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was sensitive from where they’d touched. She felt him watching every step she took, but no footsteps came after her.
    She was grateful for the reprieve.
    She had too many things on her mind right now, too many problems with which she had to deal. Her father had given her the boot. Her family was looking down their noses at her, while thousands of strangers were looking up with awe, disgust or even lust. Yet things between her and Cameron Rowe had just changed.
    And that might be more than she could handle.
    Bad to worse was right.

Chapter Three
    Lexie got in her car and started driving. As much as she wanted to floor the accelerator, she couldn’t let herself. The last thing she needed right now was to run over someone. Besides, this was something she could control. She could tell her car how fast to go, when to turn and where to stop. She wouldn’t let it go topsy-turvy or upside down.
    Like her morning had just gone.
    Her fingers began to cramp around the steering wheel. Flexing them, she looked both ways before exiting the parking ramp. She felt like she’d been sandblasted, numb to her surroundings yet overly raw at the same time. The sun was too bright as it came through the windshield, yet the air blowing from the vents didn’t seem to touch her skin.
    A red light told her to brake. Why not? She was in no hurry. Like she’d told Rowe, she didn’t know where she was going or what she was going to do. Yet when her car pointed towards the freeway, she knew that had been a bald-faced lie.
    She had to see it.
    She had to see that billboard for herself, live and uncensored. Up close, it couldn’t look that much like her. The newspaper print had given an optical illusion. She was not displayed larger than life looking like that.
    Fortunately, morning rush hour was over and downtown traffic was light. She took the nearest on-ramp to the freeway. Cobalt City was a town of halves. Developed around the Cobalt River, the waterway served as both a physical and socioeconomic divide. The east side held the official downtown area, as well as the arts district and, farther out, the upper-class suburbs. The west side was the home of the blue-collar. The city’s main river port was accessible from the west bank, and industrial companies filled the pocket where the river twisted back upon itself. Truth was, the best pizza and blues bands could be found on the west side too.
    There wasn’t much question where the billboard would be. It would be along the freeway heading out of downtown, going across the river. She knew, because that was where she would have put it. Merging with the traffic, she stayed in the right lane. The real question was whether it had been placed nearer to downtown or closer to the bar itself?
    She didn’t care. She’d find it.
    She put the car on cruise control as she scoured the roadway advertising. Reaching into her storage compartment, she found her sunglasses. The moment she slipped them on, a twinge of hurt slid through all that numbness. What was she doing, driving down the highway on a weekday morning, searching for a smutty picture board? Seriously. How had everything gone so out of whack? What had she done to deserve this? And when had Cameron Rowe appointed himself her defender? None of it made sense.
    Yet one thing was clear.
    The billboard was of her.
    She was on top of it before she knew it. Jamming on the brakes, she pulled over to the shoulder and simply stared. Cars whizzed by in the so-called slow lane only feet from her, but her attention on the gigantic billboard was unwavering.
    It was uncanny . Perching her sunglasses atop her head, she let in all the bright, glaring details. Not one was missed. The tiny birthmark on her right shoulder was there, although magnified a thousand times over. The woman’s dark hair had the same unusual auburn highlights as hers, and the face was a dead ringer. Lexie concentrated hard on the eyes. They made her uncomfortable—more than she’d like to