Carly shook her head again. “That’s not true.”
“I know,” Ethan said, his voice soft.
“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” Carly said, wanting Ethan to understand this. “Jon was kissing me. I was at a restaurant. Just…just lost. I told him to let me go. H-he didn’t. No one was going to take from me again. No one would do what…Quincy did.”
Ethan nodded. “You just made him stop.”
She’d grabbed the knife from a nearby table. It had just been…in my hand. “I swiped out so he would stay away. I sliced his arm. People were screaming. And then I was locked up.”
Locked up and crying for Ethan.
But she hadn’t broken in that psych ward. She’d found herself. She’d realized that she was never going to let anyone lock her up again. She’d be in control. She would survive, on her own.
And she had.
Yes, she wanted to be with Ethan. But it was her choice. She could live without him. She wouldn’t wither and die, but she wanted to be with him. She was happier with him. He helped her to hope.
My choice. Always.
“I’m sorry,” Ethan said as his hand dropped. “Baby, if I could change things, if I could go back—”
She caught his hand. “Back is the last place I want to go. Forward. Only forward. With you.”
He stepped closer to her. The heat of his body wrapped around her.
“Uh, yeah…” Victor mumbled. “This scene is touching, and honestly, with every bit of info I uncover, I do think you two make a crazy, but…probably fitting couple.” He cleared his throat. “But I need you down at the station, Ms. Shay. Three men are missing, and your shrink says you confessed to wanting to—”
“No.” Her voice was flat, almost calm, and she was proud of that fact. “I told Dr. Nelson that those men didn’t click for me. That I couldn’t feel comfortable around them. I couldn’t let go with them. I never said I wanted to hurt them. Not them or anyone else. And as far as me being obsessed with someone from my past…” Confess all. “I don’t think it was obsession. When I was seventeen, I was in love with Ethan. I thought I’d moved on, but then he came into my life again, and those feelings came back, too. Only stronger than before.” Her shoulders were up, her spine straight. “I don’t know why Nelson is telling you these lies, but that’s what they are—lies. Am I dangerous? Yes, actually, I am. To anyone who tries to hurt me or the people I care about. But am I some kind of—of predator? No. No, I’m not.” Her toes curled against the thick carpet. “Now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’m going to get dressed. Then I will come downtown with you. I want to see Nelson. I want to find out just why the hell he’s lying about me.”
She turned on her heel and walked very slowly back into the master bedroom. Carly shut the door behind her with a soft click.
And she still didn’t let those tears fall.
Chapter Eleven
“Bullshit,” Sophie called flatly when the bedroom door shut behind Carly. “This whole thing is bull, and I can’t believe you actually bought it for even a moment, Agent Monroe.”
Ethan made himself look away from that shut door and over at Victor. “You came to save my ass?” He gave the other man a tiger’s smile. “Said it before, but I have to say it again. Sweet, bro. Sweet.”
Victor growled back, “I had to follow up, okay? A threat was reported, and that woman in there—hell, yeah, I get it, she looks like a wet dream but—”
“Don’t.” That one word was low and lethal. Ethan’s hands had fisted. “Don’t talk about Carly like that. Don’t fucking get her in your head that way at all.”
Victor lifted his hands. “Easy. I just meant—I could see where a man—even you—would be taken in. I thought she was innocent, too, and—”
“She is innocent. Carly is good. The one good thing I have always had, the one thing I’ve tried to protect, but I screwed up, again and again.”
Victor’s expression was grim. “I’ve seen too many people be taken in during my time. Trust shouldn’t come so easily.”
“Maybe it doesn’t come easily for you, but for me, with her—it does.”
“Three men are missing.”
“She’s not involved.”
Victor swore. “What? Are murders so commonplace for you that this crap doesn’t faze you?”
Ethan just stared back at him.
“Fuck me.” Victor backed up a step as his brow furrowed. “Am I looking at this all wrong? You’re the one who made Quincy Atkins disappear, and then you’re the one who rushed back into Carly’s life. She didn’t go looking for you. You came after her.”
Ethan knew where the dick was going even before Victor said—
“How do you feel, knowing that Carly slept with those other men? Were you watching all those years? Keeping tabs on her? Going insane with jealousy when others got too close?” He waited a beat, then demanded, “Are you the reason those men disappeared?”
Before Ethan could say anything, Sophie jumped between him and the agent. “All right, Agent Jump-to-Conclusions,” she said, voice sharp. “Calm down. You say you have proof these men are missing? First and foremost, I want to know when they vanished. Because I’m betting my clients,” and she definitely emphasized the “s” on that word, “have alibis. This is some kind of witch hunt, and I don’t like it.”
“Dr. Nelson is the witness here. He’s the one talking and pointing me right at your clients.”
“Then I want to talk with him,” Sophie said.
Victor laughed. “You know that isn’t how it works. He’s in protective custody right now. And he’ll stay that way, until I get this mess sorted out.”
The bedroom door opened. Ethan glanced back and saw that Carly was there, dressed in hip-hugging jeans and a loose top. “There isn’t anything to sort out,” she told him, obviously having overheard Victor’s last comment. “I think it’s clear what is happening here.”
So did Ethan.
“My shrink wants you to think that I’m a killer. The same shrink who tried to get you to believe that Ethan was the man who’d abducted him. So for me,” Carly said, nodding briskly, “that’s twice he’s lied. Twice he’s tried to throw us under the bus, and I’d really like to know why he’s done it.”
It was one of those old school, who do you believe situations?
Only this time, an FBI agent had to decide…
“Do you trust the doctor?” Ethan asked. And he gave Victor a cold smile. “Or the killers?”
“Fuck me,” Victor said again.
Exactly.
***
Carly’s hands were clammy. Her heart raced too fast, and she was worried that her expression revealed too much.
“It’s all right.” The reassurance came from the man beside her, surprising Carly. Victor stood at her side, and for the briefest moment, his fingers brushed over her arm. “I’m going to be with you the entire time.”
That had been the plan, anyway. A crazy plan that she’d agreed to because her life was on the line again, and she wasn’t going to let anyone destroy her future.
My choice.
She’d made a choice when she came out of that suite. A choice to go down fighting.
The light outside of the hotel was incredibly bright as she left the building. Victor was a step in front of her. Ethan—Ethan was still inside the hotel. He was going to follow behind her with Sophie.
Before anything else happened, Victor had wanted Carly to have the chance to speak with his superiors. By going in—willingly—he’d said that she had a greater shot at getting folks to believe her because it would look as if she were cooperating.
Hell, she wasn’t even sure if Victor believed her. He’d certainly been suspicious enough when he first stormed in the suite. But now…now he at least seemed to be giving her the benefit of the doubt, softening some.
She hurried down the hotel’s back steps and saw Victor’s SUV waiting. The windows were dark, tinted.
He opened the passenger sid
e door for her.
The bullets didn’t make a sound when they fired. They erupted out of the gun and slammed into Victor, jerking his body back, one hitting after the other, and Carly heard herself scream when he fell.
But then she was staring down at that gun—a gun equipped with a silencer. A gun pointed straight at her as Dr. Keith Nelson smiled at her. “Get into the vehicle. Fucking now.”
No, if she got into the vehicle…
“You can die right here. I will shoot you now and still get paid just as much money.”
She’d screamed, but no one had come to her aid—it was too early, no one was out on the streets—and his finger was already starting to squeeze the trigger. She couldn’t get in that SUV, and she couldn’t let Victor die. He was still breathing. Carly could see the rise and fall of his chest. She had to get help for him.
Turning, she started to run away—