Page 173 of Hidden Ties

“That’s when I started pursuing you. You’re just as conscientious as Glenda. I had to give you a good enough reason towantto take off for the day.”

“Congratulations, you accomplished your mission. Are you finished? I only listened so you’ll leave me alone once I step out of this car. I don’t want your explanations. There isn’t one thing you can say to make me forgive you.”

She was right. No explanations from him were ever going to make her feel better or heal the breach between them.

“You have whatever file you wanted, which I assume is why Garrett stepped down. At least you let Livvy do that dirty work for you. From what I heard, she was much better fulfilling all your needs.”

Yeah, Sage wasn’t going to be forgiving him anytime soon, if ever. Still, despite that thought, she deserved an explanation.

“Garrett has been stealing from his clients for years. He was going to win the fraud case brought against him, and I couldn’t let that happen.”

“Are you trying to make yourself out to be the good guy?” Unable to help herself, she swung her gaze toward his.

“No, I’m not a good guy,” he admitted, finding it easier to talk when she wasn’t staring at him as if he were a slug.

He pulled into a parking spot in front of her building and cut the engine off. “What I am is a man who can save your life,” he said when she immediately reached for the door handle.

“You think I was so in love I can’t survive without you?” she scoffed at him. “You’re delusional if you believe that I can’t survive without you.” The contemptuous look she gave his crotch would have had him covering his dick self-consciously if he were a less confident man.

Not wanting to be drawn into an argument about his sexual performance, which he considered above par since she had never been with a man before, it was quicker to get to the point he had meant.

“Not without me, you won’t. Sage, Victoria Ashwood has put a contract out on your life.”

THIRTY-NINE

Closing her eyes tightly, Sage desperately wanted to pretend Kent hadn’t just told her that Victoria Ashwood wanted her dead badly enough to pay someone to kill her.

When she opened them, she didn’t doubt Kent was telling the truth. The memory of the car accelerating toward her yesterday was too fresh in her memory for her not to believe him.

“I’ll go to the police.”

“They’ll take a report, an officer will talk to you, and that will be the most they can do. You have no proof. I have no proof I can give you. Your sister and Victoria have been going back and forth for custody of your nieces. They’ll think you’re making it up to keep Victoria from seeing the girls.”

“How do you know Victoria has taken a contract out on me?”

“I’m used to working and dealing with the less law-abiding citizens in Kansas City. When you told me last night you were nearly hit on a crosswalk, I had a work associate of mine start asking around. He found out about the contract. He’s working on finding out who she hired. That’s going to take some time … time you and your sister don’t have.”

Where could she take Glory and the girls to hide? Even if she could think of a place, she didn’t have the money to move anywhere else. Their money was stretched so thin they were barely covering the basic necessities of life.

Kent shifted in his seat to face her; he was quietly giving her the time to take in that Glory’s mother-in-law wanted her dead.

Usually, she could come up with a plan to keep her family safe. She didn’t have to ask Kent why Victoria wanted her dead. She was the only person standing in her way of gaining full custody of Colby and Tinsley.

“I don’t know what to do.” As she thought out loud to herself, her hand moved away from the door handle.

“I do.”

“Like I’d take any advice from you!”

“You don’t have a choice. You’ll either accept my help, or you might as well pack Colby’s and Tinsley’s suitcases before you tell them goodbye.”

Imagining that scenario wasn’t hard to do—it was her worst fear.

Rather than getting out of the car and letting her anger toward Kent lead to another mistake she would regret—this time, a fatal mistake—she asked, “What should I do?”

“It’s not what youshoulddo.”

The hardened expression on his face frightened her. If she had been given the benefit of seeing Kent this scary before she had spilled his coffee on him, she would have run the other way.