Reed pounds his fist on the steering wheel, making me flinch. “Cut the shit, Lila. Stop asking about evidence so you can run off and tell them.”
“That’s not?—”
“Start being truthful with me,” he interjects, using a steady tone that deliberately camouflages his anger. “I know you set up a meeting with him for tomorrow because you hadinfo to share. I saw the texts. Don’t bother lying. It belittles us both.”
He’s been spying on me? My phone? What else?
“I’m trying to help you. People are fucking dying, and you could be next. It’s time for you to spill it. We’ve come too far to go back to you stonewalling me.”
His furious words slice through my chest with a jagged blade, sawing at the branches of hope I felt just moments ago until they’re sawdust at my feet.
He played me.
It wasn’t real.
He lied. Again.
It was just more of this disgusting game we’ve been playing. But he went too far this time. Unearthing my pain from years ago and tossing it in the fire so he can burn me again. How could he be so manipulative? And cruel?
He blamed my best friend, buthewas the bad guy all along.
And if he didn’t get called in to work, would he have gone even further? Getting inside my body just to close a case? Was our pillow talk about to be like this? Him grilling me for answers?
No wonder he didn’t want me to go home to face Kenzie without him.
My frame crumples, and I scoot to the far edge of my seat to get away from him. “You’re a monster.”
“A monster?” He scoffs. “Sorry for raising my voice. I didn’t mean to frighten you. But I can’t protect you unless you’re honest with me.”
“Oh, we’re being honest now? You first.”
He levels a befuddled look at me. “What are you talking about?”
“I wasn’t calling you a monster because you yelled. It’s because of how you manipulated me back there with the whole song and dance about what Kenzie told you. What a load of bull.” My rolling eyes sting with incoming tears. “I foolishly believed you. And not five minutes later, you’re demanding answers from me like this. When you couldn’t convince me with your wholePrince Charming act, you came up with a new approach. But you crossed the line.”
My voice quavers, breaking like my heart. “How could you, Reed? I cared about you.”
I bite my tongue before adding three more words—I still do.
He swerves the car to the right, abruptly pulling onto the shoulder. After we come to a bumpy stop in the grass, he shifts into park and takes a moment to calm himself.
I can practically see him counting in his head while he focuses on his breathing. Following his lead, I do the same.
Well, Iattemptto. I’m far too hurt to be calm right now.
With impressive steadiness that I’d never achieve even if I had all day to chill out, he finally faces me. “You think I liedabout thatjust so you’d give me information about a case?”
Before answering, I study his defeated expression. The unusual hunch of his shoulders. The pinches of skin at his temples, and the wave of pain hidden in the depths of his fathomless eyes.
If he’s acting, he deserves an Oscar.
Countering his argument, I put it back on him. “Isn’t that what you’ve been doing all along? Using me for your case?”
“As if you haven’t been doing the same,” he snarks morosely.
Two points for the reversal.
Despite knowing this whole time that he saw through my pathetic attempt at espionage, it stings to hear him say it.
