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“Kyle wrote the screenplay. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. That’s why I didn’t tell you. I should have. I should have…” He releases shuddered sigh.
I close my eyes and cover my mouth to stop the sob threatening to emerge. I wait. Is he going to say more? Then the door opens and clicks shut.
I let the sob free.
20
JACKSON
I sit in the car, staring at the house Autumn is in, the silence so loud it’s ringing in my ears as I relive this fuck-up of a day. Starting with the moment the notifications blew up my phone and had me careening off the highway.
My first reaction after seeing the news was that I wanted to kill Ben for messing with Autumn again. Then Autumn didn’t answer her phone and all the doubts started creeping in. The same hotel, the outfit she was wearing, and her brunette hair color all proved the pictures were current.
Why would she meet him? Why did it look like she was happy to see him? Was everything between us all a lie?
I immediately dismissed the thought, but then my mind went down a dark path. How many times had someone I thought I could trust deceived me? How many times had I been played for a fool? And Autumn is a professional actor.
Once those thoughts took root, I couldn’t trust myself to see clearly. I had to stop thinking of Autumn as my girlfriend and concentrate on the fact that she was a client that needed to get to safety — which was the absolutely wrong thing to do.
I needed my boyfriend.
Fuck. I can’t stop thinking about that moment. How her devastatingly soft words exploded around me, and I could only stand there and take the blast. It left me paralyzed. Shattered.
It still does.
I run a hand over my face and take in a long breath. As much as I want to charge the door and demand we get past this, she’s right. We need some space. And while I might be fired, as far as I’m concerned,Personally Yours, is still responsible for her security. I pick up my phone and call Gage.
“Hey, are y’all at the safe house?” he says as he answers.
“Yeah, she’s inside. Look, I need you to get someone you trust to watch over the house and can provide her with a secure ride tomorrow. I can’t leave her without transportation.”
“Where are you going?”
“Back to Austin.” Eventually. First, I’m going to take care of a few things. “She fired me.”
“What?! What happened?”
“Just call her. I need you to make sure she stays safe.”
Silence meets me and I know he doesn’t like the lack of information, but he sighs and says, “Yeah. I can do that.”
“I’ll wait in the driveway until someone arrives. Send me the details. Also, I need the number to the PI we hired to investigate Ben.”
“Why?”
“Better not to know.”
“Fuck. Please don’t get us sued, okay?”
“I make no promises.”
He sends me the contact info and my conversation with the PI goes far better than I expected. Gotta love it when a plan comes together. Hours later, I arrive at Ben’s weekly boxing lesson. After a quick conversation with his trainer, he was more than happy to let me don some gloves and stand witness to our conversation. Further proof that Ben is bad news.
When Ben enters the ring not long later, I’m waiting for him.
He hesitates, his gaze cutting to his trainer before coming back to me. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m in town and in need of a sparring partner.”
