Page 122

“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? Ijust got your message. Listen, I don’t know what you want from me?—”
“Good thingIdo,” 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 forattemptedmurder,” 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—alotof money.
I just sent you ten thousand dollars.
How could you possibly need more?
It’s not enough. I owe people.