Another shake of her head and she starts walking again, this time moving more quickly, and I follow her.
“You broke into our house.”
A pause. “Notour,” she snaps icily. “You made that clear when you left me on that mountain five years ago.”
“So you stole from me?”
Her mouth closes so quickly, theclickof her teeth slamming together is audible. “I’ll make sure you don’t see me again.”
But there’s something in the lines of her body as she reaches for the doorknob, in the set of her jaw…
“But you can’t guarantee that, can you?”
She stills. Only for a heartbeat, but it’s long enough that I know.
“Why were you at our house?”
“It’s notourhouse.”
BecauseImade it that way.
She doesn’t say it.
But I hear it.
“Did you know what you were stealing?”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t it?” I shift closer. “Why that flash drive, Briar? What are you going to do with the information?”
Her fingers close around the metal of the knob.
“Are you going to sell it?”
I reach around her, place my palm flat on the door, holding it closed.
“Blackmail me with it?”
She’s stiff, her words frosty. “I just told you that you wouldn’t see me again.”
“What if that’s not what I want?”
A dumb fucking question.
I left her, made it pretty fucking clear we were finished five years ago.
She looks over her shoulder at me, and for a second, her eyes aren’t filled with ice…it’s like we’re there again.
In the past.
Without…
All of this shit between us.
Shit I created.
“Just let me go,” she whispers. “Forget I was here and we’ll go back to our lives.”
