“You thought being left looking like a fool protected me? You really think that was the better option?”
“I’m the fool, Rhys. I love you. I do,” she said when she heard him scoff, “but I’m not the person you need. I’m not the wife you want. And even though I should’ve figured that out a long time ago, I didn’t. That’s on me, and Ihatemyself for it, but I can’t change it. Not now.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose and pressed hard against her throbbing head. “I know you’ll never forgive me for what I did, but please knowI loved youenough to end it before it was too late. Before we took it too far. I screwed up, okay? I know I did, but please,pleasetry to think of it that way.”
Silence followed her words, and she sniffled and leaned her head back against the chair. The sun was setting outside, the sky growing dark behind the blinds that hadn’t been raised the entire day.
Finally he exhaled. “Quinley, there have been death threats made against you.”
She swallowed audibly. “Ana told me.”
“There are several that are credible. My team is investigating them, but they are the reason I sent your parents out of town with guards and have men outside of Ana’s home. This isn’t the time to be stubborn. Where are you? I need to know so I can protect you.”
She thought of his offer, the kindness of it considering the reason behind it, and hated herself even more. But before she agreed—ifshe agreed—she needed answers. “Do you hate me? Can we ever get beyond this? Be…friends?”
A very, very long silence followed her question, and she found herself holding her breath and getting teary-eyed again at his lack of response.
“Things would be a lot easier right now if I hated you.”
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut. “I wish I could undo things—do themdifferently—and…fix this.”
He cursed softly. “If you’re in the mountains, why aren’t you with your parents?”
She groaned inwardly and wrapped an arm around her knees, drawing them to her chest. “So youaretracking me.”
“Even prepaid phones are traceable, and we know Blackwell was heading that direction. You stayed with him? Spent the night with him?”
She sank her teeth into her bottom lip and sniffled once more. “I told you we’re not together like that, Rhys.”
“It doesn’t appear that way.”
“I promise you; we’re not.”
“Then why are you still with him?”
“Where was I supposed to go?” She explained how she’d begged Elias to drive her to her parents’ house in the mountains thinking it was empty. “I didn’t know who was in the house and after everything that had happened, I didn’t care to find out. So Elias kept driving and brought me to his rental.”
“How nice of him.”
“Rhys, stop. It’s a two-bedroom cabin, and he’s been the perfect gentleman. What would you have had him do?”
“Not drive away? Drive you to Ana’s? Insist you speak with me?”
“He tried all of those things,” she said softly. “So blame me, not him. I begged Elias to take me away a-and to bring me here.”
“This doesn’t look good. I thought… I thought you were at Ana’s but in hiding. I thought she and Cole were lying when they said you weren’t there.”
She heard the pain in his voice, the resignation, and felt awful. “They didn’t lie.”
“They didn’t tell me you were still with him.”
“Maybe because they don’t want to be caught in the middle,” she argued. “Rhys, please don’t punish Ana because of what I’ve done.”
Silence filled the line before he said, “You think I’d do that? Take my anger out on her and her business?”
“People do things they wouldn’t normally do when they’re upset,” she said, referencing herself 100 percent. “As to me being here, it’s fine. No one knows. It was really late, and I couldn’t get a hotel room or rental with my face plastered all over the news. And I didn’t think to grab my purse. I didn’t have any money to book anything else.”
“Your ‘perfect gentleman’ wouldn’t get something suitable for you?”
