Page 84 of The Spy Ring

She nodded and glanced at me for a second before turning back to Tenn. “Did you know about what he did? About the whole,” she made a circular motion with her finger, “at my place.”

Tenn’s eyes flickered to me before gazing down at the ground. Did he know what she was talking about? Because I didn’t.

“Yes, but I told him to get rid of the listening devices at your place. And, as I told Jagger, I didn’t tell our boss that he spied on you. Someone else must have said something,” Tenn said with a glimmer of something in his eyes.

Did he think he was helping with that? Because he wasn’t.

My eyes widened and it was like slow motion. I tried to reach out for Tiffany and tell Tenn to shut up, but my body was too slow for me.

“Spy on me?” Tiffany turned, and it was painful to see the hurt and confusion that filled her eyes. “You actually planted spy equipment inside my apartment?”

“Oh, shit,” Tenn said.

Oh, shit was right. When I was done groveling to Tiffany, I was going to kill Tenn.

I waved my hands around. “It was my fault.”

“Damn right it was your fault.” She pushed her hands onto her hips. “You’re a flippin’ spy for gosh darn sake. Even I know it’s against the law to spy on someone without a warrant. Or, did you get that? Maybe made up another lie. Something about me being a bad mother and you needed to make sure I wasn’t spreading my terrible parenting skills to the rest of the country.”

“You are not a terrible mother.” I took a deep breath as I prepared to put myself in a position to get thrown in jail. “And, no, I didn’t have a warrant. What I did was completely illegal.”

She stepped closer to me, and I could see the tears stream down her face like I had turned on a faucet that might never shut off. “I trusted you. Was that all a lie? Did you tell me those things because you heard me talk about how I wanted someone to love my son and me? That I wanted a man I would feel safe with. Did you spy on me to get that information and use it to have sex with me?”

“What?” Henrik said.

“No, Tiffany.” I gazed around to see one man with guilt in his eyes and another with venom. “Can we go somewhere to discuss this in private?”

“Are you kidding me?” Tiffany said with an octave that could shatter glass. “I don’t ever want to be alone with you again. How can I trust you? Don’t come near me again.”

My heart felt like a million knives were slicing away—sliver by agonizing sliver—as I watched the woman I love walk away. She stopped just before she turned out of the alley, gazing back with thunder in her eyes.

“I made a mistake with you. A scary mistake that once this divorce comes through, I will never repeat again.” Within a second, she was gone.

I took a step forward but fingers curling around my shoulder stopped me.

“Don’t,” he said, and I was too far removed to know if it was Henrik or Tenn.

For I was floating, hovering with my senses so raw there was a hum. A vibration in my ears and my skin felt like it would fly away. Nothing made sense until something hard hit me on my jaw. I fell back to earth with a pain exploding up my face and into my eyes.

I looked over to find Henrik gritting his teeth and shaking out his hand. “You stay the fuck away from her.”

“Come on, man. We have more important things to discuss like the safety of your wedding,” Tenn said turning to Henrik and pushing him back.

I got up and shook off the hit knowing I deserved it. I almost wanted to thank Henrik. That blow finally made everything so clear.

“You do need to talk about the wedding. You need to focus on your fiancée and your guests. Talk to Tenn to figure out if you can come up with a different venue. Don’t worry about me. You won’t be seeing me anymore,” I said and made my way up the alley, across the street, and toward the L-train to go home.

I was foolish to think that I deserved love. That I earned someone that was like a quake to my heart and shone brighter than any sun.

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