Page 147 of You Found Me

She could tell by the fading footsteps in the hallway that he was already heading downstairs.

It was always going to end.

You shouldn’t have dumped your sisters.

An ugly sob erupted from her throat. She slapped a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound, but that didn’t do a thing to stop the wave of raw pain that raced through her chest.

Last night…that first kiss…he’d wanted her. She knew it from her bruised lips all the way to her toes. She’d never felt so transported. So…seen.

Now the warden was back, and his walls were up, all because she’d been stupid, stupid, stupid.

Wake the hell up.

“Dammit,” she told the empty room.

She should have told Ward about Ken. She’d known it the second she saw him sauntering down the hallway with his phone in his hand.

She’d known it the second Mason had caught her singing.

She so desperately wanted to keep being Lucy for just a little while longer that she’d convinced herself it didn’t matter and she’d known—knownit like she knew her own face—that it would all come crashing down if she told Ward.

So she’d kept her mouth shut.

It was a stupid mistake that cost so much.

It was all over. He was sending her away and she’d probably never see him again. She’d ruined something precious. Again.

Another tear slid down her cheek.

Did it matter that she was doing her best to make it up to her sisters? Did it matter that she’d tried so hard to be the person Ward wanted her to be?

No, a harsh voice whispered in the back of her mind.Actions are what count.

What she’d done was worse than a mistake.

Ward was right about that.

She’d betrayed him. She’d hurt him. She’d manipulated him.

She stared at the closed door for a long, long time while tears streamed down her face.

But…he wasn’t right about everything.

He’d crossed his own line because he’d wanted her every bit as much as she wanted him, and instead of admitting it, he was using the so-called lapse in judgment to kill the very real thing that had started between them, and that…that was bullshit.

She’d finally found a glimmer of what her sisters had and she’d found it with him and, dammit, she wasn’t letting it or him go without a fight.

She yanked on her jeans and stormed downstairs.

She found Ward with Brick at the kitchen island. “You fucking coward.”

They both looked up, eyes wide with surprise.

“Oh, uh, hi, uh, Lucy.” Brick looked from her to Ward. “I’ll just go, uh, check the perimeter. Yeah. And I’ll take that tablet with me. You know, just in case I need it. Or you feel like throwing it.”

Brick pulled the tablet out of Ward’s hand, then ran out the back door so fast it would have made her laugh if her life weren’t imploding.

“Where’s your go bag and shoes? Are you packed? Annie will be here in a few minutes,” Ward said.