Page 68 of Blackmailing the Bad Girl

“But he did?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. I couldn’t see past who he was. So, I left and did another job, because, again, I had to prove that what I was doing was right. Except it wasn’t, and I got careless and got caught.”

Darcy reached across and patted her hand. “You’re not going back. A long time has passed. No one’s looking anymore. You’re safe.”

She shook her head. “You don’t understand. When I came out of prison, Nik was waiting for me.”

“What?” They both spoke in unison, and she almost smiled. But not quite.

“He’d been looking for me since I vanished. Anyway, he had this file and evidence and he sort of blackmailed me into working for him.”

“The bastard.”

“But why?” Regan asked. “Has he done anything else? Made you do anything you don’t want to?”

“No.” Summer could feel a flush heating the skin of her cheeks. She ate a croissant to avoid looking at them while she got rid of her flusters.

“What have you been up to, Summer Delaney?”

“I slept with him. The first night.”

“He made you?”

“No.” She scowled. “It was your fault,” she said to Darcy. “You told me to pick up a guy. And then you fed me champagne, and I didn’t want to be alone.”

“And you still fancied him rotten,” Regan finished for her. “What’s he like?”

She sighed. “Gorgeous.” She got out her phone and looked up the Masterton Industries website, found a picture, and passed the phone over.

“Oh my freaking goodness, he is gorgeous.”

“Wow,” Darcy added. “And since then…?”

“I told him the next morning that I wasn’t sleeping with him again. And he said I still had to work for him. So I have been.”

“But why?”

“I think he wants to rehabilitate me. I’m his good deed. And I think he likes me.”

“And you’re falling in love.”

She swallowed. “I saidI thinkI’m falling in love. I don’t know. It’s probably just some psychological consequence of getting out of prison. Or maybe I’m coming down with a bug.”

“What we need is a psychiatrist, not a doctor.”

“Hah. Anyway, since then Nik has sort of promised he won’t use the file. And he wants us to be friends. And maybe more than friends.”

“It sounds like it’s all working out. Don’t you trust him?”

“Yes…no. Maybe. But I can’t live a lie and if I tell him, I’m not just risking my life but my mother’s as well. If he traced the money…she could lose everything.” But the truth was, she didn’t think he would do anything. She believed her mother was safe. From Nik, anyway. If only that were the only problem.

“Maybe it’s time to trust someone,” Regan said.

“I’m not sure I can. But it’s irrelevant anyway. Because Saturday night, things got much, much worse.”

“We knew something happened.”

She tore another croissant into pieces. The others had stopped any pretense of eating. “I was at a party with Nik, and I came face-to-face with Steven Trenton.”