Lahat ng Kabanata ng Enemy Within (Unseen Enemy 1): Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 57

The next morning, Dean woke up with a start, feeling like something was wrong. He stared at the empty bed next to him, then at the bright sun on the bedroom wall. When he glanced at the clock and saw that it was well past ten o’clock, he flung himself out of the bed.“Emma!” he said, utterly fucking panicked. “Where are you?”“In the kitchen,” her voice floated back. “What’s wrong?”He almost ran down the hall to her and she turned, coffee pot held aloft, a puzzled look on her face. He skidded to a halt and peered at her. He was stunned to see that she looked absolutely gorgeous: well-rested and fresh, with pink in her cheeks. Her beautiful eyes were wide with alarm.“Dean? What?”“Oh, God.” He leaned against the wall. “You scared me.”“I did?”“Dean, you OK?”He looked over to see Chris on his feet, a cup of coffee in his hand.“What are you doing here?” Dean said.“I called Emma earlier to see if you guys needed anything from the grocery store. I was there anyway, and so I thought I

Kat had been expecting it for the past few weeks, but when Emma showed up at the salon, she was still upset at what surely had to come. Jim was with her, and he looked equally shaken. Kat met his eyes and they both shook their heads, almost imperceptible movements that spoke volumes of pain and anger.“OK, Kat.” Emma sat in the chair calmly. “You know what needs to be done.”“I know, sweetie.” Emma extended her hand to Jim, and he sat next to her, her cold fingers curled in his huge hand. Kat stood behind her, scissors held up. Jim noticed for the first time that Kat’s hair was now a vibrant red and he blinked. Every time he saw her, she looked completely different and he wondered if this was required for her job.“Ready, Em?”“Yeah.”Kat’s hand didn’t shake much when she made the first cut, held a long piece of Emma’s hair in her hand, dropped it to the floor. They all looked at each other in the mirror. Emma pressed her lips together and nodded. Kat raised the scissors again. Again

“So they’re a bunch of fucking hacks over there is what. They’re just a group of yahoos playing bodyguards… they have no idea what they’re doing.” Dallas didn’t add that most of them had little or no real training at all, and that Blue Star was where you went when you flunked out of the police academy, or got dishonorably discharged from military service. He knew of two guys for sure at Blue Star who had raped female soldiers, and one guy who had beaten a black teenager almost to death in a bar fight. It was a mess over there, and Dallas knew plenty about the dangerous situations that Greg and his team had put their clients in through sheer stupidity, inexperience, and laziness.“My manager Larry hired them,” she said. “He’s worked with them before with other clients and he says they’re great.”I’ll just bet he did. Larry is probably getting a healthy kickback from Greg and the boys for sending your business their way. Or maybe he’s just a moron, too.“OK, OK.” He held up his huge han

Nigel looked around and saw that Emma was sitting on the sofa next to Dean. His tattooed arm was around her gently, and he was looking at her like she was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen in his life. Chris was helping Jenny with something in the kitchen, his huge hands carefully arranging tiny little things on trays. Nigel’s breath caught when he saw the startling golden eyes on the guy talking to Kat; Nigel hadn’t caught the man’s name on the way in. He did notice that Kat had dyed her hair black for the occasion, and the contrast with her creamy skin was incredible. The last to arrive was a tall, broad, muscled man with ferocious blue eyes and arms full of tattoos. He stared down at Nigel in the most intimidating-but-damn-sexy way, and Nigel took a step back, thinking that this could only be one person.“Hi,” he said. “I’m Nigel. Are you Dallas?”The man nodded, those eyes taking in the whole room at a glance. He saw Emma, found Liv, spotted Jenny and Kat. He returned his atte