Mixed with that anger, though, was a deep sort of sadness.
I didn’t trust anyone as it was.
The idea that someone in my very tight circle could have done that to me…
“Hey, don’t let it get to you. What they did has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with them.”
“I know. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting,” I told him, reaching for my wine.
“I have to ask you this, and I understand if it is going to upset you, but I have to do it.”
“Okay,” I agreed, tensing.
“Could it have been Cam?” he asked.
“No way. You said it yourself. He tracked you down, came to you, and even tried to pay you for this job. That makes no sense if he’d done it.”
“Devils Advocate here,” he said, resting his arms on the table and leaning forward toward me, creating a little intimacy to try to make it easier for me to see his side. “If he’d attempted it, if he’d failed, and he realized that when you got a text out to him on your smartwatch, would it not make the most sense for him to do everything he could to make it seem like it couldn’t possibly be him?”
That was a perfectly sound argument.
But everything inside of me rebelled against it.
This was the guy who went shoe shopping with me, who tried to force me to go to the doctor when I didn’t want to, who’d helped me change my bloody gauze when I’d needed to have oral surgery done.
Yes, I paid him well.
But I would have paid him well even if he hadn’t done those things.
If he hated me enough to discard me like garbage, then why would he go above and beyond in all other areas?
“I see you trying to make it make sense,” Brock said, reaching out and placing a hand on my wrist. “But I need to remind you that people who’d do shit like this? They aren’t rational. What they’ve done or haven’t done won’t make any sort of sense.”
I was only half processing what he was saying.
What with his big hand on my wrist, and his thumb absentmindedly stroking, my system was trying to also process the surge of desire that bloomed within me.
“All I am saying is to really think about it. Go over it in your head. If after doing that, you conclude that it isn’t remotely possible, I’ll believe you. But you have to be objective.”
“Okay,” I agreed, nodding.
“And on safety standpoint, I have to ask.”
“God, what now?” I grumbled, yanking my hand away from him and resting it in my lap. I felt like my head was spinning. I needed to focus.
“Are you alone with Cam at any point during the day where something bad could happen?”
“No. I mean, we’re never really alone at work. And even the drive in, we have my driver. The only time we would have been alone would be if he came into the apartment.”
“But with me here, that’s not going to be a concern.”
“Exactly,” I agreed, glad to have a reason to have him around. On a rational, less hormone-driven level, anyway.
“That’s probably the crew,” Brock said when there was a buzz to my room.
After buzzing him up, I felt the need to turn and rush to put the food away, only to find that Brock had already done it.
“Brace yourself for Lennon,” Brock said as I reached for my glass of wine, taking another sip. “He can be a little intense.”