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Jacqueline rolled her eyes. “Of course I have. I found her online the day you told me about her.”

Maybe he should have expected this, but after two years with zero contact…assuming she had moved on was only natural, wasn’t it? “You wasted your time. Knowing who I’m dating isn’t going to win you anything. Now go.”

“You’re not going to be with her, Ryker.”

“That’s not up to you.”

She darted in close and hissed up at him, directly in his face. “I’ll take that little girl apart.”

“You’ll stay away from her.”

“You don’t even know the things I could tell her about you. Things no woman should ever put up with, that I put up with for almost a year.”

She was goading him. It was obvious. It wasn’t even a convincing attack. Yet deep in his chest, one of the calloused scars tore and bled a little. His heart throbbed with an extra beat that hurt.

Her eyes threw pink sparks. She’d heard that heartbeat too. “Find a reason to break it off now, before I have to tell her your secrets. And if you think she won’t believe me…” Her teeth flashed in the night. “She will.”

“Stay away from her, Jacqueline.”

With a slow smirk, she said, “That’s not up to you.”

Then she was gone. Darted off into the darkness, down the street, her scent out of range within seconds.

Ryker stood staring after her for too long. He tried to think, but Jacqueline’s presence had frozen his brain. He went inside to the den, his favorite room in the house. He sank down on the couch and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Stared down at its dark face. He was fine, right? Long over her. So why did he feel the need to talk to someone right now?

Of course he would tell Leslie about Jacqueline. He didn’t expect her to take it badly. He simply didn’t want to talk about Jacqueline to anyone, for any reason, ever again. For her to show up now, on the first weekend Leslie had come to visit him… It felt like a mean coincidence from the universe, but of course this was Jacqueline, not the universe.

Well, he didn’t have to let her win. He would tell Leslie the whole story later, when she was back in Tennessee. He would preserve his time with her this weekend and keep Jacqueline out of it.

He got up and got ready for bed. In a few minutes he was nestled snugly under his covers, eyes closed. He tried to quiethimself. He focused on the beats of his heart, which were down to a regular thirty beats per minute.

Minutes ticked by.

His eyes shot open. He hissed at the monochrome of night. He hissed at himself for being awake.

An hour after cocooning beneath his comforter, Ryker shot up and landed on his feet beside the bed. He would never sleep at this rate. He’d arrive at the gym tomorrow worn out and lose every match to Tai.

Should he call Tai?

No. He didn’t need to talk about this. He didn’twantto talk about this.

Across the house, his phone buzzed with an incoming text. He darted to it in two seconds and scooped it up.

Claire:Hey, I know this is going to sound a little weird coming out of nowhere, but are you okay?

Ryker tapped out a reply and sent it before he could talk himself out of it.

I’m fine, but I think I need to talk through something. Can I call you?

Within a few seconds, his phone buzzed in his hand. He accepted the call and set the phone back on the coffee table.

“Thanks,” he said.

“You’re not fine,” Claire said.

He paced back and forth in front of the coffee table. “No, I am, but I… When I got home from dropping Leslie at my parents’ house, Jacqueline was on my front porch waiting for me.”

Claire’s hiss came with force.