,This is what we’re up against.
“You punched Cap?” I say. My eyes are wide because even though I saw this coming the second I read those headlines, seeing Emmett Black unconscious on his apartment floor with his arm in a sling is something else entirely.
“He’s been lying to all of us,” Pierre says. “Sneaking around with my sister.”
“So you knocked him out?” Bouch looks between Pierre and Emmett. “Jesus.”
“Someone want to explain what the hell is going on?” Nelly asks.
Jo takes a shaky breath and kisses Emmett’s temple, then she looks up at all of us and tells us everything. “We were going to tell you,” she says. “In the summer, when the timing was better. But someone took photos at the game yesterday and now the whole world knows.”
“You’ve been lying for months,” Felix says, his voice cold.
“Babe,” Harper says it as a warning to tread carefully.
“We weren’t lying,” she argues.