Free Stolen: A Novel of Romantic Suspense by Shiloh Walker Page B

book, Shay. Whatever your problems are, they aren’t my problems, and trust me, mine are pretty fucking bad.”
    She watched as the inner pages curled and turned black, catching fire one by one. “Doesn’t life just suck, Elliot?” Bitterness crept into her voice and she couldn’t hold it back. “It’s ironic, you know. You kept talking to me about trust. You said it was okay to reach out, to need somebody. I did it. I tried to trust you. I needed to talk to you and you wouldn’t spare me five minutes. You go deal with your problems … and have a nice day. I’ll get your book to you when I can.”
    Without wasting any more time, she disconnected and dropped the phone onto the floor. One by one, she fed the books to the fire until they were all gone, saving nothing but the signed title pages.
    By the time it was done, she had more than twenty sheets of paper at her side.
    And the phone had rung six times.
    An empty ache settled in the middle of his chest.
I tried to trust you—
    Shit
. This was just
insane
. He didn’t need to be trying to think through the complication of an ended relationship when he had a woman out to ruin his life. That was what he tried to tell himself. Yet the ache in his chest wasn’t going away.
    “Is she bringing the book back?” Lorna asked.
    “No.” He dialed her number again, but he wasn’t surprised when she didn’t answer.
Damn it, Shay
. The words burned on his tongue, but he wasn’t frustrated over the damned book. He just … hell.
Pick up the phone
.
    It rang four times and rolled over to voice mail. She was pissed off and ignoring him now.
Damn it. I tried …
    How many times had he hoped she’d reached out to him? But
fuck
, this was insane. If she was Shane Neil, then why the hell hadn’t she said—
    A hand smacked him across the side of his head. Shooting Lorna a dark look, he hung up the phone. “Watch it,” he warned her. He just wasn’t in the mood for any of this bullshit now.
    “Stop drifting off into la-la land.” Hands fisted on her hips, she glared at him. “Exactly
why
won’t she bring the book back?”
    “Because she’s pissed off at me,” he growled, shoving out from behind the desk. He started to pace.
    “That doesn’t sound like Shay.”
    No. It didn’t. He’d seen her sad. He’d seen those solemn smiles on her face and after a few months, he’d slowly worked around to where he’d brought her to a slow, surprised arousal. But she rarely got angry.
    Damn it, none of this made sense. It was as if he were trying to jam a giant, uneven square peg into a neat little round hole.
    Why would Shay lie about this?
    That was the first thing that didn’t make sense.
    There was just no
reason
for her to lie. If she really was Shane Neil, though, why hadn’t she said anything about it
way
before now? Why drop this bomb on him now?
    Because until now, there was no reason for her to
.
Except for the fact that we were seeing each other … and it would have been kind of cool to know …
    Stopping in midpace, he turned around and eyed Lorna, debating about sharing that little kicker with her.
    You know your friend? That one I was so fucking crazy about? The one that I thought was
the
one … well, she’s claiming to be a writer—one of my favorites, no less
.
    Yeah, that all sounded like bullshit.
    Especially the bit about how he’d
thought
she was the one.
    She
was
the one for him. It just didn’t seem as though he was the one for her.
    And none of this was solving the current problem, that ugly, weighty one that was getting heavier all the time.
    The phone rang and he jumped on it, hoping it was Shay.
    “Hey there, man.”
    Recognizing Mike’s voice, he sighed. Mike, Lorna’s boyfriend, was not the person he wanted to talk to. “Hey, Mike. Hold on a minute. Lorna’s right here.”
    “No. I’m calling to talk to you. I … ah. Well, I had a call from Deloris Golden about something she saw online. She just thought …” Mike