“This isn’t easy for me to say,” she said.
“Alysa, I love you. You can tell me anything,” I said, wanting to hold her hand again, but let her have the space she seemed to need.
“I don’t work for you,” she said.
“We never really had the chance to meet regarding finances, and at this point, you have other things to worry about,” I said.
“No, that’s not what I mean. I…I was hired to pose as your financial advisor.”
Pose?That meant she really wasn’t. Who the hell would want to put someone on the inside to look at my financial records? Ocalla. “You worked for Ocalla?” I asked, trying to bite back my anger and shock.
She shook her head. “Hell, no. He was scum.”
“Then who?” I asked, my tone firm. I needed to know. But I had a feeling I knew the answer already. James Burke.
“I was hired to protect you,” she said, not answering my question.
I laughed. “Did Logan give you too many painkillers, because you are half my size. Not much protection.”
She didn’t smile. “Up until three years ago, I was a sniper in the US Marine Corps. Trust me, I am very capable of protecting you.” She sighed, “Well, I was until I could no longer walk.”
That explained the shrapnel, but not why was she pretending to be someone she wasn’t. “I never asked for protection,” I said angrily.
“I know. But they wanted to make sure you were exactly who you claimed to be. And if you were, they knew you’d have a target on your back,” she said.
“So what you’re telling me is that for the last several weeks, you’ve been lying to me.”
“Not about everything. Just about my job title,” she said.
I shook my head. “And I should believe you now, why?”
“Believe I love you, too, Jasper. I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
“Love me? Is lying the new way to show love?” I asked sharply.
“I was going to tell you, but my first priority was to keep you safe. And I failed at that. That’s why I was going to leave. Because I had compromised my mission by falling in love with you,” she said.
I had risked everything for her because I love her. I could’ve been killed by Ocalla’s men because I love her. The one thing I didn’t do was lie to her about it. Right now, I didn’t know if anything she’d told me was true.
I looked down at her and said, “Well, I have to admit, you are damn good at your job. I never suspected a thing. Especially when you were in my bed.” I couldn’t stay there any longer. I needed air. I needed to think. And the last thing I wanted was to see another Henderson, because they were the ones who put her up to this.
“Jasper, it wasn’t like that,” she said.
Filled with anger I said, “No, it was exactly like that.” Then I turned and walked out of her hospital room. She was the one person I thought I could trust with everything. I was wrong. How can I ever trust her again? I’ve never had such a tightness in my chest that it actually hurt. Then again, I’ve never loved anyone like this before. And I never will again.