CHAPTER 15
CAMILA
The first thing I noticed was just how large Luna really was.
Somehow, Luna’s size had never really registered, or even mattered to me until the moment I saw she was on top of a person on the floor.
And that person was Jason.
He was flat on his back with a hundred pounds of Great Pyrenees pinning him to the doormat, Luna’s enormous white head approximately level with his face, her growl a low continuous sound that vibrated through the whole front of the shop.
Jason’s arms were slightly raised, communicating non-aggression.
He looked miserable, a complete contrast from the self-assured asshole who was fucking another woman on our third anniversary.
His eyes found mine across the shop.
“Camila.” His voice was careful, and controlled. He seemed to be trying very hard not to make any sudden movements. “Could you please — the dog—”
I looked at Luna.
Luna looked back at me briefly, then returned her attention to the man beneath her with renewed professional focus.
I said nothing.
“Camila.” He tried again. “Please.”
I crossed my arms and stayed where I was.
A year ago I stood in a dim corridor outside a stateroom door and listened to my name in his mouth and kept walking. A year ago I watched explicit videos of my husband fulfilling his twisted sexual fantasies on the phone of his lover.
He deserved this. He deserved not one, but a whole pack of Wild Pyrenesses keeping him pinned to the floor, and deciding what they wanted to do with him.
Seeing Jason on that floor didn’t just make me angry. It just made me want to instruct Luna to shred him into pieces.
I was no longer the meek wife he left on the cruise. I was vicious now, and I’d make sure Jason knew it.
I was not going to call off the dog.
“Camila.” His voice changed. “Please. I’m not here to — I just need you to hear one thing. One thing I should have told you before we even got married. Please.”
“I have nothing to hear from you, Jason. Leave before you become minced meat. Get up, and get out. You don’t need to explain anything.”
“I do.” He was still flat on the floor, Luna’s paw on his sternum. “What I did was devastating. I know that. I destroyed your trust completely and I have no defense for it. But there was a reason — and that reason is far from what you think, and I need you to hear it.
“You don’t need me to do anything. Now, scurry away, I don’t want to ever see you again.”
I turned away, leaving him still pinned under Luna. She had never bit anyone, and for some weird reason I hoped she changed her mind about that.
I went back to the display table and picked up the stack of books I’d been arranging, and started placing them on the shelf with the methodical focus I’d spent a year developing.
Behind me, Luna kept growling.
“Camila, please hear me out. You’re …you’re in danger.”
I reached up and turned the music louder.
I crossed to the coffee machine and began the opening sequence — water reservoir, filter, grounds. The familiar routine of it helped. I focused on the smell of the coffee, the sound of the water beginning to heat.
Then I heard a shriek.
Audrey.
I turned around.
She had come through the back door from the café side and had apparently registered the situation in approximately one second — large man on the floor of her bookshop, large dog on large man — and had drawn her conclusions.
She was hitting Jason with her sandal with a committed energy, and Jason had both arms up trying to deflect the blows while Luna continued her ground-level supervision.
“Who—” thwack “—do you—” thwack “—think you are—”
“Please stop, please stop—”
I loved it. For some reason, something deep in my chest fluttered. He was finally getting what he deserved. I could have stopped Audrey right away. Told her he was my ex-husband.
But I didn’t.
To my surprise, Jason caught Audrey’s sandals mid-whack. “Camila, are you going to tell her who I am?”
“I couldn’t be bothered to.” I said.
Jason looked at Audrey. “I’m Camila’s ex-husband.”
She looked at him with enormous interest. Then she looked at me.
“Should I keep going then?”
Jason made a small, involuntary sound.
“No,” I said. “Let him up.”