Page 52 of Undoing His Innocent Enemy (Hot Winter Escapes)

The exhaustion and sadness clamped down on her heart, making her feel even more alone, and far away from Logan. As if she’d travelled a million miles today, instead of under a hundred.

She would never be able to go back to him now.

Why hadn’t she tried harder to win his trust? Before she had betrayed it so comprehensively?

The story broke in the Finnish press the next morning, and had been splashed all over the Internet by lunchtime. By nightfall, the hotel in Saariselkä had been besieged by photographers and reporters and celebrity journalists from all over the globe, trying to get an interview or even a glimpse of the woman who had been ‘trapped in Colton’s love nest’ or ‘kidnapped by a reclusive billionaire’ or ‘the first clue in decades to a billionaire enigma’ depending on your news source of choice.

The whole thing felt unreal to Cara. Only twenty-four hours ago she’d been in Logan’s arms. And now it felt as if her life had become disconnected from reality, because she was sleepwalking through a nightmare she couldn’t escape.

Knowing that she was the focus of a media storm—that she couldn’t even leave the hotel—was only one aspect of the nightmare though. Because her appearance from nowhere, after two weeks in the wilderness, had triggered a hunt for the location of Logan’s home.

He’d managed to stay safe from scrutiny by keeping under the radar. There had been whispers that he was living in Finland, but nothing concrete, and she knew what lengths he’d gone to, to keep it that way. Now she had effectively outed him by default, she knew he would not be able to stay hidden for much longer—without hiring an army to protect himself, and that would defeat the purpose because he would no longer have his solitude.

She felt sick to her stomach, had been unable to eat or sleep for twenty-four hours. But even so, she had refused to talk to the police. Logan had done nothing wrong, and neither had she, so she owed them no more of an explanation than she owed the press.

Eventually the police had left.

Her brother Kieran, however, had been far more persistent.

‘Why won’t you talk to me, Car?’ he said, stalking across the suite she had been given by the hotel for her own protection.

‘Ifhe didn’t hurt you,’ Kieran added, raking his hair with impatient fingers, ‘ifhe didn’t kidnap you, why won’t you tell me what happened while you were with him?’

She’d told him nothing, she hadn’t even mentioned Logan’s name, but that hadn’t stopped Kieran from jumping to all sorts of ludicrous notions.

‘I’m not talking about it, Kieran, because it’s none of your business. Nor is it anyone else’s. It’s private.’

‘He’s one of the richest men in the US. ColtonCorp has been aFortune 500company for two generations. If he exploited you, we should demand compensation. Damages.’

She jumped up from her seat by the window, where she had been watching the press horde amassing all day. ‘We’ll demand nothing from him. He owes me nothing. He saved my life, so I’ll not be paying him back by suing him,’ she cried out.

‘So youwerewith him. The reporter had the right of it.’ Kieran’s eyes narrowed.

Her bastard brother had tricked her into admitting the truth.

She slumped back in the armchair. Defeated. ‘If you say his name to anyone, Kieran, I’ll murder you,’ she hissed, but she could hear the weary resignation in her own voice.

Enough to know it was an empty threat. She was too tired, too devastated to do anything.

He knelt down beside her armchair, rested his hands on the arms of the chair. ‘Just tell me, Cara, did he hurt you?’

She shook her head, wiped away a tear. A pointless, self-pitying tear. ‘No. He saved me, I told you.’

‘Then why are you crying?’ he asked, his voice gentle now, coaxing and full of the concern that made her feel like a little girl again, after being called names by their da.

Kieran had always been the one to come and tell her it meant nothing. To hold her and keep her safe. But as she turned to him, wanting to be held, to be reassured, she knew the only person who could do that now was Logan.

And he would never want to see her again. Not when the swarms of reporters and photographers found his home—which was surely only a matter of time.

‘Because I love him, and I’ve destroyed his life,’ she said simply.

She would have to leave Finland. The longer she stayed here, the more the story would grow. She’d had a lot of lucrative offers to buy her photographs, but she knew every one of them had nothing to do with the quality of her work and everything to do with her new-found celebrity—which meant she couldn’t and wouldn’t accept any of them.

By leaving Logan, she had destroyed the career she had been so determined to save. It would be ironic, if it weren’t so pathetic.

‘Hey, sis,’ Kieran murmured, pulling her into his arms and holding her as the sobs began to rack her body. The sobs she’d held in ever since the long drive back to Saariselkä. ‘Don’t take on so. None of this is your fault.’

Except it was her fault. She’d been a coward, scared to trust her love. Scared to give them a chance, scared to believe Logan could change, if she gave him time. And now he never would.

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