Page 84 of Captured Immune

“Wow.” He chuckles under his breath. “That’s ironic.”

“How so?”

“Water is my weakness. It’s ironic that you, my only other weakness, would imagine it drenching me as protection.”

“I’myour weakness?”

His expression falters like he’s baffled over how I didn’t already know that. “Of course. I’d do anything for you.”

No one’s ever said those words to me before—and with such conviction. A light fluttery tingle fills my belly. I push it away because I can’t let his charm put me under his spell again.

“Where are we?” I ask as an attempt to change the subject. All I’ve seen for the last however long we’ve been airborne is trees. Not a single house or road in sight.

“We’re currently flying over the Sequoia National Forest.”

“Where are we going?”

Trey lifts a hand, making our tire fly higher into the air. “We’re gonna do this until the sun rises. Then we’ll have to find a different mode of transportation.”

“You mean, like, theOrdinarykind?”

“Yeah, that.”

My stomach twists into knots as the question I’ve been wanting to ask him for days slithers into my head. I swallow hard as I gather the courage to make the words leave my mouth. “Was it all a lie?”

Trey’s gaze locks with mine as his lips part. Something in his eyes dies a little as he sucks in a pained breath. “Arella, I?—”

“Was my flat tire an accident?”

The way his face drops makes me wish I wouldn’t have asked. For a while there, through that brokenness in his eyes and the sorrow in his voice, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to pretend like he merely got caught up in this mess too, like he wasn’t part of a grander scheme from the start. Like it was onlyafterwe started dating that his uncle saw an opportunity and took it.

Trey hangs his head low. “No, it wasn’t an accident.”

My heart shatters to pieces. How could I be with a man for three whole months and not realize he was pretending the entire time? I’m impressed. His acting skills are top-notch. He should win an award for those amazing performances he put on. Everything from prancing around the grass with that invisible woman to making me think he was in love with me too. He even had Javina fooled, and barely anything gets past that woman.

How long did he know of me before pursuing me to find out the source of my immunity? How did he even know I was immune in the first place? Was he stalking me? If so, for how long? And why did he have to pop my tire? Was he trying to make me feel helpless so he could swoop in and play the hero? I almost laugh. It worked, so I guess it wasn’t that terrible of a plan.

God, I feel so stupid!I allowed him to spin a web of lies right in front of me, and I walked straight into it—willingly. He made me believe he actually wanted me. I should have known that a man as rich and as gorgeous as him wouldn’t pursue me of his own accord. Of course he had an ulterior motive.

Oh, god...and I slept with him! Worse, I was going to have his baby. I saw the rest of my life with this guy. I wanted him there when I opened my first bakery. I wanted to be with him as he toured the world with his band. I can’t believe I thought all those things could happen when, this whole time, he was just using me.

My nose stings as I hold back tears. I want to slap him and curl into him at the same time. I hate that he’s the one who hurt me but is also the only person I want to hold me until the pain goes away.Was any of it real?

Trey scowls at me. “Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“You look like you’re questioning everything I’ve ever done or said to you. Arella, I need you to know that it may have started off as a way to get information from you, but that’s not how it ended. I realized halfway through that I’d fallen in?—”

“Tell me,” I say, cutting him off because I don’t want to hear him finish the rest of that lie. I fold my arms over my chest. My hand hits the T-shirt tied around my left arm, and it irritates my wound, but I don’t care. The pain that shoots up my shoulder and down my arm is nothing compared to the agony throbbing in my chest. “Tell me everything, and don’t leave anything out.”

“Okay,” he says so calmly, it only pisses me off more. “Where would you like me to start?”

“From the beginning! Where else?”

“Well, there’s the beginning from when I met you and the beginning from when my parents died.”

I squint at him. “What do your parents have to do with you manipulating your way into my life?”

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