Yael crossed her arms over her chest. “I only put it out that night.”

And it being stolen had probably reinforced all her beliefs that keeping her past hidden was the right thing to do.

“If he hadn’t figured out who you were before that night all he had to do was run facial recognition on that image and he’d get about a million hits,” said Alex.

She nodded.

Ashley looked annoyed. Alex shrugged. Shane wished to hell Yael had trusted him enough to share this with him.

“Let’s gear up,” Shane told them, making sure to keep his tone neutral. They started gathering the equipment they were going to need when they hit the ground.

“Was this the real reason you decided we were over?” asked Shane under his breath as he leaned down beside her.

Her fingers trembled as she stuffed various power bricks and a second laptop into a bag. “That and the fact the good people of this town put me on trial as an accessory to mass murder. I guess they didn’t trust me either.”

He flinched. Jesus. His suspicion was the worst possible thing he could have done to her.

“Do a Google search. The internet is full of bullshit conspiracy theories where I somehow instigated the whole thing and got away with it.” Her eyes filled with tears but she blinked them away. She always did.

“You lost your parents…” He was struggling to understand.

She zipped her laptop bag and grabbed her coat, swinging it over her shoulders. “Apparently that was part of my wicked plan.” She sent him a defiant look. “I inherited a lot of cash and was the beneficiary of two large life insurance policies when my parents died. The companies tried their best to make sure they never had to pay out.”

“Time to strap in,” warned Alex.

“You could have told me,” Shane said quietly, sitting in the nearest seat.

“It doesn’t change anything.”

“Like fuck it doesn’t. You could have trusted me,” he reiterated.

“The same way you trusted me?” She refused to meet his gaze and he burned to make her understand that things were different now. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll be moving on when this is over. Some people will make sure of it.”

He blinked in surprise. “You’re going to run away from it your whole life?”

“What do you care? The sex was great but right from the start you told me you weren’t interested in relationships.”

“I told you at the lake—”

“We’d just had the best sex of our lives at the lake and you felt guilty as hell for lying to me,” she whispered fiercely.