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“The pen… it had a mic in it? Was it from the FBI?”
“Yep. Once Ron found it, Marco and Rowan knew they were being watched. They also knew it was a high likelihood that the person worked at the company because he’d just had the holiday party. That was a huge mistake on our part, one we should have seen coming. But they’d never had arealthreat before. I had no idea they were so thorough, or I would have told Ted it was a bad idea when he suggested bugging the place.
“Naturally, they didn’t suspect me or Santi, but we were always destined to work for Valeri Financials. How better to learn the business if not by working for it?” He laughs humorlessly. “They wanted to move the laundering from Rentals to servicing the mortgage loans themselves. Santi and I taking over, under the guise of managing the Westland Branch, would free them up to focus on expanding distribution. The point is, since I had just started there, he had me monitoring the systems. I set up flags for all types of searches, one of them being—”
I gasp. “Job searches?”
“Yep.”
“That’s how you figured out my apartment number, too!”
“That’s right. Full access to the database.”
My mind reels with all of this information. It’s nearly unbelievable. And to think, I was in that closet while my future kidnapper—
“Wait… so you never even really liked me? All of that, that night, it was just—”
Bile finally rises in my throat. It’s just lie after lie after lie.
“I thought you were beautiful, of course I did. And sexy as fuck. That dress really did make me wild.” The ghost of a smile appears on his lips. “But I needed to get in that room. And getting caught hooking up with someone was a lot more explainable than being up there alone.”
Every inch of my skin is coated in goosebumps. “You used me.” Disgust overpowers all of my tumultuous emotions. I suddenly feel dirty that I allowed him to touch me after all of this. Registering the change, he becomes frantic.
“I didn’t want to risk getting close to anyone,” he rushes out. “I couldn’t eventhinkabout being with someone. I had a mission, it was all I could—”
“I can’t do this.” My words of finality strike the air, and the resounding shocks tremor us both.
“I fell for you! I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I meant what I said about Sara and trying to forget—”
“This is too much, Lorenzo. Too far. All of it. I lost myself with your words, wrapped up in your dark promises. But I can’t, I can’t, I can’t—”
My lips tremble as tears prick my eyes. My heart is breaking even more than it did before.
Just because he did all of this for a good reason doesn’t change the fact that he did unforgivable and selfish things.
“I’ve been awreckwithout you! I can’t sleep well, I have no appetite. I can’t lose you—” He shocks me with tears filling his own eyes. But they only piss me off more.
“You think I’ve been sleeping well? I’ve had nightmares every night! Imagining you doing all sorts of terrible things. The difference is, I didn’t cause this.You did.”
“Please, Kate. Please!”
“You’re still a liar! Our entire foundation is rotten, built upon deception. How can we ever move forward with that?”
“We’re all liars!”
I scoff. “I amnota liar!”
“I want you to look me straight in my face and tell me you meant it when you said you didn’t want a boyfriend.”
The retort is on the tip of my tongue when he cuts me off.
“You didn’t want to get hurt. You were done trying. You were giving up. But you wanted a boyfriend.”
I’m done.Sodone. “Me trying to protect myself is totally different, and you know it.”
“I didn’t want to—”
Tears roll down my cheeks. “Thank you for rescuing me. And thank you for telling me the truth. But I can’t do this anymore. Looks like you got what you always wanted. You ruined me.”
