Page 58 of Lethal Threat

My voice rises and cracks. “You lied to…to me?”

“Yes, I lied.”

His eyes are so intense, I have to fight the urge to look away. But I don’t. I’m frozen.

It hurts deep in the pit of my body.

Not engaged…

I swallow as I try to make sense of this insane twist. “We’re a couple, but just not engaged?—”

He cuts me off. “Not exactly.”

My brows go up dangerously high on my forehead. Any second my eyes are going to fall from my face.

Surely this isn’t happening. I’m going to wake up.

“I’m sorry,” he says in a low rasp.

Something hard feels lodged behind my breastbone, like a rock under a board. The tingling in my hands is now a buzz. There’s a hum in my ears that sounds like bees.

Questions tumble out of my mouth. “Why am I here and why would you lie for me?”

“Sierra, I’ll always do whatever it takes to make you safe. Cade called me and told me about your amnesia. There wasn’t anyone else who could look out for you. I came to the hospital as quickly as I could and did what I had to do. And… here we are.”

I swallow twice and my hands curl around the seat of the chair. Everything inside of me feels weird, like I’ve downed a gallon of ice water.

Christ.

A lie.

“We’re not engaged. We’re not a couple,” I repeat the bitter truth aloud just so I can hear it.

My words sting me all over again.

Cole leans back with a hard exhale and rubs his hands over his thighs. His jaw ticks. His shoulders are brittle. He looks like a man on the brink.

But I’m on the brink too and I’m not done. “I feel you when you look at me. My body has such a reaction to you.”

His eyes don’t leave mine. His voice is measured. “We have a past.”

The tiniest hint of relief edges into my chest.

So, we do have a past.

He’s not just somefriendwho whisked me away to a cabin in the snowy mountains of Utah.

But I can’t remember that past. At all. “Let me see if I understand this correctly. We have a past. But we’re not a couple now. But you care enough to fly across the country, retrieve me and bring me to your home.”

“Correct.”

Jesus. Why can’t this be simple? I press my fingers to both of my temples. “My head is killing me.”

Cole stands up and lifts the container of chili off the table. “I’ll heat this up and make some cornbread to go with it. Why don’t you take a bath or something?”

Right. Like he’s just shutting this down. Not hardly.

He’s not getting rid of me that easy. I stand up and move to block his path. “Why did we break up?”