Chapter 40

“When you pulled me behind the curtain…” I still feeling embarrassed talking about what we did up here. “When we were… um… together… I saw her again. But this time the earl was sneaking up on her and he strangled her.”

“That seems a bit far-fetched, no?” he asks.

“You just told me to be careful around them because they’re dangerous,” I counter.

“Exactly, and that has put wild ideas into your head,” he says.

“Excuse me?”

“I think it’s best if we leave early,” he says. “The show will be over in another hour so we can sneak out now, go home, and get some sleep.”

I feel my stomach sour at how silly and stupid he must think me to be. I know what I saw but there’s no way to convince him of that now. The only thing I can do is let him take me home and get a good night’ssleep. I’ll think of what to do tomorrow. Until then, I do the only thing I can. I agree with him.

“Okay.”

It’s not giving up; it’s postponing the fight. I’ve come too far to give up now.

Chapter 12

The Search

Iread the same page in my book for the third time in the last hour as I sit, curled up on a sofa in the library. It’s my home away from home. Sammy is in her bougie Tempur-Pedic dog bed in front of the fire and little Leo is chasing a fluffy catnip ball around the room.

I let out a frustrated huff before starting from the top of a page. The book should be a breeze to power through. I love this author and her books about hot British billionaires. This one owns a hotel on a northern island, and the female main character is tech support who wrote the entire management program. But he thinks she’s incompetent and it drives her bananas.

I should be enjoying this book while the fire crackles and I have a quiet day, but I can’t. I can’t focus on anything other than the sight of the earl stranglingSuzanne. It’s why I’ve had my schedule cleared because they’re all trying to decide if I’ve had some nervous breakdown. I haven’t. At least, I don’t think I have. I don’t think anyone would blame me if I did. But what bothers me the most is that no one seems to believe me when I say that I saw her in a box at the opera and I watched her die. It’s what I see at night when I close my eyes.

I look up when there’s a knock on the door. Rhys steps in and I feel my heart sink. The one person I expected to believe me was Rhys and he just… didn’t.

“Can we talk?” he asks, scooping up my kitty from the floor. Leo purrs loudly and curls into his arms, happy to be held. If I’d picked him up like that, he’d have bitten me—ask me how I know—while Rhys holds him on his back like a newborn. The traitor.

“Sure.” I don’t say anything else because what is there to say? I’m not going to beg him to believe me. He either does or he doesn’t, and he’s shown that he doesn’t. Case closed.

He lets out a sigh. “I was hoping you’d be more agreeable,” he says like he’s disappointed in me, “but I can see that you’re not going to be.”

“About?” I ask.

“About maybe taking a bit of a respite,” he says.

I feel my Spidey senses tingling. “What kind of a respite?”

“The kind where you go away for a while,” he says gently. “Somewhere relaxing where you won’t bejumping at shadows.”

“I’m not jumping at shadows,” I protest. I am but how dare he say that to my face.

“Darling,” he pleads.

“No. No, no, no,” I shout. “You’re not going to gaslight me into some stay at a mental hospital that you’ll never check me back out of.”

“That’s no’ the case and you know it,” he says quietly.

“No, actually, I don’t,” I tell him. “I still don’t know you and you clearly don’t know me because I told you I saw something, and you’ve blown me off. We both agree that we’re in a dangerous situation right now, not to mention someone has tried to kill me twice, and what you do is decide that I’m crazy.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy,” he says, but I just stare at him with my arms folded over my chest. “I don’t. I think you’re fucking exhausted and I think you’re terrified.”

“But I’m not crazy,” I tell him. “And I know what I saw. I’m not going to beg you to believe me.”

“So what are we going to do?” he asks me, petting my freaking cat.