but she would die before admitting that he was right.
“What was the fight about? You wanted IVF, he didn’t?”
She shook her head. “I hadn’t even told him I was having the harvesting procedure. I still haven’t.”
“Why not?”
“An opportunity hasn’t presented itself.”
“Bullshit. You’ve had plenty of opportunities to tell him. You haven’t because you’re afraid he’ll be relieved, and his relief will break your heart.”
“I’m not talking about this with you. It’s personal. Furthermore, it’s irrelevant.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, so what did you quarrel about on the way to the airport?”
“It was a spat, over nothing. Nothing important.”
“It was important enough for you to nix a romantic getaway.”
“I wish I had it to do over again.”
“Well, you don’t!”
The incisiveness of his tone shut her down. She turned her head aside. He took hold of her chin and brought it back around. “Who started the quarrel?”
She pushed his hand away from her face. “I don’t remember.”
“Yes you do.”
“What difference does it make?”
“A monumental difference. It was Jasper, right?”
She remained stubbornly silent.
He was just as stubbornly persistent. “Right?”
“All right, yes! He got angry.”
“At what?”
“At me.”
“Over what?”
“Over you!”
He recoiled and dropped his hands from her shoulders, then sat very still. “What about me?”
She reached for the mug of tea, changed her mind, and let her hand fall back onto the bed. She wet her lips. “While we were driving to the airport, Jasper picked up where he had left off the night before. He went on and on about how you couldn’t be trusted. I came to your defense. Erroneously, as it turns out.” She paused and took a swift breath to stave off a sob. “I should have listened when Jasper said you weren’t who you claimed to be. You’ve been lying all along. Everything has been a lie. You played us. Jasper. Elaine. Me.”
She jerked the covers back up and patted them into place, getting them just the way she wanted before looking at him. “Either arrest me and haul me to jail, or get out of here and leave me alone.”
She rolled onto her side and faced away from him.
She kept her eyes squeezed shut. For the longest time he didn’t move, but eventually she felt the shift of air when he stood. He switched out the lamp. In the darkness, she sensed him bending over her.
He whispered, “The kiss wasn’t a lie.” His fingers threaded through her hair and rearranged it on the pillow.
Then he left the room, closing the door softly behind him.
Chapter 24
In the kitchen, Gif was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal. “I helped myself,” he said to Drex, crunching.
“I’m sure she won’t mind.”
“What did you help yourself to?”
Drex, who was on his way to the back door, stopped, turned, and gave his associate a berating look.
Unfazed, Gif spooned another bite into his mouth. “I go to the bathroom, come back. You’re nowhere to be seen. I texted you. No reply. Texted Mike. He said you hadn’t shown over there. You weren’t in any of the rooms downstairs, so—”
“You’ve made your point.”
Gif polished off the cereal in two slurping spoonfuls, then pushed the bowl aside. “Is that why you maneuvered this situation? You got the detectives out of here so you could tuck her in?”
“That’s not why.”
“‘I’m thinking a night spent in the detention center,’” Gif quoted and gave an eye roll. “As if.”
“Thanks for putting up the arguments against it. They made my suggestion more credible.”
“I’ve worked with you long enough to know when you’re manipulating someone.”
“This way they went away thinking it had been their idea to leave her in our charge.”
“Oh, I get why you did it. Just don’t try to manipulate Mike and me.”
“You’re too smart for me.”
“Question is,” Gif said, and shot a glance toward the ceiling, “is she too smart for you?”
Drex backed up against the counter and crossed his arms. Staring at the toes of his shoes, he replied, “I don’t know, Gif.”
“Mike thinks she is.”
“He’s made that abundantly clear, but he mistrusts all women.”
“And all men.”
“And all men,” Drex said around a chuckle. Then, back to serious, he said, “I took her a cup of tea, that’s all. She looked weepy and vulnerable. I took advantage and tried to worm something out of her.”
“To what avail?”
“Zip. She’s either genuinely shaken by Elaine’s death and mystified by Jasper’s vanishing act—”
“Or?”
“Or she’s a damn good con.”
“She would have learned from the master.”
“That’s what I can’t discount,” he said, no joy in his tone. “So, tomorrow morning, you and Mike will