Page 16 of Fighting For You
She turned to me, tears in her eyes. “Worse than losing the life I thought I was going to have? Worse than being abandonedagainby someone who said he’d love me? Worse than giving up on the home I was building, the stability and family I’d finally found?Yeah, sure. Try me.”
The challenge in her eyes had something in me rising to the occasion, pushing past the circumspection that’d kept me from blurting out the truth about her ex-fiancé and burning everything down.
“You really want to know? He assaulted someone. A woman. And after talking with him, I know it’s not the first time. He’s cheated and?—”
“Just stop. He might be outgoing and a little too flirty and charming, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad man.” She swore violently before continuing. “He said you’d do this. He said you’d blame him, and it’s just bullshit.” Her voice was brittle and so full of anger, it cut.
“He left you. If he was really innocent, wouldn’t he stay? Wouldn’t he fight for you?”
You deserve to be fought for.She deserved somuch more than he’d given her—even from the beginning. But she’d taken the scraps, and I wouldn’t criticize her for it now.
“How can he fight for me when you took his purpose? When you crushed the thing he’d built his identity around?”
Her voice was shaky and she looked like any second she might bolt.
Bile climbed up my throat and my head nearly swam with disgust and anger and a raw sense of heartbreak I hadn’t encountered before. How could she buy the act, even still? “Do you hear yourself? He would’ve retired in a few years anyway, and the fact that you take his word above the unit’s judgement, andmyword, just shows how oblivious you’ve chosen to be. You’re a smart woman, Pop. It’s hard to imagine you really don’t believe what actually happened.”
She reared back like I’d hit her, and my stomach rolled. I jumped to my feet and reached for her, but she did run then. She ran to the door, then out to her car.
“Wait!”Shit.“Wait, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
She stood with her car door between us like a shield. “I hate you for this. I’ll never forgive you.”
In seconds, she’d slammed the door and sped off, and I watched long after her car had disappeared from my drive. An ache had settled over my heart, caging it in like insulation, muffling any other feeling.
Except one.
Because if this woman who’d been my friend and my teammate and my—well, whom I’d cared about, if she was so determined to hate me, I couldn’t keep on this way. I’d bleed out if I didn’t stitch up all of this, but not before surgically removing the parts of me that belonged to her.
Then maybe I’d hate her, too—for believing the lies of aman who’d duped her repeatedly for years. For choosing him over me time and time again, even when she didn’t know that was what she was doing and especially once she did.
How much could one man give? How much could a fool hope before he surrendered? When would it finally get through to me that she refuses to see me?
Maybe now.
Reality sank in, a wave crashing over me, pulling me under to the truth.
She might hate me and never forgive me… But after this, I was fairly certain I’d feel the same way.
CHAPTER NINE
Jess
Stepping into All Booked Up was a freshly wrapped gift every time. The soft scent of new books and brewing coffee paired with the sound of my dearest friends laughing and razzing each other made the last thirty-six hours melt away.
Okay, well not exactly melt away completely, but recede enough that I could accept the glass of Prosecco Jo offered and slump down next to Elise and Dove and exhale dramatically.
“Um, okay. The floor is yours, mademoiselle.” Dove pulled me into a hug that made my drink slosh over the side a little. “Whoops, sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
Ugh, I sounded melodramatic and like I was begging for attention.Notmy usual MO.
“Seriously, Jess. We can tell something’s wrong. Areyou okay?” Nikki asked, Winnie, Catherine, and Jo agreeing with the statement by leaning toward me, while Elise gave me a kind smile and patted my leg.
I couldn’t tell them everything about what happened—basically nothing about the hotel. Even though they were all trustworthy, information leak was an issue, and I couldn’t break our security protocols for my own gratification. But I could explain the basics.
“I had to work closely with Beast on something yesterday and… it was awful.”
