Where are you, Julia? Are you safe? Did I just lose you before I ever really had you?
"Let's go," I said to Stone, following Serenity toward Julia's desk.
But my mind was three thousand miles away, with a woman who'd lied to me about everything. Except, I was beginning to suspect, the one thing that mattered most.
I stood near Julia's desk, arms crossed, watching Stone methodically search through her things. Each opened drawer felt like a violation. An invasion of the privacy she'd trusted me with.
Trusted.The word twisted like a knife.
Had she ever really trusted me? Or had every moment between us been calculated, rehearsed, part of some elaborate con?
Stone rifled through papers while Serenity waited patiently, her bare hand ready to touch whatever he found.
My mind kept circling back to our dinner. Returning to that table and finding her simplygone. No note. No message with the staff. Just an empty chair and my phone buzzing with her desperate calls and texts.
Calls I'd ignored on Stone's orders.
That had nearly killed me. Watching her name light up my screen again and again, knowing she was trying to reach me, to explain—and forcing myself not to answer. Eventually, the calls had stopped.
The silence after that had been worse than the ringing.
"If she'd planned to kill me," I said, breaking the quiet, "she had plenty of opportunities. Why confess? Why tell me the truth if she was just going to disappear anyway?"
Stone didn't look up from the drawer he was searching. "To throw you off. Make you sympathetic. Buy herself time."
"Or maybe—" I swallowed hard. "Maybe she had no choice but to leave. Maybe it wasn't her decision."
Stone straightened, meeting my eyes. "I know what you want to believe—"
"I'm trying to think logically here." But even as I said it, I knew it was a lie. There was nothing logical about what I felt. "The relationship we were building... it felt real, Stone. Genuine. Could I really have been that blind?"
"People have been fooled by less," Stone said quietly. Not unkindly, but without sugar-coating it either.
The ache in my chest intensified. Had her affections been an act all along?
I looked at Serenity, desperate for reassurance. "If she was faking it, she deserves an Oscar. Because I can't believe it was all a performance."
Sympathy softened Serenity's features. "I don't think it was. But—" she glanced at Stone, then back to me. "This situationis complicated. And you know Stone's a cynic when it comes to security. His only job is keeping you alive."
"I know." The words came out rougher than intended.
And I did know. Stone wasn't being cruel—he was being smart. Professional. Doing exactly what I paid him to do.
But knowing that didn't make it hurt less.
This was like playing poker with my life as the ante. I was holding cards I couldn't read, making bets I couldn't afford to lose. And the only way to know if Julia was my salvation or my destruction was to keep playing the hand until it was over.
Win or lose.
Live or die.
"I think I found something." Stone held up a delicate lipstick case—vintage, ornate, the kind you'd see in an antique store.
My pulse quickened.Please. Let it tell us something. Anything.
"That should work." Serenity pulled off her right glove, flexing her fingers. "It's old, probably an heirloom. Family pieces carry strong emotional resonance." She held out her hand. "Give it here."
Stone placed the case carefully in her palm.
