Page 78 of The Kissing Part
“I don’t have a problem.”
“You fall in love too easily. You should be more like me. Just ride it out until it’s not exciting anymore and move on.”
I send him a dark look, not bothering to justify that stupidity with a response. Besides, I’m no longer in love with Shayla. I’ve forgiven her for the past, but that doesn’t mean we have a future. Nothing’s really changed.
My gut churns. She texted me, asking to talk, and I ignored it.
“He’s only ever loved one woman,” Mackenzie says to Nathan. She turns to me. “And she loves you too, even after you kicked her out.” She slaps a hand over her mouth. “Oops.”
“Oops,” I echo, sitting up straighter. “She said that?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Mackenzie says.
“She used to love me,” I clarify.
“Just get on a fucking plane and find out,” Nathan says.
I stand abruptly and grab my laptop. “I’m not going to LA to patch things up. I just need to check on her security setup since she let Zander go.”
“Oh my God, she didn’t take Zander?” Mackenzie exclaims. “I didn’t know that. Go, go, go! She needs you.”
I bolt out the door. Mackenzie’s right. Shayla needs me for her own protection.
* * *
I walk into Shayla’s house through the open patio door, every nerve ending at attention. She wouldn’t be so careless as to leave the door open. I checked in with Olivia earlier, and there’s no bodyguard yet. Shayla lives alone on a private lot.
I approach the kitchen and hear a man’s voice. I halt, my heart kicking harder.
“Katie, I’m glad we can be alone again.”
Adrenaline fires through me. I carefully shift to get a better look. Yup. It’s Matt. He’s obsessed with the teenaged runaway character Shayla played, Katie, who turned to prostitution to survive. He must’ve deactivated the security system somehow. I should’ve come out here with her and made sure she had a tamperproof system. Damn my stupid pride.
Matt sits on a stool at the kitchen island. Shayla stands frozen in place by the refrigerator in her robe, closer to him than me.
She must’ve come down for breakfast and been surprised by him. I’m not sure if he has a weapon. I wait, hoping Shayla will move out of the danger zone long enough for me to take Matt down.
He smiles at her. You’d never know he was dangerous just looking at him. He looks like a friendly neighbor with neat brown hair parted to the side and black rectangular-framed glasses.
Shayla backs up a step.Yes, come this way.
“Don’t leave,” Matt says. “I came all this way to see you.”
“What do you want?”
“I just want to be with you, Katie.” He sets a wad of crumpled dollar bills on the counter. “I brought cash. I can afford you.”
Damn his sick mind.
“How did you get in here?” she asks in a shaky voice.
He laughs. “You didn’t even notice the power went off while you were sleeping. That’s the advantage of thinking ahead. Your security system was laughably easy to shut down.”
Shayla takes another step back, and he pulls out a gun. My stomach drops.No! It’s not going to end this way.
“Don’t go,” he says. “This can be nice and easy.”
She clears her throat and offers him a sunny smile. “Would you like breakfast? I was just about to make pancakes.”
