Page 12 of Critical Mass
“Who are you?” She took a step backward, her mind scrambling to make sense of this. “Who are youreally?”
He held up his hands, a placating gesture that only made her more anxious. “I can explain?—”
“Explain what? That everything between us has been a lie?” Her voice rose again, but she couldn’t control it. “That the cooking class was a setup? That you never actually liked indie films or butter pecan ice cream? That every single thing you told me about yourself was made up?”
“Not everything was a lie.” He moved toward her, but she backed away, her heel catching on a piece of broken concrete. He stopped immediately. “What I felt for you—what Ifeelfor you—that’s real.”
“How can I believe anything you say?” The tears now fell hot against her cold cheeks. “You’ve been lying to me since the day we met. About your name, and probably everything else. Who’s to say you won’t lie about this too?”
The distant sound of a boat motor drifted across the water, and Timothy—Hudson—whoever he was—tensed. He scanned the darkness beyond the marina.
“We can’t talk here,” he said, urgency entering his tone. “It’s not safe. Please, Natalie. Let me take you somewhere we can talk properly. Somewhere secure.”
“Secure?” A hysterical laugh bubbled up in her throat. “Why would we need somewhere secure? What kind of consulting requires security, Timothy? Or Hudson? Or whatever your name actually is?”
He was quiet a long moment, and in the flickering light of the security lamp, she saw the conflict playing out across his features.
“I don’t work in consulting,” he finally said. “I work for a private security organization. And right now, you might be in danger.”
The word “danger” seemed to echo across the empty marina, bouncing off the water and the abandoned boats.
Natalie wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly freezing despite the mild temperature.
She was completely alone with a man who’d been lying to her for months, at an isolated marina where no one would hear her scream.
And he’d just admitted he wasn’t at all who he’d claimed to be.
She should run. Every instinct she had screamed at her to get back in her car and drive away as fast as possible.
But she stayed rooted to the spot because, despite everything—despite the lies and the fear and the impossible situation she’d stumbled into—part of her still wanted to believe that what she and Hudson had together meant something.
“Tell me the truth.” Her voice sounded steadier than she felt. “All of it. No more lies, no more half-truths. If you ever cared about me at all, you owe me that much.”
Hudson—she couldn’t think of him as Timothy anymore—looked at her with an expression that might have been regret or resignation or both.
“You’re right,” he said. “You deserve the truth. But not here. Please, Natalie. Trust me one more time. Let me take you somewhere safe, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Trust him?After everything, he was asking her totrust him?
She glanced back toward her car, hidden in the shadows behind the trees.
She could still leave. She could still pretend this night had never happened, go back to her regular life, and forget about the man with two names and too many secrets.
But she’d come too far for that.
She needed answers, even if those answers destroyed everything she thought she knew.
CHAPTER
SIX
The hurtin Natalie’s eyes felt like a knife to Hudson’s chest.
Three months of carefully constructed lies had created this moment—the moment when she looked at him like he was a stranger.
Like he was the enemy.
And he couldn’t even blame Natalie for her anger.
