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“Fuck, Eli! What have you done?” he growled. “I told you that if you did anything to hurt Ari that you’d have to answer to me!”
“Not now, Seth,” I hissed as I raced down the steps, skipping the last three on each floor by jumping to the bottom. My heart ached, and my breathing was labored, but I knew it had absolutely nothing to do with the stairway workout. As soon as I burst through the parking garage door, Seth grabbed my shoulder and yanked me around, nearly causing both of us to fall.
“I said ‘not now, Seth’,” I growled at him.
“He’s already there, Eli. Ari and Baker are at your apartment so whatever shit you’ve pulled, you might as well come clean with me now, so I can decide if I’m going to help you or try to kill you.” He pointed his key fob at his sleek sports car and said, “I’m driving. You aren’t in any shape to be behind the wheel. Explain while I drive.”
Being bossed around by Seth wasn’t one of my favorite things, but the second he’d said that Ari and Baker were already at my apartment, I knew that my fellow employee was the least of my worries. Climbing into the car without argument, I waited until he’d pulled out onto the highway before asking any questions. “What did Baker say? Were they in the apartment? How the fuck did he get past all the security codes, dammit!”
Seth rolled his eyes as he cut another car off in order to get us there faster. “It’s Ari we are talking about, Eli. He can hack into any system. I seriously doubt your apartment security used many of his brain cells. More importantly, what are you hiding from Ari at your apartment?” When I didn’t answer right away, he added, “Because they’ve obviously found whatever it was. Baker had some very threatening things to say about you before he hung up on me.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“You need to talk to me, Eli. I really want to believe the best about you right now, but you’re making it incredibly hard. Landon will walk away from the job if you hurt his boy. If Landon goes, I go. If I go, Baker goes. There’s more on the line here than whatever stupid testosterone stunt you’ve pulled.”
My head dropped. Ari would never understand. If he saw McKenzie, he’d think the worst. If he talked to McKenzie, he’d know the worst. “Just drive, Seth,” I muttered, already knowing my life was about to skid off the path again. My time without Ari had damn near destroyed me. I couldn’t do it again.
“Are you cheating on him?”
“Never,” I answered truthfully.
Seth glowered at me, instead of watching the road, and then finally answered, “I believe you. If you aren’t cheating, then it’s something both of you can overcome. Don’t panic. If I could convince Baker to love me, then you can win Ari over with half the effort. He was already in love with you before you made an appearance in our lives.”
“I lied to him,” I whispered softly. “I did the one thing that I know he’ll never be able to forgive or understand…not after what happened between us in college.”
Seth pulled his car into my parking garage, shut off the engine, and asked, “Lied to him about what?”
“Important stuff,” I answered. In my heart, I already knew I’d lost him. I didn’t believe in that soulmate bullshit that belonged in books and fairytales, but my heart felt…different. This morning, I’d felt closer to heaven than I’d felt in ages. Now? I sat on the edge of hell. He’d never forgive me.
Without any of the energy I’d possessed back at the office, I opened the passenger door and stepped into the parking garage. Ari’s tiny sports car sat parked in one of the two spaces that belonged to me. Inside of it sat boxes and pieces of his luggage. The crack in my heart splintered into a million pieces when I realized what he’d been doing.
Standing beside me, Seth asked, “Was Ari moving in with you?”
“I’d asked him to, but he’d been afraid we were moving too fast,” I answered, my voice cracking as tears threatened to fall. “I…I’d planned to woo him into agreeing—into seeing that us being together was the perfect ending to a perfect beginning.” Once I started talking, I couldn’t stop. “I’d imagined all the ways I was going to prove to him that I was the perfect man for him. I planned to convince him that I was worthy of his love.”
“Tell him you’re sorry, Eli. He loves you, so he’ll forgive you.”
Seth’s cell started to ring so I quietly answered, “No, he won’t forgive me.” While Seth answered Baker, I walked toward the penthouse elevator doors. The digital sign above the closed doors indicated that the elevator was on its way down, so I didn’t bother to push the button. When the doors slid open, McKenzie stood there, looking upset and confused. His silver eyes flashed when he saw me standing there.
