She laughed and shook her head in dismissal. “If you say so.”
My heart thundered in my chest. “How do you think the FBI knows about your connection to them? Gray told me all about you.”
Her eyes shot back to me.
“He called you adecentfuck, once. That’s something, I guess?” Gods, I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t think of her underneath him. I couldn’t think of her nails clawing at his back.
He had fucked her. Grayson had fucked this woman sitting in the chair before me. This stunning woman that fitted perfectly into his life.
Raina’s lip twitched. I had struck a nerve. I had to keep it up. I had to keep going.
I clutched the chair beneath the table, digging my nails into the metal to keep myself from running out of the room. “I always wondered why it never turned into something more between you two. You’re pretty enough.” I shrugged.
She smiled coldly at me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never met the guy. But you seem to be especially fixated on him.” She lifted a perfectly groomed eyebrow in question. “Did he break your heart? Does he not feel the same way?” she mocked.
Keep it together, Ava. Don’t let her under your skin.
Owen’s finger brushed against my leg, under the table. A silent comfort.
I studied Raina, silently keeping her stare. She grew uncomfortable under my steady gaze, her shoulder twitching again. How was I going to get her to break? Get her to talk? As sick as it made me feel, she clearly had a thing for Grayson. They had history. Or maybe it wasn’t history. Maybe it was still very much in the present.
My stomach rolled.
Maybe jealousy was the way to go. It sure as hell had an effect on me. I was about to hurl my guts out onto the table and slam Raina’s face in it. “We’re wasting our time, Agent Becket. I was wrong. She was nothing more than a quick fuck to ease his boredom. She won’t know any more than I already do.” I snorted as I pushed my chair back. “I see now why he preferred me.”
I made my way around the table and headed for the door.
“Tell me, honey, does he still wear that white t-shirt I got him?”
My blood froze.
“He does, doesn’t he?” She laughed. “The thing is falling apart, but he just can’t seem to part with it. Ever wondered why?”
I turned slowly, begging my knees to hold. Begging my body to not curl in on itself and go catatonic on the dirty floor of the interrogation room.
Raina had a smug grin on her face, her eyes spewing venom at me.
Keep it together, Ava. This is what you wanted.
“The shirt was a gift. A little inside joke. And he wore it the first time he fucked my brains out.” Raina threw her head back, moaning. “God, it’s been years since that first time, but I remember it like it was yesterday.” She kicked my chair out. “Sit and I’ll tell you more.”
I moved to the chair on numb limbs, lowering into it, trying to hide my shaking hands from Raina.Years.They’ve been fucking for years. “I call bullshit,” I goaded her, but my heart was screaming in agony.
It was Grayson’s favourite shirt because it was a gift from the beautiful woman sitting in front of me. The same shirt I had kept safe all this time because I knew how much it meant to him. The same shirt that I would put on to comfort myself, when it felt impossible to breathe because it smelled like him.
A shirt he adored. Because ofRaina.
You can do this, Ava. Just a little while longer. Just keep breathing. Keep breathing.
“Oh, honey, don’t look so sad. I’m sorry to break it to you, but whatever you think you had with him, it’s not real. It can’t be. BecauseI’mthe one. I’m his doll.” She smiled to herself.
“What makes you so sure?” My voice trembled. I couldn’t hide it anymore. But that only seemed to encourage her.
“He might fuck his way around the world, pick up a pretty thing like you now and again, but healwayscomes back to me.”
I only stared at her. I couldn’t speak. My body was numb and cold and dead.
“You yap with an awful lot of confidence, Raina. But I see no proof to your claims. From this side of the table, you look like nothing more than a groupie. Too uncool to join his band,” Owen goaded her further.
