“Feeling better?” Holland asked when I emerged from the bathroom with Band-Aids on my knuckles. I was wearing a sundress and an oversized cardigan several sizes too big for me, but there was a sash about the waist of the cardigan, so I wrapped it around myself like a robe, and it did just fine.

“Much. Thank you for that. A shower and some clean clothes really does the world of good.”

With a nod, she smiled and picked up a teacup that had a little saucer and everything. “I made you this. I wasn’t sure if you would prefer tea or alcohol, so I made you a Hot Toddy. My aunt—she raised me—loved them in the evenings. Said they could cure anything. It’s tea, honey, lemon, and a splash of whiskey.”

Taking it from her, I lifted the cup to my nose, smelling the concoction. It reminded me of Lemsip. I took a sip, tasting all the flavours she’d mentioned, and felt the warmth of the alcohol spread as it hit my belly. “That’s actually pretty good,” I said, placing the cup on the saucer I was still holding in my other hand. I wasn’t sure where she wanted me to drink it.

“Why don’t we sit?” she suggested, gesturing toward the overstuffed couch in the lounge room. It faced a fireplace and there was one of those distressed wooden coffee tables in front of it. Around it, bookcases, a sideboard, a large window with an ocean view, but no TV.

I sipped at the tea and tucked my feet beneath me, my body getting lost in the dress. “I suppose you want to know why you found me screaming in the street,” I said, clearing my throat as I straightened my spine.

“You can talk if you want. Or, we can just sit. I can put the television on.”

“You don’t have one,” I said, frowning slightly because she should have known that—it was her house, after all. Wasn’t it?

She grinned and reached to the side, picking up a remote that she aimed at a large landscape painting on the wall. It slid up and there was a flat-screen television behind it.

“Classy,” I said.

“It’s very Get Smart.”

“Get Smart?”

“It’s an old TV show. It was always on after school growing up. Haven’t you seen it? They made a movie of it a few years back—bumbling spy who takes all the credit while his female assistant does all the work? You know, like every workplace everywhere?”

I shook my head. “I think I missed that one.”

“We’ll have to add it to our list of things to watch.”

I looked into my cup, watching the gentle ripples move over the tea’s surface. “I don’t think we’ll be doing that anymore. I’m thinking I might get out of town. I probably should have left years ago, anyway...”

“No, Ronnie,” she said, touching my arm. “Don’t run away again. We’re only just becoming friends.”

I looked out the window, her words hitting me in the cracks of the wall I kept trying to put back up. “It’s not really up to me. Kristian doesn’t trust me—and I guess I don’t blame him. We didn’t exactly start in a way that builds trust. But still…I can’t be in a relationship like that. So, it’s best I go. Especially since, well, who knows what the Queen of Hearts will do.”

“Is the Queen of Hearts Jasmine?”

I nodded and mimed chopping my head off.

“I hear that, sister,” she said with a chuckle. “Although, I don’t think she’d do that. She likes you.”

“If she believes Kristian’s version of events, I can’t see how that could possibly be true.”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know?”

She shook her head. “All I know is that they returned early and you and Kristian didn’t. I actually expected to see you tonight. They were meeting because Kris got back this afternoon. You didn’t come back with him?”

“No. I came back for him. But he made it very clear that he doesn’t want me around anymore.”

“Those Cartwrights can be absolute stubborn arses when it comes to matters of the heart. Lord knows I went through it with Nate, and Alesha went through it with Sam. They like to cut their own noses off to spite their face.”

“Well, he can go around looking like Voldermort for all I care.”

“There you go,” she said, patting me on the knee. “There’s a movie reference we can all get on board with.”

I sniffed and laughed a little. I liked her humour and was glad in a way this was ending early. With her kind eyes and understanding nature, I would have grown too attached to her. Perhaps it was because she was a teacher and used to guiding all kinds of people, but she really seemed to get me. I was going to miss the friend I never got to have.

“He thinks I cheated on him,” I said after a while, finding that I really needed to get that detail off my chest. The injustice of it, the weight of his accusations… They had me feeling sick and twisted up inside. I felt that if I could just get one Cartwright to listen and understand, then at least I’d get my say. Then I could leave and close the door on this chapter of my life.

“Why would he think that?”

“Because he saw me with another man. We weren’t doing anything. In fact, he was actually hugging me out of comfort. But Kristian saw it as something else, and now he’s convinced I ruined the job on purpose. That I had planned on the cops all along.” Frowning, I shook my head.

“You got caught?” she shrieked, her eyes going wide as the colour drained from her face.

“No. They didn’t get caught at all. I did. The intel on the car we took must have been wrong, because it was reported stolen.” I then proceeded to tell her about my ordeal—the car chase, running on foot, doing everything I could to make sure I kept the police away from them so they could finish the job, the fuck-up with the home button on the Blackberry. I told her how Breaker helped me, how horrible I’d felt when I realised they’d left without me, how I travelled back with a truck driver who didn’t talk, and stank—all so I could get back to Kristian. “The thing that kept me going was the thought of running into his arms and having him hug me and say, ‘Thank God, doll. Thank God you’re home.’ But he didn’t say that at all. He accused me of fucking another guy. But I didn’t. I fucking didn’t.” I shook my head, swallowing the lump in my throat, because I refused to fucking cry over that man again. He’d gotten all the tears he would from me.

Holland was quiet for a moment, her brow furrowed as she studied my expression. “I’m sorry, Ronnie. It sounds like you’ve been through an ordeal and Kris is being a complete and utter cunt monkey.”

I chuckled a little at that. “He really is.”

“You know, when Nate and I were first married, we had a few problems with jealousy. Another man declared his love for me and kissed me. I pushed him away and slapped his face, but Nate saw the whole thing and lost his mind. He beat the crap out of poor Toby and barely spoke to me for weeks afterward, even though it wasn’t my fault. He was just so deeply hurt that another man dared to touch his toy that he couldn’t see the forest for the trees. I was livid.”

“Back up a minute. The other man was Toby?”

“Did I say that?” She frowned like she was trying to rewind the conversation and see where she inserted his name.

“You did. Is that why they’re a bit funny with each other?”

Her lip curved up in a half smile. “You noticed that?”

I nodded.

“There’s a lot more to it than unrequited lust, but that’s when it came to a head. But, my point is that Cartwright men can’t stand sharing anything they consider to be theirs. Just seeing you with that biker would have turned those blue eyes as green as green can be. And they aren’t rational when they’re like that.”

“That’s a bit hypocritical for men who make a living out of taking what isn’t theirs.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t say it was logical.”

“So, what you’re saying is that I should just wait around until Kristian gets his head out of his arse and realises I didn’t do anything his mind has conjured up?” I shook my head.

“That depends. Do you love him?”

Pressing my lips together, I knitted my brow. It wasn’t something I liked to give a lot of thought to. We were mercurial. “Right now, all I want to do is hate him.”

“That’s not quite the same as actually hating him though, is it?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered, downing the last of my now cold toddy. The whiskey burned my throat.

“Maybe take the night to sleep on it. Things will seem a little clearer in the morning.”

“You can’t be alone. I was worried sick.” Nate’s voice bellowed from the other room. I sat up in bed, giving up on rest. I’d slept in fits and starts, exhaustion being the only thing keeping me lying down. But when he got home, Holland had obviously forgotten to text him about her whereabouts, and he’d started yelling.

I ran my hands over my face and through my hair as Holland argued back, telling him how she found me after Kristian accused me of cheating. “She needed someone to take care of her.”

“And who was taking care of you? We aren’t safe at the moment, duchess. I need to know where you are at all times. You’re pregnant, for Christ’s sake.”

Not wanting to eavesdrop on their domestic situation any longer, I gathered up my things and stuffed my feet into my shoes before pushing open the window and climbing out. Thank God the security here isn’t as crazy as Jasmine’s house.

I left on foot, their arguing voices following me all the way to the road. As I headed toward town, the phone Breaker had given me started chirping in my bag. I pulled it out and flipped it open.

“Hello?”

“You were supposed to call me. Glad you’re not dead in a ditch somewhere,” he said.

“Hey. I got caught up and lost track of time.”

“It’s cool. I’m not your dad. Just wanted to check in. Everything OK? Your giant men welcome you home with open arms?”

I smiled but there wasn’t any happiness to it. “Something like that,” I lied.

“Something like that,” he stated, saying each word slowly. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Yeah. Well, I was thinking I might start working on my own again anyway.”

“You need me to come get you?” The offer brought tears to my eyes. It would take him easily thirteen hours on his bike. Why would he come here for me?

I shook my head. “No. Thank you. I think I’m better off alone.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. Tell me where you are. I’m leavin’ now.”

“No, Breaker. Honestly, I’m fine. I don’t need anyone rescuing me. Turns out that doesn’t work so well.”

“Yeah. I’m still comin’. Either to get you or to knock some sense in the head of that fiancé of yours. Text me the address or I’ll knock on every door in town lookin’ for you. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said. Then he disconnected.

Sighing, I closed my eyes and slid the phone back into my bag. “Just great,” I said, knowing that the moment Breaker showed up in town, it would somehow get back to the Cartwrights. Then it wouldn’t matter what I said anymore, Kristian would see it as proof. “Fucking men.”