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“Here you go,” Seth said as he came up to me and put a sticky note down on the table with the wireless password on it. “Um, I have a meeting at nine – it’ll take a couple of hours. Then I was going to go to lunch. Did you…did you want to come with me for that? For lunch, I mean?”
“Yeah, I would, if that’s okay.”
Seth hesitated and then nodded. “You should know that I don’t actually go to lunch-”
“Seth,” I interrupted. “I know where you go.”
“What?” Seth said in confusion.
I’d debated about telling Seth the truth about the extent of my surveillance of him but decided I’d have to risk his anger. He deserved much more than that for the olive branch he’d extended yesterday.
“Have you been following me?” he asked.
I nodded. He stepped back and I grabbed his wrist in case he was considering moving away from me. “Sit, please,” I said as I pushed the chair next to mine back from the table with my foot. He paused and then finally sat and I felt a wave of relief wash through my body.
“Seth, I can’t explain this feeling I have that something’s not right. I hope to God I’m wrong, I really do. But I can’t risk it if I’m not. And you were so angry with me for coming back into your life so suddenly…for knowing I’d been watching you all this time…” I shook my head. “I’m not sorry I did it but I am sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner.”
Seth swallowed hard a couple of times and then said, “I never saw you.”
“I put a tracking device on your car.”
Wariness crept into Seth’s gaze but then he nodded. “Is that all?”
Fuck.
“No. I also went to see your old attorney.”
I hadn’t realized I was still holding on to Seth until he actually pulled free of my hold. “Ronan-”
“I needed answers that I knew you wouldn’t give me. I also had someone look into Barry before he attacked you. I…I didn’t like the way he looked at you…touched you.”
Seth was quiet for a long time. “No more lies, okay, Ronan?” he finally said. “We can’t do this if you’re going to lie to me.”
I nodded in understanding. There were things I could never tell him, not even if it meant losing him but I could give him most of the truth.
“I know about the inheritance,” I admitted. “Your lawyer let it slip by accident.”
Seth began chewing on his upper lip nervously.
“Seth, I can’t get it all back to you right away but I’ve got a good chunk of it available – I just need to talk to my bank about moving it to your account.”
I was startled when Seth suddenly leaned forward and placed his hand over mine where it was resting on the table. His skin felt warm against mine and sparks shot up my arm. I waited for the tingling to change into something far less pleasant, but to my surprise, the electricity kept building and I wanted to moan as my cock reacted to the pleasurable sensation. But just as quickly as he’d touched me, Seth seemed to remember himself and he jerked his hand back. I was still struggling with my own reaction so I barely heard his whispered “sorry.”
Seth tucked his hand in his lap and said, “Trace told me he was going to propose to you. It was a couple days before he left to go back to Afghanistan. I’d been discharged from the hospital a few weeks earlier and my grandmother was in the process of moving down from Bellingham to come live with me.” Seth lifted his eyes from where he’d been studying his hands. “That money is yours Ronan. Just because Trace didn’t tell Mr. Brighton that himself doesn’t mean he didn’t want you to have the money…you know how he was about stuff like that.”
I did know. Trace was the kind of guy who’d felt like he was untouchable. Even the prospect of his own mortality hadn’t changed that.
“He wanted to spend the rest of his life with you, Ronan. I’m so sorry that you didn’t get to have that but he would have wanted you to be taken care of.”
I managed a nod but inside I was struggling. And not just at Seth’s reminder of what I’d lost but at the realization of what I still had. Even with all that had been taken from him at the tender age of fourteen, Seth had been looking out for me…he’d been worried about me. And even after admitting I’d been trailing him and asking questions about him behind his back, Seth was still looking out for me by making sure I knew how much Trace had wanted to be with me.
I was reaching for Seth before I could think better of it but the sound of Seth’s office door opening stopped me. I barely remembered not to reach for my gun.
