“Why? Because we’ve only known each other for a few months? Fuck that, we’ve been through more than most people go through in a year…or a lifetime, and we did it together.” He stands up and takes the box from me, struggling a little to do it one handed. “Move in with me. You can have your own room—I’ll clear out dad’s room for you. We can convert the dark room to an office for you to work out of when you’re not at Sam’s. Hell, you’ll have a whole art studio at your disposal if you want to go back to making your pieces.”
I close my eyes and purse my lips.
“Please? We can bring your furniture if you want. If it’s the drive to work, I’ll drive you. Every fucking day.” He sighs when I don’t answer, shifting the box on his hip. “Just think it over, okay?”
“Why?” I asked as he heads to the door. “I’m miserable and angry, and I’m the reason you’re in pain. Why would you want me there reminding you of that every damn day?”
He puts the box on the couch and comes back over to me, holding my face in both hands and completely ignoring the sling he’s still in. “Because I was miserable and angry until I found you. Because I was in so much more pain before I found you. Because I want to wake up to the smell of coffee and cherry blossoms for the rest of my life. Because I didn’t blame you then, I don’t blame you now, and I will never blame you for the decisions fucked up people make. But more important than all of that, more important than anything at all, is because I love you, Alexis Strauss. I love you so much and I hope that someday, when I ask you to marry me, you’ll be able to see past all of this, say yes, and let me love you, anyway.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I would say yes if you asked me to marry you right now. Broke and broken. I would say yes, if you’d have me. So yes, I’ll move in with you, James.” I expect him to kiss me. I expect him to change his mind. I expect him to realize he doesn’t love me and just leave. I don’t expect him to drop to one knee right there in the living room.
“Alexis, I am broke, but I am not broken because you are the glue keeping me whole. I don’t have a ring, but…marry me? Right now. We’ll go to Vegas.”
“Vegas?”
“Let me call Coop and Steve. You can call Bex and Dani.” He stands with a wince and starts pacing around, planning the trip out in his head. “I need to grab some stuff from the house. How fast can you—Wait, you’re serious, right? That was a yes?”
“If that was a serious proposal. Yes. Yes, JamesI don’t know your middle nameBarton. I would marry you today.”
There’s a hard knock on the front door just as James is about to say something, and my whole body goes numb. It could be one of them. They could have posted bail and now they’re here to finish what they started. I’ve been terrified of every loud noise, every shout, every police siren—in Los Angeles, those are all everyday background sounds. People love to talk about fight and flight, but they always forget those of us who just freeze and shut down. Dr. Clay says that I am stuck in a cycle. He’s working to find something that works for someone like me to break the cycle of stress I’m putting myself through. So far, it’s only helped temporarily.
“Hello, I’m Humberto Diaz. Is Ms. Strauss home?” The man at the door introduces himself to Jamie. He looks back at me and I nod, so he opens the door and lets two men in. “Good morning, ma’am. We promise this won’t take long. Mr. Stan Morgan, your lawyer, hired us. We’re private investigators and we’ve found some new information regarding your case.”
He then turns to Jamie. “You wouldn’t be James Barton, would you?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Good, this involves you, too.”
My stomach does more than lurch and I can taste the bile climbing up my throat until Jamie steps behind me and takes my hand. “Let’s sit down, okay?” he whispers in my ear and then leads me over to a chair while the two PIs sit on the couch. “I’ll go get you some water.”
“Ma’am, we’ve learned that your stepfather and Mr. Jones may not have been working alone.” Diaz explains. He’s older and has a light Hispanic accent. “We dug into their finances after we got a lead and we found several large deposits made to each of them. Have either of you heard anything about a company called Cynosure?”
I shake my head. James calls out from the kitchen that it sounds familiar. The second PI holds up his phone, showing me a picture. Before I can say her name, the glass James was carrying drops to the floor and shatters. I jump and scream at the sound, and Jamie rushes over to me to calm me.
“I take it that you know her?” The second PI asks as he grabs a towel and cleans the water for us.
“Elle. Her name is Elliana Petrov. She’s my sister.”
“Your sister? What can you tell us about her?”
“Not much. In her whole life, we’ve spent a grand total of a week around each other.” Diaz makes a rumble noise and I take Jamie’s arm and hold it tight. “What does she have to do with this?”
“Well, I’m not sure how to tell you both this, but what we’ve found leads us to believe she paid Miller and Jones to attack you. It’s just a little odd that she’s got a familial tie to?—”
“No, it makes perfect sense. My sister was following us, stalking us, just like we told the cops. She hates me and apparently I’m in her way of some big fortune from my mother’s company. That’s Cynosure, isn’t it? Fuck.”
“Oh, my god.” The world spins as it all makes more and more sense. “How? She couldn’t have done this all that fast.”
“Well, we may have an answer to that as well,” Diaz answers. “You both work for a Mr. Sam Greene, correct?”
“Yeah, I freelance. Lex is a full-time designer there. Why?”
“Because your sister created a number of shell companies and used them methodically to get you fired from all of your other jobs.” The second PI answers. “She wanted to push you into a position with Mr. Greene’s company. Now that I know who she is, I’m guessing that was because Mr. Greene was close to your father. She’s been working on it for months, and in the meantime, she was searching for the right target.”
