“I promise you’ll get your background check. But sometimes those take time, so what are you going to do in the meantime?”
“I don’t know.” I looked out over the lake, feeling so confused and worried. Something was wrong—so wrong.
“Sabrina,” Cash said my name so tenderly, I couldn’t help but turn toward him and get lost in those baby blues of his.
“What?” I whispered.
“If you’re that worried about Soren, I have some ideas. If you’re interested.”
“What kind of ideas?”
“Ideas you might not like.”
“Like spying on him in the bushes?” I laughed.
Cash uncomfortably cleared his throat. “Of course not. Who does that?”
“Creepy voyeurs.”
“Obviously, neither of us are into voyeurism. With that said, you know the saying keep your friends close and enemies closer?”
“Uh-huh.”
“It’s true, but the catch is to make your enemy believe you’re a friend.”
“I don’t want to be friends with Soren, real or fake.” I shuddered at the prospect.
“That’s understandable, but the best way to take down your enemy is to make him feel comfortable enough to let his guard down.”
I tilted my head. “You’ve thought about this a lot. Why? Do you have a lot of enemies?”
“I don’t have enemies or friends.”
“That’s sad. You know, I thought we used to be friends. Maybe even the best sort of friends.” Kissing friends were the best.
“You see how I screwed that up?”
“Yeah,” I breathed out. “So, you think I should make Soren believe I’m his friend? How is that going to help? What do you think he would tell me?”
“People always give clues to who they are. You just have to listen to what they say and sometimes what they don’t say.”
“What if I don’t hear the right things and my sister ends up marrying a louse?”
“I could help you. I’m good at reading people. It’s part of my analyst brain.”
“That’s not a good idea because that would mean us spending time together and he’s already suspicious of you—as am I.”
Cash didn’t even bat an eye or acknowledge my doubts about him. “Of course he’s suspicious of me. He’s afraid I can read him like a book.”
“Then how can you help me?”
“We just have to make him believe he’s wrong about me. Throw him off his game. Whatever that is.”
“Just out of curiosity, how would we do that?”
“You definitely won’t like this part.”
I stood still and braced myself.