It took a while for her to be processed, and then she was escorted to a waiting room until her appointment time arrived. A guard came for her. She shot to her feet, her pulse accelerating as she stepped into the visitation room.
Searching the space, she stopped, her feet sticking in place when she saw Mike at the far side. A horrible, crushing pressure filled her chest.
He already had a visitor at the far table in the corner. A young blonde, who was leaning forward in her low-cut, skin-tight top, laughing and tossing her hair to give him a better view. And Mike was eating it up, his eyes locked on the woman’s tits, a half-smirk on his handsome face.
Fury rushed through Shannon, melting away the icy shock. Who the fuck was that bitch, and why was she here to see Mike?
The guard held a hand out to stop her from moving. Shannon stood there, practically vibrating with impatience, the anger starting to morph into hurt.
Another guard near Mike’s table stopped the visit. The blonde said something else to Mike, smiled and blew him a kiss before standing. She swung her purse over her shoulder and turned toward the exit.
Shannon locked onto her with a lethal glare. The blonde must have felt it, because she met Shannon’s gaze, smirked and sashayed past in a cloud of cheap perfume, looking all too fucking pleased with herself.
“This way,” the guard muttered.
Shannon lifted her chin and marched over to Mike’s table. He was watching her now, seemed surprised to see her.
“Shan. What are you doing here?” he said when she got close, his expression unreadable.
Torn between hurt and anger, she slapped her purse down on the floor and refused to sit while the guard moved away. “Thought I’d surprise you. And it looks like I did.”
He seemed taken aback for a split second, then he grinned, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “You’re not jealous, are you?”
That gave her pause. “No. But who the hell was that?’
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, it matters.” She’d put herself at great risk for him, and he was repaying her by cheating on her with some skank?
“Don’t worry about it. She’s nothing. I didn’t ask her to come.”
He was lying. She knew what she’d seen, and that bitch was totally into him. Which meant he must have encouraged her. “Did you tell her not to come back?”
“I will.”
Shannon wasn’t convinced. Her stomach hurt. “Are you seeing her?”
Mike shrugged, watching her in a way that was a little disturbing. His stare was intense. Scrutinizing her. “I can’t see her if I’m in here, can I?”
Far from being reassuring, his offhand response devastated her. She’d done all this for him, made all these plans, risked her own freedom, and he didn’t even care about her. Not really. God, she was such an idiot.
“Shan. Sit,” he said softly, staring up at her with those dark brown eyes. “I’m glad you came.”
There was a lump in her throat. She swallowed it down, gathered her pride and forced back the tears blurring her eyes so he couldn’t see them before sitting calmly across from him. They stared at each other in stony silence for a full minute.
“I didn’t know she was coming. I didn’t ask her to,” he repeated, then softened everything with a cajoling smile.
She drew a breath, made sure the guard closest to them couldn’t overhear, and lowered her voice just in case. “You don’t know what I’ve done for you. What I’ve risked for you.”
He leaned forward slightly, his eyes shining with sudden interest. “What have you done for me, baby?”
She wanted to tell him, but she was too choked up and angry. “How many others, besides me and her?” She wasn’t an idiot. If he was romancing another woman besides her, then there had to be others.
He eased back, his expression cooling. “Does it matter? You’re the only one I care about, and I’m stuck in here for at least another five years,” he muttered.
“Yeah, it matters.”
He watched her for a long moment. “So. You gonna tell me what you meant before? About what you did?”
“No.” Not here, and not now. He didn’t deserve to know. He didn’t deserve her.
She got up abruptly. “I’m leaving.”
“Wait.”
She didn’t.
“Wait, when are you coming back? Shannon!”
She took savage satisfaction in ignoring him as he called her back. She kept walking, head held high even as hurt and rage scalded her insides.
Once she got to her car, she sat in it for a while, not trusting herself to drive just yet, swamped by a sense of disillusionment. How could she have gotten herself into this situation? How could she have yet again given her heart to a man who didn’t want it?
She replayed this most recent visit over in her mind, then backtracked through the entirety of their relationship. Every phone call and email and letter. Every visit, every word he’d said to her. And the combination of lust and pride on his face when they sat face to face.
He’d said the blonde and the others didn’t matter. That she was the only one he cared about. She wanted it to be true. She needed it to be true.
She kept coming back to the way his eyes had lit up with that weird, almost fanatical gleam when she’d told him he didn’t know what she’d done for him.
What have you done for me, baby?
“Oh my God,” she whispered, goosebumps breaking out all over her as sudden understanding dawned.
He was testing her. Waiting to see if she really loved him.
He wanted her to prove it to him.
The pulse in her throat throbbed, everything suddenly becoming clear. This was a test of loyalty. He wanted to see how far she’d go to prove her love and devotion to him. Once she did, he would be hers forever.
Her hands shook slightly, elation humming in her bones as she drove out of the parking lot. The other night she’d only planned to set fire to the house to terrorize Avery, force her to lose her home during restoration and reconstruction—if there’d been anything left to save by the time the fire department got there.
She’d been toying with Avery so far, fucking with her, unsure what to do next. Now Shannon realized what she had to do.
She would kill Avery, and prove beyond a doubt to Mike she was the one he was meant to be with. It was the only way to win him back.
Chapter Seventeen
Today had pretty much sucked so far.
Avery muttered to herself as she set aside one file and took out another to finish up. What she really wanted to be doing was finding out who the hell this Shannon Torbert was, and why the psycho had targeted her. Instead, as soon as she finished one thing that landed on her desk, another came in. All. Day. Long.
Avery prided herself on being focused and hardworking in her job, but right now she was distracted, unable to concentrate properly. She wanted to put her stalker behind bars and get her life back to normal, and she also wanted to be with Mason. When that was done, she planned to talk to Nina about him, but didn’t know whether she should since he was Tate’s best friend and it put Nina in an awkward position.
She was all tangled up inside, veering from wanting to jump his bones as soon as she saw him tonight, and wanting to pull back to protect herself from hurt later on. The thing was, she’d come to the realization that it couldn’t just be physical for her. Her feelings were definitely involved at this point. So if things didn’t work out she was going to be hurt regardless.