He flinched away from my touch, and I dropped my hand.

“You don’t need my help,” he said. “You’re clearly on your own level.”

I retreated an inch. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you were able to navigate the dark web without an assist. Keep this site buried. And manage to know so many things…”

Each word stung my insides. “Why are you so upset with me?” I asked, tears building, but I held them back.

“I asked you who you thought was behind it. You kept this from me—”

“This was part of a challenge!” I cut him off. “I had to keep it from you. And it was my way of riling up Tanner and helping people who need it.”

He scoffed at me. “Helping?” He rolled his eyes before focusing the sharp gaze on me. “Right,” he said. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You have no idea.”

I sucked in a stuttered breath.

“Was last night research?”

I snapped my eyes to him. “What?”

“Last night? With me. Was it just research for your next blog?”

The accusation hit me in the center of my chest. “What? No! How could you think that?”

How could he say that?

A vibration in my pocket said someone was calling me, but I didn’t care.

“I don’t know what to think anymore, Amber.”

The way he said my name, hard and cold—so drastically different than the way he normally purred Pixie—broke something inside of me. I swiped at the few tears that had leaked past my defenses. My cell buzzed in my pocket again, but I ignored it.

“Last night was…” I drew a breath. “It was about me loving you. About me wanting to willingly give you a piece of me I’d never given anyone before. It was about trusting you. Dean, I gave you all of me.”

A flurry of emotion churned in those blue-gray eyes—hope, love, anger, betrayal—then they glittered for a second before he dropped a wall over them.

“Amber—”

“Damn it,” I snapped, jerking out my phone that buzzed for the third time. Set to turn it off, I froze when I saw the screen. Four missed calls from Mom. Before I could blink, she was calling again. Flashes of tragedy—my dad in an accident?—had me swiping to answer. “Mom, is everything okay? I’m in the middle of something.” I stared at Dean while I spoke, his statue-like stance softening as he waited.

“Dad and I are fine,” she said, and I sighed so hard I slumped against Dean’s closed door.

“Great,” I said. “I’ll call you back in a little bit. I’m—”