By the very man I’d pledged my loyalty to.

“I’m—” Her voice cracked at the brief word, and she cleared her throat and tried again, “I’m here.”

Eric paused, then said, “And where is here exactly?” His voice was heavy with skepticism, and I knew Evie heard it as well as I did. With her eyes still connected with mine, she opened her mouth several times to respond, but nothing came out. The question was clear in her gaze: How much should she tell him? How much was enough to pacify him without telling him more than necessary?

When it was evident she wasn’t going to answer, Eric filled the silence. “The security company suggested I go back and view the footage over the last several days. Just to see if any suspicious activity had happened before the break-in. Anything that would give us a clue as to who did this.”

I thought about what that video no doubt showed—me grabbing Evie, our altercation, then Frankie coming into the mix and our ensuing fight. From the look on Evie’s face, she was thinking the same thing.

“I haven’t yet…” Eric said. “I haven’t gone over the video, because I wanted to talk to you first.” He took a deep breath, then blew it out in a slow stream. “It just seems odd that all of this would happen in such quick succession—this break-in and you going on a mysterious girls’ weekend. Odd because you’ve never once gone on a trip anywhere since we’ve been together. And as far as I know, you don’t have any girlfriends, none that you’d go away with.” He paused and I watched as Evie held her breath. “So before I go over the feed from a few days ago, is there anything you want to tell me?”

She swallowed as she fidgeted in her lap. “Eric…”

If he knew Evie at all, he knew that tone. It was the tone that said she wasn’t going to tell you shit, despite any pleading from your end. And with his next words, he confirmed that he knew it just as well as I did.

His voice was resigned as he said, “You know, I always knew you were keeping something from me. The entirety of our relationship … I’ve always known you weren’t being completely honest. And I was willing to let that go, because it was obvious it was important to you for me not to know. I could live with that then, but now? After all this? Enough is enough. I think we’ve crossed a line here, don’t you agree? The lies have got to stop, Gen. I need to know what’s going on.”

Her eyes were wide with fear, and I knew it was fear for him. For what he’d be dragged into if he knew the details of what was happening.

When she hadn’t said anything for long moments, I finally spoke up. “It’s better if you don’t know the details.”

Utter stillness radiated from his end of the line until he said, “Who the hell are you?” His voice was hard, then turned panicked when he continued, “Gen, are you still there? Are you safe? Are you hurt?”

“I’d never hurt her,” I snapped at the same time Evie reached out and put a hand to my knee and said with complete sincerity, “I’m fine, Eric. But Riley’s right. It’s better if you don’t know. It’s safer.”

“Safer for whom, exactly? Someone better tell me what the hell is going on.” His voice had risen with each word until he was nearly yelling into the phone, and that shit wasn’t going to fly with me. I didn’t give a fuck if he was her fiancé—fake fiancé—or not.

“Look, man, I know you’re probably pissing in your pants right now considering the shit going on and that you’re across the ocean while it’s all going down, so I’m going to give you a little leeway on the way you’re talking to her, but if you snap at her again, this conversation is over. Understood?”

He didn’t say anything, didn’t respond to me, and I was about to end the call altogether when he finally said, “This him, then?” Evie’s eyes widened, and without her saying a word, I knew she was trying to figure out what Eric had managed to piece together of her history despite all her lies. Before Evie could say anything, Eric blew out a laugh, the sound resigned, not taunting. “I can practically see you squirming, Gen. Don’t worry, you never slipped. You never said anything, but you didn’t have to. It was clear from the second you agreed to everything between us that there was something from your past you weren’t telling me. Why else would a beautiful woman in her early twenties agree to this? I just assumed it was a guy. Looks like I was right.”

Evie relaxed back on the cushions at the confirmation that he didn’t really know anything about her past. “It’s more than just a guy, Eric. And I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you the details. It really is safer for you the less you know. And it’s probably a good thing you’re out of the country.”

“What about my family? My parents…”

I shook my head and spoke up. “They wouldn’t go after a senator and his wife. Too high profile. They’re safe. If anything changes to make me think otherwise, we’ll get someone there to protect them.”

Eric was quiet for a minute, then said, “Riley, is it?”

“Yeah.”

“I trust you’re capable of keeping her safe?”

I looked at Evie, at the girl I thought I’d lost and who, despite all circumstances, had somehow come back into my life. The girl who’d sent my world spinning at seventeen. The same one who sent it spinning at twenty-three. The girl I’d do anything for to make sure she was safe. And I said the only truth I knew: “I’d die to protect her.”

Chapter Eighteen

EVIE

Riley hung up the phone with a promise to keep Eric informed as much as possible. And now his gaze was fixed on me, those eyes narrowed and questioning, and I knew why. He wanted to know what the hell they would go digging around in my house for. But more than that, I knew he’d want to know why I’d kept this from him.

If only he knew this wasn’t the only thing I was keeping from him.

“What were they looking for, Evie?” His voice was low, smooth, despite the tension that sat heavily on his shoulders.

And I knew there was no point in keeping it from him any longer—not this secret.

I blew out a breath and got up from the couch, then went to grab my purse. Fumbling into the side pocket, I pulled out a zippered pouch that to anyone else would look like a makeup bag filled with various cosmetics. It was the same bag I’d carried with me all the time, no matter where I went, despite wearing very little makeup.

I walked back over to Riley with the bag and settled it into my lap when I sat down, then rummaged around inside it until I found what I needed and pulled it out.

Riley’s forehead was furrowed when I handed it over to him, and he rolled the small black tube around in his fingers, flipping it forward and back, looking at it from all angles. With his eyebrows raised, he looked at me. “They’re after your lipstick?”

Tipping my chin toward it, I said, “Open it.”

He uncapped the top, and instead of finding the tube of color he no doubt expected, he found the end of a USB drive. Pinching the base of the lipstick case between his thumb and forefinger, he raised his eyes to mine. “What’s on here?”

“All the evidence I found when Max had me dig into what Ned had done.” I paused and swallowed. “Plus all the evidence I found proving it was actually Max who was stealing from Blaine, and Ned was only doing as he’d been told.”

As much as I saw frustration gleaming in Riley’s eyes, no doubt at the fact that I’d kept this from him, I also saw what looked like appreciation. “How old is this information?”

“I got it all right before … before everything happened. So five years, give or take.”

“Does Max know you have this?”

“I can’t imagine how. You’re the first person I’ve ever told and the first one to see it.”

He raised his hand to his jaw, the sound of his fingers scraping against his harsh stubble loud in the otherwise quiet room. “If you were Max Cavett, would you really go to all this trouble for evidence on something that had happened so long ago? On something that was buried and done?”