Page 64 of Stolen

“What?”

“He bought it for me. It’s something I saw when we were in Grand Cayman.” I tried to shrug off the conversation. “But that’s not what matters right now?—”

“That sounds really thoughtful.”

“Are we seriously talking about Keith right now? He doesn’t matter, Jacob!” I didn’t mean to raise my voice, but I felt like I was at my limit. “He also bought me a condo in Paris that I’m never going to go to because I don’t care about him like that anymore! I don’t want anything to do with him.”

“He bought you a fucking condo in Paris?” Jacob seemed pissed, his demeanor shifting from comforting to adversarial. “What the fuck is wrong with him?”

“He also did some research on you.”

“What?” Jacob went completely still. “What kind of research?”

“He was trying to find some dirt on you,” I replied. “Anything to try and put a wedge between us. But he couldn’t find anything. Except for stuff you already told me, like the way you are with relationships.”

“The way I am with relationships?”

“Non-committal. Keeping things casual and then moving on.”

“It’s just easier.” Jacob looked away from me for a moment. “Makes it so things are less messy. Makes everything so much less complicated.”

“Is that what we are? Complicated?” I asked, my voice shaking. “Too complicated for anything that isn’t just fooling around where no one can see?”

“Leo, that’s not?—”

“I don’t want to talk about this right now.” I held up a hand, practically begging him to let me change the conversation. “I need to figure out what we’re going to do about getting planes out of here.”

“Leo—”

“Please. Just. Let me figure this out.” I shifted away from him on the bed. “If I can’t figure this out, everything’s completely fucked.”

Jacob nodded in understanding before he moved away from the bed now, too. A few seconds later, and he was closing my bedroom door behind him, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Leaving me to figure out how to fix all the things it felt like I’d just broken.

16

JACOB

Fuck.

I felt like I’d somehow fucked everything up.

All I’d wanted to do was comfort Leo and try to make him feel better in the middle of what was turning into a disaster. I knew it was important for him to make sure everyone was able to get home on time, but I just didn’t know what could be done about it. I also had no idea how to respond when he’d put me on the spot about my past relationships, almost like he’d wanted me to apologize for them or something.

But I didn’t feel like I needed to apologize for my past, especially when I’d always been upfront with previous partners about how I felt about relationships. I never led anybody on, never misguided anyone. And yet, I felt like I was on trial for something I didn’t even know had been wrong.

Because Leo didn’t want me to be the one comforting him. He didn’t want me anywhere near him, at all.

A tennis bracelet. A condo in Paris.

I was walking toward Keith’s room before I even knew where I was going, something boiling inside my veins. He needed to back the fuck off Leo, and he also needed to back the fuck off me.It pissed me off beyond belief that he’d tried to investigate my background, as if he genuinely expected to find anything. Even if he had, he had no right to go spreading that information around.

Even if there were huge mistakes in my past, it wasn’t Keith’s job to make them known to the fucking world.

“Jacob?” Keith pulled open his bedroom door, a smile already on his face. “Perfect. Just the man I wanted to see. Come in.”

“Why? So, you can just kill me and get it over with?”

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