Leave Me Love (Call Me Cat Trilogy #2)(6)

"That's my cabin. I haven't gone there since…" His eyes welled, and he cleared his throat.

"Sorry," I said.

"Don't be. You lost more than me, dear girl." He tasted his tea. "We used to go out there a lot, for research, for… other things. It was a long time ago." His eyes lacked focus as he lost himself in the past.

"Thank you for these." I put them back in the envelope. "Ash showed me a note he found recently, a note my mom left him. She wanted to meet him, before her death. Do you have any idea why?"

"No," he mumbled, lifting his tea to hide his face.

"Professor?"

He shifted uncomfortably in his desk. Then lowered the tea. "I shouldn't be telling you this. I could get into a lot of trouble if anyone found out."

"Please, it's important." My heart thumped in my chest as I waited.

"You should ask Ash."

"I'm asking you."

"Catelyn, your mother, Alice, before she went private, she was a damn good DA."

"Yes, I know."

"When Ash was fifteen, he was arrested."

"I knew he had some trouble with the law when he was young."

Cavin leaned forward. "Your mom was the prosecuting attorney on his case. She put him away."





Chapter Four


Secrets and Betrayals


I USED THE walk back to my dorm to clear my head. Or at least I tried. My mind spun with questions about Ash. My gut trusted him. He'd saved my life. He'd saved my best friend's life. But there always seemed to be too many secrets hanging between us, creating a wall that felt impossible to penetrate.

Part of me wanted to walk away from him entirely, to avoid the drama and inevitable heartbreak that would come from loving a man like him. But that part did not have majority sway over my heart, mind or body, and so I clung to the idea of me and him, the idea of us, forever. Naive? Maybe. It didn't matter. I'd given myself to him and nothing I said to myself now could undo that.

Beads of sweat dotted my face by the time I made it back to my dorm. I should have stayed in bed and rested like I'd been told. The strain of that walk—how could a walk be so hard?—took its toll, and I collapsed into my bed shaking and short of breath.

When my cell phone rang, I wanted to ignore it, but when I saw the number I picked it up. "Hello?"

I could sense Donna from The Pleasure Palace smiling through the phone. "Cat, it's good to hear your voice. We've missed you. Is everything okay?"

I filled her in on the drama of the last two weeks.

"Oh, God, Cat, I'm so sorry. I figured something must have been wrong, but this… I'm so sorry."

Bridgette opened the door and threw her purse on her desk. "Catelyn, I—" She noticed the phone and sat down on the bed, biting her lip, hands folded on her lap.

I spoke back to Donna. "I hope I still have a job?"

Bridgette frowned. I ignored her.

"Of course. When would you like to start back?" Donna asked.

"How about tomorrow night? I just got back from the hospital…"

"Yes. You should rest." She hesitated. "Are you sure you'll be ready?" She sounded concerned, and I didn't blame her.

"I need to be. I've lost too much time already."

We hung up.

Bridgette verbally pounced. "Catelyn, you cannot go back to that job!"

"Brig, nothing has changed. I still need the money and nothing else is available."

She tossed a blond lock of hair over her shoulder, her ice blue eyes narrowed in critical judgment. "You're dating a billionaire."

Seriously? "It's his money, not mine."

"You think he's going to be okay with you getting other guys off every night?"

I worried about this too. Maybe we could talk about it… but Bridgette was being such a bitch. "He'll have to be okay until I can find something else."

"You're going to blow it with the best thing that's ever happened to you." Her voice escalated with each word.

I wanted to pace the room, but my legs still wobbled, so I sat up and glared at her. "You seem awfully emotionally invested in my love life, Brig."

She stood, clutching her purse. "At least one of us is. Don't blow it, Catelyn. A guy like him isn't going to come around again."

She slammed the door behind her as she left and I sank into my bed, holding back tears of exhaustion and frustration. I hated fighting with Brig and hated knowing a similar fight was in store with Ash. I didn't blame either of them. If roles were reversed, I wouldn't want Ash doing this job while dating me—but he'd have to understand, because I didn't know another way.

My head hurt, and I eyed the prescription pain medication on my nightstand, trying to decide if I should take one or tough it out. After an hour of tossing and turning, fighting the pounding in my head and buzzing in my ears, I caved and took a pill, then propped myself up with pillows and powered up my laptop.

Google had to know something about Ash's early criminal history. Such a high profile family couldn't have kept it out of the news.

I searched every variation of Ash's name, dates, family, everything I could think of, but learned nothing new. That first arrest happened when he was younger, so it was possible that without the prevalence of social media it had been keep quiet.