Jensen stormed to the front of the store where only one customer lingered from earlier that morning. That guy Al, who seemed to be here every day now. “I’m sorry, sir, but we need to close unexpectedly. If you come back tomorrow, I’ll get you breakfast on the house.”
The man’s brow furrowed as his eyes darted from Jensen to the kitchen. “I hope everything’s okay.”
Jensen ushered him out the front door. “It’ll be fine. Thank you.” She shut the door behind him, flipping the lock and switching the sign toClosed. Then she strode back to the kitchen and wrapped me in a tight hug. “It’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out.”
I pulled back, shaking my head, hot tears filling my eyes. “I have to go. I have to pack as quickly as I can, get Trouble, and go.”
Jensen gripped my shoulders tightly. “Don’t do anything yet. It’s not like there are pictures of you floating around. You just need to lie low for a few days. I can get Taylor to help out at the shop, and you can just stay in your apartment. I bet Liam’s freaking out. You might want to call him.”
A sharp pain pierced my heart. Liam had known this might happen. He’d mentioned the issue with a fan. Tip of the freaking iceberg. I’d had no idea it could blow up to something like this, but Liam must have known. I let myself sink to the floor and wrapped my arms around my legs. “I can’t call him right now.”
Jensen sank with me, placing an arm around my shoulders. “Do you want me to?”
Tears tracked down my cheeks. “No. He knew about the fan. Knew this might happen. Why didn’t he warn me that this was a possibility, at least? He basically lied. Right to my face. Lied when he knows how hard it is for me to trust people.”
Jensen winced. “Tessa, I don’t think it was a lie exactly. He probably just didn’t want to burden you when he knew you had so much going on yourself. And he probably thought no one would find him here even if the news did break.”
My heart began to pound faster in my chest. I loved Jensen, but she was wrong about this. Liam had deliberately kept something from me. And if he’d kept this from me, then what else might be lurking beneath the surface? My breaths started coming quicker.
Pounding sounded on the back door. “Tessa, Jensen? It’s Liam. Let me in.”
My body tensed. I shook my head at Jensen, panic licking my veins. “I can’t talk to him right now.”
The banging continued. Jensen pushed to her feet. “Are you sure?” I shook my head vehemently, and she gave me a sympathetic look. “I’ll get rid of him. Hide in the pantry in case he gets pushy.”
I nodded, ducking into the small, dark space, a place that smelled of some of my most comforting scents. It didn’t help.
I heard the sound of the back door unlatching before Jensen’s voice. “Get in here before someone sees you.”
“Where is she?”
The door shut and locked. “She doesn’t want to see you right now.”
I peeked through the crack in the door, just enough to see Liam. My heart clenched as his shoulders sagged.
“I just want to make sure she’s safe.”
Jensen squeezed Liam’s shoulder. “She is safe. You just need to give her some time.”
Liam straightened. “I can get her out of here. I’ll have a private plane at the airstrip in a few hours, and we can go wherever she wants.”
Jensen’s voice softened even further. “Liam, anywhere with you puts her at risk. If you really want to help her, take that plane and go back to LA. The media will follow you and leave Tessa alone, thinking their tipsters got it wrong.”
I bit down on my fingers to keep from crying out. It would be best if Liam left. It would keep me under the radar. My stomach roiled. Jensen was right. I wouldn’t be safe anywhere in the world if Liam were with me. Wherever he went, curious eyes and shuttering cameras would follow. Maybe I had been kidding myself this whole time. There was no way for us to make this work. We were too different. So why did it feel like my heart was being torn in two?
32
Liam
Ice clinked against my glass as Taylor refilled it. She gave me a sympathetic smile. “In times of trouble, it’s all about the Patron.”
I took a sip of the tequila. It burned, but the blaze down my throat was a welcome distraction. I’d spent the day putting out as many fires as possible, approving a statement for my publicist to release, hoping that it would give the vultures something to feed on and maybe make them go back to LA.
I sure as hell wasn’t going. I wasn’t leaving Tessa. We had to work this out. I let my head fall back on the couch and groaned.
Walker rested his booted feet on the coffee table. “Are you two going to tell me what’s going on? I know it’s a shitstorm with these photographers crawling all over town, but I get the feeling that’s not the whole story. And I’m thinking it has something to do with the fact that Tessa isn’t here right now.”
I rubbed a hand over my jaw. “I fucked up. I can’t tell you why, but Tessa can’t be photographed with me. I knew this whole thing with the fan might hit the papers and drum up the media’s interest in me. I didn’t tell Tessa that was a possibility.”
