Page 36 of The Billionaire Who Saved My Cat From The Mafia

“Not interested.”I cut her off.

CHAPTER 18

Special K

Harper keeps trying to explain why she’s here at Yosemite Ranch.“Back then, there was—”

“Save it.”

“I now understand the full story, and I—”

“You need to leave.”

“Kevin, I’m sorry.I’m truly sorry for my actions.You need to know that.”

There’s a deep discomfort in hearing my name come out of her mouth.It makes me feel dirty, like she assumes she still has a right to that level of intimacy when she does not.It also makes me feel vulnerable, if I’m completely honest with myself.Like she’s luring me into a state of relaxation so she can go in for the kill.

“Too late,” I say.

“I see you’re still a real chatterbox.”She smiles and reveals all of her perfect, pearly whites.That killer smile is framed by precisely glossed lips, which means she freshened her makeup before she drove onto Yosemite Ranch.Whatever she’s up to, it’s being staged for my benefit.

I used to be a sucker for her carefully crafted beauty.Now it just turns my stomach.

“I see you remain unworthy of my time,” I snap back at her.“Drive safe.”

That hurts her.I can tell.She wasn’t expecting any pushback from me.She thought I was stillher Kevinto do with as she pleases.Wrapped around her little finger.Believing all her lies, especially the one where she claimed she loved me.

That Kevin is dead and buried.

I killed him and buried him, so I should know.

As far as I’m concerned, this little talk is over.I start walking to Dad’s.She’s behind me, her footsteps much slower than mine.

“I only wanted to apologize.”

“Mission accomplished.Sayonara.”

And that’s when it hits me.The real reason she’s shown up without notice, seemingly out of nowhere.

Harper must be up for a promotion.If her clearance needs to be updated, then Naval investigators might reach out to me.We were a couple for nearly two years, and long-term relationships are always fair game for scrutiny.It’s standard.

So, in her mind, I’m a loose end that needs tying off before someone contacts me.

It could be more than that, too.She could be here to make a deal with me, one that carries just a hint of threat.I don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know what she might hold over my head.If I refrain from telling the clearance investigators that she left me high and dry, then she won’t let it slip to my family that I was in the brig for attempted murder.

She thinks she’s got me over a barrel, then.

That’s why she’s made the trip out here.She wants to show me how easy it is for her to reach my family.She may have a point, since all of them, except for Cal, believe Harper is the one true love of my life.

She knows how much my family means to me, and how tight we are.She knows that losing their respect is the one thing I could never recover from.

This whole thing is low.Even for her.

“Don’t worry yourself, Harper,” I tell her, still walking at a good clip back to her car.“If I’m asked, I’ll say we broke up because of the distance, which is totally truthful since you were nowherenearthe woman I thought you were.”

Her footfalls slow to a stop, but I keep walking.

I want her gone.I want her to disappear.I want her to never have existed, but I know that’s impossible.At this point I’d be happy simply watching her drive away, assured that I’ll never have to see her again.Never hear her name.