mission, so I’m finding it hard to believe she wouldn’t make you the offer now.”
I wasn’t prepared for the rush of bitterness that sharpened my voice. “Why?
Because you all came back and said, ‘oops, sorry Cyn,’ so now I should be
happy drinking the damn psychic Kool-Aid?”
He sighed. “Shit happens. You’re going to have to forgive and forget. Tag and I explained what happened. We can’t change the past.”
No shit, Sherlock. His dismissive attitude rubbed me the wrong way. Of the
two of us, did he think I didn’t know that? In the last, brutal forty-eight hours the past had come back and bitch-slapped my life into a giant mess. My harsh laugh
slashed through air. “Did you forget who you’re talking to, Kayden? I get it.
Really, I do, but there’s a huge difference between forgiving and forgetting. I trusted once and look how well that worked out. Excuse me for being a bit cautious.”
Our exit came up and I bullied my way over to it.
“So, you’re going to cut off your nose to spite your face?” He pinched the bridge of his nose as if seeking control. When he let go and spoke, his voice was
hard. “Look at me and tell me that working with me and using your ability to stop Ellery doesn’t do it for you on some level. I dare you.”
I kept my mouth shut, refusing to answer.
Disgust laced his voice. “Jesus, Cyn, what happened to the woman I fell for?
The one who’d race into hell with a glass of ice water?”
Fell for? What game was he playing? “She got burned,” I spit out, furious tears blurring my vision before I blinked them away.
“Pull over.” His command was ice cold.
“We don’t have time.”
“Make it. Pull. Over.”
Jerking the wheel, I took a sharp turn into a corner gas station and slammed
the Jeep into park. I unbuckled my seat belt, and twisted around until I was face
to face with him. “What?”
He leaned in, until our faces were inches apart and all I could see was him.
“You are not Ellery’s only victim, so stopping acting like it. I’m sorry, so very,
fucking sorry, he killed Kelsey. But right now, if we want to make sure he doesn’t kill someone else’s Kelsey, or Flash or Liza, or Nate or Mike, you need
to move past what happened in Pakistan. It sucked. No one will argue that. Was
it fair? Not in any way, shape, or form. But was it fair of you to run away and
hide?”
“I didn’t run away,” I ground out between clenched teeth.
“Yes, you did,” he snapped back. “Then you hid. For six months, Cyn. You
wouldn’t answer my calls. Wouldn’t answer Tag’s. You shut us out. Shut me out.
Why?”
The yawning pit of volatile emotions I successfully avoided since
recognizing who was kicking in the door at my cabin, opened between us.
Ingrained insecurities blended with new doubts, while paralyzing guilt wrapped
around suffocating fear. Thanks to the events from the last two days, old emotions piled on new, crumbling the shaky ground beneath my feet. I
floundered for a foothold in the emotional wreckage. My voice emerged as a harsh whisper, “Because…” My throat closed, choking off my voice. Was I really going to tell him?
“Because, why?” His voice was careful, quiet.
I shook my head, unable to give the shameful words form, because if I did, it
would make them inescapably real. I stared into his face, seeing just how much
