"Get out." She was shaking now, fine tremors she couldn't control. "Get out of my bakery."
He didn't move. Of course he didn't. Even now, he was looking for ways to fix things—she could see it in the way his hands twitched at his sides, the way his eyes caught on her trembling fingers.
She stepped back, too fast, hitting the shelving behind her. "I said get?—"
The rest of her words died as Jake suddenly moved closer, crowding her space. For a moment, she thought he was going to touch her—grab her, hold her, kiss her. Her body remembered his warmth, betraying her with an instinctive lean toward him before she caught herself.
But he was just reaching past her to steady a shelf she'd knocked crooked in her retreat.
"Don't." Her voice cracked on the word. "You don't get to do that anymore."
Jake's hand dropped. He stepped back, and the loss of his warmth felt like another betrayal. "I never meant to?—"
"To what? Get caught?" Hannah's laugh was hollow. "To let me find out the truth? That everything between us was just a way to get to my father?"
"Not everything." The words were rough, like they'd been torn from him. "Hannah, not everything was?—"
"Get out." She turned away, unable to look at him anymore. Unable to see the man she loved wearing the face of the man who'd destroyed her. "Just get out."
She didn't turn around again until she heard the bell chime, until his footsteps faded away. Only then did she let herself slide to the floor, surrounded by scattered utensils and the ghost of his warmth.
Not everything was a lie, he'd said.
But that just made it worse.
Because now she'd never know which parts to believe.
CHAPTER 11
Jake
Jake staredat the financial records spread across his desk, the numbers blurring as he read them for the fourth time. Fifth. Sixth. As if somehow they'd rearrange themselves into something that made sense. Something that didn't mean he'd just destroyed an innocent woman's life.
"Cooper." Martinez's voice cut through his spiraling thoughts. "You're still here."
He didn't look up. Couldn't look up. Just kept tracing the paper trail—following the money through shell companies, through fake accounts, through everythingexceptSugar & Spice's legitimate books.
"The bakery's clean." The words felt like glass in his throat. "All of it. Every receipt, every deposit?—"
"We know." Martinez leaned against his desk, her crisp suit a contrast to the chaos of papers surrounding him. "The bakery was never part of the laundering operation. Richard Everett kept his daughter's business separate."
Jake's head snapped up. "You knew?"
"We suspected." She shrugged, the gesture deliberately casual. "The evidence confirmed it."
Jake's fingers curled into fists, crinkling the papers he still held. "Before or after we dragged her out of her own business in handcuffs?"
"You're too close to this, Cooper."
"Too close?" He stood, the chair scraping against the floor. "We just publicly humiliated an innocent woman. Destroyed her reputation. Her life?—"
"Her father made her a target." Martinez's dark eyes were implacable. "The moment he decided to use Crystal Lake as his personal piggy bank, everyone connected to him became fair game. Including his daughter."
"She didn't know anything."
"No." Martinez straightened, smoothing her jacket. "She didn't. But our job isn't to protect people's reputations. Our job is to follow every lead, and make surenobodywho is guilty gets away. And the way we can do that is to never get personally involved."
He was personally involved. He'd fallen for Hannah. Hard. But he still hadn't protected her.
