Alarmed, I look around for Heloise.“But I need to talk to—”
“This can’t wait,” Locke says, his jaw clenched.
Ah…something might have come up with his grandfather.“Please tell your mother to call me,” I beg Poppy.“I think she still has my number.”
She looks at Locke’s retreating figure, then at me.“Give it to me just in case.”
I rattle off the numbers, and she repeats them back.
Then I hike up the dress and run after Locke.Whatever happened must be serious for him to act this way.I hope his family is well.I know what it’s like to lose someone you love.
By the time I reach him, he’s in the car waiting behind the wheel.The second I get inside, he takes off.
I glance at him.He has a death grip on the steering wheel.
“Did something happen at the company?”
“No.”
The harshness of his tone takes me back.
“Your grandfather?”
“No.”
That answer is equally as harsh.I brace my hand against the dash.“Why are you driving this fast?”I look around at the houses we zip past.“Where are we going?”
“I’ll show you.”
I settle back in the seat but I’m worried what could have possibly happened to him.
He drives for nearly forty minutes almost to the end of the city limits before he turns down a side street, heads halfway down, then stops.
I try to see the landscape, but it’s difficult in the dark.“Why are we here?”
“Get out, Salem.”
I step from the car.There’s nothing here but a vacant lot with weeds growing as tall as my knees.I put my hands on my hips.Now I’m the one getting angry.“What is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?”He shakes his head, then flings his arms out to indicate the lot.“It was here.”
“What was here?”
“The is the abandoned home I told you about.The one where I was kept after I was kidnapped as a child.Had that contractor not found me, I don’t know what would have happened.I thought I was going to die because of my father’s lies.”
He lets out a laugh with no humor in it.“I hate lies.There’s always an agenda behind them.So what’s yours?”
All the air whooshes from my lungs.
He strides toward me, close by not touching.“You lied to me about being married because you wanted to use me.”
“That’s not true.I didn’t want to use you.I just wanted—”
“You needed me to make the connection with Heloise.I heard the entire conversation.”
“If you heard the conversation then you know what happened.”He only knows the tip of the iceberg.He has no idea how I was treated.
“Yeah, I do.DB Jewelry stole your designs.You could have trusted me and told me that.I would have helped.I would have moved the whole goddamn world to get revenge for you!”
