A new sound under her raging heartbeat, alongside the insistent bell, was applause. Someone took the glass from her hand.
A woman said, “Well done.”
Another asked if she needed help.
She needed to get out of here.
Blinded by tears, she made it through the foyer to the street without crashing into anyone. She’d been utterly deceived by Halsey’s Paul Newman looks, his nice guy, Excel Boy routine. She’d fallen for his easy manner and shy humor. His protectiveness and his quirks. And then, the sheer romance of him had overwhelmed her when she’d been so very alone.
He was right. She’d been desperate to deal with Easton, desperate to fix her family, desperate to make D4D work, desperate to be loved, and he’d used all that against her when he needed to.
His alicorn wasn’t a lesson; it was a warning and she’d read it all wrong in thinking he was the good kind of con man, when she’d known there could be no such thing.
Walk. She had to walk. Get away from people. Get away from the betrayal and the painful humiliation of what she’d put herself through.
A block. Another. Slow going in shoes not made for running away from her own stupidity, for stumbling in the hot shame of being taken in. She had to put a hand to a wall to steady herself, because she was going to be sick.
“Lenny, please let me help.”
This time his voice sounded familiar, and it made her sob aloud. “Go away.”
“I need to explain.” He’d followed her for blocks, stalking her to explain his duplicity in case she was dull enough not to appreciate his genius. He’d pretended not to want her with him tonight and acquiesced so easily to her prodding.
“That you’re a con artist first and foremost and you made me your mark.” Saw that she was already broken and ripe to take advantage of. “That you’re a heartless grifter and you made me your victim. I got it. Fell for it, hook, line, and sinker, head-over-heels. Congratulations on your planning and attention to detail.”
“No, Lenny. Goddamn.”
Sorry son of a bitch, he managed to sound regretful. A brilliant act, like when he’d sounded real and true and loving.
“You did exactly the right thing.”
She turned to face him, slowly, on legs that felt boneless. She couldn’t make herself look past his glossy shoes. Exactly right was when she’d left his apartment and had gotten in that elevator with her honor intact.
“He shanghaied me. He separated us deliberately to get to you, and I should’ve seen that coming. My God, Lenny, I’m sorry I let you get hurt. I’m sorry I hurt you. I was trying to make people see you as the victim and me as the bad guy.”
He was the worst guy and not enough people knew it. He was going to try to make her forgive him.
She raised her eyes up above his knees, the edge of his coat, the black cummerbund that divided his pants from his white shirt. His tie was undone, his shirt open at the neck and wet, and his pocket silk shoved untidily in its spot.
She couldn’t look at his face—it would put her on her ass in a two-thousand-dollar dress.
She couldn’t listen to his rationalization, because she couldn’t afford to forgive him.
“I was wrong to ever involve you in this. Just so fucking wrong not to stop you coming tonight when we’d finished things cleanly. I put you in danger. I’m sorry, so sorry for all of this. I’ll clear your name. I’ll make sure none of this comes back on you. Say whatever you need to put the blame on me.”
He was a much better con than he’d let on. She could almost buy his remorse. “I guess we just broke up. Happy now?”
“No, my darling.” His voice broke, and she met his eyes. “This is intolerable. I didn’t want us to ever end.”
Intolerable, like the way she struggled to reconcile what she’d felt with what she’d always known. Incredible that she’d ever thought Halsey was capable of honesty and had let her see inside his heart. She turned her face away and looked out at the blur of the street.
“It’s better the gossip is about what a fuckwit I am and how badly I treated you.”
Lies on lies, deceit so ingrained it was impossible to believe a word he said, and she’d been sure she knew him. Full of pride and arrogance about her ability to be unaffected by his criminal ways. To use him and benefit from it. To love him and want to keep him.
“I should’ve been more careful with you. I should’ve done all this differently. I fucked it all up.”
She might as well have been the one saying those words. He’d set her up to fall in love with him when he’d needed an accomplice and she’d needed a friend.