“I was an FBI agent. Three years ago, your father was a suspect. I was asked to talk to you and find out if you knew anything. When we met, I was undercover, posing as a software developer for a firm that was a front for the mob. Right after we broke up, I exposed the operation and then had to go into hiding along with other witnesses from the company, until the trial was over. There were some nasty mob players involved. I broke up with you because I needed you guys to be safe. Not because I didn’t love you. After the trial was over a few weeks ago I quit the FBI so I could be with you and Haley.”
She blinked at him, trying to absorb it all. How the hell could someone be that good at lying? She’d lived with him twenty-four seven. “So that first night, at the talk I was giving, your ‘assignment’ was to chat me up? Flirt with me, and get information out of me?”
He slowly nodded. “Yes. But as soon as we started talking I knew there was something special about you and I wanted to know—”
“Wait.” Meg held up a hand to cut him off. “So you had a file on me? Knew what I liked to do, what I did for a living, that kind of thing? So all that instant connection I was feeling with you was because you already knew everything about me? You were using that knowledge to trick me into giving you information about my father? I should’ve known you were too good to be true.” Tears burned the back of her eyes. She’d fallen for him the first night because of a fake connection. It’d all been a ploy.
She was an idiot. Josh was no different from every other guy who’d hurt her.
“Meg, listen—”
She poked him in the chest. “So how many other women have you charmed into bed with that trick? Did you get any of them pregnant and then leave them too?” A thought sent a hard punch to Meg’s gut. “For God’s sake, please don’t tell me you’re married!”
“No. I’m not married.” Josh closed his eyes and ran his hand down his face. “And I don’t have any other children. After I joined the agency, I never slept with anyone who wasn’t a fellow agent. Until you.”
“Yeah, about that! Why did that woman think your name was Sam? You obviously slept with her too. Who are you lying to, Josh? Her or me?”
“The only person at the agency who knew my real name was my boss, Watts, the man you saw inside. Everyone else knew me as Sam Coulter. Call the FBI’s main number and ask for Watts. He’ll answer any questions you have.”
Meg crossed her arms, swallowing back her angry tears. “Why bother? He’ll probably just lie to me too. So was any of what you told me about your past even real?”
“Most of it.”
“So you went to college, but didn’t work as a programmer? You joined the FBI when you graduated?”
“Yeah. My specialty was extracting the truth from all levels of scumbags. I’m good at knowing when people are lying. I was so immersed in that filth I had no outside life and was losing it. I needed a break. That’s why they assigned me to this case.”
“So did you . . . torture people to get the truth?” She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know, but needed to ask.
“Not physically. But psychologically . . . yeah.” He looked away.
She didn’t know him at all. “I don’t understand why you couldn’t have just said something like ‘I work for the government and can’t discuss it, but I need to leave for your safety.’ I believed all your other lies. I certainly would have believed that statement too!”
He shook his head. “Undercover doesn’t work that way, Meg. An innocent slipup on your part could endanger others’ lives. It’s a strict no-tell policy we all live by.”
“So, when you asked me to move in with you, it was just for the case? To make it easier to check up on me, or to see if I talk in my sleep?”
“No. I asked you to move in because I fell in love with you.”
She stared into his eyes, searching for the truth—but that was pointless. The man lied so well it’d do no good. “How could you sleep with me again, knowing you’d be sending my father to jail soon, Josh? He and I have our differences, but he’s still the man who raised me. As someone who grew up with no family, maybe you can’t understand, but that’s a deeper betrayal than even all the lies you’ve told me. Pack your things and leave.”
When she turned to walk away, he said softly, “That’s not entirely true, Meg.”
She stopped walking, but wouldn’t look him in the eye. She couldn’t. It hurt too much. “Then what is?”
“I’m not the one sending your dad to jail. I told Watts I couldn’t investigate your father the night I met you. I have no idea what they have on him. I haven’t wanted to know. If you’d like me to find out, I’ll do anything I can to help.”