the other side of the bed. A nervous laugh escaped her chest. “This is beautiful. Just beautiful. You were watching me the whole time, weren’t you?”
“I was watching Ari,” he said.
“Bullshit.” She spoke very quietly, very succinctly. “You were in front of my house on at least two nights. Don’t deny it.”
His stiff body language was the picture of guilt and her stomach lurched. She wanted the truth. Her gaze never wavered.
“Yes,” he said. “I was.”
“Okay.” She nodded. Now what? Get the hell out. She needed space. Time. Needed to be away from him to sort this whole thing out, because right now she couldn’t stand the sight of him. She opened up her suitcase perched on a chair in the corner of the room, then scooped up all the clothes inside the top dresser drawer and tossed them into her luggage. She was out of there.
* * *
“Whoa. Wait a minute. What are you doing?” Troy asked, rounding the corner of the bed.
“You’re the P.I. Figure it out. Do not touch me,” she said, jumping back as he reached for her. She uttered the words quietly with the most deadly intent he’d ever heard. He kept his distance.
“Then stop whatever the hell you think you’re doing and let me explain.”
“You know what?” She nailed him with a hard blue gaze. “I don’t want an explanation. I don’t want to know why you’ve been lying to me for so long. For weeks. Especially the last two weeks!” Yeah, she spit those last words out like they were poison on her tongue. She scooped her clothes out of the second drawer and tossed them into her bag.
“Dammit, wait,” Troy said, blocking her path.
She stopped in front of him, her eyes blazing like fire, her skin flushed and every muscle taut. Lifting one hand, she ticked off a finger. “You could have told me in the hospital at the very beginning.” She still sounded deadly calm. “Oh, but wait, why bother since you left without saying goodbye, because you clearly planned to spy on me more. But then someone shot at me on the balcony so you were stuck on top of me for—what—forty-five minutes until SWAT got there. Maybe a few minutes more. But, no, you couldn’t tell me then because you still planned on watching to see if I was fucking Ari.” She swerved around him and got another load of clothes from the drawer. “Of course, then I made it easy for you. I called you. That’s right, like the biggest naïve fool that I am, I thought, ‘Hey, here’s a nice guy, he’s saved my life twice. Why don’t I give him a call to help me with security?’” She dumped her new load into the suitcase.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
“What does it look like?” She slid open the closet door with a bang and got out her other suitcase.
“You aren’t leaving,” Troy said with as much calm as he could muster.
Julie turned on him. The eyes that had been full of fire now fairly spit molten lava. “Oh really?” She all but whispered the words. The effect was ten times worse than if she’d raised her voice. “Do you plan on kidnapping me then? Was Cal right? I shouldn’t have come on this trip with a man I barely know?” She didn’t look in any way scared of him, not that Troy wanted that, but he did want her to see reality.
“No, I’m not—and I didn’t—kidnap you. I got you out of California to keep you safe. Alive.”
She snorted and tossed her second bag onto the bed. “Right. Excuse me while I finish packing.”
“Julie, dammit, hear me out.” He slapped the top of her suitcase down and forced her to look at him.
“That night when you showed up at my door in...like a minute...” She laughed, but it lacked any humor. “Stupid me, I thought you were watching me because you were worried about someone getting into my house, but all you wanted to know was if Ari was getting into my bed.” She flipped up the lid of her suitcase. “When am I going to learn?”
The anger in her voice cut Troy deep. “This is what I was trying to avoid,” he said “Everything changed after that night.”
“Really?” She spun on him. “Yet you didn’t see the point in telling me? Maybe you never planned to tell me, is that it?”
“No! That’s not it!” He blocked her path to the closet.