His turn to pause. “I thought Jaylynn was bluffing about the claim she’d been defamed. At the time I hadn’t even filed my report. Once I did, I thought it would all go away.”
“Well, it didn’t.” Shay was pacing, needing the activity to work off the extra energy. “I’ve been on the Internet. I know who she is now. Why didn’t you warn me that she’s a celebrity? In court it will be my word against that of a TV personality. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how the testimony of a ‘nobody’ is going to stack up against the words of ‘Charlotte’s Sweetheart.’ Oh my God, and once they find out about my past—”
“They won’t. Shay, listen to me. This is my mess. I’ll figure out how to clean it up. I’m going to fight her. I already told her that.”
Shay took a breath in surprise. “You’ve already talked to her?”
“It’s not like that, Shay.”
Shay shook her head though he couldn’t see her. “You can’t help me. You’ve no idea what you’ve done!”
Her head was pounding with thoughts moving too fast to put into words.
The suit would make all the papers. With a prominent person like Jaylynn Turner involved, it would be front-page news. Everyone in the state would know about it. About her. About her past. And then Eric would pile it on. Perfect excuse. He’d love this shit. Oh dear Lord! He’d make his claims about her public, too. Once more she’d be painted as a crazy, vindictive bitch. She would never escape.
“Shay?”
The sound of her name coming from so far away badly startled her. And then she realized she hadn’t disconnected. James was still on the line. She lifted the phone to her ear.
“Leave me alone, James. You should have just left me alone.”
“Not a chance.” He took a breath. “You’re angry. You’ve got every right. I messed up. But we can fix this. Not now. Not over the phone. I can’t get away until tomorrow. But I’ll be there, Shay, by two P.M. I’ll come straight to you and we’ll figure this out. We’re in this together and we’re worth fighting for.”
He’s using his calm, authoritative police officer’s voice, Shay thought absently. She must sound genuinely shaken. Like the mother at the accident scene. He was good at handling crises. That was his job.
She had been in one emotional traffic wreck after another during the two short weeks since they’d met. She didn’t doubt he would try to help her. He might even succeed. But she didn’t need a trained professional to clean up behind her. She wanted to be his friend and lover. Not some lost cause he’d taken on out of pity.
“Don’t come here, James. Just leave me alone.”
She did hang up this time.
When would she learn? She could never rely on anyone but herself.
She turned off her phone as it began to ring again and stuffed it in the sofa cushions. This time she did feel as if her heart were shriveling up and dying. James wanted to help but she knew better than he did what was about to happen.
She had wanted to be someone different. Her job at Logital Solutions and her friends were less than eighteen months old. She’d wanted to be normal. Just that. And she had almost succeeded.
Shay drew in a shuddery breath. She had been determined not to make any more mistakes, to build her life into something worthwhile. But what was the point when it all was about to explode in lurid headlines she wouldn’t be able to live down this time?
She went and curled up on her bed, sobbing until there was nothing left.
*
Just before her alarm went off, lying dry-eyed in the dark, Shay had a thought. Something didn’t make sense. Not all the things that had occurred since James barged through her door were necessarily connected. Eric. Stalker. James. Carly. Now Jaylynn. Her life these days wasn’t making sense. She was missing something. But she wasn’t going to get it straight as long as she was darting at shadows. She needed to get out of town.
But first she would go in to work and talk to Perry. Because if she left Logital Solutions in the lurch she would lose her last connection to what had been her life. If that happened, she might just retreat into a feral being that people avoided on the street.
As for James, well, she was in no emotional state to hold him at arm’s length if he came near her. She needed to hide from him, too, until she had sorted out her feelings. As it was, those feelings were swamping her highly tuned protective instincts. When he was too close, her brain turned to mush. So she needed to get away, even from him.
She ignored the little sinkhole that hollowed out in her middle when she thought of James leaving her life.
She needed to think. She needed to get to the one place of solace in her life. A safe place away from everything and everyone trying to ruin her life.
The cabin.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE