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“Uh…” I pause. My brows pinch as I scan the deserted lot. Something about his tone has me shaking my head no. I grip my phone in my palm. “There’s no one here, Paxton. Can we talk here?”
As if this is safer than his car.
His attention flickers around, searching the area, a panicked expression flittering across the handsome features I’ve fallen for. Part of me wants to reach out to him, reassure him, for what, I don’t know. The other part feels like jumping back into my car and hauling ass out of here. I hate this. He’s supposed to be my safe zone.
He paces, stops a few feet away, and then turns his body toward me. “Kali, don’t hate me.”
Never start a sentence off with that. It’s the telltale sign that what comes next will not be good.
“What… what did you do?”
He swallows hard. I watch his Adam’s apple bobble, but he can’t spit it out.
“For what, Paxton?” I yell, tears threatening to fall as I fear the worst. The monster got to him. He told him how to find me.
“I didn’t do it. I swear to you, I didn’t do it. You have to believe me,” he pleads.
I do a double take. Is he asking me… “Do what?” The two words come out slow.
“They think I’m the one who kidnapped you.”
I jerk back, clearly having heard him wrong. Who would think that? “I’ve never thought you did.” It’s been three months, and never once have I questioned if he did it.
I could never fall in love with the man who tortured me.
Could I?
“Someone is trying to frame me,” he says, almost frantically, as he paces again. What is he talking about? Who would frame him for this? He takes a deep inhale, blows it out, and drops his head. “The day I saved you wasn’t the first time I had seen you,” he admits. I try to snatch hold of his words and make sense of what he means because I’d never seen him before.
“When? When had you seen me before?” He mumbles and I catch a few words—something about his Jeep. “Dammit, Paxton. Tell me!”
Finally, he stops pacing and casts his eyes down. “I had a hat on and was wearing glasses. I didn’t have a beard.”
Our eyes meet, and I narrow mine. It was him. He’s Mr. Pie Guy. “Your eyes were green?”
He slowly nods. “Contacts. Before I stopped in, I had been undercover for a nearby case. I forgot I had them on. The moment you said hello, I was drawn to you.”
This just took an unfortunate turn off the what-if cliff. The idea has me backing up, wedging myself between the door and the car. He reads my fear, and like the gentleman he always is, he takes two large steps back, allowing me some distance between us. I’d thank him if I wasn’t so mortified.
“I went back once, trying to find the courage to talk to you again, but when you left the restaurant in what looked like a bad mood, I chickened out.”
My brows furrow, trying to figure out when that might have been.
“I was going to try again a different day but got busy with another case. And then just a few weeks later, I’m digging you out of a grave.”
“I don’t understand,” I roar, anger overtaking the fear. “I slept with you. I’m falling in love with you, and you never mentioned any of this. Why, Paxton?”
He shoves his hands into his pockets. “Kali, please believe I would never hurt you,” he pleads.
Liar! This fucking hurts.
It’s difficult to imagine the man before me capable of such evil. But I never expected him to lie to me either. The possibility that he tried to kill me is out there in the world. The notion leaves my stomach feeling twisted. I squeeze the bridge of my nose, trying not to throw up. Why is everything so difficult in my life? Dating him was easy. He was the perfect guy. I imagined myself with him ten years from now.
“I’ll take a lie detector test to prove to you I didn’t do it.”
“I’ve heard people can trick the system.”
“That’s pretty rare.”
