"I have a mild problem with mutiny right now," he said with a shrug. "Nothing I can't handle." For the most part.
She frowned. "You've changed, Jonny."
"So have you. I never knew you had epilepsy or an interest in fighting."
"You never cared to learn anything about me at all," she replied. "I was a means to an end to you."
"Yeah. You were," he said. Whether or not it was true no longer mattered. Ashley needed to be scared straight. There couldn't be anything left over from their short relationship four years ago. He wasn't about to draw the ire of Xander or the White God for messing with her, and he couldn't afford to open the door he'd closed on his hope not to be alone the rest of his life. His duty to the vamps was more important than his personal feelings.
Emotion flickered in her gaze. Hurt? Anger? He hadn't thought it possible she'd still be feeling the pain of how he'd left her. Neither was he completely surprised. He still thought of her, too, even when he knew it wasn't right.
He had let her go years before because their paths were too different. If she were hanging onto something from the past, he needed to cut that string now before she got herself in worse trouble.
"Means to an end," he repeated.
But he knew it wasn't true. He had no place in his life for anyone or anything from his past.