Page 2 of Fast Fury

A woman stood between her and the elevators. Disheveled. Wearing pale gray sweats, her dark hair hanging lank around her shoulders. She was visibly distressed, wringing her hands.

The way she stared at Abby sent a cold shiver up her spine. Wary, Abby started to take a step back.

“Hey,” the woman said softly in greeting.

Abby froze, shock blasting through her as recognition hit. Holy hell, it was Shelley, Kai’s drama-queen ex-girlfriend. Abby’s gaze raked over her from head to toe and back again, hardly able to believe what she was seeing.

Shelley had already been thin before, but now she’d lost so much weight that she looked ill, the sweats hanging from her tiny frame. Her gorgeous dark brown hair lay lank and oily-looking around her slumped shoulders, her face pale and without a hint of the perfect, sophisticated makeup she always wore. A shocking change from the polished, supermodel image Abby was used to.

Shelley wrapped her arms around her ribs, the picture of utter misery. “Have you seen Kai?”

It took a second for Abby to get over her shock enough to find her voice. “No.”

“Do you know where he is?”

Abby shook her head. “No, I don’t.” Truth. She hadn’t been to Kai’s new place, didn’t even have his address. “He moved out weeks ago.”

Shelley’s face fell. “Do you have his number? I’ve tried calling him so many times. He must have blocked me.”

You think? After how you treated him?He’d gotten a new phone and number after the security leak, but Abby wasn’t going to tell her that. “Sorry.”

When it was clear Abby wasn’t going to be forthcoming with any help where Kai was concerned, Shelley made a distressed sound and dragged her hands through her hair, grabbing handfuls of it at the roots, almost as if she was ready to rip it out of her scalp. Then her dark blue gaze locked on Abby and the pure, wretched grief reflected there was so real that Abby couldn’t look away. Whatever Shelley’s insecurity issues were about, she was in a hell of a lot of emotional pain right now. Adding to her misery would be cruel.

“You don’t know what he’s like,” Shelley rasped out a moment later, tears gleaming in her eyes. “What it’s like to be with him. He’sruinedme for anyone else.” She paused, a sob jerking her too-thin shoulders. “I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. How am I supposed to get over him? Be without him for the rest of my life?”

Maybe you shoulda thought of that before you ranted and raved and pushed him away with your constant suspicion and insecurity?

Shelley looked so distraught, Abby didn’t have the heart to say it aloud, even if it was true. The shocking transformation in the wealthy, high-power ad executive was enough to ignite a spark of sympathy in the hardest heart, and Abby’s wasn’t nearly as hard as she wanted people to think.

“I’m sorry,” she said, meaning it. She might not like Shelley, but seeing her suffer like this was awful.

Shelley sagged, her face crumpling as she dissolved into tears she had valiantly tried to fight. “I need to see him. I can’t go on like this, I…” She sucked in a shuddering breath, wiped at her face before meeting Abby’s gaze once more, her desperation so strong Abby could all but smell it. “If you see or hear from him, will you tell him I miss him, and that I’m sorry? I want to tell him in person so badly.”

Not a chance in hell.As far as Abby was concerned, Shelley didn’t deserve Kai. And Kai sure as hell didn’t deserve the woman’s constant sniping and insecure jealousy.

Abby wasn’t going to open herself up to more of this kind of thing in the future, if Shelley and Kai got back together again. Because if they did, they would absolutely break up again, and probably within a week or two.

Abby sighed. She might have judged Kai for staying in such a turbulent relationship for so long, except that would make her the worst kind of hypocrite. She had the real-life equivalent of a PhD in dysfunctional relationships. It had taken her a damn long time to extricate herself from her previous disaster, so she was in no position to throw stones. “Sure,” she finally muttered.

Those devastated blue eyes held hers for a long moment, as though Shelley was trying to determine whether the offer was sincere or not. Then she nodded once in acknowledgment. “Thank you. I won’t bother you again.” She turned and began walking away, arms wrapped around her ribs, shoulders slumped.

Then her words registered. Wait,again? “Have you been following me?” she called out.

Shelley stopped and looked back at her in confusion. “What?”

The puzzlement seemed genuine. Abby pressed, wanting an answer. “You didn’t follow me in my car on the way here?”

Her dark eyebrows pulled together in a frown, and there was a hint of hurt on her face now. As if she couldn’t believe Abby would think such a thing of her. “No. I was already here waiting when you pulled in.”

Damn, Abby hadn’t even noticed her, she’d been too busy looking over her shoulder and talking to Cindy.

Shelley turned around and walked away.

Abby stayed put until she disappeared from view, the woman’s light footsteps fading on the concrete ramp that led to street level. Glancing around the garage once to make sure she really was alone, Abby rushed for the elevator.

Up in the safety of her apartment with the door locked, she hurried past Kai’s pet Siamese fighting fish, Goliath, swimming alone in his tricked-out tank next to the window. While she and Kai had lived across the hall from one another she’d looked after his fish and grabbed his mail for him whenever he was away, because Kai had considered her more dependable than Shelley. She’d agreed to keep Goliath here until Kai got back from this latest work trip.

At the front window she pulled the blind aside, spotted Shelley climbing into her white Lexus at the curb. Abby made note of the model, squinted to see the license plate clearly and mumbled it to herself to memorize it.

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