Encrypted (17 page)

“Hey, you can call his office and check
.
Tuesday afternoons,
3:00
p.m.”

Julia sounded as surprised as Ronnie by the news.

“You, you went into therapy?”
All the bitterness left Julia’s voice
.
“You went for
us
?”

Leaning forward in the bath, Ronnie held her breath
.
What was his answer going to be
?
But instead of Zach’s voice, she was greeted by a harsh disconnect sound.

“No!” Ronnie yelled as she desperately tried to reestablish the signal. Well
?
Did you
?
Did you go into therapy for Julia
?

But
,
no luck
.
The line was dead.

* * *

How much had Ronnie heard
?
Zach’s mind desperately tried to backtrack the last few minutes
’
exchange
.
His
heart sank
.
What must she be thinking?

“Well?” Julia asked
.
A mixture of fear, tenderness, and hope on her face
.
“Did you do it for us?”

Grinding his teeth, Zach realized
that
he owed
his
ex-
fiancé
e
the truth
.
Well, at least as much of the truth that didn’t land him in a federal penitentiary
.
“No, I did it for
me
.”

But he still saw in her face a glimmer of hope
.
A hope that
,
if he looked hard enough inside himself, he had perhaps encouraged
.
Lord knew
that
they’d done this song and dance often enough in the early days of their breakup
.

Zach
leveled his gaze at her
.
She needed
to
know
that
he meant each and every word
.
She had to hear him this time
.

“It’s
over
, Julia
.
I’m sorry
,
but you know it’s been over for a lot longer than a few weeks.”

Julia reached out and touched his arm as he moved
toward
the stairs. “But we could
—
”

“No,” he said as he removed her hand from his skin
.
“We can’t.”

Rapidly
,
he climbed the steps
.
He needed to get Julia out of
here
so
that
he could call Ronnie back
.
The hacker must be going berserk by now.

As soon as they hit the landing, Julia rushed to his side
.
“I think
—
”

“Julia!” That was too harsh, but damn it
,
how many times had they had this exact same conversation
?
The woman just wouldn’t take “no” for an answer
.
He tried to drop the harshness in his tone, but retain the unequivocal firmness
.
“And let’s be clear
—
you haven’t lived her
e
for almost nine months.”

He picked up the box from the hallway table
.
“So I think it
’
s about time
that
you put in an address change.”

Julia jerked the box from his grasp
.
“You know, you really are being a selfish asshole
!
”

Usually he would have risen to his own defense, but that just
led
to more argument
s
.
More time together
.
More time for her to convince him of the error of his ways
.
Why not just be honest for once?

“Yep
.
P
robably I am.”

Julia’s lip trembled as tears glistened in her eyes
.
Was she
finally
getting it
?

He tried to be
gentler
with this request
.
There was no need to hurt her much more than he already had
.
“And how about those keys?”

Blinking back tears, Julia slowly took the
front door key
off
the
ring. “I don’t understand what happened
.
Last year at this time
,
we were getting ready to marry
.
I just…I don’t understand.”

God
,
he felt like a jerk
—
what with her eyes swimming in a pool of pain
.
A pain he had created
.
But it was also a pain he couldn’t take away
.
He couldn’t turn back the clock
,
or
,
more accurately,
wouldn’t
turn
it
back
,
even if he could.

“I don’t understand it
,
really
,
either, but it has changed, and we both need to adjust.”

As she put the key
into his palm, she tried to hold his hand, but he purposefully pulled it out of her grasp
.
Julia searched his eyes one last time
.
But he knew the only thing she would find there was an urgency to have her out of the house
.
Finally
,
she gulped back a sob and fled out the front door.

A year ago
,
he would have run after her to comfort her
.
A month ago
,
he would have waited a few minutes
, and
then called her to make sure she was okay
.
A week ago
,
he would have called one of her friends to let
him or her
know
that
Julia would need some support.

Tonight
?
Tonight
,
he just threw the dead
bolt
and raced back down the stairs to the basement
.
A
nother woman needed him tonight
.

Within seconds
,
he fumbled
with the iPod, desperate to get Ronnie back on the line
.
Sammy Hagar sang in his ear as he scrolled through the menu
.
He hit the
“L
ook
U
p
”
option, but a message streamed across the screen.

“Unauthorized contact time
.
If this is an emergency
,
enter your override code…  And this better be life or death, dude.”

More classic Ronnie
.
Well
,
this
was
life or death
,
so he rapidly began inputting the code
.
Or at least
tried
to rapidly put it in
.
What in the hell was Darth Vad
e
r’s first name?

“Damn it, Ronnie
!
” he cursed as he searched his memory
.

Skywalker
.
Now
,
the last name would have been easy
.
Anakin
!
His thumb slid around the circular keypad effortlessly
.
The next
one,
he knew
.
Elvis Presley’s birthday
.
Ronnie knew his love for the King.
But what in the hell was Steven Spielberg’s first feature film?

* * *

Covered in a thick terry cloth robe, Ronnie watched as the second code was confirmed
.
Zach called
back
!
He hadn’t tumbled into bed with that over-plucked eyebrow wench
.
All was not lost
.
Maybe he could explain why Julia said she was still living there up to two
weeks ago rather than the nine
months ago Zach had told her
.
And what was up with the therapist ruse
,
anyway?

He missed the third code
.
Jaws
?
Was he crazy
?
You didn’t get the director’s gig to
Jaws
your first film out
.
While he tried again, Ronnie held her iPod in a death
grip
.
For the love of
G
od, the movie starred Goldie Hawn
!
How could he forget about
The
Sugarland Express
?

Ronnie knew she shouldn’t care this much
.
Zach was supposed to be a fantasy
.
And fantasies shouldn’t churn your gut like this
.
But
,
damn it
!
She had to know if he lied to her
.
Did he have that in him
?
Was he playing her
?
Just wait until she got him on the line!

But as he keyed in the correct code, she felt her throat constrict
.
Choking off with emotion
.
Was he calling back to give her the boot
?
Was he calling to apologize
?
What would she say
?
Could she even say anything
?

Come on, come on,
come
on
!

“Ronnie?” Zach asked as the connection completed.

After all that preparing, all Ronnie could squeak out was a weak, “Yeah
?
”

Luckily
,
he didn’t wait for her to continue
.
“Look, I didn’t want our conversation to end like…Well, like it did.”

Her words came out in a rush
,
along with all the worry
.
“You mean with the fiancé
e
you told me had been gone for over
nine
months
was really living with you up until a few weeks ago
—
interrupting the very first time
that
we’ve ever talked about meeting
for a
face-to-face conversation?”

“Yeah, the one that ended like that.”

Damn it, he still hadn’t given her any indication
of
what had happened
.
Where was his head
?
His heart
?

“First off, let me
be
very clear,” Zach finally said. “I broke off the engagement
nine
months ago.”

Again
,
her throat nearly shut itself off
.
Could it really be true
?

“Why?”

“You
know
why.”

A sniffle was her only response
.
Nine
months ago was the first time she had ever called him
.
Had
he
been telling the truth
,
or was Julia?

“Then why was she pretty adamant about only being gone for three weeks?”

“Look, having her move her stuff out had been like trying to get ticks off a good hunting dog.”

She didn’t think she loved him any
more than when he brought out those down
-
home homilies
.
“You couldn’t hide the fact
that
you are from the Mid
w
est if you tried, dude.”