Page 50 of Harnessed in Gold

“You can take your protection and shove it up your ass!” I whip around and yank repeatedly on the locked door handle, like if I just pull hard enough it’ll magically open.

Leo gently shoulders me aside and hits the button on his key fob. I don’t look at him as I throw myself into the passenger seat, blinking and wiping under my eyes with my thumb. By the time he slides into the driver’s side, I’ve collected myself.

In a voice laced with disgust, I say, “She put you in charge of me.”

“Who?”

I gape at him, disbelieving. “Jean. She said you’d tell me whatever it was she—” I make angry air quotes, “‘felt in my blood.’” When I’m ready, no less. Like he has the authority to determine when that is.

Like he owns me.

I hide my shaking hands under my folded arms. “I’m not some tool you keep safe in a drawer and only take out when you need to use it.”

“Is that what you think?” He sounds more concerned than offended.

“Did you or did you not give Rime instructions on how to protect me at the river?”

“Of course I did.”

“I’m not an Ikea bookshelf!”

He looks at me, eyes blank and brow dipped. Guess he’s not familiar with assemble-yourself furniture.

I try to explain, but what comes out of my mouth surprises even me. “The only reason you talked to me that night at O-Chi was because I could see you. Because you needed another psychic for your little team. It didn’t matter who I was as long as I was useful.” And, fool that I was, I thought he was flirting. I thought he was interested inme.

His eyes flash. “How can you think that? Betts—if I’d had any common sense, I would’ve chosen someone else.” His hands are balled tight, like he’s trying to contain fistfuls of frustration. “I tried. I said to myself, ‘she’s a bad idea,’ but it didn’t matter—because I couldn’t stop searching that crowd foryou.”

That party was five months ago, but the memories are so clear, it may as well have been last night. The crowd parted, and there he was, elbow on the counter, warm gaze on me.

He heaves a sigh. “I went back the next week just to see you again, because I couldn’t get you out of my head.”

I open my mouth to object, but he rushes to add, “And not because I thought you might be psychic. I would’ve talked to you, regardless. You fascinated me from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

I watch him through brimming tears as he grips the top of the steering wheel and stares out the windshield, arms stiff and hands clenching.

“I don’t know what to do anymore. I’m just making one mistake after the next. I’m sorry that I dragged you into this. Into any of it. I should’ve left you alone?—”

“You fucked up my whole life,” I sob. But I’m not angry; I’m scared. “You took me away from Zander and my friends, from everything that ever made any sense!”

“Is that what you want? To go back to Zander?”

“No! But—” But what?

I let Leo in and he wrecked me, that’s what.

I feel his gaze on me, getting hotter and hotter as he waits for my answer.

“I trusted you, and you lied to me,” I whisper, lips trembling. “You were going to just throw me away, like you didn’t even care.”

“Betts, no—” Leo’s low groan fills the car. “I do care. You don’t even know how much.”

“Then how could you do that? How could you sleep with me when you knew everything I believed about you was a lie?”

“Look at me?—”

I continue to stare down at my hands, twisting and wringing them in my lap.

“Betts, please?—”