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She dropped her face into her hands "Oh God I did overreact"

Bethany slid her hand over Josie’s back

"I should have confronted him, absolutely, but I completely overreacted I shouldn’t have done what I did Now he’s going to be so pissed at me, and I don’t blame him!"

"He won’t be pissed, Josie," Mia said softly "He’ll just be glad to have you back"

She shook her head miserably "It’s worse than what you think He said" She sighed "He said he loved me and I threw it back at his Like that I couldn’t trust that he wasn’t saying it to manipulate me"

"Was it the first tiently

Josie nodded

"Then it’s understandable that you would have reacted the way you did," Mia said "Do you love him?"

"Oh yeah," Josie breathed "Completely and utterly in love with him"

Bethany beamed "There You love each other You can work this out He’ll forgive you and you’ll forgive him"

"You make it sound so easy," Josie muttered "I was such a hysterical twit I can’t believe I s I said I wish there was a Rewind button and I had it to do all over again"

"Love isn’t perfect," Mia said "We’ve all made mistakes Gabe, Jace, me, Bethany And now you and Ash It’s not supposed to be perfect It’s what you make it And you can make it really special, Josie Go and talk to hiive hiht"

Soht lifted off Josie’s shoulders Hope crept in and with it the realization that this wasn’t the end Nothing Ash had done was unforgiveable She’d make mistakes There was no doubt she would But she absolutely believed that Ash would be a lotof her uys," she said, so home, take a shower and call Ash and hope he’s not too pissed to listen to ize"

Mia so We’ll drop you back by your apartment"

Josie shook her head "Thanks, but I’ll walk I need soet this just right"

"You sure?" Bethany asked

"Yeah, I’ive me the chance to work up my nerve to call him"

"Okay, but you have to swear to text oes!" Mia deain Thisto kick his ass e’ve only known each other a short tirinned "What are friends for?"

Josie rose, hugged both of the woot things worked out with Ash Then she walked out with theot into the car and waved as they pulled away

Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she started walking in the direction of her aparthts were a ind, but excitelooive her and that he really did love her

The walk took longer than she’d thought and by the ti slept the night before and she was iet inside, take a shower and call Ash

She cursed the fact that she’d left her cell phone in her living room She could have already read her texts and listened to her voice ood idea of Ash’sto hi when she realized she otten to lock it on her way out But then the last thing on her mind hadn’t been whether she locked up or not She really needed to be more careful Of course if she and Ash reconciled, she wouldn’t have to worry about that because he always made certain she was protected For that h she’d left him But then she hadn’t noticed her two shadohen she returned to her apartiven up?

A frown tugged at her lips as she pushed inside, closing and locking the door behind her Therooht when she saw three rinized two of them from before What she’d assumed were Ash’s men For her protection In that instant, she knew she was terribly wrong These men weren’t here to protect her at all

Before she could react, oneher pathway to the door Not that she would have had time to escape anyway since she’d locked her door on the way in

"Miss Carlysle," one of the men said in a tone that sent shivers down her skin "There’s a e I want you to deliver to Gabe Hamilton, Jace Crestwell and Ash McIntyre"

Before she could deet the hell out of her aparth her body She lay sprawled on the floor, utterly bewildered

And then pain More pain, agonizing, splintering through her body as they meted out violence Blood smeared her nose She could taste it in her ht It hurt tooto die

That thought hit her and, oddly, she didn’t fight it because it

Then it went silent A hand dug into her hair and yanked her head painfully upward A man leaned into her face, his nose just inches fro they hold dear is safe froret the day they ever fucked with me They ruined me And by God, I’ll ruin the into her hand and then dropped her head back onto the floor Pain shot down her spine She heard footsteps and then her door opening And then it closing

A lohiet to her cell phone and call hi would be all right if she could just get to her phone

She tried to push herself up and shrieked in agony when she put weight on her right hand She stared down at it, her vision fuzzy, one eye nearly swollen shut What rong with her hand?

Using her elbow to prop herself up, she dragged herself toward the coffee table where she’d left her phone She reached up for it, knocking it onto the floor and then praying she hadn’t broken it

With her left hand she fu up her contacts Then she changed her mind and hit recent calls because his would have been the last She hit his name and with a whispered prayer as she waited for him to answer

Chapter thirty-one

Ash sat in on the staffwith Gabe and their executives, but his over froht before Gabe and Jace had poured hiht him ho feeling like he’d been run over by a truck, but the pain of the headache was nothing co Josie

No, he hadn’t lost her Not yet He wouldn’t let hiiven her last night Tiot over her initial anger that this was soh

At any rate, he’d given her all the ti ended, he was out of here He was going to Josie’s apartet on his knees if he had to Whatever it took to get her back home To their apart to let her go again

His phone vibrated and he glanced down, his heart clenching when he saas Josie calling Without saying a word, he abruptly got up and walked out of the , the phone already to his ear

"Josie? Baby?" he cut in before she could even say anything