My stomach twisted as I clicked through three other pictures. All of them were of me. Running. Eating. Leaving Vera’s apartment. Every picture included a date stamp in the lower right-hand corner.
I searched for more emails from Viper Investigations. There were at least ten dating from before I left for Mexico. They contained more pictures, detailed schedules outlining how I spent my day. There was no doubt about it—Evan had someone following me and reporting all my moves back to him since we broke up the first time.
When Ryker implicated Evan and his father in my abduction, part of me held out hope Evan wasn’t involved. That he was his father’s pawn in this whole scheme. But as I clicked on picture after picture and email after email, it became painfully obvious Evan actively participated in my abduction.
I checked the clock. Evan would be home in less than ten minutes. I scrolled through his inbox, clicking on random emails. Most of them were more of the same. Then, my heart nearly seized in my chest when I spotted an email from Vera. I squeezed my eyes as my finger hovered over the iPad. A chill darted down my spine. I sucked in a deep breath, and then I clicked on the email.
To: EDeveron11
From: VeraWatts
Evan,
Hattie hasn’t told me anything. Stop texting me. Stop emailing me. Stop calling me. I can’t help you and even if I could, I wouldn’t. I sent you those pictures from Mexico, but it was wrong. You’re on your own.
Vera
As I sat there in the silence of Evan’s townhouse, I realized I didn’t know anything. Without a doubt, I had spent the last few years of my life in the dark, blind to everything and everyone. Every single moment of my life had been a carefully crafted illusion. All the lies I had yet to discover scared the shit out of me. How far back did the deception go? Was anything with Evan ever real? Horror-struck at myself for caring, I flipped the iPad over so I wouldn’t be tempted to read anything else. I had read enough. I had seen enough…for now.
My hands curled into fists as I stared at the door, waiting for Evan to open it. With every passing second, anger curled through my body, tainting me with a venomous fury, and robbing me of rational thought. Diabolical plots for revenge flickered unbidden through my mind. Rage sharpened my thoughts and calibrated my vision. I embraced it. I reveled in it. I got drunk on it.
Evan and his dad wanted to play games with my life. Well, turnabout was fair play. I’d spent too much time embracing my martyrdom like I was next in line to be canonized and declared a saint. Fuck that. I wasn’t a saint, and I refused to be a martyr. I slipped the gun I found in Ryker’s closet from my purse and leaned back in the chair, waiting for him to open the door.
I didn’t have to wait long. Evan walked in the door five minutes later.
“Hattie, I’m glad you stopped by,” Evan said as he strolled into his home with a big smile on his face. “I was going to call you—” Evan froze mid-sentence, eyeing the gun on the table in front of me. “Why do you have a gun?”
I ran the pads of my fingers over the barrel of the gun, locking eyes with my deranged ex-fiancé. Before today, I didn’t believe it was possible to hate someone as much as I hated Evan and his slimy dad. “I thought I’d bring some protection.”
Evan’s eyebrows slanted downward. “What the hell are you talking about? I would never hurt you.”
I raised one eyebrow and smirked. “Really? Your actions prove otherwise.”
Evan lifted his hands up in mock surrender as he shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re scaring me. Have you been skipping your therapy sessions?”
Clenching my teeth, I trembled with pent-up aggression. The amount of hatred and anger seeping out of my pores could’ve slayed an army. I flipped over his iPad, slamming it against the counter. Pounding my index finger against the screen, I typed in his passcode. “While you were out, I took the liberty of scanning through an email folder labeled HWC. Does that change your perspective?”
Evan stuffed his hands into his pockets and licked his lower lip as his eyes looked everywhere but at me. Fucking shifty-eyed bastard. “It’s not what you think,” he mumbled.
I folded my arms across my chest. “So you’re not having me followed?”
His shoulders sagged. “I am, but only because I don’t want something to happen to you again. Even though we’re not together anymore, I haven’t stopped caring about you, loving you. I was crazed when you were abducted. I couldn’t sleep. I barely ate. I didn’t go to class. I can’t go through that again.”
“All signs of a guilty conscience.”
He repeatedly swallowed, his Adam’s apple rocking up and down like a fishing bobber. “You’re right. I felt guilty because you should have been in the Virgin Islands with me. I made a bad decision that hurt you. All of this could’ve been avoided if I had been faithful.”
Laughing, I stood up and walked around the table. “Sure, if I hadn’t gone to that bar and caught you cheating on me, things may have been different, but then I would still be in the dark. I wouldn’t know the extent of you and your dad’s corruption.”
“That’s not true.”
The stubborn set of Evan’s jaw caused a flashflood of resentment to roar through me. What a liar. I lifted the gun and aimed it at the center of his chest. “Don’t lie.”
He took a step back, his eyes flickering back and forth between the gun and my face. “This is crazy. What are you doing? You don’t need that.” His voice cracked on the last word.
“I know your fucked up family arranged my abduction. Your dad planned everything, and you agreed because you’re a spineless piece of shit—a puppet dancing to your dad’s corrupt tune.”
He sucked in a breath as a flash of surprise washed over his face. “We didn’t—”
I shoved the muzzle of the gun against his chest, twisting it slowly from side to side. A sick and perverted satisfaction slid down my spine when I spotted the sweat beading his brow. “Shut the fuck up. It’s too late. I know everything. I know you offered me up as a pawn to stop Rever Vargas from talking about your dad’s criminal connections. I know you only wanted to marry me so my dad would have a reason to conceal your dad’s connection to the Vargas Cartel.”
“I didn’t care about that. That’s my dad’s business. I did it for us. I love you, and I knew you wouldn’t give me another chance. I didn’t have any choice.”
“Are you delusional? Are you seriously trying to argue you handed me over to a drug cartel because you loved me and wanted me back?”
A muscle twitched in his cheek. “They weren’t supposed to hurt you. I wouldn’t have agreed otherwise.”
“Not hurt me?” Acid swirled in my gut. “And you think that justifies what you did?”