My body tensed, and I took a step forward. I could see Mason through the sliver the open door provided. He sat up in bed, the glasses he wore to read perched lopsidedly on his nose.

“I just want to see what we’re dealing with, Dante. Know if more skeletons are going to jump out and surprise us.”

I’d thought I was hurting before. The knowledge that I wasn’t as important to Mason as I thought I was had cut. But that was nothing compared to this. Going behind my back, trying to get information on me… Ironically, information I’d been trying to give him if he would’ve simply called me back.

I stepped into the room, my gaze hot. Mason’s eyes flew to me. “I need to go. I’ll call you tomorrow.” He hung up, swinging his legs over the bed and standing. “Anna—”

“Don’t.” I held out a hand to keep him from coming any closer.

“It’s not what it sounded like.”

“So it wasn’t you asking a private investigator to look into me without asking me if that was okay?”

He ran a hand through his hair, giving the ends a firm tug. “I was going to tell you tonight. Juliette had some internet results about you, and I wanted to make sure more wouldn’t surface that could hurt the legal case.”

My jaw worked back and forth. I wanted to destroy every single internet search engine. “Did you ever once consider asking me if that was okay?”

“I only wanted to protect you.”

“Bullshit. You wanted to know things that I wasn’t ready to share yet. You wanted to open every dark closet I have without my permission. And you want to know what’s hilarious? I called you today to tell you that someone sent me a photo. That we might need to prepare for more coming to light. I treated you like we were on the same team. But you? You’re treating me like the enemy.”

“Anna.”

Mason’s voice was pained, but I forced down the flash of sympathy that flared to life. I met his gaze dead-on. “I trusted you. The thing that is hardest for me to do, and you shat all over that.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“No.” I held up a hand. “I don’t want any excuses. I can’t deal with this right now.” I started for the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to sleep in a guest room for a while. Unless you’d rather I get the kids and leave altogether. It’s clear you don’t trust me.”

“I do trust you.”

I stared at the man who’d just crushed me, not believing a word from his mouth. “No, you don’t.”

31

MASON

“What the hell happened to you?”