Page 81 of The Revenge Agenda

I climb onto the bed beside him. “I know you don’t mean it, but I did appreciate your offer of a room here. It’s still a no, but I appreciate it.”

“When it comes down to it, we don’t actually have a room. I would have made one for you. Eloise guilted me into it.”

“Suddenly feeling a whole lot less appreciative,” I tease. “But speaking of places to live … I take it the other night didn’t go well?”

“Nope. It went terribly. But he probably thinks it went well, I’m not sure. Oh! Actually. Where’s my phone? I have a feeling he sent me a message.”

“A feeling?”

“I might have imagined it. We’ll see.”

Rush rifles through his bedsheets as I set my coffee down and reach over the side of the bed to where he tossed it last night.

“Here.”

“There it is. Thank you.”

I watch while he unlocks it, apprehension settling at what Ian could have to say. I’d be willing to bet a fucking shitload that it isn’t an apology for what he did.

“Huh.”

“What is it?”

“Just … it’s a lot.”

He hands over the phone, and Rush is right—it is a lot. Ten messages of Ian swinging between begging Rush to talk to him to snapping that he’s being ignored. It’s eye-opening reading these messages, seeing someone so emotionally unhinged, when the guy I knew was … not that. At least, not that he showed me. He’d always been charismatic. Friendly. Almost sweet. What a total mindfuck to see everything he was hiding.

“I’d really hoped he would try to tell me that we could be together because he was working on a plan to get you to leave Seattle.” Rush’s face falls. “I’d been so sure it would work.”

“It’s a big thing for him to admit. Don’t feel bad. He would have been stupid to cough that info up, and given he hid us from each other for a year, he’s no dummy.”

I hate that he looks so defeated, staring at his phone like he’s begging the universe to make the message come through.

The only time Rush should be using his begging is with me.

“I guess I’ll have to think of something new for next time.”

“Next time?”

He looks up, gorgeous face so sweet and sincere it makes me want to kiss him. “Well, it’s not over yet.”

“Yes. It is.”

“I’m not letting him do this to you. We’ll get it out of him. All I need is one confession. Oh—maybe I can record our whole next date or go back to his place with him and rifle through his office? There’d have to be evidence on his computer. Or his phone. I don’t have the passwords to either of those things, but I’m sure if I pay attention, I could figure it out. Maybe even message it to you so you can remind me if I forget. It’ll be like we’re agents of espionage, some 007 type of?—”

I grab his phone and tug it from his hands. “No.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s over, Rush.”

“It’s barely started.”

I have to bite my tongue to stop from going overboard. “After what he did to you, I never want you in the same room again.”

“But that’s not a call for you to make.”

“When the only reason you’re meeting with him is because of me, yes, it is.”

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