I remained silent and stared uninterestedly at a ballgame on TV. The digital time on the DVD player continued to mock me. It was nearly four, and I had no idea if she planned to come back today, tomorrow, or if she’d fucking called it quits on me.
My mood had now passed pissed-off and entered cold fury. I replayed everything in my mind that had occurred early this morning until the last phone call between us hours ago. A thought struck me like a spear in my chest. Something must have happened for her to seek solace on her own. She’d hidden from life when that fucking moron ex had broken her heart—shit! I had to find her, find out what the hell was going on.
“Ray,” I called out. She appeared in the kitchen doorway, eating an Oreo.
A slender, dark eyebrow lifted in question. “Yes?”
Damn. If I wanted her help, I had to spill the truth about what had occurred at Jack’s. Or else Ray would probably tell me to fuck off, especially if she thought I’d deliberately hurt her sister.
So I told her. “It doesn’t make sense. I thought everything was okay,” I said, my frustration and anxiety hiking.
“Dammit.” She scowled at me. “I knew your past would come back and bite you in the ass.”
I had to nail my lips shut not to snap at her.
But concern darkened her gaze. “Ila won’t go home, not with Mom being sick…Charli! They’re best friends.” She pulled her cell from her jeans pocket and hit speed dial. “Hey, Charli, it’s Ray. Is Ila there?”
Her hazel eyes met mine a second later, she shook her head. My stomach dropped.
“Thanks… No, I don’t know what happened.” Ray cut me another dark look. “She was a little upset…yeah, okay, I’ll call you when she turns up.” Ray ended her call, looking as anxious as I felt. “She has no other friends I know of, so where…dammit, of course—the Legion.”
“What?”
“The museum out by the water in Land’s End. She likes it there. Sometimes, she goes when she’s sad or troubled, says it calms her.”
“Thanks.” I grabbed my car keys off the sideboard and headed out. With the heavy, bumper-to-bumper, rush-hour traffic, and way too many stoplights between here and there, it took close to a damn hour before I pulled up into the emptying lot. I tore off for the museum, barely registering the tourists snapping pics in front of the fountain, and almost got clipped by a tour bus in the street before I skidded to a halt at the little glass pyramid near the building’s entrance, breathing hard.
Shit, the place was too freakin’ big and sprawling for me to check every damn nook and cranny. They’d be closing in about fifteen minutes. I pulled out my cell and called Ray, my gaze fixed on the entrance. She answered on the first ring. “Do you know her fav—never mind.” I disconnected the call.
Logan walked out behind a couple, her head lowered. Her shoulders drooped as if in exhaustion. She lifted her gaze and stumbled to a halt. “Max?”
At her shocked whisper, pain and anger swelled, chasing away my relief. “Did you think I’d not come looking for you? You want to walk out on me, then I goddamn deserve to know the reason why.”
Her lips trembled. Several of the patrons leaving the museum glanced curiously at us.
My jaw tightened. No way was I giving the public another front-row view of my life.
Without a word, I headed back for my SUV, aware she had to run to keep up. And I wasn’t in a mood to slow down.
At the parking lot, I unlocked the Jeep. She touched my arm. “Max?”
I spun around, put all my hurt, anger, and frustration into a single word. “Why?”
Ila
My heart beat so hard, my ribs actually hurt as Max stood there, all lean muscles and sheer perfection, cutting me a cold look that pierced my heart. Not knowing what to say, where to start, all that came out was, “I-I’m sorry.”
His sculpted features hardened. “Then you and I have got ourselves a problem.”
God, this was so difficult. “Max…”
“What?” he snapped. “Just spit it out, Logan. I can’t solve a setback I don’t know about.”
A vein pulsed furiously in his forehead. Stark pain flickered in his gaze before it blanked out. I hated that I’d put him through this. He deserved to know the truth.
“I admit, what happened this morning unhinged me badly. Though you explained, this fear remains inside me that you’ll find someone else—”
“Christ, Logan! What do you want from me? I made you a promise—something I’ve never done in my entire fucked-up life—said I wouldn’t cheat on you. Obviously, it wasn’t enough. Shall I open a vein so you’ll know it’s the goddamn truth? I haven’t been with anyone for months! You are all I think of, all I want.”
