“It looked like he was saying more than that.”

“Well, he wasn’t. Ask him yourself, if you don’t believe me.”

“I did ask him.”

Her breath hitched in her throat. “And what did he say?”

“That he said it was nice to meet you.”

“So why are you all obsessed about it, then?”

Caleb sighed and leaned his head back against the seat of the car, looking suddenly tired. “I don’t know. I just thought I picked up a vibe. And he’s been asking about you a lot.”

“What do you mean he’s been asking about me?” She let herself sound a little defensive, since that was how anyone would have felt.

“About your background. About how we met. It’s…it’s strange.”

Kelly knew exactly why Wes had been asking about her. He was definitely suspicious, and it made her even more nervous about dinner this evening. But she wasn’t sure how to handle it. If she sounded too defensive, then it might make Caleb suspicious too, and that was something she couldn’t allow.

She scooted a little closer to him and lifted a hand to stroke his face. She told herself it was because physical touch might distract him, but it wasn’t really. Mostly just she just wanted to touch him. Be close to him. Assure herself that, for the moment, they were safe. “Maybe he has a secret thing for you. Are you sure he’s straight?”

Caleb gave a huff of amusement. “Yes, he’s straight.”

Pleased that his focus had shifted, she smiled up at him teasingly. “Well, he seems to have quite an interest in your love life.”

“I don’t really know what that’s about. But his mom is really sick, you know. I guess maybe he’s using it as a distraction.”

Kelly saw his expression sober at the thought of Wes’s mother, and she didn’t pursue the teasing. It was hard to work through the fact that the man was set against her somehow, and yet it was hard to hate him completely because he was about to lose a parent—something she knew very well. “I’m sorry about his mom.”

Caleb wrapped an arm around her. “Yeah. I’m not sure being older really makes it easier.”

“I can’t imagine that it does.”

They didn’t say much else until they reached the restaurant. When they arrived, they discovered that Wes and his date—a pretty redhead named Micaela—were already at the table.

Dinner wasn’t as bad as Kelly had been fearing.

Discussion was mostly light—about old school friends of Wes and Caleb, about their jobs, about the play that Micaela was going to be acting in at a community theater, about Paris. Wes seemed friendly enough with her, and Micaela was very nice.

As they were eating dessert, Kelly finally relaxed, convinced she was going to make it through the evening without any sort of catastrophe.

She glanced over at Caleb and saw he was watching her with a smile in his eyes, like he was thinking soft, fond thoughts about her.

Ridiculously, the expression made her blush, but she gave him a laughing, ironic look in response.

His smile broadened, and they just gazed at each other, sharing a moment that didn’t need any words.

“I never thought I’d see it,” Wes said, interrupting their look.

Caleb gave his friend a cool glance, but Kelly thought he looked a little self-conscious. “The list of things you’ve never thought of could fill a freight train.”

“That’s probably true. But it makes me wonder about all the things that you don’t know.” Wes shifted his eyes over to Kelly with a speculative expression that made her gut clench.

It was some sort of hint. To her. That he suspected she was hiding things from Caleb.

It didn’t matter that he was returning to Paris tomorrow. This man was still a danger to her.

She managed to give him an innocent smile. “Well, one thing Caleb doesn’t know is how to send a girl flowers.”

“Hey,” Caleb said, giving her a mock offended look. Micaela laughed, and even Wes relaxed into a smile. “I never knew you wanted any.”

“I don’t. I’m just saying it wouldn’t kill you to be more romantic.” She made sure her expression conveyed that she was just teasing and not really complaining. If she’d been in a real relationship with Caleb, she wouldn’t have wanted flowers. She wouldn’t have needed anything more than he’d given her.

A girl who couldn’t tell that his feelings for her were real must be blind.

Micaela giggled and gave Wes a little punch on the arm. “I think romance is a lost art. The most we can hope for is that they silence their phones.”

“I’ll always silence my phone for you,” Wes told his date in mock adoration. “But I’d never send you flowers. Flowers are for hospitals.”

For some reason, the thought evidently made him think of something because his eyes shifted over to Caleb.

Caleb met his gaze without flinching, without revealing anything.

Then he turned to look at Kelly. “I’ll give you all the flowers you want.”

He probably would. She’d probably get some tomorrow, when all she’d wanted to do was change the subject from what was dangerous.

She couldn’t help but be touched by the sincerity she saw in Caleb’s eyes. She’d managed the tricky moment just fine, but it didn’t mean everything was okay. The longer she stretched this out, the more time she was giving Wes to uncover something about her.

She needed to hurry this up, to find out the truth before it was too late. Staring at a last uneaten bite of her cheesecake, she was overwhelmed with a kind of panic.

Maybe it wasn’t rational. Maybe she wasn’t really in more danger now than she’d been before.

But she had the sudden, irresistible urge to get this finished. Now.

She excused herself to go to the bathroom, and while she was in the stall, she texted a message to Jack. Any plans made yet?

After a minute there was a reply. One more week. Sit tight.

She didn’t want to sit tight. Things felt like they could come unraveled at any moment.

She needed to do something now. As soon as possible. She needed to get into those corporate records and get the personnel files they needed.

Another week might be too long, and she just couldn’t take that risk.

—

She and Caleb were both quiet as they rode home in the back of the car.

She felt nervous and exhausted both, and she was still a little sore between the legs from the way he’d fucked her before dinner.

Everything was feeling wrong—not the kind of twisting poignancy she’d felt with him before but a kind of crushing knowledge that everything about this situation was just not what it should be.

If only she could take the last step and bring the wrongness to a close.

She had to think of something. And she couldn’t wait another week.

“What are you thinking about?” Caleb asked out of the blue. He’d been staring out at the darkness through the car window, and he hadn’t turned to look at her, so she didn’t know what prompted the question.

“Nothing, really.”

“It feels like something is wrong.”

He knew her so well, if he could pick up her mood through the silence. It frightened her and touched her at the same time.

“What was Wes referring to earlier, about the hospitals?” she asked, remembering that strange look she’d caught between them and wondering about it again.

Caleb turned his head to face her, and his eyes were defenseless, so tired. “He was referring to my sister.”

She frowned. “I didn’t know you had a sister.”

“She died. I was a kid.”

“What happened?”

“She had cancer. It took her over a year to die.”

She caught her breath, realizing he was telling her something he never told anyone, something that was closer to his heart than anything else. She remembered half-finished conversations they’d had, as he’d talked around this one thing. “How old was she?”

“She was thirteen. I was ten. I spent so much time that year in the hospital…” He trailed off, closing his eyes.