I gripped his hands and said, “I’m sorry. I know you came here as a friend. But I also know you harbor thoughts we might someday be more. You have to understand, accept, that I loved—” I shook my head. This was all so insane. But I had to be honest. With Kyle and with myself. “I love Dane. I will always love him, no matter what. It’s unconditional. It’s … forever.”
Between clenched teeth, Kyle said, “He is much too dangerous for someone like you, Ari. Why can’t you see that?”
“That part doesn’t matter. I told you, I’m not with him anymore. But that doesn’t mean everything I feel for him will go away. It won’t.”
Kyle lifted his hand, but it lingered in the air, as though he wanted to cup the side of my face in a consoling way. But it was the wrong side, the damaged side. His hand dropped.
“This is all such bullshit, Ari.”
I nodded. “These people defy comprehension. You have to believe me, though, when I tell you that Dane did absolutely nothing to hurt me. He never would. It’s the situation, Kyle. Not him.” I gave this more thought, then added, “I pushed him down this path. Inadvertently, I guess. The way he feels about me—that makes him willing to do whatever he has to in order to keep me safe. And it makes him want to pummel anyone who touches me.”
A shiver ran down my spine, but I d
idn’t mention the horrifying state Vale had been in or my fear when he’d gone still that Dane had killed him. Or that he was privately being tended to, likely laid up much longer than me, what with all the breaking of bones I’d heard. Some of them might have been Dane’s. I didn’t ask if he wore a cast on one or both of his hands.
I certainly didn’t feel right as rain, but speaking about all of this to Kyle and having him here with me helped to ease some of the tension in my chest that had led to my seemingly endless sobfest.
I let him make dinner—canned soup—and ate a little to satisfy him, since I still didn’t have much of an appetite. I didn’t want him any more frazzled with worry over me. His consternation was pretty intense as it was.
I drank about a gallon of water, maybe to replace all of the tears. Sadly, there were still so many of them unshed. I held them in check for Kyle’s sake.
We returned to the sofa, me curled in the corner with my blanket again.
“How did all of this happen, Ari?” he asked in a quiet voice. “To your face, I mean.”
I wasn’t inclined to relive that evening, but he deserved a bit by way of explanation.
I said, “You remember the valet, Wayne?”
“Sure. New guy.”
“No, not new. He said he’d been around awhile. Working in all the functional areas that invariably fell victim to sabotage. He was chatting me up when I got into what I presumed was Dane’s car. He distracted me so that I didn’t look at the driver’s seat.”
“What do you mean by presumed?”
With a shake of my head, I told him, “It wasn’t Dane’s car. Looked exactly like it from the outside, with one minor detail. Well … not so minor. I think it’s what saved my life.”
His gaze narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Wayne kept my attention and yours, too. So that neither of us noticed that the F5 didn’t have an Arizona license plate. It had a Nevada one. The car was from Las Vegas.”
“Shit. I never even looked.”
“I didn’t, either. But my guess is that even though we blew through the security gates because the guard recognized Dane’s car, and never stops the boss, he spotted the plate. Called Amano, who happened to be with Dane.”
“Goddamn.” He exhaled heavily. “Is this Mafia shit we’re talking about?”
“No. Not exactly.” I debated telling him everything but then decided against it. “The less you know, the better. Suffice it to say, Dane has tried very hard to make sure his investors are on the up-and-up, and to keep out the greedy bastards who don’t subscribe to that ethic.”
“And those greedy bastards are the ones who came after you?”
“Because Dane cut them out of the Lux.”
“Wow. You really know how to step into the quicksand with both feet.”
“Yeah.”
“You had a visitor today, too,” he added.