“I’ll pack up the guest house and be gone before nightfall.” The pain was growing. “Don’t come near me again.”
All of the color bled from her face. A tremble shook her body. “I…I love you.”
He turned away from her. Stormed for the door. Didn’t look back. Couldn’t.
***
Her cheeks were wet. Chloe reached up her hand and swiped her fingers over her left cheek, then her right. She’d been standing in that same spot for a few minutes, just staring.
Joel had left. She’d heard his steps thundering away. The slam of the door.
The distant roar of his motorcycle.
He shouldn’t be driving when he was upset. It wasn’t good. Not safe. He should be careful.
Don’t come near me again.
She’d been afraid to tell him the truth. Once you started a lie, it was hard to stop. Stopping meant that people got hurt.
She hadn’t wanted Joel to be hurt.
“You don’t screw up.” Reese’s voice. He’d just walked into the kitchen. He stood near the entranceway, waiting.
I do screw up. I messed up with you. You were drugged, taken, and I didn’t see it coming.
“You knew Joel was in the kitchen, didn’t you?” Reese asked her softly.
Her lips were trembling so hard. She clamped them together. She couldn’t ever remember feeling this way. As if someone had reached into her and ripped out something vital.
Reese crossed the kitchen and stopped in front of her. His hand lifted and brushed across her cheek.
Was she still crying? She did it so rarely. It felt odd. Her head was aching, too. A dull thud behind her eyes.
“You knew he was there. You wanted the truth to come out, didn’t you?”
Joel had deserved the truth, even if it hurt.
“Because you think the man who hurt Joel is here in New Orleans.” Not a question this time. “He’s…the one who took me?” Reese asked carefully.
“He arranged for you to be taken.” She wasn’t sure he’d done it himself. There were other options she had to explore. Other people she had to check out and— “Joel left.”
“I know.”
Her head bowed forward. “He won’t be coming back.”
And it hurt. She’d lost other people before. People who’d managed to slip their way close to her. Even people who’d managed to fool her into thinking they were different than what they were.
Like Morgan…
But Joel—everything had felt better with him. Or maybe she’d just hoped it would be better.
“He’ll be back.” Reese seemed confident.
But then, he hadn’t seen Joel’s face. “I hurt him.”
“Chloe, you are the only one who can help him.”
Her head lifted.
“You know it. I know it. No one else was even looking for the man who did that shit to Joel. Everyone else let him go. You are the one who knows he is out there. You can find him.”
“I am going to find him.” Because of what he’d done to Joel. To her brother. To Lucia. To— “I am going to stop him.”
“Damn straight, you are.” He brushed his fingers over her cheek once more. “Let’s get focused. You’re always like a torpedo when you’re focused.”
Nothing was focused for her. The world was spinning too fast. He left. He won’t be back.
“Tell me step one. What is the first thing you need to do?”
She sucked in a breath. Another. Pulled it in and released slowly. “I need to find out who triggered the bombs at the Serpent.”
“Seeing the footage of that wreckage when I woke up this morning freaked me the hell out. Would have been nice if you’d let me know you were trapped at a bomb scene sooner.”
She stared blankly at him.
“Right. Other things are going on. Lots seem to be going on.” He cleared his throat. “Back to step one. Let’s go find out who triggered those bombs.”
Her brows pulled low. “You’re not going with me. You were packing so that you and Marie could go someplace safe.” She knew he hadn’t forgotten the plan. It hadn’t even been that long ago since they’d discussed the whole situation.
“Oh, yeah, about that.” Another careful brush of his fingertips across her cheeks. “I was lying. That’s what I do. You know this. I’m a liar and a thief.”
He was so much more than that. Her head shook in a negative motion. “Reese…”
“I will never leave you when you need me. You need me now.”
Her hand lifted and curled around his. “It’s dangerous.”
“I kinda figured that when I woke up in a strange house with no memory of the previous night.”
“But what if you don’t wake up next time? He could have just as easily left you dead in the bed.”
His eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t he?”
She didn’t speak.
“You have an idea. What is it?”
She let his hand go and eased back. “I would feel so much better if you and Marie would go someplace tropical.” She turned away and paced back toward the counter. “What are you going to do about the confession you made to her—”
“You won’t distract me.”
Her shoulders stiffened.
“You think I don’t know your tricks? I’ve been on to the way you operate for ages. You can throw out your lines and distract others, but not me.” A pause. “Why am I not dead?”
Chloe exhaled slowly. “Because I believe you were a message. A threat.”
“He’s threatening you.”
In a way but… “If you would just leave, it would be so much—”
His footsteps padded across the kitchen. His hand closed around her shoulder, and he turned her toward him. “You’re in this guy’s head already. You understood what message he was sending.” He searched her eyes. “Tell me. I’m not letting this go.”
“When did you become so determined?”
“Probably when I started spending too damn much time with you.” His jaw set. “We can stand here all day, or you can tell me what I want to know and it will speed things along. You know, speed up that whole finding the bomber situation and all.”
She wondered if Reese realized how very much he’d changed since they first met. “I think…because you were at Lucia’s…the intent was not for me to suspect you were responsible for what happened to her. The cops might believe that. They may think that you’re being set up by whoever drugged you, but I don’t believe that’s the case.”
“It sure as hell seems like the case.”
No. “He could have killed you just as easily as he left you alive.”
“You do keep mentioning that.” He swallowed. His hand was still around her shoulder.
“I know who he is—I don’t mean his actual identity. If I had his name, I’d be shouting it to the cops about now. But…I know what he did. To Joel. To others. But Joel didn’t know.”
His lips parted. “You’re not saying…wait. Was I some kind of warning?”
She believed that he was. “When I heard what happened to you…I got the message.”