"Okay." I stand, pulling her up with me. "We should go. Before the reporters figure out where we went."
"Where are we going?"
"Home." I wrap my arm around her waist again. "Where you belong."
We file out of the conference room. Through the municipal building. Out the back entrance, where Nacho parked his cruiser hours ago.
The parking lot is mostly empty. A few stragglers from the press conference lingering near their vehicles. A homeless man collecting cans from the recycling bins.
And one black Mercedes with tinted windows, idling in the far corner.
I stop walking.
"Sergio?" Jessica follows my gaze. "What is it?"
"Stay here." I release her waist and start toward the Mercedes. "All of you. Stay with her."
"Sergio." Nacho's voice is sharp. "Let me handle this."
"No." I don't slow down. "This one's mine."
The Mercedes doesn't move as I approach. The windows stay up. The engine keeps running.
I stop three feet from the driver's door and wait.
A long moment passes. Two.
Then the window rolls down.
Callum stares at me from behind the wheel.
He looks like hell. Unshaven. Dark circles under his eyes. His usually perfect hair is greasy and unkempt. The suit he's wearing is wrinkled, like he slept in it.
"Sergio." His voice is hoarse. "We need to talk."
"No. We don't."
"This has gotten out of hand. The press conference, the allegations, the reporters digging into my past..." He runs a hand through his hair. "We've been friends for years. You know me. You know I'm not the monster they're making me out to be."
I look at this man I've known since kindergarten. This man who stood beside me at my parents' funeral. This man who spent two years systematically destroying the woman I love.
"I know exactly what you are." My voice is flat. Cold. "You're a man who confuses control with affection. Who mistakes possession for love. Who breaks people down until they can't remember who they were before you."
"That's not fair."
"Fair is irrelevant." I lean closer to the window. "Here's what's going to happen. You're going to drive back to Portland. You're going to tell your parents to call off their lawyers. You're going to disappear from Jessica's life and never contact her again."
"Or what?"
"Or Rosa Castellano publishes everything." I lock eyes with him. "Every sealed record. Every settlement. Every woman who's ready to talk. Your reputation dies. So does daddy's firm."
Callum goes white.
"After everything we've been through—"
"You put hands on her." I step back from the Mercedes, blood pounding in my ears. "Called her 'nothing' in front of half the town."
"Sergio—"
