Her stomach hurt as she strained to listen in. Seeing Rex’s head in that box . . . it had changed something in her. She’d seen terrible things in her life. Experienced awful things.
But nothing like that.
She was waking up with nightmares, she started to shake every time she got near where she’d seen his head.
See? This is what you get for eavesdropping.
Yes, but it seemed they weren’t being fully honest with her about who killed Rex.
She placed her hand over her jittery stomach.
“He hasn’t gone after anyone else, though,” North said. “Hasn’t tried to attack any of our businesses. Maybe it’s not him.”
“Who else would it be? And maybe he doesn’t have the ability to go after anyone else. We’ve been hitting his allies and businesses pretty hard down south.”
“Or he hired someone to take you out,” North told Jared. “This could have been a warning shot.”
“That’s a possibility,” Jared agreed. “Which is why it’s important that we keep Angie here and safe. If she had gone home, he could have found her.”
“We’ve kept her presence here a secret, though,” North said. “I think we could send her home.”
Wait. Did North not want her here?
Did Jared?
Was the only reason they kept her around because they were worried about this Beltran person?
Who they thought had killed Rex and sent them his severed head?
Who was this guy? If her life was in danger, shouldn’t they have told her?
She put her hand over her mouth.
And here she’d stupidly thought that they wanted her. That they wanted her to stay here with them because they were building a life together.
Was it only to keep her safe from this Beltran?
No, no.
She was being silly.
Calm down and stop jumping to conclusions. They want you They said so.
“Are you suggesting that I send her away? We only just convinced her to stay,” Jared said. “And I don’t trust Zander to keep her safe.”
“No, you’re right,” North replied. “We can keep her safe from Beltran. After he’s dead we can reassess.”
Reassess?
Reassess whether they wanted her to stay here?
“If I’d left her there, then she wouldn’t be a vulnerable spot for you,” North said.
Then maybe she should just leave.
Hurt filled her. And her breathing grew faster.
Rejected again. She took a step back. Then another.
