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He’d lied to me. He had every opportunity yesterday while we were rafting to come clean or even the previous day.
No, instead, he’d kept his dirty little secret.
“Everything okay?” Jaxson asked. He unlocked his truck, and I stepped around to the passenger side while he climbed in behind the wheel.
“Just peachy.”
He laughed under his breath. “Gosh, you should like my daughter.”
“You have a kid?” Was Ariella the mother? That made sense, why they might have lived together.
He smiled tightlipped, not answering my question. He seemed protective of his daughter. That wasn’t such a bad trait.
Sighing, I glanced back at the studio as Jaxson pulled out of the parking lot. There was no sign of Lincoln. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Shoot,” Jaxson said.
Had it been a coincidence that Lincoln had found me at the coffee shop earlier that morning? “If you had to find someone and track them down, how do you go about doing it?”
Jaxson turned the radio down and shifted in the driver’s seat.
He glanced at me, eyebrow raised. He didn’t answer my question.
“Hypothetically?”
Silence filled the truck.
“If you’re wondering how Lincoln knew you were at the river, we traced your cell phone location.”
It hadn’t even occurred to me to ditch my phone.
I wouldn’t make that same mistake.
* * *
I headed into the spa and made a reservation for a massage. I had twenty minutes until my appointment.
Glancing at my watch, I dug my phone out of my pocket and tossed it into the nearby trash. “Track me now,” I muttered to myself.
Lincoln knew where I was, but he wouldn’t know when I left or where I went afterward.
I doubted the production would continue. With the director pissed and threatening to contact the studio, I would be fired by morning.
I refused to grovel or beg for his forgiveness. He was the reason the studio forced a bodyguard on me, insisting that I couldn’t be trusted. I didn’t need protection. I wasn’t helpless or a damsel in distress, damnit!
While I’d made mistakes and done things that I shouldn’t have, on those rare occasions, I’d been drugged or coerced.
The sins of the past followed me like a shadow that I was unable to escape.
“Harper?”
“Ariella?” Hazel stood beside her. “I thought you both had spa appointments?” Were they done already?
“Our appointments got pushed back when we ran late this morning. They were really nice, giving us a later time. What are you doing here?” Ariella asked. “Did you decide to join us for a girl’s day?”
I definitely needed to unwind. “Yes, you could say that.”
“Do you want me to try to book us all together?” Ariella asked.