58. Jenny
JENNY
My cell phone was out of range during our ride. When we got back to the ranch, a message appeared on my screen. I took one look at it, and my stomach dropped. The message was from Cole’s father.
“I gotta go,” I told Audrey. “I’ll see you at dinner, okay?”
“Don’t you want to get lunch?” Audrey looked surprised. “I thought we could sit in the hot tub afterward because we had a long ride. We have all afternoon. James just texted me, and he said they won’t be back until later.”
“Yeah—lunch. Sounds good,” I babbled. My heart was pounding in my chest. “I’ll meet you out there in a little bit.”
We parted ways, and I hustled back to my suite. My head hurt. If Cole’s dad was calling me again, I knew I was in trouble. More likely, I was dead meat.
I played the message as soon as I closed the door behind me. “Cole listened to you this morning—but you didn’t go far enough. I want more,” Lewis Bryson said. His voice was that scary combination of icy, stern, and utterly self-assured. “Call me when you get this.”
Again, I felt like the walls were closing in on me. My hands trembled as I held the phone and hit his number. “Mr. Bryson? I just got your message. Listen, I don’t know what you want from me?—”
“Good thing I do,” he said smoothly. “I want you to take Cole’s phone tonight and send a message to someone named Ramos—he’s in his contacts. I’ll send you the specifics. I want you to make him an offer.”
“I don’t know who Ramos is, what that deal is, or anything you’re talking about,” I argued.
“Of course, you don’t, and you don’t need to concern yourself with the details,” Cole’s father said. “You’re simply going to send this individual a text from Cole’s phone, and then you’re going to delete it. You will then watch his phone for responses, read them, and delete them. Then you’re going to report back to me. Are we clear?”
“No, we’re not clear!” I yelled. “Cole will catch me on his phone, or he’ll see one of the texts. This isn’t going to work.”
“It will work if you do as I say,” he said, sounding not the slightest bit deterred.
A headache formed between my eyes. “What if I say no, huh?”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Your aunt told me why you ran away when you were sixteen,” he said.
My vision tunneled. I felt like his voice was coming from far away.
“You can still be prosecuted for murder—did you know that, Jennifer?” he asked.
“I didn’t murder anyone,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Pardon me—I should have said that you can still be prosecuted for attempted murder,” Lewis Bryson said. “I’ve found your victim, by the way. He is a character. He had all sorts of stories about you.”
I felt like I was going to be sick. “I gotta go.”
“Do what I say, or your past is going to become your present,” Cole’s father said. He hung up.
I sat there, reeling. I’ve found your victim. Your past is going to become your present. My heart thudded in my chest. I needed to run, hide, and get the hell away from Lewis Bryson once and for all.
You can still be prosecuted for attempted murder.
Shame swept through me, flooding my senses. I never wanted to think about the past… My past. I’d done something so bad that I’d cursed myself. I could see it now. There was a reason all this was coming back to haunt me. I’d fallen in love and finally thought I was safe and with someone I could trust. I thought I might have a future.
That’s when all my snakes reappeared.
I should have known better than to hope. I should have never let myself fall for Cole and dreamed about having a family with him, a home. Girls like me didn’t get happy endings like that.
My phone pinged—it was a text from Auntie Theresa. Jesus. When it rained assholes, it poured.
Need more money.
Pronto.
Was she freaking kidding? I had sent her money only two days before—a lot of money.
I just sent you ten thousand dollars.
How could you possibly need more?
It’s not enough. I owe people.
Besides
There’s a lot to make up for, and you know it.
I couldn’t even muster the energy to be disgusted. After staring at Theresa’s texts for a few minutes, I simply Venmo’d my aunt another ten grand without even thinking it through. By the time she was done with me, I’d have nothing left.
But it didn’t even matter. I felt like I had nothing else to lose.
I was caught in Cole’s father’s web. He wanted me to take Cole’s phone and pretend to be Cole to get what he wanted. As if lying to the man I loved wasn’t bad enough, now his father was asking me to do this. He was making me complicit in his fraud and betrayal.
And if I didn’t do what he asked? He’d bring back the man from my past, the one who abused me. He’d tell them what I did, all the dirty details. Cole, Audrey, James—everyone would know. Cole’s father would call the police on me. I’d have to talk about it, explain myself, defend myself. My shame would never end.
I’d lived alone my whole life for a reason, and this was it. I didn’t want anybody to find out about what happened to me as a kid. It was a past I didn’t ever want to think about again. Long ago, I’d decided it was best to remember it as a movie, something separate and apart from me, something that couldn’t hurt me ever again.
But Cole’s father was making it real. He was making me hurt again.
I paced the room, not knowing what to do. I wanted to run away. Maybe I could put the saddle on Betsy and ride off into the sunset…
I could do it. I’d done it before. With the money I still had left from my first assignment with Cole, I could hide. I could make a new life for myself somewhere. Someplace safe, where no one could ever hurt me again.
My phone pinged, and I groaned. I grabbed it, expecting another message from Auntie Theresa, but instead, it was Cole’s father.
If you are considering relieving yourself of your responsibilities, I wanted to add a reminder.
If you fail to do what I’ve asked, I’ll punish Cole.
Not only will I tell him the truth about you, but I will make his life hell.
He didn’t text anything else because he didn’t have to.
The image of me riding off into the sunset vanished in a poof.
Lewis Bryson was one hell of a negotiator.