So Toxic(Bad Boy Next Door Book 4)(62)

I take a deep, calming breath.

I have this. This is my job.

New beginning. New beginning. New. Beginning.




I gently turn the lock on the bathroom door.

Maybe Ty’s gone. Then I can get my shit and get out. He doesn’t even have to know.

I peek around the door.

Tyson sits at the end of the bed, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

He looks up, and our gazes meet. His gray eyes are red-rimmed.

My heartbeat slows and I’m rooted to the floor.

Fuck. He’s been crying over Caden.

Instead of doing what I really want, which is to go to him, hold him, and make him feel better, I drag the suitcase from my closet into the room and toss it onto the bed.

Ty’s brows knit. “Where are you going?”

With a one-shoulder shrug, I say, “Stevie’s.”

“No, you aren’t. You belong here.” He stands, taking the handle of the bag.

I push every ounce of strength I have into my voice. “Tyson Masters, you put that back this instant.”

He stops at the door to the bathroom and drops the case. “I’m going to get Caden, and then I’ll need you here. This isn’t over.”

“It has to be.” I push my hair behind my ears. “For me, anyway.”

It’s the only way I’ll survive Tyson Masters.

I yank the blankets off the bed. “The deal was that I’d marry you and take care of Caden until I got a job.”

“Did they offer you that job in Virginia?”

I bite my lip and busy myself with gathering the dirty sheets into the laundry basket.

“Ha! They didn’t,” he says.

I toss all the little things from my night table into the small bag that matches my hijacked suitcase. “Not yet. But they will. I know it.”

His gaze doesn’t leave me. “I can’t believe you’d renege on your promise to help me.”

I take the case at his feet, pulling out its telescoping handle. “I’m leaving, Tyson. Let it alone, okay?”

He paces as I check beneath the bed and around the room for anything I can’t live without for a few days.

“I can’t just let you walk out, JoJo.” He stops in front of me, his bare chest tempting me to lay my head against it—to hear his strong heartbeat one last time.

“I’m sorry.” I shoulder my small bag and purse. “I can’t stay. Not now.”

He follows me out of the room, his voice rising, “Why the hell not?”

I don’t slow as I make my escape down the hallway. “You’re a good guy. I really believe you are—deep down. You’ve not lied to me, so I’m not pissed at you. You’ve never pretended that this relationship is more than it is. I can’t say that you led me on.”

“So why are you leaving?”

“You don’t need me anymore, and you don’t really want me. When you said you did this all for nothing, I was included in that. The only reason you want me to stay is that, at this very moment, you feel like you’ve lost too much.”

“You know I didn’t mean it that way.”

I hurry from the house to my car. He’s on my heels every step of the way.

“It doesn’t matter.” I open the back door and toss the cases inside. “I have to choose me.”

I slam the door and reach to open mine, but Tyson moves into my path.

“Explain that. Because the Jo I know wouldn’t walk out on her obligations.” He takes my hand.

I lower my gaze as my throat thickens. “No one has ever chosen me—not in the end. No one. Not any of my foster families. Not you.”

“I did choose you though. I married you.”

My chest tightens. “You married a means to an end, Tyson. You didn’t choose me. Like I said, no one chooses me. So, now, I have to choose myself. It’s simple self-preservation.”

He grips my hand a little harder.

The prickling of tears bites at the backs of my eyes, as I take him in. His hair is still mussed from this morning. His eyes plead with me to change my mind.

“Look. I don’t blame you. This one is on me.”

Still, he hangs on.

I’m left with no other choice.

I turn my head to swallow as I steel myself to do the unthinkable.

My heavy heart makes it hard to take the breath I need. Finally, I say the one thing I know that will make him back off—the unvarnished truth. “I did the stupidest thing. I went and fell in love with you, Tyson Masters.”

In a heartbeat, a change comes over him and his eyes transform from pleading to panicked. “Oh.”

He lets go.

And part of my soul quietly dies.





TWENTY





The rear end of Jo’s car has been out of sight for five full minutes. But I’m still here, like a God-damned idiot, waiting for her to turn around and come back to me.