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happen, and one day I’d realize it.” He
laughed bitterly. “She said I’d even thank her.”
    Oh,
crap. Lexis’s predictions were never wrong. That didn’t lessen the sting of the
here and now, though. I knew that well. Long ago, Lexis had dumped Rome because
she’d known deep down she wasn’t the woman of his heart, wasn’t his one and
only. She’d known he would stay with her anyway because he was the father of
their child. She’d known, and it had broken her. So she’d cut him loose. Just
like she’d cut Tanner loose.
    Was
Tanner destined to love someone else?
    Suddenly
I didn’t hate Lexis quite so much.
    She’d
told me once that she didn’t know if I was Rome’s one and only, either, that
she’d had a vision of that girl but had never seen her face. A lot of days I
could pretend that didn’t bother me. Most days, in fact. Sometimes in the early
morning, though, when I was alone in bed, too sleepy to block my fears, I would
wonder if some girl was out there, soon to meet Rome—soon to enthrall him,
steal his affections.
    But
then I would wake up and remind myself that Rome was not a man easily swayed.
He loved me. He wanted forever with me or he wouldn’t have asked me to marry
him.
    Tanner’s
eyelids cracked open, his features now covered with an expressionless mask, his
gaze empty and his jaw relaxed. “She also said her true love would be coming
back into her life.” His voice was devoid of emotion, as well.
    Okay.
I hated her again. Her true love? Her true love would be coming back to her? Last time I’d spoken with her, she had (mistakenly) thought her true
love was Rome. So what the hell had she meant by true love? There had
better be someone else she considered her true love, someone else from her
past, or I would extract her intestines and use them to choke her.
    A
knock sounded at the door.
    I
didn’t move, too keyed up from my rush of anger. Rome and Tanner were more
important to me than breathing, and that bitch had better—
    Another
knock, this one harder, more insistent.
    “You
should get that, ’cause damn,” Tanner said, “you’re about to light the house on
fire and I don’t need to add homelessness to my plate-o-shit. Besides, your
visitor might be John with the lowdown on Rome.”
    The
one thing sure to push me into action. My fury drained. “Don’t move. I’ll get
the 411, get rid of whoever it is—” hopefully without too much of an emotional
outburst, whatever the news, which had better be good “—and we’ll finish our
discussion. You matter to me, and we’re going to figure this thing with Lexis
out.” And then I’m going to hunt her down and demand some answers
Belle-style.
    Uh-oh.
There was my anger again.
    Tanner
shrugged, but I could see the spark of hope suddenly lighting his eyes. He
trusted me to help make things better, and that made me doubly determined to do
so.
    As
yet another knock echoed, I rushed to him and hugged him tight. Then I raced
out of the kitchen and past the still-entranced Sherridan, not stopping until I
reached the door.
    I
glanced through the peephole. The moment I saw who waited on the porch, my
hands curled into fists, plumes of dark smoke suddenly wafting from my nose.
Red dotted my vision like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Well, well, well.
    Speak
of the devil and she would appear.
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
     
    My
jaw was like stone as I punched in the security code to disable the alarm and opened the door.
    Lexis
stood before me, a vision of feminine beauty as always. Long dark hair,
straight as a pin. Hypnotic green eyes, pretty pink lips. Golden skin that
defined the word perfection. Sunlight bathed her, seeping from the sky
as if compelled to caress her.
    Behind
her, cars meandered through the pristine neighborhood. Birds chirped from the
blue sky and locusts rattled in a surprisingly sensual beat. Intense humidity
and heat wafted my way. I, of course, began to sweat like a construction worker
while Lexis continued to