After a moment, Sienna pulled from Mike’s embrace. “So? What do you think? Can you help?”
Mike smiled, showing perfectly white and, no doubt, very expensive teeth. “Depends what the deal is. How much do you like him?”
The intensity of Jack’s worry lightened ever so slightly, and he grinned. Turning to Sienna, he saw her own smile slip as a bright red flush stained her cheeks.
Kelsey snorted.
Sienna turned to her best friend. “Do you really want to go there?”
“I’m not saying anything.”
“Good. Don’t.” Sienna faced Mike. “Well?”
Laughing, Mike gestured toward the door leading outside onto the high street. “I thought I’d treat us all to lunch at The Barge. We’ll talk business there. What do you think?” He turned to Jack. “Jack?”
Jack returned his smile as the first whispers of trust seeped into his blood. His instincts were rarely wrong…apart from the catastrophic case with Martina. Something told him Mike Scott would be his saving grace. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Great.” Mike rubbed his hands together. “Do you want to bring your little ones along? They’re more than welcome.”
Kelsey clicked her tongue. “This is a business meeting, Scott. Not a family day out.”
Mike’s eyes darkened, and his grin vanished. “Excuse me, Jack.” He turned toward Kelsey. “Tell you what, Cruella, why don’t you stay here and spend the rest of this sunny day hiding behind your desk like you always do?”
Her cheeks now a deep red, Kelsey’s eyes shot lasers of rancor. Mike glared straight back, a vein pulsing at his temple. Jack subtly cupped his hand to Sienna’s elbow and steered her toward the door.
“We’ll…um, meet you outside.”
He propelled her firmly out the door.
As soon as they were outside, she rounded on him. “What did you do that for? It’s so much fun watching those two rip ten bales of crap out of each other.”
“Yeah? Well, I don’t think Mike would appreciate a brand new client standing there to witness it.”
Sienna chuckled. “You seriously need to get to know him ASAP. He’s the only guy I’ve ever known who can get my Rottweiler of a friend under control. Although, she’d never agree with me in a million years.”
“Are they…”
“Lovers? Dating?” She laughed again as they walked to his car. “Nope. But I have a funny feeling they will be one day in the not-too-distant future if Mike has anything to do with it.”
He smiled. “When there’s that much tension between two people, they either hate each other or want to rip each other’s clothes off. I guess it’s the latter.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
“Uh-huh.”
Her eyes flashed with silent suggestion before she hurried away from him and opened the passenger door of his car. He watched the length of her bronzed legs disappear inside the car and regret wound tight inside him. It was clear she had just checked her flirtation, wanting to dismiss her slip. Why did it have to be this way? Why did their closeness of a few nights before have to be yanked away from them before it had even begun?
Jack cursed his bad luck he hadn’t met Sienna before Martina. Yet if he hadn’t met Martina, he wouldn’t have had Holly and Katy. He wouldn’t have had the life he had now.
The tip-tap of stiletto heels behind him clutched fingers of distaste around his gut. The sound was a cold memory of Martina. He turned around. Mike strode out in front of Kelsey, his smile wider than Buckingham Palace as Kelsey jogged behind trying to keep up. Her face was a picture of shock. Mike had either just given her a kiss she wouldn’t forget or slapped her ass. Jack didn’t want to contemplate which, but he liked Mike Scott already.
Sliding behind the wheel, Jack gunned the engine and stole a glance at Sienna as she looked out the side window. God, he wished things were different.
He faced the windshield just as Mike passed him in his car to lead the way to the pub. He pulled out of the parking space and followed on behind.
“If your ex-wife does want to fight for custody, Jack, there’s only so much she can do at this stage.”
As they sat in The Barge pub garden, Jack turned from watching the canal boats pass beside them and looked at Mike. “Which means?”
Mike blew out a breath. “First of all, her sobriety needs to be confirmed, whether by talking to her AA counselor, her sponsor, or whomever else I decide I want evidence from. Plus, we need to see where she’s living, where she intends to stay with your kids if she’s allowed access. She’d been missing in action for twelve months, made no effort to contact them. With all that and what you’ve told me of your ex-wife’s reputation in the community where she lived before she disappeared, this is will be a lengthy process—despite her claim that she can have her daughters back because the year is up. It doesn’t work that way.”
Jack shook his head and pushed his half-eaten ham, eggs, and potatoes away from him. The food was delicious but sat heavy in his stomach.
“I’d be a lot happier if you said there’s a good chance she won’t get joint custody, period. I don’t want her even visiting the girls without my supervision.” He curled his hand around his pint glass. “You need to know something.”
Mike, Kelsey, and Sienna turned to face him as though bound by invisible strings. “Martina might no longer have an alcohol problem nor live a life jumping from one bloke’s bed to the next…” Jack inhaled a heavy breath. “But she always did go after what she wanted with single-minded determination. I can’t imagine that has changed.”
Mike narrowed his eyes. “Meaning?”
“Meaning perhaps she could still get out of control. Her violence was always directed at me and was usually carried out under the influence, but the day she struck Katy was the day I wanted her out of my life for good.”
Sienna sucked in a breath. “You never told me—”
He looked at her. “I’m not proud of the fact I was too preoccupied to notice just how bad things were.”
Mike sat back in his chair and picked up his pint of beer. “I have more than enough reason to believe no judge in the land would grant her preference over an award-winning journalist who gave it all up to be there for his four-year-old twins. It’s a done deal.”
Hope flickered, albeit dully, in Jack’s heart. He wanted to believe that if Martina didn’t play ball, it would be cut-and-dry in his favor. But he dared not go there. Not yet. “We’ll see.”
“There’s no ‘we’ll see’ about it, my friend.”
Kelsey tutted loudly, and Jack looked at her. “What?”
Her cool green gaze met his. “As much as I hate to admit it, if Mike says you have nothing to worry about, you don’t. He always delivers on his promises. Always.”
Mike’s face split with a wide grin. “Thanks, Kelse. That must’ve hurt.”
“Shut up,” she said, scowling.
Sienna spoke up beside Jack. “Oh, God, don’t you two start again. Jack’s going to run for the hills if you carry on much more today.”
Jack smiled. “So, in the meantime, I should at least see Martina again and hear what she has to say, right? Because as of now, she’s neither done nor said anything that I can argue with.” He took a drink. “Long may it continue.”
Mike bobbed his head. “Frankly, the courts would prefer that you and your ex-wife sort out visitation arrangements on your own. But if you can’t resolve it between yourselves, my hands could be tied unless she does something that constitutes breaking the law. It’s within her rights of parental responsibility to apply for child access; then it’s in the judge’s discretion to administer a formal assessment of what is in your children’s best interests.”
Sienna squeezed Jack’s fingers, and he turned around in surprise. She smiled, but worry was clear in her eyes. “Just be careful, okay? I want the twins to be happy. And you. Everything else is insignificant. You’re doing your best without exposing the twins to anything. If t
his gets to court, Mike will make sure they understand that.”
Everything else is insignificant. Did she mean him? Her? Them? For a moment, Jack just stared at her, willing his heart rate to slow. None of this was her fault, and he hoped to God Sienna was out of Martina’s firing line if the time came for his ex-wife to show her true intentions.
He covered her hand with his. “Thanks.”
She kept smiling but eased her hand from his and sipped her wine. Jack sat back in his chair as the lawyers started discussing something else, their conversation fading into the background as he focused on Sienna’s pretty profile. She’d been putting on a good enough show for her friends, but Jack knew she wasn’t altogether herself. Hadn’t been ever since Martina had reentered his life…and was now infiltrating Sienna’s. The weight hung around him like a heavy dark cloud. One too difficult to shake off, no matter what she—or Mike, for that matter—said.
He watched her put her wineglass down on the table with a seemingly decisive clunk. When she looked back at him, her eyes shone with fervor, and her cheeks flushed.
Jack firmly held her gaze, then looked at each face around the table. They all turned to look at him. “I’d be okay about Sienna’s shop, you know, as long as I didn’t think Martina wouldn’t use it against me—or her.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Sienna said. “I don’t let anything happen to the people I care about. Not anymore.”
Inscrutable tears shined in her eyes, and she looked past his shoulder. He drained his glass. Why now? Why did a woman like Sienna Lloyd, who wore her heart on her sleeve, who was more honest than a damn monk, have to be dragged in the middle of Martina’s reappearance? All that he’d put her through, yet here she was. Still by his side, still trying to help.
“So…first things first,” she continued. “You let Martina say what she needs to say. Once you know what you’re dealing with, you’ll take it from there. Deal?”
“You,” she’d said. No mention of “we” this time. Unease rippled through Jack, but he pushed it away. No more running. No more waiting. He already knew what he was dealing with when it came to Sienna, and it was time to finally cut the string he’d been dangling her from and do right by her.
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
Chapter Twenty
“GOTCHA.”
“Got who?” Seated at the desk across from Jack’s, Steve raised his eyebrow.
“The landlord who owns three side-by-side properties along Bourton Way,” Jack replied.
“You still looking into that?”
“Yep, and now I’m glad I did.” He slapped his notepad down on the desk. “The son of a bitch has plans for those properties I’m pretty sure were not fully disclosed when he applied for planning permission.”
Steve scooted forward on his chair. “Yeah? Do you want tell me about it?”
Jack grinned. “Not yet. There’s someone else I need to speak to first.”
“That someone wouldn’t happen to be Sienna Lloyd, by any chance?”
“Might be.”
Steve laughed. “You ol’ dog! Should’ve listened to those rumors that you two had a thing going on. The last time you stormed out of here after Sienna, I thought things were going to get messy…not down and dirty.”
Jack laughed and reached for his cell phone. “You, my friend, are a bad man. She’s a real lady who doesn’t do down and dirty.”
“I believe you…” He winked. “Millions wouldn’t. Fair play to you, mate. You two go for it. That girl deserves some happiness.”
Jack shook his head and dialed Sienna’s number. It kicked to voicemail.
He frowned at the phone. He hadn’t managed to reach her all morning, and her car had already been gone from the driveway when he’d left for work. Tension knotted his shoulders, and he glanced at the wall clock. It was now close to noon. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how little he’d seen or heard from her since the pub lunch with Kelsey and Mike. As far as he knew, she’d have been at the shop as usual on a Thursday morning. Then again, didn’t he know less and less of what Sienna was thinking and doing?
Steve got up from his desk, leaving Jack alone. Making a snap decision, Jack dialed Kelsey’s number. The phone rang four times, five times…
He cursed and was about to hang up when she answered. “Hello, Kelsey Morgan speaking.”
“Kelsey, it’s Jack.”
“Hello.”
Her tone was cool, aloof. Jack frowned. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“No.”
“Right.” Something was different with Kelsey. The usual teasing tone of her voice was gone, leaving pure business attitude in its wake. “Is Sienna with you by any chance?”
“No.”
“She’s not answering her phone.”
“Oh.”
What the hell is going on here? “Kelsey?”
“Yes?”
“Where is she?”
“Why?”
Jack’s shoulders stiffened. “Has something happened? I didn’t see her car this morning—”
“She’s gone away for a few days. See you soon.”
“Wait! Where? Where’s she gone?” Jack gripped the phone, a horrible sense of foreboding stealing through him. “Kelsey?”
She huffed out a sigh. “London. She’s in London. Just let her do this, Jack.”
“Do what?” He glanced toward the office door, willing himself to stay seated and not run through it and straight into his car.
“She’s in London looking at her options. She has a friend—”
“Who can give her a job. She mentioned something about him to me a while ago.”
“Good. Then you know everything you need to know.”
“Bull…” He closed his eyes. “Why now? Why is she looking into a job in London now when she’s decorated the shop room, sent out fliers, and told every single one of her customers she’ll be opening again soon?”
Silence.
“Why now, Kelsey?”
“Jack, don’t do this to me, okay? Sienna is my friend. I’m not going to sit by and let her get her heart broken when it’s taken this bloody long to get her to realize a date won’t kill her.”
Jack’s heart picked up speed. “Get her heart broken? What…is it because of me that she’s left?”
“Of course it is. Why else would she ever leave Potterford if it wasn’t that the prospect of staying here filled her with more heartache than going? You’ve got to sort your stuff out and leave Sienna out of it. You’re not hers to have. Not yet. When you are, you go find her, but don’t you dare mess up what she can find in London. Don’t you dare.”
The line buzzed dead in his ear.
He tossed the phone on the desk, frustration blurring the edges of his vision. “Goddammit.”
“Hi, Jack. Bad time?”
He snapped his head up. “What are you doing here?”
Martina stepped closer and brushed her red-painted lips across his before he could stop her. “I thought I’d treat you to lunch.”
Jack pulled her hands from his face and held them in a firm grip. “Don’t.”
She glanced around her, her eyes gleaming with triumph. “What? Don’t you kiss hello?”
Jack stood, looking around to see the curiosity etched on his co-workers’ faces despite their best efforts to feign interest in the papers in front of them or their phones or the damn photocopier.
“You shouldn’t be here.” He gripped her elbow and marched her toward the exit. They walked outside, and he spun her to face him. “What do you want?”
She smiled and lifted her hands to his lapels, moving across to his tie…
Jack snatched her hands away and held her at arm’s length. “Martina, for crying out loud. What do you think you’re doing?”
“There’s no need to be like this. I just want us—”
“There is no us. Now, what do you want?”
A slow blush spread from the low V of her shirt up to her neck,
covering her face in reddened anger. Her eyes turned from puppy to predator in seconds.
“You owe me this, Jack.” She glared. “I mean it. I can’t lose you a second time.”
He released her and pushed his fingers into his hair. Held them there. “I don’t believe it.”
“You’d better believe it, because I’m deadly serious. I want my family back. It’s time for me to settle down.”
“For God’s sake. I’m in love with another woman, I—”
“You’re in love with her?” Martina mouth twisted. “How can you be? You barely know her.”
He dropped his hand then raised it, palm up. “I know her enough to know she’s good for me, Martina. She makes me believe in things that I thought you’d forever tainted.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’d tainted? I was struggling, Jack. How can you say that to me?”
He closed his eyes. “You’re right. We both hurt each other enough to whittle love away beyond recognition. I’d lost faith in whether it could ever exist again for me.”
“So, you agree—”
He opened his eyes. “But what have I ever said or done to make you think there would ever be a second chance with us?”
“Maybe it was too much to hope it could happen straight away. But I know in my heart it’s only a matter of time before you’ll want me back. To be a mother to your children. Especially now your precious lover from next door has gone missing.” Icy laughter burst from her mouth.
He trembled with rage, his mind whirling. “Sienna hasn’t gone ‘missing.’ She’s away on business. It will take more than the likes of you to scare a woman like her.”
“How about the likes of her shop? Nothing could have been more perfect than to find out you’re sleeping with a woman who intends to run a sex shop from her damn living room. Who in their right mind is going to let four-year-old children around that stuff? I should find Sienna myself and thank her for making this so damn easy.”
Jack gritted his teeth. “Just get out of here. If you want to shake someone down, go hassle your damn lawyer because now you’re getting nothing from me. Absolutely nothing.”
She stared at him, her cold green eyes boring into his. “One way or another, I will. You have a simple choice: you either bring them up with me or you lose them. You decide.” She moved to walk away toward her car.
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