more to the conversation she’d had with Anderson than he’d been privy to?
Edgy all at once, he shifted, fully facing her so he couldn’t be surprised again. Every time in the past that he hadn’t had all the information, it had caused unspeakable agony as the situation went to hell in a handbasket.
“How do you know about that?” she asked cautiously.
“How do you think? He told me.”
“You went to see Jared?” Her stricken face sliced through him. “Why would you do that?”
She hadn’t seen that coming. And now he wondered if she’d have even mentioned that she’d seen her former lover today if he hadn’t brought it up. After all, she’d known he was back in town if she’d gone to see him. Somehow. Were they still in contact?
Secrets and lies weren’t his favorite look on her. But, he reminded himself, he didn’t have all the facts. Yet.
“I went to see him because I needed to fight that battle.” He crossed his arms and opted to give her the benefit of the doubt. “Apparently we think alike. We both went there to talk him into canceling the injunction. Which he told me he would be happy to do.”
“If I agree to his insane proposal to get back together with him,” she shot back. “I laughed in his face, by the way, if that’s where you’re headed with all of this.”
The admission didn’t make him relax. She was too keyed up, too nervous about this for him to consider relaxing. “Yeah, it came up. He seemed pretty confident that when I talked to you, I’d be the one who was surprised by the outcome.”
She scowled. “I don’t know why he’d say that. I have no intention of getting back together with him, especially not with such a dictatorial mandate attached. I’m not a fan of being manipulated. Or told what to do.”
But she wouldn’t look at him, and one foot bounced against the carpet. She’d yet to let her back hit the couch. And he had to know. “Did you tell him that your relationship meant a lot to you?”
Instantly, a guard snapped down over her face. “Yes. And it’s true. He was there for me at a time when I needed someone.”
Truth. And it riddled his chest like a machine gun with a stuck trigger. She’d needed someone because he’d been too messed up to handle anything more than crawling free of his nightmares on a daily basis. Guilt and about a thousand other things crowded into his already-full chest.
“But him?” Charlie practically spit out the words in a purely deflective move that immediately shamed him. “He’s poisonous.”
“There’s a lot about Jared that’s unpleasant, I readily agree. But there’s good in him,” she argued. “I thought maybe I could surface it.”
The silence grew taut as she trailed off. But what was he supposed to say to that? Sorry you failed at finding the nonexistent humanity in a billionaire with no soul? Or please tell me more about how he was there for you. How he held you and—
That was dangerous territory, and his agitation was already high.
“Maybe you should have tried harder,” he said with less sarcasm than the comment deserved. “Is that why you stuck around so long after…”
Isaac. He let the blank fill in itself because it was a hard barb to the heart, for both of them. But it didn’t change facts. Audra and Anderson had stayed a couple for nearly a year. For a smart woman, she’d certainly taken her sweet time to clue in that her boyfriend was a lost cause.
Unless, of course, she was lying. The comment about her coming on to Jared wouldn’t stop replaying through his head. He’d been putting Anderson in the role of villain for a while, but Audra did still have some blame for their relationship continuing.
Her expression closed in. “If you have a problem with the fact that I was with Jared, now would be the time to say so.”
Deflection was the best she could do? A good bit of his composure slid away as he contemplated the woman who might be carrying his child. But who had also betrayed him by sleeping with a man who had been his friend. The same one who had done his best to destroy Charlie.
He’d long made a habit of cutting people out of his life who’d betrayed him—like his father. Why had he given Audra a pass?
Because he loved her. And he had a bad history of letting a woman