And Jake—God,Jake—had been the weapon they'd used to do it.
The badge clattered to the floor. Hannah slid down the cabinet, landing hard on the kitchen tiles. These same tiles where Jake had kissed her senseless just days ago, pressing her against the counter and whispering that she was everything.
Everything.
She'd been nothing.
Nothing but a job.
Nothing but a way to get to her father.
The truth crashed over her in waves, each realization worse than the last.
He'd never loved her.
He'd never been hers.
He'd planned this. All of it.
Every moment they'd shared had been carefully calculated to make her trust him. To make her fall in love with him. To give him access to her life, her family, her heart.
And she'd given him everything.
Hannah pressed her hands to her mouth, trying to hold back the scream building in her chest. But it tore free anyway, echoing through the empty space that had never really been Jake's home at all.
CHAPTER 9
Jake
He foundher sitting on his kitchen floor. His FBI badge lay beside her on the tiles. The shattered whiskey bottle was exactly where he'd left it, amber liquid still staining the wall.
Hannah didn't look up.
"Tell me this isn't real." Her voice was raw, like she'd been crying. Or screaming. Maybe both.
Jake's throat closed. She looked small against his cabinets, her arms wrapped around her knees like she was trying to hold herself together. This woman who danced while she baked, who filled every room with warmth, who'd trusted him with her whole heart—now she could barely look at him.
"Hannah." Her name felt like glass in his mouth.
"Just tell me." She finally raised her eyes to his, and the devastation he saw there nearly brought him to his knees. "Tell me there's an explanation. Tell me you're not—" Her voice cracked. "Tell me you didn't?—"
"I'm FBI." The words fell like stones between them. "Special Agent Jacob Cooper. I've been investigating your father."
She flinched. Actually flinched. Like he'd struck her.
"How long?"
"Hannah—"
"How. Long?"
He forced himself to meet her gaze. She deserved that much. "Since the beginning."
The sound she made—God, he'd never heard anything like it. Part laugh, part sob, part scream. "The beginning." She pressed a hand to her mouth. "So everything... Everything we talked about?—"
"I needed to get close to you." The truth felt like acid on his tongue. "To watch you. Your father."
"Watch me." She swayed slightly. "You were watching me."
