Page 107 of What Comes Around

He frowned. “I haven’t seen any podcast. I was outside with Titan.”

“Well, I watched it,” I snapped. “And she said she’s pregnant. Five months. And she implied the father is someone she reconnected with. Someone she knew years ago. Someone I work with.”

His expression shifted from confusion to disbelief. “No. No. Ashley, absolutely not.”

“She said she tried to contact him for months,” I pushed. “And after I started working for him, he disappeared. That he didn’t want her anymore. She said everything except your name.”

“She’s lying.”

The certainty in his voice should have reassured me, but it only made my emotions spike higher. I knew they had slept together. That was the reason I targeted him in the first place—because Apple wanted him. It had been part of the plan. Her being pregnant, however, had never been part of it.

“She sounded convincing,” I said. “She said she was five months pregnant.”

His eyes snapped back to mine. “That’s impossible.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.” His voice hardened. “Ashley, listen to me. I did hook up with Apple before. I’m not going to lie about that.”

I made a face, but he kept going.

“But the last time was almost a year ago. There is no way she is pregnant with my child.”

I felt heat rising in my face, frustration boiling under my skin. “For all I know, you have kids all over the place. You didn’t use a condom with me!”

His gaze snapped to mine. Something hot and dangerous flashed there.

“With you. Only with you. And I don’t have kids anywhere.”

“You expect me to just take your word for it?”

“I have always used condoms with other people. Always. I am not careless. I am not stupid.”

My breath hitched, anger and something else tangling together.

“You didn’t with me. You didn’t even think about it.”

His jaw tightened. “You were the only exception. Because you make me lose my mind. Because nothing else existed in that moment except you. Because all I could think was ‘I must have you.’”

The intensity in his eyes made it impossible to look away. “You’re saying that like it’s my fault.”

He took another step closer. “I’m saying it like it’s the truth.”

The air between us thickened. Heavy. Charged.

“You are upset,” he said. “But that baby is not mine. If there even is any baby.”

In my rational mind I knew he was right. I knew Apple lied like she breathed. But rational didn’t matter right now. Not with my emotions ricocheting everywhere, sharp and hot and impossible to control.

“She doesn’t matter,” Knox said, voice low. “She never did.”

Maybe she didn’t. Maybe I knew that. But the pressure inside me kept building, twisting tighter and tighter until it had to go somewhere.

“Then why do you act like you don’t want me anymore?” I snapped.

His brows pulled together. “What?”

“Ever since the kidnapping attempt, you barely touch me. You hover. You tiptoe.”