Cut Too Deep(49)

“I’m sorry I forgot to lock the door,” he said. “I’ll lock it now, so no one else is getting in, okay?”

She nodded. “You believe me, though, don’t you? You believe me when I say someone was there.”

She sensed him nod. “Yeah, sure, I believe you.”

But somehow she couldn’t quite bring herself to believe him.





Chapter Eighteen





After the night’s disturbances, Jenna woke late again. Automatically, she reached out to Ryker’s side of the bed, but the space was empty, though still warm.

She sat up and stretched, wondering where he’d gone—the bathroom, or perhaps to make breakfast? But then she heard the muffled tones of two voices and she froze, her ears straining. The voices sounded hushed, but urgent, and both definitely male. Was Ryker fighting with Mikey again? But no, the other voice was not that of a teenage boy, but the deeper, gruffer timbre of a grown man.

She slipped her legs out of bed. She still wore the t-shirt and sweat pants she’d put on during the night, as she hadn’t felt secure enough to sleep naked again. She snuck out of the bedroom and out onto the landing, stopping at the top of the stairs. From here, she could see the front door was ajar, with Ryker’s body blocking the majority of it. She felt bad for eavesdropping, but something about their tone told her it was a conversation she needed to hear.

The other man’s voice came, “I don’t care, Ryker. You haven’t been in to work for days now, and I turn up this morning and you’re still not in.”

Ryker’s tone was curt. “I’m allowed to have a few days off. It was the weekend, after all.”

“Your father wouldn’t have wanted you to let the business go to ruin just because of some girl you’ve picked up.”

Ryker scoffed. “It’s hardly going to go to ruin because I take a few days off. Some people do have vacations, you know.”

“Not you. I’ve never known you take a single day off since your dad died.”

Jenna realized who the other male voice belonged to. Though she’d only heard him speak a handful of times, the things he was saying pointed toward the other man being Sam, the guy who worked for Ryker at the garage.

Ryker spoke again. “Yeah, well, maybe this is a good thing. He wouldn’t have wanted me to spend my life working away in a dark garage. He’d have wanted me to have something to care about.”

“Maybe, but he also would have wanted you to put your brother first. If you’re not in work, you’re not earning, and you have Mikey to look after as well. Plus there are jobs waiting for you. Those parts you ordered for the girl’s car came in on Friday, and since it didn’t look like you were planning on using them any time soon, I installed them for you. The car’s been sitting there ready and waiting to go all weekend while you’ve been here playing happy families.”

Jenna’s heart leaped in her chest. Her mind swam, unsure if she’d misunderstood. The parts had come in already? Days ago, in fact? Could he be talking about someone else’s car?

But the way Ryker dropped the level of his voice even further and stepped out of the doorway to pull the door shut behind him a little more, she knew with absolute certainty that what Sam had said was the truth. Ryker had been lying to her all along. She sank down onto the top stair, trembling. He was a liar, and she’d trusted him. What else had he lied about? Had he been the one to go through her things? Would he even have gone as far as trying to frighten her to get her to stay?

“Well, I’m heading back to work now,” said Sam, his voice muffled. “I hope I’ll see you there, sooner rather than later.”

She covered her face with her hands and tried to stifle the sob that wanted to burst from her mouth. She didn’t want to believe it, but though her mind argued with her that it might have been another girl’s car that needed parts, she knew it wasn’t. Every time she’d asked him about the car being ready, he’d not been able to meet her eye and had quickly changed the subject. He’d been feeling guilty then, but she’d been too blind to figure it out.

Well, if her car was ready, she had no reason to stay. Especially not now. She’d told herself she would need to leave as soon as she had the means to, and now she did. She couldn’t stay here with someone capable of lying to her and manipulating her. She’d known in her heart that staying was impossible anyway. At least now she had even more of a reason to leave.

Jenna pressed her lips together and squared her jaw, forcing herself to harden her heart. She couldn’t be with a man who lied to her, not after Garrett. She needed to be with someone she could trust.