“How the fuck did he know I didn’t stay in New York?” I bark, making her flinch.
“I don’t know,” she whines. “Please pull it out.”
Blake removes the needle, and Cindy sags into the chair, softly crying. I start to pace. How in the fuck did he know I didn’t leave? Was he …？
“He was watching me,” Blake speaks.
I come to a stop. “What do you mean? What makes you think that?”
She puts the cap on the needle. “That night at the house of Lords party—in your room—he told me that the weekend you came home early when you were supposed to be in New York, you had blocked my incoming calls and texts from Sarah so I wouldn’t go to the house of Lords.” Her eyes meet mine. “What if he was watching me and saw you come back and bring me here?”
My hands fist at the thought of him watching her. I came home to surprise her with her fantasy but what if I hadn’t come back? What would he have done?
“We had sex outside. In the woods,” Blake announces nervously. “You had texted me to come find you and—”
“What are you talking about?” I interrupt her.
She looks at Cindy who still quietly cries, and then back to me. “When I called you. You lied and said you had to run into Barrington.”
“The part about me texting you,” I snap.
Swallowing, she repeats. “You sent me a text after the phone call. Told me to come find you.”
“Blake.” I storm over to her. “No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did!” she argues.
“Show me,” I snap.
Sighing, she points at the stairs. “My phone is in the bedroom.”
BLAKELY
HOW COULD HE forget that text?
“We’ll go get it,” he growls, grabbing my hand and yanking me toward the stairs.
“It was me,” cries Cindy’s soft voice.
“What?” Ryat shouts, making her flinch.
She looks up at us through her watery lashes. “It was me. Matt was using my cell phone. He texted you. He told me that Ryat had blocked his number from Blakely’s. His calls and texts weren’t going through, so he asked to use my phone. I didn’t know at the time what he was going to say to you.”
“No.” I shake my head, refusing to believe that. “It was Ryat.”
“What was the number?” he demands, turning to face me.
“It was …” My heart hammers in my chest when I trail off.
“What was it, Blake?” he snaps. Gripping both of my shoulders, he glares down at me.
“It was a blocked number,” I whisper.
“Son of a bitch!” he shouts, stepping away from me. “Why in the fuck would you think that was me?”
“Who else would it have been?” I ask, licking my lips. “You had sent me that picture of myself in the library before.” Shrugging, I add, “You said you were gone, but I saw your SUV in the driveway. Then when I went to look for you out in the woods and saw you were standing on the porch.” I know that was Ryat. He was the one who fucked me and carried me inside the house. He had removed his mask, and we took a shower. Why would I have questioned the text? “I thought you were playing around.”
“Motherfucker!” he shouts and turns to Cindy.
She cowers in her chair, dropping her face. He grips her chin and forces her head back, making her whimper. “You knew he was here …”
“No,” she cries, tears running down her face. “He asked to use my phone at the house of Lords party that night. I asked if I could go with him, and he said no, that he’d be out late but would give me my phone back in the morning.”
His grip tightens, and she sniffs.
“When he gave it back to me, I looked and saw who he had messaged. There was also a video…”
“What the fuck was on the video, Cindy?” he demands.
With her head tilted back at an odd angle, she manages to try to look at me, and he shouts in her face. “Answer me!”
“A video … of you two having sex in the woods.” She sobs.
He shoves her face away and walks over to the table, where he places both of his hands on it and bows his head. His white T-shirt pulls tight across his broad shoulders and back, showing me his taut muscles.
I stay frozen where I’m at, trying to understand what she’s saying. Matt watched us have sex that night in the woods, but what if he saw more? Was he sitting in the parking lot of my apartment complex when Ryat showed up and kidnapped me? He had to have been, right? Otherwise, how would he know where the cabin is? If so, does he have a video of that?