Angel pulled the phone away from his ear and scrolled through his texts then clicked on the photos Romero sent him. The sliver of hope he’d had that maybe Romero had been mistaken about whoever it was she’d been talking to being Leo was crushed the moment he saw the first photo. It was of Sarah, standing by her car, talking to Leo.
With his first thought being that maybe she was in some kind of danger, he spoke in to the speaker. “Is she still there with him?”
He heard Romero say she’d left, so he scrolled to the next photo. Leo was squatting down next to her car door, talking to her, and it appeared Sarah was trying to close her door. The relief inundated him, drowning out the anger he’d began to feel about seeing her engaging with the guy, but it was fleeting. In the next two photos she was out of the car, leaning against the rear of it, and Leo was standing too damn close to her. Scrolling through them faster now, his eyes were fixed on Sarah’s expressions. First, she was looking at his arm, and then the next one nearly sucked the air out of his lungs. She was touching his arm, lifting his shirt, and gazing at one of his tattoos, and Leo was close enough to kiss her.
“Did he kiss her?” Angel asked, wanting a warning before he scrolled to the next photo.
He brought the phone to his ear because his heart needed a breather. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to take any more photos if they got worse.
“No, but it sure as hell looked like he was going to, didn’t it?” Romero asked. “That’s why I sent you all those because I knew you’d say I was exaggerating. You know if I had known about him being full of shit I would’ve said something. I was right there! And I don’t give a shit how big he is. You know me. I would’ve clubbed his ass over the head with a f**king wrench if I had to. I just didn’t . . .”
Angel lowered the phone, about to scroll through the pictures again while Romero continued to rant, when the second incoming call indicator blinked.
“I’ll call you back,” he said to Romero. “It’s Sarah on the other line.”
“I have more pictures. You want me to send more?”
“Send them all,” he said as he yanked his keys out of the ignition.
He stepped out of his car and took in a much needed lung full of air, trying desperately to erase the visual of Sarah touching the guy’s arm. No matter how much effort he made in the short time he had, he couldn’t, and it only infuriated him further. He knew that was going to affect the way he handled this.
For a second, he considered letting it go to voice mail until he calmed down because already he felt like he was going to lose his shit. But going against his better judgment, he answered anyway.
“Sarah, what’s going on?” he asked, pacing and taking deep breaths.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“At school still. What happened?”
Just the fact that she didn’t mention Leo first thing already had him hot.
He should’ve never answered.
“With what? I was just—”
“What do you mean with what?” he snapped. “With Leo, Sarah. You were with him at the marina. You wanna tell me about that?”
“Yes, I was going to. You want to come pick me up?”
“No. Tell me now,” he said as the f**king visual assaulted him again and again. “I wanna know now.”
“He was there when I finished my run. He wanted to explain everything. Why he lied.”
“And why did he?”
“It’s a long story—”
“Is it really?” he asked, his insides boiling now. “So you were there for a while with him?”
“Not very long.”
It took everything in him not to cuss. “So what’d he say? Why did he lie? Give me the short version. You can tell me the rest later. I wanna know what his bullshit excuse was.”
“He said . . .”
He heard her exhale but his patience was shot. “He said what, Sarah?”
“He said he fell in love with me.” She paused for a moment, but for the first time since he’d answered, Angel was speechless. “What he told me before about feeling a connection with me before we’d ever met? He said that was all true, only it was a more intimate connection than he first admitted. Then after we started chatting, his feelings for me only grew further. And it was about the jewelry.”
Angel listened to her silently as she told him the rest. How she hadn’t wanted to even listen to him at first.
But then did.
She explained why Joseph looked so much like her and her dad and how Leo originally wanted no part in the scam but then made it sound as if he’d done it for her sake, to protect her from another potentially dangerous lying sack of shit Joseph might’ve hired instead.
The whole time Angel couldn’t get past the thought that she might’ve actually bought Leo’s bullshit: That the only reason Leo had gone along with any of it was because of his feelings for her, feelings he felt before he’d even met her. How he’d feared for her safety and how he’d threatened Joseph about not contacting her after they’d figured out she had no such jewelry. But the worst part was still screaming in his head, and for as much as he tried to calm it—stay quiet without interrupting her—it only got louder with every word she said that sounded like justification for Leo’s actions.
“So let me get this straight, Sarah. This ass**le, who lied to you for months about something pretty f**king big like his identity, shows up today, and you want nothing to do with him until he explains he’s in love with you?”