While she didn’t know much of anything regarding Jerome, at least he seemed a better choice. The confidence with which he spoke told her that he was used to negotiating. He just might be able to go up against Boyd and ensure that she and Payton were able to get away. If Taryn played her cards right, she might be able to make sure Payton didn’t get involved in whatever agreement she made with Jerome. Taryn hadn’t been sure how Pete would respond, so she had left out any mention of Payton or Boyd in her discussion with him.
“Tell me who it is,” Jerome urged. “There isn’t anything you can say that will make me retract my offer. I promise.”
“Boyd Walters.”
Jerome’s face paled. He slid from the booth and stood to button his suit jacket as beads of sweat dotted his forehead. He glanced around as if looking for someone. “Forget you know my name. I don’t want anything to do with you. Our conversation never happened, and I never made any sort of offer to you.”
“But you just said—”
“That was before you mentioned that name.”
And just like that, her other option was gone.
Not to mention, she hadn’t made the sale for Pete.
“Dammit,” Taryn mumbled to herself.
She blew out a breath as a waitress walked up. She needed to eat, and Brandi’s food was inedible. Plus, she wasn’t at all sure Jace wasn’t waiting in the parking lot for her. She couldn’t face him again. Not now, at least.
After she placed her order, Taryn dropped her head into her hands, elbows on the table. She had known that coming back to Clearview was a mistake, but she had been grasping at straws. That’s what desperation did to a person. How had she ever imagined that things would work out as she wanted? And how the hell had she thought she could come back to town and not run into Jace?
“Please,” she whispered to whatever higher power might be listening. “I’m tired and scared, and I don’t know what to do now.”
Her last few years had been hell, and it didn’t look as if things were going to get any better. She raised her head and blinked rapidly to quell the tears that threatened. Thankfully, they retreated. She feared if she gave in and let them come again, they wouldn’t stop. She was tipping into an abyss that threatened to eat her whole, and she had nothing and no one to hold onto.
Not true. There’s someone you can turn to.
Taryn refused to think of Jace. He was furious with her, and for good reason. He was the type of man who was a natural hero, the kind who always did the right thing, who set aside their own wants and needs to help those they loved. He had come into her life at a time when she needed him. He’d swept her off her feet and loved her unconditionally. Gave her the kind of love that everyone dreamed of. She’d had that. For two blissful years, she had been in the arms of a man who had sheltered her, loved her, and adored her.
And in one horrible night, it had all gone away.
She left the restaurant forty minutes later. Her gaze swept the parking lot, but she didn’t notice anyone sitting inside a vehicle. Taryn got into her car and headed back to Pete’s, hoping to try and explain what had gone so terribly wrong with Jerome. All Pete had asked of her was to do one job. Then he’d give her the money she needed. It had been a simple exchange. In all honesty, it was Jerome’s fault. If he had kept to their transaction, Boyd’s name wouldn’t have come up at all. Taryn would’ve made the sale and returned to Pete’s to claim her funds. She would then be on her way back to Fort Worth to hand over Boyd’s money in exchange for her and Payton’s freedom.
Why had it all gone sideways? Taryn didn’t want to dwell on that. What’d happened with Jerome was done. She needed to start thinking about how she would handle Pete, specifically what she planned to say to him.
When she pulled up to Pete’s, several more cars filled the drive. She was instantly on edge. More people meant more witnesses to her exchange with Pete, and that couldn’t be a good thing. She got out of her vehicle and started toward the front door. Before she reached it, one of the guards opened it for her. She nodded at him, recognizing him as the one who hadn’t spoken the first time she came.
“There she is!”
She looked up at the sound of Pete’s voice as he came down the curving staircase of his home. He wore a smile, but his eyes burned with fury. She knew that look well because she had seen it on Boyd’s face right before he killed her father in front of her. No doubt Jerome had told Pete what’d happened. So much for her getting to Pete first. She opened her lips to speak when she caught sight of something in her periphery. She turned her head and saw five new people who hadn’t been there before.
Two men dressed casually in jeans and solid-colored tee shirts three sizes too big, and women next to them in short, tight-fitting dresses that dipped low and barely covered their asses, along with heels so high they should’ve been called stilts.
Pete reached the bottom of the stairs and put his arm around her. He squeezed her a tad too tightly, but Taryn hid her grimace. “I’ve been singing your praises all afternoon since you left. I had my best client come to you. My. Best. Client,” he stated, spittle flying from his mouth.
Taryn tilted her head away. “Don’t you want my side of what happened?”
“I don’t give a flying fuck about your side. Customers are always right.”
“He wanted to buy me away from you.”
Pete looked at her for a moment, then threw back his head and laughed. “I would’ve attempted the same thing in his shoes. It’s business.”
“I’ll make things right with him.”
Pete shoved her away as if she were a hot coal in his hands. His lips twisted cruelly. “You didn’t tell me who you were indebted to.”
Dread filled her. Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit. “You didn’t ask. Besides, it doesn’t matter.”
“The hell it doesn’t. I’m not interfering in any business involving Boyd Walters. Do you know what kind of man he is?”
She knew exactly what kind of man Boyd was. She was also aware that not too many people had seen the things she had and were still alive to talk about them. “This is for me, not Boyd. It’s my debt.”
Pete laughed, but there was no mirth in the sound. “You’re beholden to him. That means any transactions I do with you, tie me to him. I don’t want anything to do with him. He’s a fucking maniac.”
Taryn knew that for a fact. “Pete, I’m in a bad way. If I don’t bring Boyd the money, he’s going to—”
“Get out,” Pete cut her off before she could finish. “Get out and never come back.”
She hesitated, trying to think of something that might change Pete’s mind. Just as she was about to offer herself to him for the remaining days she had in Clearview, Pete snapped his fingers, and the two hulking men who had barred her entrance earlier moved in on either side of her.
She knew then that if she didn’t leave on her own, the two muscled men would make sure she did. She swallowed, feeling as if she were drowning and no one would help her. Taryn pulled the bag of pot from the front pocket of her jeans and tossed it at Pete, who caught it easily. Then she turned on her heel and walked away. She made it inside her Camry before the tears came.