He turns to me. “That sounds like jealousy, princess.”
I look away. “Look, I know we’re not…whatever. But you have this girl who sometimes lives with you, whohatesme—no, she really does—and who obviously adores you.”
“And that makes you jealous.”
“Yes,” I finally snap, turning back to him. “Yes, it makes me jealous.”
He looks at me carefully. “Should I be jealous of Roman?”
My brow furrows. “What?”
“Have you ever fucked him?”
My face wrinkles. “Ew.Obviouslynot.”
“Well, there you go,” he shrugs. “I have about as much interest in sleeping with or doing anything romantic with Sabine as you do with Roman.”
My mouth purses.
Vaughn sighs. “Just say it.”
“What?” I mutter.
“Whatever you’re thinking. Spit it out.”
I huff. “Fine. Do you seriously believe that she lost her phone right before someone lured me out of the theater on campus and then tried to kill me?”
“Nope.”
I stare at him. “What?!”
He shrugs. “No, I don’t believe that.”
My jaw drops. “So she’s working with?—”
“No,” he shakes his head. “She’s not. Do I think Sabine tried to sabotage us meeting up by texting youherselfthat I wanted you to go back to the city?” He shrugs. “Yes. But there’s zero chance she was working with that motherfucker who tried to hurt youlater. I think another enemy of mine capitalized on the sheer bad luck of finding you walking outside alone that night.”
My jaw drops. “Bad luck?Vaughn, the timing?—”
“Sabine’s guilty of being dangerously overprotective and more than a little selfish when it comes to me. Not of conspiring to get you hurt or killed. She didn’t say anything afterward because she knew how it would look.”
I shake my head slowly. “You really believe that.”
“Sabine’s like a sister to me, Evelina,” he growls. “Her father, Stellan, was my mentor. Two years ago, he was killed in a bomb blast orchestrated by Diego Torvallés. The same blast paralyzed Sabine and put her in that wheelchair.”
My face falls, my heart clenching as he takes my hand.
“Thatis why she and I are so close. It’s why I take care of her, why she lives with me sometimes…” He smiles wryly. “For the record, she doesn’t know about my childhood, either. No one except Val and Morgan know that.” His hand tightens around mine. “And now you.”
I squeeze his hand back.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “About what happened to Stellan, and Sabine.”
He nods.
“Is that why you killed Andrés? Payback?”
His mouth twists into a small smile.
