by Alina Jacobs
“The pictures,” I snarled at her.
Karen was breathing rapidly. “I was the perfect woman for you,” she insisted. “Meg threw you by the wayside. I was here for you, supporting you, and what did she do? Humiliate you in front of the town. I did this for you, to get rid of her.”
“What you did is illegal,” I snapped. “It comes with jail time.”
“No!” she begged. “I’ll give you the data back. I can’t. I’ll be disbarred. I’m supposed to take an in-house lawyer position!”
“Too late.”
“Please,” she said, grasping for my jacket. “I’ll do anything.”
I looked down at her. My brothers Josh and Eric, who had followed in my footsteps and become lawyers, appeared in the campaign office doorway.
“While what you did is unforgivable, our family does prefer to settle things quietly,” I said after listening to her plead. “You turn over everything to us—all your electronics, all your passwords, all your accounts, and sign an NDA and allow us to delete all data, we can forget this whole thing ever happened. Of course, we expect you to be out of town as soon as we have control over your electronics.”
She nodded.
“Oh, and Karen,” I said as she started crying. “If I find any piece of that information you stole from me online, in any way, shape, or form, I will make sure that you go to prison for a long time.”
She handed me her phone, laptop, and tablet. My brothers led her out to collect her electronics from her apartment.
I slumped in my chair.
“I can’t fucking believe you,” Garrett said.
“I didn’t do anything,” I reminded him through gritted teeth.
“You were careless,” Blade offered, opening Karen’s laptop.
“We don’t even know that Karen stole the photos from my phone,” I argued. “She and Meg lived in the same building; maybe she took them from her phone.”
“You better hope that’s the case,” Blade said, “and that you can prove it.” He typed in Karen’s password and hooked the phone up to another laptop.
“I’ll process this data and see where it all came from,” he said. “It will take me a while. Also, I’m adding her bank accounts to the monitoring system I developed, just to make sure that she didn’t sell anything.”
My phone rang.
“It’s Crawford.”
“Holy shit!” I put the phone on speaker. My brothers all crowded around. “Where are you?”
There was the sound of yelling in the background.
“Crawford?” I said.
“Just wanted to give you a heads-up,” Crawford said, voice slightly staticky through the line, “that we just raided the last of the smaller compounds. There is no sign of Dad. Right now we have everything locked down, but I need Blade to log in and access their systems here.”
“Our sisters?” I asked urgently.
“No sign of them,” Crawford said, “but we’re going after the next compound soon. I expect they are at the main compound. I hope they’re at the main compound.”
“Just plug in the USB stick I gave you,” Blade said, typing on his laptop. Weston sat behind his own computer to log into whatever device he and Blade had given to Crawford.
“Already did. You have access?” Remy asked.
“Yes, I…” Blade paused looking at his computer. Weston jumped up to peer over his brother’s shoulder.
“What’s that?” Weston asked.
“Leif received a Venmo transfer to his bank account; it just cleared,” Blade said.
“From who?” I demanded.
“Hold on, let me trace the account.”
I paced around the campaign office. “Why weren’t you monitoring the Venmo account?”
“It’s a new one,” Weston said. “He must have just set it up.”
“Who is the money from?” I demanded.
“Just give it a minute,” Weston said. “It’s searching.”
“I found his login information for the account in the system Crawford just gave us access to,” Blade said.
“Do you think someone paid him for one of our sisters?” Mace asked, voicing the terrible thought everyone was having.
“Not unless Meg bought them,” Weston said grimly.
“What?” I said, not understanding.
“The money,” Weston said, showing me his computer. “It came from Meg.”
The room started to spin.
I’m going to puke.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
I walked over to Meg’s campaign office a few hours later at the designated time. It was dusk. The temperature had dropped. I was completely numb.
I had run over various scenarios in my head of why Meg would be dealing with my father—no, not just dealing with him, giving him money.
Maybe he was blackmailing her, or he threatened her.
“Hunter!” Meg called, running up to the campaign office. “I need to tell you something.”
“Oh, really?” I said. Maybe she’s going to come clean. There had to be a logical explanation. Meg wasn’t the type of person to willingly cooperate with my father.
There has to be a reason.
She’s going to tell me.
She has to.
Meg grabbed my arm. I stared down at her hand. I felt like I was floating.
She’s going to tell me. Any minute now…
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“What did you want to tell me?” I asked more harshly than I had intended.
She jerked her hand back. “I think… I know… I owe you an apology.”
“Is that so?”
She nodded. “I know you didn’t give Karen the photos.”
I was taken aback. “How?” I cocked my head. “I mean, I obviously know that. I just fired her and made her hand over all her electronics and passwords to me. We’re wrapping her up in a nondisclosure agreement, and Blade is eradicating all digital traces of the photos.”
“Oh,” Meg said. “Well, I was just with Walter and—”
“Walter,” I growled.
“Don’t get all snarly,” she said mildly. “You were, well, you were right. He’s a piece of shit. He helped Karen hack into your phone.”
“That bastard,” I roared. “I’m going to kill him!”
“I’m guessing Karen didn’t tell you that part?” Meg said grimly.
“She did not,” I growled.
“Now you can finally go after him!” She smiled up at me.
I looked at her then out over the long shadows cast by the setting sun. “No,” I said. “I won’t. If I make it public, then it would just draw attention to the situation. He’s not stupid. He’s probably already scrubbed all traces of the data off his system just in case I decide to go after him.”
“That’s that, then!” Meg said brightly.
“Yep.” I stared at her, waiting. She has to tell me.
“Do you want to grab dinner?” she suggested. “I have to stay with my sisters, so it would have to be a quick bite but—”
“Are you serious?” I snarled at her.
She looked at me apprehensively.
“After all your high and mighty speeches about not lying, about being honest, you’re not going to tell me the truth?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She was wary, her body half-turned away from me.
I ran a hand through my hair then met her gaze. “Yes you do.”
She didn’t blink.
“Last chance to come clean,” I crooned.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She had her lawyer mask on, the one she wore in court, the one that nothing slipped past. But the fact that she wore it was proof enough.
I clenched my jaw. “A payment was made to a secret Venmo account belonging to Leif Svensson. This payment was twenty-five hundred dollars,” I recited, “and it came from your account.”
“Hunter.” Her face fell. “I-I…” she stamm
ered. “I just did it because I thought…”
“You thought I was going to post sensitive pictures of you on the internet to, what, win an election?”
“I’m sorry,” Meg said.
“Sorry? You’re sorry? For what? For thinking I’m a sociopath? For thinking that I have so little conviction and am completely immoral that I would do such a horrible thing?” I rounded on her.
Tears leaked out of her eyes. “I don’t think that. And I promise, I’m not going to use the information,” she said quietly.
“What information?” I said through my teeth.
Sniffling, she pulled a folder out of her purse and handed it to me. “He told me you were married. You didn’t say anything about that,” she said, mouth set in a stubborn line.
I forced my hand to remain steady as I took the folder and opened it. Inside was the evidence of an event I had convinced myself had occurred only in my nightmares.
“You are a terrible person,” I told her finally.
“I know,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“For lying?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from shaking. “For putting my family in danger? For putting yourself and your sisters in danger? You do not want to have any sort of dealings with my father; he is dangerous and manipulative and a liar.”
“So it’s not true?” Meg asked, pointing at the folder.
I looked up at the night sky. The sun had sunk behind the tree line.
“Apparently it is,” I said bitterly. “Yes, I am married.”
“So we can’t be together, then,” she said, wiping the tears away from her eyes.
“I’ll-I’ll have to divorce her…”
“It will drag on for years,” Meg said. “I worked at Harrington Thurlow. I know how it goes with a high-profile divorce when there’s big money on the line. This doesn’t have a good ending. This is it.” She rested her hand on my arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“My father…” I began then stopped. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Hunter,” Meg said, taking my hand.
“He forced me to marry this woman. He wanted her as a sister wife and needed a way to legally control her because she was underage,” I recalled. “He told me I could expect my little brothers to start getting lost in the desert if I didn’t cooperate. We were kicked out soon after. I didn’t think it was official.”
Meg wrapped her arms around me.
“Fuck. I will never get a break,” I said, closing my eyes.
“If there’s anything I can do...”
I shook her off. “I have to go.”
73
Meghan
“I fucked up. Crap, I fucked up.”
I was pacing around the Gray Dove Bistro. Hazel was out on a date with Archer. Rose was at her other waitressing job, and Minnie was manning the café counter, ignoring Isaac, who sat there pining for her.
“So does that mean we aren’t going to have a house to live in?” she asked, looking up from her phone. “Because there is barely enough hot water here to go around. You can’t take a super-long shower.”
“I’ll buy you a house,” Isaac promised.
“With what money?” Minnie shot back.
“When I’m deputy mayor—”
“You’re not going to be,” Minnie said loftily. “My sister is going to crush Hunter.”
“Then I’ll get a job,” Isaac insisted.
“Isaac, do your brothers know you’re over here?” I asked, irritable.
“I’m studying,” he protested.
“Go home, Isaac.” I slumped at a table. I couldn’t believe I had done that to Hunter. Of course he hadn’t told me he was married. He had been just a kid! He had been Isaac’s age, and Isaac was a derpy little teenager.
What had happened wasn’t Hunter’s fault. But now I had given Leif a reason to stick around Harrogate.
Isaac cleared his stuff off the counter and went out to the side patio to grab his bike. Minnie followed him out. I let them have their moment. I could see them through the window, so they weren’t going to get up to that much trouble.
The bell over the door jangled. A tall blond man walked in.
“Meg,” he said.
I stood up abruptly. “You can’t be here,” I informed Leif in my best authoritative mayor tone. “I will not have any more dealings with you. Now you need to leave.”
His face turned ugly, and he glared at me. I forced myself to stand firm.
“You gave me money,” he said.
“Yes, and it was a misstep on my part and will not happen again. Now leave, or I am calling the police. And do not contact me again.”
“You’re making a mistake,” he spat, shifting slightly on the balls of his feet. Was he going to attack me?
“I assure you, I am not,” I said firmly, forcing my voice to remain steady.
He glared at me one last time before I left. Minnie came back inside as Isaac pedaled off into the night.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“No one,” I told her. “Don’t you think you should close up for the night?”
She wrinkled her nose. “We’re not supposed to close until eight.”
“We can watch a movie,” I cajoled.
“Pride and Prejudice?” she asked in excitement.
“Yes,” I said, “Except, shoot, it’s still at the old house.”
The bell jingled. I jumped, thinking Leif had returned.
“Oh, hi, Frank,” I said in relief, trying to calm my pounding heart.
“I’m glad I found you,” he said happily, pulling a folder out of his briefcase. “I wanted to let you know the paperwork came through. You have access to your house for the next two weeks to remove everything out of there that you need. This is the key to the padlock on the door.”
“Thank you, this is great news!”
“Now we can watch the movie!” Minnie said happily after Frank had bought a to-go pastry and hot chocolate.
“I’ll go grab it while you close up the store. Lock the door behind me,” I instructed. “And the patio door too. Wait to take the trash out until I get back.”
“This is Harrogate, not Manhattan.” My sister rolled her eyes.
“Just do it,” I told her, grabbing my car keys. My phone beeped as soon as I sat down behind the wheel. The battery was low. I cursed as I tried to plug it in then remembered that my car was a hunk of junk and had no charging port.
“Figures,” I said angrily then forced myself to relax. I had access to my house, at least, and my stuff.
I tried to formulate a plan for how I was going to afford to have all of my and my sisters’ stuff removed and then pay for storage. There was not enough room in Hazel’s building for our things. The old Victorian house was packed, not just with our possessions but Barry’s stuff as well.
“He can just do without,” I decided as I parked in front of the old house. It had been home to good memories and some bad ones, but now I was ready for a fresh start. This was a lot of house for one person. I wouldn’t mind a condo where I wouldn’t have to worry about a yard. Of course, it was all wishful thinking. Who knew how the mayoral election would play out?
The padlock sprung with a ping, and the plywood creaked as I pulled it aside and unlocked the front door. I stepped inside, hoping my phone had enough battery power left to navigate through the house. My first stop was the kitchen for some of my small appliances. I had a blush-pink hand mixer that matched my hardly used stand mixer. I stuck it in my purse then went to the living room. I found the DVDs and scooped Pride and Prejudice and a few others into my purse.
Behind me, floorboards creaked. I turned around, heart racing. No one was there. I locked the front door, my mind chattered. No one’s in the house.
My phone rang, and I screamed then laughed at my silliness.
“Hunter?” I said, answering it when I saw his name.
“Meg,” he said. He sounded upset.
“Look,” I told him. “I can’t talk, I�
�” My phone went dead. “Stupid phone!”
I fumbled around in the dark, feeling along the walls to the patch of streetlamp light coming in through the ornate glass on the front door. I’d almost made it, until something large and man shaped stepped out to block the light.
74
Hunter
“You’re married?” Greg asked in horror.
“And not to Meg?” Parker said.
“This is a disaster. What am I going to do?” I said, still reeling from the shock of Meg’s reveal.
Garrett was busy poring over spreadsheets. “I already had most of your assets sheltered in trusts or within various corporations. Your wife would still be able to lay claim to any shares you own in the corporations, though,” Garrett said. “But I think we can swing it so that you are only out millions as opposed to billions.”
“Fuck,” I said.
“Do we even know who this woman is anyway?” Mace asked, trying to give me a mug of tea. I pushed his hand away.
“She’s been off the grid for so long, it was a bit difficult to track her down,” Weston said from his desk in the home office.
I went over to the window to look out over the dark backyard.
“Okay, yes! I just received verification from a guy I know in the state government of Wyoming. Idonna Svennson. Shit, Hunter, you have a marriage license filed with the state of Wyoming. There are also a ton of birth certificates filed with her listed as the mother. No father, of course, so Dad can get that sweet, sweet welfare handout.”
Blade typed something into his computer and frowned. “Are you sure Dad filed that wedding certificate in Wyoming?” he asked Weston. “Because I just got a hit on one in Florida. But it’s under the name Idonna Wójcik.”
“You sure it’s the same person?”
“It has to be,” Blade said, turning the screen around. “The birth dates match, and her parents match. In both instances a parent had to sign for her to marry because she was underage.”
He and Weston compared the certificates. “The Florida one is older!” Weston exclaimed.
I perked up. “So I’m not married?”
“Not legally anyways.”
