Page 97 of Stolen Temptation

His defensive posture warns me to drop this line of inquiry, but now I need to know what happened with Rory’s only long-term relationship.

Unable to help myself, I press. “What do you mean? How long were you together?”

The way Rory’s gaze darkens grips me on the inside. I know this is going to be bad. “Alayna and I were together for almost a year. She moved in with me after three months, and I planned to marry her, even though no one else in my life was convinced we were endgame. Including her.”

“She didn’t want to get married?” I adjust my position on the couch so I’m just a tiny bit closer to him.

The tendons in his neck flex. “I never got a chance to ask. Before I got around to it, I learned that our initial meeting wasn’t random like I thought, but a setup.”

“A setup?” My eyes widen as I attempt to put two and two together. “Does that mean…”

“Alayna was a spy. She engineered our first encounter in my favorite coffee shop. I believed she ran into me and spilled herlatte all over my shirt by accident, but she planned the whole thing.”

Shit.My stomach drops. I can’t imagine how betrayed he must have felt once he found out.

Also, what a witch. How could she treat Rory that way?

Soon, questions start to explode in my mind like popcorn kernels, one after the other. Is that why Rory runs so hot and cold? And why he seems so suspicious of me sometimes? A deception like that from the person you hope to spend your whole life with would shred anyone’s ability to trust.

“How did you find out?” I whisper.

“I didn’t. Finn did.” Rory’s gaze falls to his lap. “It was a crazy time for the family, and I was working around the clock. I didn’t have much time to spend with her, and she took advantage of that by snooping through all my papers and my laptop. From there, she grew bolder. Finn caught her in Shane’s office, rifling through files in the cabinet she pried open. We were all supposed to be away from the estate that night, but he forgot a contract he needed and returned home to grab it.”

Ouch. “He must have been so pissed. I bet he felt terrible breaking the news.”

His laugh is bitter. “He did, and I made it worse because I refused to believe him at first. Not until I reviewed the video footage and saw for myself.” He shakes his head in disgust. “Some IT guy I was. I trusted her so much that I didn’t even try to hide the screen whenever I’d type in my password.”

Sadness seizes me. “You loved her. Of course you’d never believe that she would betray you like that. Who was she working for?”

“A less powerful rival from New Jersey that had aspirations of taking our spot.”

I’m almost afraid to ask the next question, but I can’t stop myself. “What…happened to her?”

Rory’s expression darkens. “Do you really need to ask? There’s no room for traitors in our family.”

I gulp. Why do I feel like he aimed that last comment at me? “Did you try to save her?” I whisper.

His jaw clenches, and an alarming blankness descends over his eyes. “Who do you think had to take care of the problem, Kiara? I brought her into our family, our estate, despite numerous warnings from my friends, Finn in particular. So it was my responsibility to step up when she was outed. After we extracted as much information as we could, Finn took pity on me and offered to end it, but I refused.” Rory dispenses the words slowly as if dragging the story from a rusty, locked vault in his mind. “Sometimes, I still hear her pleas in my nightmares.”

His voice trails off like he’s haunted.

Of course he is. He had to kill his girlfriend, the woman he loved, because she was a spy.

A shudder racks my body. Part of me wants to wrap my arms around him and soothe his pain. The other part wants to retreat to a safe distance away.

“I was such a dumbass back then.” Rory drops his head back once more, his eyes fixed on the high ceiling above us. “If I hadn’t been… If I’d just listened to someone instead of proceeding blindly ahead, maybe I could have saved her. But I was young and foolish, certain I was right and everyone else was wrong.”

My heart aches for him, and the part of me yearning to offer comfort seizes the reins. “Rory, you can’t blame yourself. Like you said, you were young, and you loved her. And as awful as the outcome was, she must have understood the risks going into it. Even people with no interaction with families like yours know that you don’t screw over the mafia without dire consequences.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t change the outcome. I put my family at riskandcost a woman her life. I’m lucky she hadn’t found enough yet to completely fuck us over. If it wasn’t for Finn, who knows what would have happened?”

And I bet Finn never forgot either.

His gaze falls on me. “Whatever you do, don’t lie to me, Kiara.”

I nod and blink away the sting of tears. That was Rory’s serious relationship? I can’t imagine what going through something like that does to a person.

Uneasiness prickles my neck. Only a fool would miss the parallels between that situation and mine. Of course, IknowI’m not a spy, but no one else does. What if Rory refuses to believe me? Or Finn?