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“I wanted you out of town because I wanted to spend time with you,” he spoke quickly. He was doing damage control.
“And also because I wanted to stop whoever was stalking you for once and all. I told you I found a decoy, a shifter woman who would draw them out.”
“And how did she?” Rhiannon’s voice was still carefully cold.
Mars looked at her almost helplessly.
“We let her walk around on a daily basis. And I had three experienced shifters following her at all times. She was always safe.”
And it hit her then how wrong this was after what she had learned happened. In a van where she was sleep deprived and terrified, she hadn’t been able to wrap her mind around it. But now …
It was all her fault. She didn’t stop him.
“So you put an innocent woman in danger just to find my stalker?” Rhiannon almost spat the words. Anger had risen in her so quickly that it shocked her. Mars had just been looking out for her, protecting her.
Why was she so angry? Was it even rational to feel this way?
The lawyer in her tried to keep her calm.
“Mars, how could you put someone in danger because of me? What if one of your experienced shifters had looked away for a second too long?”
“But they didn’t.” Mars had lost the helpless look. His eyes had hardened slightly. He clearly didn’t see that he was in the wrong. It didn’t matter. Rhiannon wasn’t planning on backing down. “They didn’t, Rhiannon.” His voice was harder too.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said clearly and firmly. “You put someone in danger because of me.”
“It was necessary. We took a calculated risk and won,” Mars protested.
“Do you hear yourself?” Rhiannon almost laughed at him. She couldn’t keep the derision out of her voice.
How did this argument escalate so quickly?a voice in her head asked.
“This is someone’s life,” she almost shouted. “This isn’t a property deal or some kind of hostile takeover.”
Rhiannon’s hands were balled into fists. She was vaguely aware that her nails were biting painfully into the skin on her palms.
“I didn’t think you were going to let anything happen to her. She was a decoy. A decoy, you said. And now she’s been attacked, and I’m starting to see you didn’t care about either of us in the process.”
“Of course, I care about you,” Mars cried. He took a step away from her. His face had gone white.
“That is why I did this whole thing. To keep you safe.”
“Are you sure?” Rhiannon didn’t shout this time. Instead, her voice was so quiet that only a shifter would have been able to hear her.
“Because I wouldn’t have chosen this way of dealing with things. And if you cared, you’d have known that. And now, I want to go home.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Mars snapped.
“Excuse me?” Rhiannon asked, stunned by his words.
“It isn’t safe yet. You’ll be making a stupid mistake going home.”
“Oh? I thought your three experienced shifters took care of the problem,” she shot back.
A vein throbbed in Mars's neck, and she watched as he took several deep breaths.
“I can’t let you go back until we know the threat is completely dealt with,” he said more calmly.
“Let me?” Rhiannon said the two words so quietly that Mars flinched. But his face remained stubborn.
