Page 189 of Only Be Mine

“No.”

“Does he know you’re here?”

“No.”

“That’s good.”

I reached across the table and took the ring back from him, closing my fingers around it.

“It could be nothing,” I said. “There could be an explanation.”

“There isn’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

He studied me, then softened, just slightly.

“You’re playing chess,” he said.

“Yes.”

“And you think you’re ahead of him.”

“I don’t know where I am yet,” I admitted.

Seth exhaled slowly. “If you go back, I’m staying close. You call me at the first sign of anything off. Anything.”

“I will.”

He didn’t look convinced.

“I mean it, Cate,” he said quietly. “If he did this, if he killed John, he is not the man you think he is.”

My throat tightened. “I know.”

But I wasn’t ready to let go of the version of Trevor who’d held me up when I couldn’t stand.

I slipped the ring back into my pocket.

“I’ll be fine,” I said.

Seth didn’t respond, he just watched me like he was memorizing something. And, as we stood to leave, I felt the weight of the ring again against my hip.

Not just evidence.

Not just memory.

A fuse.

And I had no idea how long it was.

Chapter 68

Cate

Present

The house was quiet when I got back.