Page 127 of Perfect Pursuit

“Because I never intended to cause you harm.”

I feel hands gently rest on my shoulders before a familiar scent wraps around me. Paige. I lean back against her as she whispers in my ear, “I trust her, Fal. I truly do. You’re safe here. Nothing you say will be repeated. Leanne is our Secret Keeper.”

A bitter laugh escapes. Leanne flinches at the sound. Moving around the room, she sits next to Carys before explaining, “I tried to get him to talk to you that night.”

I can’t restrain the bitter laugh that escapes. “Oh, he talked all right. Did he ever tell you what he said?”

Hesitantly, Leanne shakes her head.

His accusation is burned in my brain. I quote Ethan’s words for the group, giving them the snide twist he did. “‘I highly doubt something that serious is happening with Helen or I’d have heard about it. You must think I was born yesterday. Was it an excuse to buy new clothes? Handbags? Jealousy over your friend’s newfound wealth finally get to you?’”

Austyn snarls. Paige drops her head in her hands. Carys offers, “We can sue him for slander,” which earns her a cool glance from Paige but gives me something to think about. Angie and Sula’s faces mirror what I’m feeling but it’s Leanne who ends up cradling me when I give myself the grace to let the first sob release. It’s Leanne who knows what I went through because in some odd way, she was a part of it—not that I understand the details.

Then she murmurs something that makes me pause. “Ethan may be one of the most brilliant men I’ve ever met, but he’s acting just like my husband Kane when he sat outside of my apartment for months moping when I ran away after a death threat he refused to listen to.”

I offer a faint, “Excuse me?”

Leanne flips her hand back and forth. “At least by then, I had Kane trained enough to have learned from his mistakes and finally got off his ass to do something productive. What’s Ethan been doing—other than exhibiting he’s been blessed with more of a ‘Y’ chromosome than most thus, logically, screwing up his life even further by just existing?”

Her direct observation breaks the complicated tension that has permeated the room since she walked in. Even before she shares, “I wrote him a song about you.”

“You did what? Why?”

Austyn claps her hands together. “What artist did you use for inspiration?”

Leanne’s lips curve into a cat-like smile. “The baby and I were getting jiggy with it when I was sending your uncle hate email about not waiting for information about Fallon.”

I arch my brow. “Oh?” I mean, what could she have composed to have this room full of women cackling like evil witches on Halloween. But I still don’t give in.

With that, Leanne belts out her opinion of Ethan’s boneheadedness making it damn hard to maintain my earlier feelings.

I meet her eyes before I burst into laughter.

Much later that evening, just before she heads down the elevator, Leanne pulls me aside. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”

I can’t help the sweet bitterness that enters my voice when I reply, “No one tells me much of anything.”

Her hand squeezes mine. “I know. Truthfully, we can’t. Not yet. But, I’d like to give you two things to think about.”

“What?”

“First, Ethan was called in to work on this assignment by a mutual friend because—again—my life may be threatened. Well, my life and my little one’s.” She smooths her hand over her baby bump.

My eyes widen. “And Devil’s Lair’s involvement?”

She shakes her head. “I can’t speak of it. I have a…colleague. A protege of sorts who will be going to Seven Virtues to beef up their security.”

“That’s kind of you.” I take a deep breath to tamp down my resentment before doing what’s right for the people I grew to care about. “Leanne, there are some good people who work there.”

“Then you won’t mind passing their names on to me? Once I’ve vetted them, it would be good to work with them.”

My head ducks. She steps closer. “Fallon, I know trust is the most precious commodity there is and once it’s broken, it’s never the same.”

“That’s the truth.”

“What you will find, what I found, is that it can be better than it was before. Men are dumb and we should throw things at them—true. But when they learn lessons as hard as these, they rarely make the same one twice.”

My eyes snap in her direction. Her smile is sincere. “Remember, I do know this from experience.”

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