Chapter 21
There was a nasty pleasure in Parker’s voice, but Jesse could tell it was nothing more than shallow bravado. When push came to shove he would chicken out. Tegan was both the brains and the brawn of the operation. Parker was deadweight.
Hopefully, she could use it to stir Tegan’s annoyance with him.
Jesse rolled her eyes. “You really thought you could seduce me and I would blindly hand over all my money to buy your seedy nightclub?”
“That’s exactly what you were prepared to do.
” A taunting smile curved his lips. “Do you know how hard I was laughing when I convinced you that I wanted that trash fire of a nightclub? Not that I’m surprised you were ready to pour everything into it.
I’m very persuasive.” He blew her a kiss. “Especially in bed.”
Jesse didn’t have to pretend her shudder of disgust. “Not really. I’d already decided to dump you, along with our business partnership.”
“Doubtful. I could have convinced you to come back like that.” He snapped his fingers. “Have you forgotten? You adore me.”
“You’re a shallow prick who caught me in a moment of weakness and the mere thought of you touching me is repulsive. I’d rather crawl into bed with a snake.”
“Oh yeah?” Parker flushed as he took a step forward. He didn’t like the thought that he wasn’t irresistible. “You came scurrying back to this hillbilly backwater to please me, didn’t you?”
Jesse shook her head, as if he was too stupid to live. Then she deliberately turned her attention back to Tegan. “Parker is obviously a clueless pawn in your game. What was your real plan?”
“Hey …” Parker started to protest, only to be waved into silence by Tegan.
The younger woman looked pleased to be acknowledged the mastermind of the operation.
“In the beginning my plan was simple,” she informed Jesse, adding her own dramatic flair as she lifted a hand to smooth back her bleached hair.
“After I was kidnapped by my father I spent the next four years being dragged from one crack house to another. My dad didn’t want me, but he knew he could get handouts from the local charities if he had a kid.
When I was sixteen he had the decency to overdose and I was free.
I went to Hollywood to make my fortune.” She turned to send her companion a glance that wasn’t entirely affectionate.
More … long-suffering. “That’s where I met Parker. ”
Jesse didn’t allow herself to imagine what it must have been like for a young girl to be in the care of a violent drug user who’d strangled her mother in front of her. Tegan was the enemy. When it came time to swing the oar, she couldn’t hesitate for a second.
“If you were in Hollywood making your fortune, why come back here?”
She clicked her tongue. “It turned out a lot of people have the same plan. I started to wonder if there was an easier way. That’s when I began investigating what’d happened to my dear, sweet stepsister, Jesse Hudson.”
“Why me?”
“Because you’ve been handed everything on a silver platter.”
Jesse blinked. “You can’t be serious. I was born in this small rural town you call a hillbilly backwater and raised by a single father because my mom died when I was just a baby.
On top of that, I lived in an apartment above a crumbling bar that barely generated enough money to keep a roof over our heads.
We never had a vacation, or fancy clothes.
Hell, we barely went out to dinner unless it was a burger at Bea’s Diner. Hardly a glamorous existence.”
“You think any of that stuff matters?” Tegan was genuinely angry as she lifted her hand to tick off a list of grievances.
“You had a devoted dad. A place you could call home. Friends and an entire town that treated you like you were something special just because your mom died when you were a baby.” She made a sound of disgust. “Yes, you really suffered. Boo-hoo.”
The world did that weird halting thing again. This time, however, it wasn’t fear or grief that was squeezing her heart in a vise. It was the explosive realization that Tegan was right. Her scheming, selfish, vain stepsister had seen Jesse’s life with a clarity that was shocking.
“It’s true,” she breathed, shaking her head in disbelief. “I was blessed.”
Tegan’s brows snapped together. She didn’t want her moment in the spotlight interrupted. “I discovered you were working as a bartender. I also discovered that your dad was still missing, and that you owned the bar.”
“My dad wasn’t missing. They just hadn’t found his body yet,” Jesse deliberately interrupted again, scooting to the side. She was getting closer to the oar.
“I started to realize that you were sitting on a gold mine,” Tegan continued, her features hard as she deliberately tried to punish Jesse.
Obviously she didn’t think her stepsister was properly appreciative of her cunning plans.
“Well, not a gold mine. Mac Hudson was a nobody bartender in the middle of nowhere. He was never going to be worth much,” she mocked.
“But at least it would be enough money to get us a decent apartment and pay the bills until we got our big break.”
Jesse refused to be provoked. “So you sent Parker to Chicago?”
“Yes, and I moved to Canton to set up my disguise as Reese Skylar.”
“Do you really have a real estate license?”
“Of course. How do you think I made a living in between acting gigs?” Tegan shrugged.
“It should have gone smoothly. You would put the bar up for sale and cash in your dad’s life insurance policy.
A few weeks later, you would write Parker a big fat check to buy the nightclub, and we could get rid of you.
Easy-peasy.” The atmosphere in the boathouse seemed to thicken.
As if Tegan’s hold on her volcanic emotions was slipping.
Jesse sensed it was only a matter of time before she exploded and bad things happened.
“Only you wouldn’t follow the script. Not only did you drag your feet about selling the bar, but you started poking your nose where it didn’t belong. ”
Jesse licked her lips, daring another scootch toward the end of the cot. “You were the one who tried to drive me out of town.”
“A few pokes to hurry you along,” Tegan admitted.
“The blow to the back of Bea’s head was more than a poke.”
“She shouldn’t have followed me into the bar.” Tegan sounded more annoyed than repentant for bashing the poor old lady. “I wanted to scrawl another message for you to leave or else, but she interrupted me.”
“And last night you drugged me and flooded the cellar.”
Surprisingly, Tegan sent her partner in crime a fierce glare. “That was Parker. A mistake, in the end.”
For a second, Jesse was confused. Why would Tegan care that she’d been drugged? Oh wait. She was mad about the water that had allowed the foundation to crumble.
“Because it exposed my dad’s body.”
“Exactly. We can’t sell the bar now.” Tegan continued to glare at Parker.
Her patience for the dim-witted boy toy was wearing thin.
A bonus for Jesse. At last she leashed her annoyance to continue her gloating.
“So I devised a new plan. One that was a lot easier after Noah conveniently walked into my trap and you were patiently waiting at his house.” Her glare shifted to Jesse. “Of course you had to screw it up.”
Jesse wondered what would have happened if Eric hadn’t shown up and frightened her into running out of the back door of Noah’s house. She’d probably be unconscious and tied up in a sinking boat.
Instead, Tegan had chosen to use the opportunity to prove how much smarter and more desirable she was, giving Jesse at least a small chance.
“So you keep telling me,” she drawled. “Now what? You’ll never get your money if anything happens to me.”
“She’s right,” Parker dared to say, flinching as if he expected a blow.
Maybe he wasn’t completely clueless.
“No, she’s not right,” Tegan snarled, not bothering to glance in his direction.
Instead, she pointed a finger in Jesse’s face.
“I realized after they found Mac’s bones that I don’t need you.
In fact, you’re just in the way. Again. Once you’re dead, the inheritance comes to me. Mac Hudson’s daughter.”
Jesse used the opportunity to lean to the side. She was close. Another inch and she could reach out and grab the oar. All she needed was a distraction.
“You’re not in his will; his inheritance wouldn’t go to you,” she pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter if I’m in the will or not,” Tegan insisted. “He was married to my mother and they never divorced. Once I make the grand revelation that Reese Skylar is indeed the long-missing Tegan, Mac’s beloved stepdaughter, they won’t have any choice but to give me my money.”
Jesse stared at her in confusion. “But they weren’t married, were they?”
Tegan froze, as if genuinely shocked by Jesse’s accusation. “What are you talking about? They went to Vegas for a quickie wedding, you dumbass. And don’t act like you’ve forgotten. You pouted and stormed around the apartment for weeks after they got back.”
Jesse refused to be distracted. “They might have gone to Vegas, but they weren’t married. At least not legally. My dad checked after you and Victoria disappeared. He has legal proof it was a sham.”
Tegan licked her lips. She’d no doubt known her mother had arranged a faux wedding, but she hadn’t expected Jesse to discover the truth. Now she had to wonder if another plan was about to go to hell.
“It doesn’t matter,” she finally muttered. “Everyone believed they were married. I can easily get a fake marriage license. Who would question it?”
“Eric Walker, my dad’s lawyer, would question it,” Jesse assured her. “He knows the truth.”
Tegan was shaking her head before Jesse finished speaking. “No.”
“I showed him the letter from the Clark County Vital Records Office saying there was no marriage certificate. He’ll never let you get your hands on my dad’s inheritance.”