Black Tangled Heart

by Samantha Young

  It might be all tangled and fucked up right now, but beneath the scarring was his goodness. He would never come back from hurting people who didn’t deserve it.

  “I saw everything,” I admitted.

  The muscle in his jaw ticked, letting me know he was pissed, despite his bland expression. “Am I supposed to be shaking in my boots now? Or congratulating you for surprising me? Because I am surprised.” He reached out to chuck my chin and I jerked it away, glowering. He smirked. “My little Jane Doe and her hidden spunk.”

  “I know it’s hard for you to not be condescending, but at least give it a try.”

  Jamie leaned back against the desk, crossing his arms over his chest. “I suppose you came in here with a master plan, not just to ruin my day by making me look at your face again. It’s amazing how something once so beautiful can be so ugly to me now.”

  I lowered my gaze, not wanting the hurt that splintered through me to be reflected in my eyes. Straightening my spine, I looked back up at him. “Funny, I’m pretty sure I felt your hard-on digging into me down in the laundry room. Guess it still finds me attractive. On that note, never do that to me again.” I walked away, crossing the room to stand by the sectional. I needed space from him.

  Jamie flicked his eyes up and down my body and shrugged. “Get to the point, Jane. I’m bored.”

  No one made me want to rail and scream like Jamie McKenna. Swallowing the urge, I took a breath. “I know you’re planning to take down everyone involved in putting you away. That you’ve already dealt with Kramer. That you’re looking for an ‘in’ with the cashier, the cop, and Steadman.” I gestured to myself. “I’m your ‘in.’”

  This time Jamie couldn’t keep the shock off his face. “What?”

  “I’m your ‘in.’” I took a step toward him. There was no way I would let him take vengeance against these people without having their back, and his. If I was in control of this thing, I could control the line. I’d make sure Jamie didn’t cross it. “In your notes, you state you can’t get close to the cashier or the cop. He’s paranoid, and she’d remember you. Well, no one will remember me. I can get close to them.”

  “You think I’ll let you work with me when you’re on my hit list?” He chuckled darkly. “Do you think helping me will save you, Jane?”

  No. I think it’ll save you. “This isn’t a discussion. I want justice for what happened to you, Jamie. You and I might not like each other very much, but once upon a time, you and Skye were my family. If we can’t give her justice for what happened to her, we can take Foster down a different way, and take down the others for what they did to the Jamie I used to love.”

  Jamie narrowed his eyes as he bit his lip. Hard. Like he wanted to say something that would cut me to the quick. Instead, he released his lower lip and replied, “No. I’d rather spend another five years in prison than make you the Bonnie to my Clyde.”

  “I wasn’t asking.”

  He snorted. “You think you can force me to allow this?”

  “I think I’m close, personal friends with Asher Steadman, and one phone call to his father would make him aware of your activities here.” The words were like ash on my tongue. I might not forgive Jamie for breaking my heart and choosing to believe the worst of me, but I would never betray him. However, he didn’t need to know that.

  “You really are a heartless bitch now, huh?”

  It was hard not to flinch, but I managed it. “Don’t act like you’re above blackmail, Jamie.”

  He sneered at me. “Fine. And Steadman?”

  “He’ll never know, as long as you keep me involved. As for how to take him down … We’ll figure it out.”

  “You’ve been plotting with Asher for years, and you still haven’t figured it out.”

  How did he know that? I verbalized the question.

  “You think everything’s on this laptop? No.” He pushed off the desk and crossed the room to tower over me.

  I wanted to retreat.

  I forced myself not to.

  “You’ll use Asher.”

  “Never.”

  His lips twitched. “I have a feeling one day, I’ll change your mind. For now, we go after the cashier and the cop.”

  Relief eased through me. “Good. Where do you want to start?”

  “Why don’t we start with you giving me back that key?” He held out his palm.

  Not seeing any reason to argue, I slipped it out of my back pocket and dropped it into his hand without touching him. If I wasn’t mistaken, his eyes danced with laughter, like he knew I was afraid to make physical contact.

  He closed his hand around the key. “Now, get out.”

  I glared at him. “The plan?”

  “Well, I need to think about it now that I have a new player in the mix, don’t I,” he said in a tone that suggested I was a moron. He turned his back to me and walked toward the laptop. I flipped him off. It was childish, but it made me feel better. “I’ll be in touch …” His voice trailed off, and I realized why when I saw what he was looking at.

  The manuscript on his desk. Doe.

  He looked back at me, his expression guarded.

  “I didn’t read it,” I assured him.

  After a moment of speculation, as if trying to gauge if I was telling the truth (the bastard), he turned his back on me again. “You can leave.”

  But I wasn’t quite ready to. “Why?”

  “Why what?” he snapped.

  “Why is your new book titled Doe?”

  Jamie laughed, his shoulders shaking a little with the movement. “Do you think it’s about you, Jane?”

  “It’s a little coincidental …” My cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

  I hated that he could make me feel so small and stupid.

  He turned toward me, leaning on the desk as his hand rested on top of the papers. “I guess I wanted to feel what it was like to ruin you before I actually do it.”

  Pain lashed across my chest, so acute, it was like six years hadn’t passed. Like I was reading his letter all over again and wondering how my Jamie could do this to me.

  He studied me, a deep melancholy slowly washing through his eyes. The darkness in them made my heart beat faster. “I want to ruin all of you. A lifetime of misery ought to do the trick.”

  Holding back the tears, I gave him a tight nod. “Well, they say misery loves company.”

  “Look at you. I think you’re finally beginning to understand.”

  Marching away and slamming out of his apartment, I railed at him in my head. What did he think? That he was alone in his wounds? That the rest of us weren’t in pain too?

  All those years ago, I’d taught him to look beyond himself.

  It would seem Jamie McKenna had forgotten that lesson.

  I glanced back at his closed door as I leaned against mine. “It’s up to me to remind you.”

  22

  JAMIE

  “What was the name again?” the security guard asked.

  I leaned out of the car window and peered up at him through my dark sunglasses. “Jamie Stone.”

  “Here to see?”

  Jesus Christ, how many times did I need to repeat myself? “Margot Higgins.” I bit back my attitude, knowing it would get me nowhere. I’d save that for Jane.

  A few minutes later, they opened the gate to the Chimera Studios grounds and I drove in, wearing a satisfied smirk. I knew Jane would let me in. She seemed determined to stick close. Blackmailing me. I was almost proud.

  I should’ve known she wouldn’t just sit back and let my plans unfold around her. Jane was made of tougher stuff than that. Would she hand my ass over to Steadman? I’m not sure I believed that. So why indulge her?

  She might prove useful; it kept her where I could keep an eye on her; and it meant I could figure out what really made her tick. What would really screw up Jane? Personally, I hoped I could, that underneath her attitude, there was still a part of her that was attracted to me. That I could do to her what she had done
to me:

  Make her love me.

  Only to abandon her.

  I’d have to play it by ear. She definitely appeared moonstruck over that asshole Asher Steadman. My fingers tightened around the steering wheel. God, she pissed me off.

  It was the most alive I’d felt in a long time, and I had to admit I was looking forward to our future interactions.

  As I pulled up to the hangar the security guard had directed me to, I saw a door open and there she was, hovering in the doorway. My blood pumped as if I’d just downed a quart of caffeine.

  By the time I made it to her, she’d disappeared inside the building and was holding the door open from the shadows. It closed behind me and there she was.

  Jane in cut-off jean shorts, a red-and-black plaid shirt tied at the waist, and red and black sneakers. Long hair in a messy half-bun-ponytail thing that spilled all over the place. Barely any makeup.

  I wanted to wrap her shapely tan legs around my waist and fuck her into next week.

  “You’re a mess.” She was a mess. It didn’t mean she was any less beautiful.

  She made a face. “Is that what you came here to tell me? I’m working.”

  “Show me around.” I moved past her, heading out of the short entryway and into the massive space. There were several soundstages inside.

  A hand gripped me by the arm, and I glanced over my shoulder as Jane pressed a finger to her lips. I realized they were filming. A very famous actor was in the middle of delivering a line to another very famous actor. My eyebrows rose. I’d never been on a film set before. It was kind of interesting.

  The soundstage they were on was made to look like a New York penthouse apartment. It was amazing how realistic it was, and it occurred to me that it was partly Jane’s doing. She was the art director.

  Another tug on my arm wrenched me from watching the scene play out. Jane gestured silently for me to follow her, and I shot a look at the actors before going after her. We disappeared out of the hangar into the back of the building.

  “Was that Reesa Orland and Jack Sheen?” I asked Jane’s back as she marched down the white hallway.

  “Yeah.” She stopped at a door, pushed it open, and gestured for me to go through first.

  I smirked and waved my hand for her to precede me.

  Jane quirked a brow. “You’re being a gentleman now?”

  “No. Walking in first gives you my back. Wouldn’t want you to stick another knife in it.”

  She huffed, anger flickering in those pretty eyes.

  I followed her into the room and shut the door behind us.

  Taking in the space, I reckoned there was an office buried under all the props. “So, this is what you do, huh?”

  “Small talk? Really?”

  “No, not really.” I held out my hand. “Give me your phone.”

  “Why?”

  “So that when I have plans we need to enact, I don’t have to chase you down.”

  With a beleaguered sigh, Jane pulled her phone out of her back pocket. “Number.”

  “Give it to me.”

  “I’m not an idiot, Jamie. You’re not getting my phone. Just give me your number.”

  “Were you always this paranoid?”

  “Not until my ex-boyfriend bribed my neighbor to sublet her apartment to him so he could plot his asinine and completely uncalled-for revenge against me.” She smiled sweetly. “On that note, has anyone suggested therapy?”

  “Ah, sweet Jane, I really am enjoying getting to know this side of you.” I threw her a dirty look before I rhymed off my number. Almost immediately my cell rang in my jeans pocket.

  “Now you have my number.”

  I quickly saved her number to my contact list.

  “Is that it?” Jane asked, leaning against a cluttered desk. “Or was there something else you needed?”

  Seeing photographs on the desk, I realized this was Jane’s office. I ran my eyes over her legs as I brushed past her. “That’s a loaded question.”

  “Stop, I’m blushing,” she replied dryly. “What are you doing?”

  I’d picked up one of the two framed photos—a photograph of Jane and her friend Cassie from art college. It looked like it was taken while Jane was still in school. I tried, and failed, not to notice how sad her smile was in the photo. “What happened to Cassie?” I asked, even though I couldn’t take my eyes off my ex in the photo. Were we still together when this photo was taken? Was it before or after she ghosted me?

  “You’re telling me you don’t know?”

  I grinned as I put the frame down. I liked that I had her all worked up and worried about what I knew and didn’t know about her life. “I actually don’t. Last time you talked about her, she was shacking up with some older guy.”

  “She married that older guy. They moved to Florida. They have a kid now.” I heard the slight hint of melancholy in Jane’s voice.

  “You miss her,” I surmised.

  Jane stiffened and shrugged.

  “When did she leave?”

  “Right after college.”

  Leaving Jane alone with no real friend until Asher. What had happened to their little art crew? “And Devin?” I looked away, perusing a shelf of props so she wouldn’t see the curl to my lips. I’d hated that gangly prick and the way he was always ogling Jane.

  There was a slight hesitation, and it brought back our conversation years ago. Something had happened with that guy. As much as I didn’t believe it at the time, I knew better now. Jane had cheated on me.

  I could feel my heart hammering harder in my chest.

  “We stopped being friends a long time ago,” she said, her tone weirdly emotionless. “Just a little before you made it clear you didn’t trust me or want me in your life anymore, he attacked me at a house party.”

  I whipped around, blowing past the outright lie of “you made it clear you didn’t trust me or want me in your life anymore” to the latter. “He what?”

  Indignation and something like dark satisfaction mingled in her eyes as she glared at me. “No, Jamie, I didn’t cheat on you with Devin. He assaulted me in a bathroom when he was drunk. Thankfully, Cassie and I had taken self-defense classes. I got away from him.” She retold the story like it’d had no emotional impact on her, but I was coming out of my fucking skin. “I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want you to feel bad about not being there for me.” She huffed at herself. “I’m surprised you didn’t know about it. I reported it to the police.”

  As I tried to shove out the images my imagination was putting together, of that lanky, emo little fuck forcing himself on Jane, I shook my head. “I didn’t know.” I took a step toward her. “By assaulted … you mean?”

  “Not rape. He kissed me and wouldn’t stop. I had to physically make him stop.”

  My stomach roiled at the thought. “What happened?”

  “I just told you.”

  “No, what happened to him?” I snapped impatiently.

  “Slap on the wrist.”

  That fucking fucker!

  “But he became a pariah at school with our friends.” She shrugged. “He transferred. I never saw him again.”

  Silence fell between us as I turned away, suddenly playing the memory of her last visit before she broke it off. Is that why she never came back? Because I accused her of cheating when that piece of shit had attacked her? Something crushed down on my chest.

  Okay, she had every right to be pissed at me for that.

  But she should have talked to me.

  If she’d come to me and told me that’s why she was ending things, I would have apologized. I would have promised I’d do better.

  Listen to yourself, groveling to her in your fucking imagination.

  Jane ended things without having the decency to do it to my face. End of story.

  Still, I made a mental note to find out what had happened to Devin. Wouldn’t want his life to be too comfortable these days after sexually assaulting my girlfriend.

&nb
sp; Ex-girlfriend.

  “So, I don’t imagine you came here to talk about my old college friends and enemies.” Jane broke the silence. “Why are you here?”

  Pulling my shit together, I turned to face her again. “Ethan Wright.”

  “The cop?”

  “The cop.” The shit stain who had whispered in my ear the night of my arrest, making it clear he was working for Foster Steadman. That only became clearer when I started investigating him. “I’m pretty sure he’s taking bribes from all sorts. But I need more evidence I can hand over to the right people. Because he’s a shiesty fuck, he’s also paranoid. He’ll recognize me, and he’d suspect a woman as beautiful as you coming on to him.”

  Jane raised an eyebrow.

  “His partner is Lincoln Gaines.” I pulled out my phone and brought up the photograph to show her. Jane gazed down at the good-looking cop. “As far as I can tell, he’s clean.” I eyed her carefully. “He’s also single.”

  Jane’s eyes met mine.

  We were standing so close, I could see the specks of gold in them. Gold that flared with understanding. “You want me to get to know Lincoln Gaines?”

  I nodded.

  She scowled. “How well do you want me to get to know him?”

  Before I’d walked into this office, I had no qualms about asking Jane to throw herself at this guy. I wasn’t talking sex. Just flirting and some kissing if she had to. On the back of her Devin confession, however, I couldn’t help but feel like a prick. “You don’t have to do it,” I said, my voice too gentle.

  Jane harrumphed. “You going soft on me already?”

  Brat.

  “Fine. You have to do it.”

  “I’m not having sex with a stranger for this, Jamie. That’s too far.”

  That thought was more than a little nauseating. “Who said you needed to have sex with him? Flirt with him, go on a few dates, and maneuver things so you’re spending time with his friends.”

  “With Ethan.”

  “Exactly. You can be where he is. Watch what he’s doing. Maybe even get a hold of his phone.”

  She considered this. And my heart raced like hell. Say no, a little voice whispered at the back of my mind.