Page 146 of You Found Me

“Don’t bother.” He reached into the closet and grabbed her go bag. “Done is done. You can’t suck that video back off theinternet. We have to focus on next steps. Time to relocate and regroup.”

He tossed the bag onto the floor.

“Just…wait.” She untangled herself from the blankets and crawled out of bed. “I sang harmony for one chorus. That’s it.”

“It’s more than enough.”

She dragged on the underwear. It was a flimsy barrier, but it was better than facing him naked. “It was only a few seconds.”

“Try twenty-nine. Twenty-nine seconds featuring an unknown hick and world-famous pop star Della Bellamy.” Ward emerged from the closet with a pair of jeans. “Congratulations. You’ve gone viral. Again.”

Regret and shame burned her cheeks as she pulled on the T-shirt. “I was just trying to help.”

“If you were really trying to help, you would have told me.” He tossed the jeans at her.

She managed to catch them before they hit the floor. “I screwed up. I know I screwed up.”

His gaze drilled a hole right through her heart. “You didn’t just screw up, Ms. Bellamy. Accidentally humming a few notes would be a screwup. What you did went way beyond that. You lied to me about something that affects your safety. After everything—” His voice broke off. “You knew better. You knew why it mattered, but you did it anyway.”

She drew in a ragged breath. “I made a mistake, and I’m sorry. I should have told you the second it happened, but I didn’t because I didn’t want this to end.”

“It was always going to end, Ms. Bellamy.” He turned away.

“It doesn’t have to.” She reached for him, but he was too far away. She dropped her hands to her sides. “This is exactly why I didn’t tell you. Because I knew you’d react this way. I knew you’d make us go away and…I didn’t want to go.” Tears threatened thecorners of her eyes. “I like being Lucy. I like living in this town. I like being here with you. And last night…”

He spun to face her. “Last night was a lapse in judgment. Nothing more.”

It sounded so final. Like the lights coming up at the end of a show.

“No it wasn’t. It was more than that. You know it was.” Desperation made her tongue thick and heavy. She’d finally found someone and something she hadn’t even known she was looking for and hadn’t expected to find and it couldn’t end like this. “Last night was…it was everything.”

He stood like a soldier, all rigid lines and harsh angles, his feet anchored in place. “I’m not your friend, your lover, or your boyfriend, Ms. Bellamy. I’m here to keep you safe. That’s it.” He glanced at the wall. A look of anguish flashed across his face so fast she almost missed it. “The price of failure is too damn high.”

She followed his gaze to where three of his mother’s paintings waited for the fourth that would never come. Her heart wrenched even as fear closed her throat. He couldn’t be using his mother’s death as an excuse to throw what they had away. “Your mother didn’t die because of you, Ward. It wasn’t your fault. You were just a teenager.”

He stalked to the door. “Annie will be here soon. Pack up. You won’t be coming back.”

“No.” She crossed her arms in a self-hug that didn’t soothe. “I’m not supposed to go anywhere without you. That’smyrule one. Remember?”

He turned to face her. “If I have to throw you over my shoulder and carry you down those stairs, that’s what I’ll do. Get that through your head. Iwillkeep you safe.”

“I don’t want to just be safe.” Her voice shook with the need to make him understand. “I want to be safe withyou.”

“And that’s all that matters, right?” His stare drilled a hole through her heart. “You always get what you want. No matter the consequences.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You have a pattern, Ms. Bellamy. An MO.” He stepped toward her. They were close enough now that she could see something else in his eyes. Something deeper than just anger. Fear? “You shouldn’t have thrown a pool party, but you did. You shouldn’t have been singing with Mason, but you did. You should have told me, but you didn’t.” He paused, and it seemed as if the temperature between them dropped. “You shouldn’t have dumped your sisters, but you did. Face the facts, Ms. Bellamy. It’s always about what you want, no matter what it costs everyone else. I won’t be your next piece of collateral damage.”

He strode to the door and walked out. The door closed behind him with a soft click.

She tried to take a breath, but he’d taken all the air with him.

She wanted to shout that what he’d said was mean and cruel and a vicious lie. But it wasn’t. It was the awful truth, and ithurt.

“Wait,” she finally managed to choke out.

Too late.