The pieces started clicking together with horrible clarity. The emergency calls that pulled Kieran away. The stress I saw inhis face when he thought I wasn’t looking. The way he was distracted, tense, like he was fighting a war I couldn’t see.
“You did this,” I said, the words coming out flat and certain.
“I had help. Amazing how easy it is to find people with grudges. People who feel undervalued and overlooked. People who want to watch the golden boy fall.”
“Why? What does Kieran have to do with us?”
“He has everything to do with us, baby. He’s the reason you think you can leave me. He’s the reason you think you’re too good for what we had together. But I’m going to show you the truth.”
I started walking toward Kieran’s office, needing to warn him, needing to tell him what was happening. My pulse hammered in my ears, each step heavier than the last.
But Dex’s next words stopped me cold.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“Do what?”
“Run to him for help. You see, I’ve been very busy these past few weeks—making friends, reconciling with my parents, who will do anything just to keep their little boy happy. Now I have plenty of means to gather information, learning all about Cross Security’s clients and their… vulnerabilities.”
The threat was clear, even unspoken. “You’re sick.”
“I’m practical. Kieran Cross made his choice when he decided to play hero. When he decided to take what belonged to me. Now he gets to live with the consequences.”
“I don’t belong to you.”
“Don’t you? Then why are you talking to me instead of hanging up? Why are you listening to what I have to say instead of running to your protector?”
The question hit me like a slap because it was true. I should have hung up the moment I heard his voice. I should have run straight to Kieran’s office and told him everything. Butsomething kept me on the line—some horrible fascination with the trap that was closing around us.
“What do you want?” I asked again.
“I want you to come home.”
“Never.”
“Even if it means saving Cross Security? Even if it means protecting all those innocent clients whose security information might accidentally fall into the wrong hands?”
My throat closed up. “You’re bluffing.”
“Am I? How well do you think federal judges sleep when their safe house locations are posted on extremist websites? How safe do Fortune 500 CEOs feel when their home security codes are shared with everyone who has a grudge against corporate America?”
“You’re talking about people’s lives.”
“I’m talking about consequences. Kieran made a choice. Now he gets to live with what that choice costs. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you make a different choice. Come home, Willa. Come back to where you belong, and I’ll make all of this go away. Cross Security’s reputation will be restored. The merger will go through. Kieran will get everything he’s worked for.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I keep pulling threads until his whole world unravels. And when he has nothing left—when he’s lost everything that made him feel superior to men like me—maybe then you’ll understand that love isn’t about knights and castles. It’s about who’s willing to fight the hardest to keep you.”
I closed my eyes, leaning against the wall for support. The cool surface grounded me, even as my legs threatened to give out. “You call that love?”
“I call it commitment. I call it knowing that some things are worth destroying the world for.”
The line went quiet for a moment, and I heard sounds in the background—traffic, voices, the kind of urban noise that suggested he was close. Closer than I wanted to imagine.
