Page 61 of The FBI Agents Who Stole Me

“She doesn’t know you’re here,” he continues, lowering his voice. “And I’d prefer to keep it that way.”

“Move,” I say.

Instead, he shifts just enough to block the doorway more completely.

“You walked away,” he says. “I’ve been here the whole time.”

“What does that fucking mean?”

“You didn’t fight very hard to stay.”

“That’s not what happened.”

He tilts his head, sizing me up. “Doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve fucked you out of her system before you two even broke up.”

The implication is deliberate. He wants me off-balance.

That couldn’t be true. Ettie would never. Would she? Is that why she pushed me away? She already had someone else lined up for my replacements.

No, I don’t fucking accept that.

“I need to talk to her,” I repeat.

“And say what?” he asks. “That you want her to give it another shot? She doesn’t need that, man. We have a good thing going.”

My silence answers him.

He exhales through his nose and looks past me briefly, then back again. “She cried for you,” he says. “But I was there to help her get over it.”

My jaw tightens.

“She’s been mine since the first time I saw her,” he adds. “Even when she was still technically yours.”

The floor seems to shift under me.

“That’s a lie,” I say, though the conviction is weaker than I would like.

He holds my gaze without blinking.

“You think I waited?”

My lungs refuse to fill.

“You expect me to believe she⁠—”

“I don’t expect anything from you.” His tone sharpens slightly. “I’m telling you she chose me. More than once.”

More than once. The ache beneath my ribs becomes unbearable. Was I nothing to her? Was this why she never said she loved me?

“Just go, man. I’ve got her now.”

Behind him, movement. Her silhouette in the hallway.

“Elliot?” she calls.

He glances back then steps aside enough for her to see me.

Her expression shifts from confusion to shock.