have come from New York planning this because she had the letter with her. I had stupidly told her that seeing you every week was getting harder because I was afraid I was stopping you from living your life.
“But none of that mattered. She was going to do this to us, no matter what. She remembered she had that letter, and she planned this.”
As much as it killed that Lorna had done this to me, I was more devastated that she’d done this to Jamie.
“She knew.” I could hear the rage building him. “She knew what you meant to me. And she took you from me when I needed you most.”
I grabbed hold of him tight, trying to calm him. “Jamie, I knew her. And I should have come to you. Instead, I let all those awkward visits with you mess with my head, with what I knew was true. Yes, she did this to us, but I let her.”
“No,” he bit out, shaking his head. “You don’t put that shit on yourself. I am done with self-recrimination. This”—he jumped to his feet and I hurried to follow him into the bedroom where he snatched up the letter sitting among the glass shards, tearing the page in two—“this is done for us now. It’s in the past. We know the truth.” Anguish darkened his features before he fought to let it go. “Neither of us meant to abandon the other. We love each other.”
“We love each other,” I echoed the promise.
“But I am done with my sister, and she needs to know that we know the truth.” He yanked on his jeans.
“Jamie …”
“No, Jane. She’s my sister so I won’t go after her for this, even though she’s almost as bad as the fuckers on my hit list. But I am done with her. There’s no coming back from deliberately tearing us apart.”
“Don’t call her yet.” I took hold of his hand. “Stay here with me. Stay the whole night with me. Screw everyone else. We can face all that in the morning.”
He hesitated, making my breath hitch.
To my relief, however, he exhaled slowly and nodded.
Jamie joined me back in bed.
I’d clean up the broken mirror tomorrow.
“I just gave us seven years more bad luck,” he groaned as I cuddled into him.
I chuckled, and it was a relief to do so. “I don’t think it’s possible for us to have any more bad luck.”
“Don’t jinx us, Doe.”
I pressed a kiss to his chest. Despite sad revelations, I squirmed a little with happiness to hear the endearment again.
Jamie rubbed his hand down my arm as we tried to settle into each other, to leave all the ugly, messy emotions at the door until tomorrow. “You need to text Gaines and tell him you can’t see him anymore.”
“What about Wright?”
He took a deep breath. “I’ll follow him. Plant a bug in his apartment. It was my last-resort plan.”
The thought of anything happening to him now that I had him back made me tense with anxiety. “Jamie—”
“It’ll be okay.”
I wanted to believe that, and as I stewed on it, I realized what he’d just said. “A bug?” I pushed up off him and he stared at me warily. “Did you plant a bug at Asher’s? Is that how you knew he was sabotaging my attempts?”
He nodded reluctantly. “In his car.”
“How?”
“I bribed one of his so-called friends to do it.”
“Jamie, you need to remove that bug.”
His eyes narrowed. “Why do you care?”
“Asher hurt me, and I can’t be around him right now, but he has been like family to me these last few years. Those feelings don’t just go away. Removing the bug would be what’s decent and right.”
Jamie’s lips twitched. “I’m not decent and right, Jane.”
My heart lurched. I bent my head to his and pressed a soft, sweet kiss to his mouth. “Yes, you are. I just need to remind you.”
Hours later, after we’d made love again, as my eyelids grew heavy with sleep, I remembered that Jamie didn’t sleep well, and that he needed the window open to even try. Feeling the smooth rise and fall of his chest beneath mine, I lifted my head to tell him I’d open the window but then halted.
Seeing his eyes closed, I whispered, “Jamie?”
No response.
“Baby?”
Not even a twitch.
Jamie was asleep.
A small, grateful smile tickled my lips as I carefully lowered my head back to his chest and closed my eyes.
29
JAMIE
At some point in time, I’d convinced myself to treat the loss of Jane like