by Katie Reus
“I’m sorry you’re dealing with this.” He reached across the divide between them and patted her hand gently.
She hated the distance and awkwardness between them. It felt wrong. “Thanks. Can I ask you something?” she blurted, knowing that her next words would likely cause tension and force her from the room. But she needed to know. “I know you said that you ended things because you didn’t want me to stay with you out of pity—which for the record is stupid—but there’s gotta be more, Evan. I want the truth.” She turned her head, watching him lie there, his body tense, all his muscles pulled taut.
“I got your dad killed,” he finally gritted out.
She blinked. “What?”
“If my security had been tighter, if that monster hadn’t found a hole in it…” Sighing, he rubbed a hand over his face. “Douglas would still be here. Instead I’m all screwed up and your dad is dead. And it’s my fault, Isla.” He turned to look at her then, self-loathing and guilt glittering in his blue eyes.
“You’re serious?” That was what he thought? A mixture of surprise and horror jolted through her. It wasn’t his fault. “I don’t blame you for that. I don’t blame anyone but the man who killed him and all those others.” And had hurt her sweet Evan.
His jaw tightened and he turned away, lying flat on his back again. “You say that now.”
“I say that now and forever.” She wasn’t going to blame him for things outside his control, and to hell with him making stupid assumptions about her feelings.
He snorted, which just annoyed her. But she knew him well enough not to push. Not directly anyway.
She hadn’t realized he’d been feeling such extreme guilt over her dad’s death—and she could see it in his eyes tonight that he was. It was so raw and real and…
This changed everything.
She’d thought he’d simply pushed her away because he thought she couldn’t handle his scars. And the shallowness of it had shocked her. This made more sense. And it also made her want to pull him into a hug and then shake some sense into him.
She’d thought she was done fighting for him, for them. Sighing, she closed her eyes. Maybe she’d never be done. She still wanted this stubborn, maddening man. Apparently she needed to try a different tactic.
“Do you remember the day we met?” It had been at the community center, and he’d been so sweet and charming.
“Oh yeah. I sounded like a moron,” he muttered.
She laughed. “No you didn’t. You were adorable. I always wondered… Would you have ever called me if you hadn’t run into me that night with my dad?”
He cleared his throat and the bedcovers rustled slightly as he shifted. “I actually set up that dinner.”
“What?” She rolled on her side to look at him and thankfully he turned to watch her as well.
“Yeah. I called your dad, asked him to meet me for dinner and to bring you. I told him I was pretty sure I was going to marry you.” He started to smile then, the hint of the easygoing, charming man she knew sliding into place before he abruptly turned away and stared at the ceiling once again.
“He never said anything,” she whispered, beyond surprised that her dad hadn’t ever told her. “Wait…you told him you thought you were going to marry me even then?”
He lifted a shoulder.
Okay, they were going to talk about that one day. “Why didn’t you just ask for my number?” She was pretty sure she’d been putting out all the right vibes.
“Because you made me nervous.”
“You were voted sexiest bachelor in Miami like…three times, I think.” Maybe more.
“So? You intimidated the hell out of me, Isla.”
She wasn’t sure what to do with that, what to even say. So she backtracked. “I wish you’d told me you were living with all that guilt about the bombing.” It would have saved them both a lot of heartache.
“I didn’t handle things well. Do you think…we can ever work things out between us?”
“I don’t know.” Sighing, she closed her eyes, surprised at the exhaustion pressing in on her. Okay, not surprised, but she couldn’t believe she was actually starting to doze, to let sleep pull her under.
She was with Evan, however. And no matter what, he made her feel safe in a way no one ever had.
“Get some rest,” he murmured, his deep voice lulling her to sleep even more.
Tomorrow she could worry about…everything.
Chapter 12
He told himself not to make the call.
Don’t call her. Do not do it.
He shouldn’t reach out but…he needed to. Needed to hear her sweet voice, that soothing cadence he craved. He’d been obsessed with her for too long, had finally gotten her to a position where they could be together. And then…nothing. But he wasn’t giving up. He would never give her up. She belonged to him.
He closed the closet door and found his phone in the kitchen where he’d left it.
His fingers twitched over the screen. He shouldn’t. He would. No…
He rolled his shoulders and pulled up Isla’s name and face. He’d taken dozens of pictures of her that she had no clue about, but this picture was the standard one linked to her email. If she ever saw her profile on his phone randomly, he couldn’t have her knowing about all his pretty, secret pictures.
She picked up on the third ring, sounding exhausted. “Hey,” she murmured. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, just checking on you. I know you had a bad day yesterday.” He winced. Of course she’d had a “bad” day. An awful one. And whoever had tried to hurt her was going to pay with their life.
“I’m doing okay. I’ll be in the office later, but I can pull up files if you need to discuss anything now?”
“No, I’m good.” They had a meeting scheduled later that he wouldn’t miss. “I was just making sure—” He stopped as he heard a familiar male voice in the background. Evan Bishop.
She was with him again? Of course she’d run back to him. Bishop had taken her to the hospital yesterday and hadn’t even been able to protect her. But she must have stayed with him, or he with her, because it was barely seven in the morning. God, he couldn’t even call her without this bastard interrupting them.
“Hey, I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you soon?”
“Of course.” He’d see her at the office later today since they had a meeting, but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. They would be so good together, if only she would open her eyes and really see him. He was so much more than she knew.
And lately he couldn’t stand the limited time he got with her. He wanted more. As he hung up the phone, he stared out the window, not seeing anything in front of him as he digested that Bishop had stayed the night with her.
He just couldn’t believe she’d gone back to him.
After the way Bishop had treated her, and now she was with him again. He’d seen the stupid article online but had brushed it away. But then Bishop had shown up at her condo the other day, then at work yesterday.
It was almost as if he’d shown up to save the day. But no, Bishop wouldn’t have poisoned her.
He knew that for a fact—and he was going to find out who had done it. It wouldn’t take long either. He simply had to pull up the real security feeds using a backdoor he’d installed to infiltrate the system.
Whoever had hurt her was a problem he was going to have to take care of. Personally. But he couldn’t forget that Isla had returned to Bishop. He clenched his jaw, trying to shove down the rage inside him.
He’d given her so many chances to be with him—had asked her out, was trying to be a shoulder for her to lean on.
In the end she’d gone back to that asshole Bishop. Bishop, who should be dead.
He heard a cracking sound and when he looked down, realized he’d crushed the remote control for the ceiling-to-floor-length curtains, now open to reveal a view of downtown.
He tossed the pieces blindly to the floor and headed back to his bedroom. Rage
simmered beneath the surface, no matter how hard he tried to keep it at bay. He felt as if she’d betrayed him. And after he’d maneuvered things so much, so they could finally be together.
In his room, he opened his closet again and looked at the picture of Isla tacked directly in the middle. He had so many of her, but this one was his favorite. It was from the recent gala she’d attended. She’d been laughing at something someone said. He wasn’t sure who, and he didn’t care, but seeing that laughter on her face after months of nothing but sadness—she had lit up the entire room again. He used to want to see her smile all the time, but… He shook his head once and scrubbed a hand over his face. She was screwing Bishop again. She had to be if he was staying with her.
No, no, no.
He slammed his fist into her picture, the plaster cracking behind it, the image crinkling with impact. He had to confirm it, but if she had truly gone back to Bishop…he wouldn’t let this stand. No one said no to him.
And she was done betraying him. He was done letting her.
Chapter 13
Evan frowned as he continued scanning through one of the many security feeds Logan had sent over. People were moving around like normal, there weren’t any weird glitches in the— Oh, hell. That was it.
Isla had been wearing a different dress yesterday. This was definitely an old feed. So whoever had delivered that laced cookie had access to security. Or hacked into it. Shiiiiiit. They’d been able to move around freely without anyone’s eyes on them.
Isla had already told her people to give Evan whatever he wanted, so he grabbed his cell phone and called the security office.
“This is Ollie.”
“Hey, it’s Evan Bishop. Is Logan there?”
“No. I’m working on an audit on all of our feeds and something is wrong,” he said. “Isla said we could loop you into anything. I found something and it’s why I came by to see her yesterday. How’s she doing, by the way?”
“As well as can be expected. She’s tough.” Tougher than anyone he knew. And if he could go back in time, build a time machine and make things right, he would.
“I’m glad to hear that. You guys back together now?”
“Yes,” Evan said, even though he and Isla weren’t. He wanted the world to think they were together again because he wanted whoever was after her to know she was protected. And that anyone wanting to hurt her would have to go through him to get to her. Ollie was a decent guy, but Evan figured he would still tell people at work about him and Isla. He wanted word to spread fast. “Now what did you find?”
“Someone hacked into the system using a security protocol that didn’t get updated. I’ve since fixed it and ensured that it won’t happen again. Some of the team and I are going to go through all these feeds one by one, so it’s a little time-consuming. Once we’re done we should be able to trace whoever hacked it back to their IP.”
He didn’t like it, but it explained the loops he’d been looking at. “Have you told the police?”
“Not yet. I’ve got to tell Isla first and then see what she says—though I imagine it will be to inform the cops. Regardless, I don’t have anything solid to give them yet and I’d rather go to them with evidence first. And I can move a hell of a lot faster than their guys anyway.” There was a touch of arrogance in his tone, but Evan figured it was earned, considering how many degrees the guy had.
“Good. I’ll let Isla know, but I’m sure she’ll want to talk to you. Keep me in the loop,” he said, even though he had absolutely no authority over Ollie. He didn’t think the guy was going to question him now though.
“Will do.”
Once they disconnected, Evan rubbed a hand over his face. Well…someone had hacked the security system. Which was bad, but it meant they had a way to track the guy.
He glanced up as Isla stepped into his office, completely dressed for work. She had on a dark gray pencil skirt—one that was very familiar. About a month before the bombing he distinctly remembered shoving that one up to her waist right before they’d made love on his office couch. He resisted the impulse to look over at the seating area, hating the distance between them now. He had so many memories of her here—everywhere.
She was so close, just feet away, but still out of reach. He wanted to erase the past, make things how they used to be, but he didn’t know how—and didn’t think it was possible.
He shook the thoughts away. “Just got off the phone with Ollie. Your system was hacked and someone was able to loop feeds around your office so there’s no way to see who put that cookie there. He’s trying to track down who did it. Thinks he and the team will be able to do it quickly.”
“That’s great. Why didn’t he call me?”
“I think he planned to. But I called him about something I saw on your security feed, and he told me what he’d found. Said he planned to talk to you about it yesterday but then…” He didn’t need to spell it out; she knew exactly why Ollie hadn’t told her.
She rubbed a hand over her face.
“I’m not trying to step on your toes by reaching out to your security team. I just want to find out who hurt you.” He had to shove back the anger rising to the surface. That rage wouldn’t do him any good. Catching the bastard and protecting Isla was all that mattered.
“I know you’re not. I’m glad you talked to him. I’m just trying to digest everything you told me.” She lifted a hand to her throat—where she had faint bruising—before quickly dropping it. She cleared her throat. “You ready to go?”
Nodding, he closed his laptop and stood. He hated the sight of her bruising—actually, he hated who had caused it. But he kept his emotions in check because he didn’t want to upset her. They were going to figure out who’d done this. Now that her security team had discovered what was going on, he didn’t need to review the feeds any longer. “Yep. What have you got on the agenda this morning?”
“A couple video conference calls I have to take care of, and meetings. Always meetings,” she sighed.
“I don’t like that you’re going in at all,” he muttered.
She gave him a pointed look because they’d already had this conversation.
He rounded his desk. “Look, since I’m going to be at your office today, if you have time, let’s start outlining some details of the Cooper merger I started with your dad.” So far he’d been putting all of the details off on his assistant but if he and Isla started working on it, they could wrap things up fairly quickly.
Her green eyes flared in surprise. “Seriously?”
It was clear why she was surprised—he’d been letting his assistant act as the middleman the last month, to keep space between him and Isla, and that had slowed things down. He didn’t want space between them anymore. “No more middleman. You and I can wrap things up by the end of the year.” Relief flickered across her face and once again he felt like an asshole for how he’d handled things before. “Look, I need to tell you something…” He picked up his tablet from his desk and strode over to her, holding it out.
Her eyebrows drew tighter together as she scanned, scrolling down the touchscreen with her finger. “What the heck is all this? Why on earth would someone print this when it’s patently false? It’s just going to open them up to liability, even if it is a garbage gossip rag.” Frown deepening, she passed the tablet back to him.
“I leaked the story. I confirmed everything.”
She blinked. “You told this reporter that we’re back together and heading toward an engagement!” Now she was all anger and she had every right to be.
“Not the engagement stuff. I just ‘confirmed’ that we were a couple again. After what happened, I’m not leaving your side. I’m not letting you get hurt again.” He’d kill anyone who came after her. He was still angry with himself for the way he’d treated her, and if someone actually tried to hurt her too? God help them.
“You should’ve asked me first.”
“Yeah, probably.”
“No, definitely.” Her mouth
tightened and he knew he’d screwed up.
Hell, he’d known it when he’d done it, but he hadn’t wanted to take the chance she’d say no. Whoever was out there needed to think twice before coming after her again and he’d rather be a target than her. He could handle himself, and he would. Maybe he should change tactics though, appeal to her business sense.
“Look, once this story spreads it will also solidify our upcoming deal. Everyone involved will be more secure if the two biggest partners are together romantically. We certainly aren’t going to sell each other out.” It was archaic but true.
“You just have everything figured out, don’t you?” There was a sharp snap to her tone.
“Not hardly.” He didn’t have her figured out at all, or know what to do to win her back. “But this is for the best.”
She muttered something under her breath he couldn’t quite make out, which was probably a good thing.
“Isla, I’m sorry. So damn sorry.”
Ignoring his apology, she straightened and lifted her purse onto her shoulder. “I have a lot of work to do. I’m ready to leave.”
“Once the police bring down your stalker or whoever this guy is, I’ll leak another story that you ended things with me.” It twisted his guts to say it.
Her spine straightened even more, her eyes flashing. “You think that’s why I’m angry? How about you let me make some decisions where all of this is concerned? This is my life, and you’ve just barged in and taken over. Not to mention this could make you a target too! You’ve probably just put yourself in danger, because whoever this guy is won’t have a problem going after my ‘boyfriend.’”
“I know.”
She stalked toward him, her heels making soft little sounds over the throw rug. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I know I might be a target. Better me than you.”