I clear my throat and swallow thickly. “Nothing.”
“Really?” One of his dark brows rises. “Because I could have sworn I heard a familiar name said from the speaker of that thing right before it fell from your hand.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Umm…”
He takes a step closer, looming over me where I still kneel on the sidewalk. His dark eyes remain locked on me, searching my face as if he might find whatever he’s looking for there. “What the hell are you up to, Raven?”
I climb to my feet, averting my gaze before peeking at him again. “What do you mean?”
His jaw hardens. He scans around us, at the people milling up and down Main Street, sitting at the small bistro tables outside the bakery only a few steps away, having their last sweet treat before it closes up for the night, at the cars driving down the road, and abruptly grabs my arm again.
“Hey!”
He drags me toward the entrance to my apartment.
“Connor, what the fuck are you doing?”
We receive a few questioning looks, but everyone in town knows him and the fact that he and I have a…complicated relationship. This likely doesn’t seem too weird for them for us to be having a tiff on the damn sidewalk, especially if any of them witnessed what went down at the bakery the other day.
Connor dips his head close to mine, so that when he says the words, they rumble against my ear. “Taking you inside so the rest of McBride Mountain doesn’t hear what the fuck you’ve been up to.”
Goosebumps break out across my skin as he jerks open the door and ushers me up the stairs. I let him because I don’t stand a chance against his strength, even if I wanted to fight him. And there wouldn’t be any point. Now that he’s heard what he heard, he’s not going to let this—or me—go.
When we get to the top of the stairs and the single door that leads to my apartment, he pauses to look at me expectantly.
I incline my head toward the knob. “It’s unlocked.”
His eyes widen. “Jesus Christ. Of course, it is.”
He grabs the knob with his free hand and shoves it open, guiding me inside before he closes it behind us and throws the deadbolt lock.
I scoff. “Is that really necessary?”
When he turns to face me, I can see the tension in his entire body. Every hard muscle flexed and ready for a fight. He’s an immovable force, and he’s directed all that power at me, at stopping whatever he thinks is happening. “I don’t know. You tell me. Because I just heard the name Lorell on that voice recorder you tried to hide in your pocket.”
Fuck.
I release a heavy breath, walk over to the couch, and lower my bag onto it.
There are two options here: play dumb and hope I can convince him he didn’t hear what he thought he heard, or come clean. Something tells me the first one isn’t going to fly. Not with Connor. He’s too smart, too observant.
I still have to at least make an attempt. “Connor, I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
He takes a step toward me, then another, his hands fisting at his sides again. The flinty gray-black of his eyes only darkens more. “Don’t play dumb with me, Raven. Willow warned me that you were up to something and that you’ve been lying to her, then you get up before the asscrack of dawn, looking nervous as hell, to drive to Atlanta to meet with someone who lives in a house owned by a goddamn LLC, like that isn’t shady as fuck?—”
“How the hell do you know that?” It takes a few seconds for me to process what he just said, to clearly understand what it means. “Oh, my God, did you follow me to Atlanta?”
Connor doesn’t react.
Not an apologetic look.
Not a hint of embarrassment or regret.
He fucking followed me!
“How dare you, Connor McBride?”
