by Jayne Blue
And Jack. The accusation in his eyes tore at me, but it’s what he did next that gutted me. He had straightened his back and brushed past me, never saying a word. Did he hate me that much already? I had the urge to stop him. Beg him to let me explain. But what are you supposed to do when ninety percent of what people say about you is the truth?
I walked past Miranda’s bedroom door. Seth lay face down across the mattress. Passed out again. If I left now, I could be halfway to California before he even woke up. I walked into the room and stood over him.
Seth.
He was as much a victim of Miranda’s as I had been. If he grew up someday, if he stopped blaming everyone else for his own shortcomings, if he stopped believing how special his mother told him he was ... he might have a chance. I could pity him, almost. In another lifetime, under different circumstances, maybe we could have even been friends.
“I’m sorry, I guess,” I said as I stood at the edge of the bed. “I hope you find what you’re looking for, too, Seth.”
I turned to walk away. His fingers closed around my wrist and squeezed. I stumbled as my heart raced and he pulled me back as he rose from the bed.
“My Tora,” Seth said; he landed on the “T” hard. His head weaved as he righted himself; his eyes were red rimmed and unfocused. He kept a death grip on my wrist and my fingers started to tingle. I twisted my arm to try to loosen his grip but he held on, finally drawing me down until I sat in his lap. Seth reeked of whiskey and vomit.
“Make me come,” he said as his head snapped back. He tried to focus and failed. He pawed at my shirt. I’d changed into a plain white t-shirt and jeans. Victoria’s clothes again.
“Seth,” I said, trying to stand. He held me down and found the hem of my shirt. He slid a hand under it and grabbed my right breast, squeezing hard enough that I cried out. “You’re hurting me, Seth. Let go.”
“Mine,” he said, moving to the other breast and squeezing just as hard. “You’re mine. They were all looking at you tonight. Did you see that? Dried up old Ramer. Jack too. Don’t think I don’t see it, Tora. He wants to fuck you, did you know that?”
My heart beat a furious pace behind my rib cage. Seth had to feel it too. He twisted my nipple until tears came to my eyes.
“Jack, Jack, Jack!” Seth said. Mercifully, he pulled his hand out from under my shirt but he didn’t let me off his lap. “I should let him watch. We should have him over here and I should fuck you loud and with the door open because you’re MINE!”
“Seth,” I said. Every alarm in my body went off. He was bigger, he was stronger. He could hurt me.
Seth stood. He let go of my arm for a split second and I lunged away, meaning to run for the door. In his condition, he would pass out again any second. He had to. But he was still quick enough to grab me by the waist before I took two steps. Seth picked me up and threw me to the bed in a heap. He landed on top of me and caged my head with his hands. I was pinned under the weight of him, barely able to breathe. His whiskey-laced breath came hot in my face.
“My Tora,” he said. “I’m going to give you everything, you know that? Sexiest bitch I’ve ever seen and you’re mine.”
“Seth,” I struggled beneath him as he wedged his knee between my thighs, forcing them open. Thank God I’d changed out of the dress. I hoped the barrier of denim would be enough to thwart him in his current state.
“Fuckers!” He yelled it at the top of his lungs and I winced. “Didn’t even show up. Sent a fucking card.”
“Who?” I said, trying desperately to distract him.
“A card signed by his secretary!” Seth put his forehead down on the mattress and his muscles went slack. It lasted for just a second though and he reared his head again.
“Fucking Pagano!”
Pagano. Pagano?
“George Pagano!” Seth heaved himself off the bed and staggered backward until he hit the wall and sank down to his knees.
My arms were numb, my chest ached but I managed to get myself off the bed. I inched my way toward the door, hoping to make it there before he lunged at me again. I stepped back, out of his line of sight. His head bobbed as he stared straight ahead.
“He has no idea what I know. He thinks his secrets died when my mom did. I’ll bury him, Tora. In the ground.”
Seth did make a lunge for me but I stepped back. He crawled forward, his eyes finding me again, filled with hate.
“What secrets?” Anything to take the focus off me.
Seth laughed and brought himself up so he rested his weight on his ankles.
“He’d be doing life if it weren’t for us. Not just my mother ...” Seth thumped his chest.
The path was clear between me and the door. Three quick steps and I doubted Seth could catch me now. But my blood ran cold when he said it. I knew the answers somehow but made him say it.
“What did you do, Seth?”
“Fucking lying, sleazy, shiny-suited drug dealer,” Seth said, then started to laugh. “That’s what he is. They had him sewn up. With a big red bow. You know what the penalty is for that kind of drug deal? The rest of his life is what.”
“You defended George Pagano?” My mind reeled. I knew the name. Somewhere. A client of the Crane Law Firm. I remember seeing it on billing statements. And he’d been at the dinner party the other night, leering at me with the mayor.
“And the rest of those ass hats over at Crane couldn’t have pulled any of it off. They were too afraid of him. It was so easy, Tora.”
“You framed somebody else, didn’t you, Seth?” I said. “Was it your idea? You are so clever, baby. Pagano owes you big time, doesn’t he?” I stepped forward and cradled Seth’s head to my waist. His arms went slack and he leaned against me, his weight pushing me back until I steadied myself. Hot tears stung my eyes.
“Two-bit biker punk didn’t know what the fuck just happened,” Seth said. “Walked into that courtroom all swagger and attitude. Shit his pants pretty quick after that. I can’t believe he took the rap for all of it.”
My fingers wound tight into Seth’s hair as I pulled him even closer to me. Could I snap his neck? Was I strong enough? My hands trembled as I steadied my breathing. Not yet. Almost. You have to find out how. You have to figure out how to prove it.
“Great Wolves, M.C.” Seth spat, exaggerating the letters. “Bet he gets it doggie style now.”
I tore myself away from him and staggered back toward the door. Seth didn’t stop me. I don’t think he even realized I was still in the room.
Chapter Twenty Two
Jack
She got to me. Tora worked her way into my heart. Jesus, it hurt. And I hated myself for letting it. I let them in too deep, too fast and it’s why my arrangement with Petra Vallin’s service worked most of the time.
But Tora ... Victoria. I’d known she had been lying since the second I met her. So why the hell did I feel such a gaping hole in my heart when I thought about her? She had been hurt, and badly. Miranda figured in somehow. I knew it with everything that I was. R. J. knew a lot but not everything. Only Tora could fill in the rest of it.
She was probably long gone now. I checked my phone a dozen times waiting for the frantic call from Seth. Had I seen her? Had I talked to her? Had she told me where she was going?
Nine a.m. came and went and still nothing. At ten, the concierge rung my room to tell me my car waited for me downstairs. Seth had ordered a service. I said I needed fifteen minutes.
I took my black Armani out of the garment bag and laid it on the bed. She couldn’t still plan to go through with it. Seth had probably just forgot to cancel the service in the confusion of her leaving. Still, something didn’t seem right. The Ice Maiden event planner would have taken care of something like this.
I got dressed.
“It’s a beautiful day for a wedding, don’t you think?” The driver gave me a cheery smile as he opened the back door. I shot him a salute and got in. So the driver didn’t know anything was up. When we pulled away fro
m the Drake I dialed R.J.
“You know what the hell’s going on?” he answered in lieu of hello.
I laughed. “I’m calling to ask you the same thing.”
“You didn’t say anything to Seth last night?” R.J. asked.
“Nope,” I said. “I assumed Tora ... uh, whatever her name is would deal with it.”
“Yeah. I kinda thought that too. What are you going to do if she didn’t?”
“I really don’t know,” I said. “But R.J., do me a favor. Just keep everything under your hat, okay? I have no idea what we’re walking into and I don’t want anyone getting hurt more than they have to. Just let me take the lead.”
“Of course,” R.J. said. “Privilege still holds, Jack. This isn’t my news to tell.”
“Thanks.”
The driver wasn’t wrong. It was a beautiful day for a wedding. Clear blue April skies opened up once we got over the river. Miranda’s cherry blossoms picked today to peak as we drove up the tree-lined drive. When we pulled up alongside the front door, Liv the Ice Maiden had a smile on her face.
“It’s a glorious day!” she said. “Look at how dashing you are. You’re going to upstage the groom, Mr. Manning. Better be careful or I’ll make you my next project.”
“Not enough money in the world,” I said as I stepped into the foyer.
Seth had invited only about fifty people, most of them friends of Miranda’s or party kingmakers. A knot formed in my chest as I walked into the living room-turned-aisle. Seth had no idea today might be the last nail in the coffin of his fledgling campaign. I needed to talk to him or her. I couldn’t say nothing.
“Mr. Manning,” Liv sang behind me. “The bride wondered if you could spare a few minutes for her. I really hope you can. She seemed a little jittery this morning. Nothing unusual. I’ve seen it before.”
“Oh, I’m sure you haven’t.” I couldn’t resist. She pointed upstairs with her clipboard.
“Third door on the right at the top of the stairs. She’s decent but knock anyway.”
“Right,” I said as I made my ascent.
I stood in front of Tora’s door for a moment. I raised my hand to knock but let it hang there. Despite all of it I still wanted her. The hurt in her eyes as I brushed past her last night tore at me. R.J. was right – she was very, very good.
I knocked softly and stepped in before she could answer.
Tora sat at a vanity table; she looked up from the reflection in the mirror. She flinched, blinking rapidly; she rose and turned to face me.
“Thanks for seeing me,” she said in a clear voice. Whatever else she was, Tora Blake wasn’t afraid of me.
I crossed the room and went to her. She wore a fitted white dress cut straight across her chest; her ample breasts threatened to spill out the top, just thin spaghetti straps holding them up. The straight skirt came only to her knees. The dress was a stunner, classy. No way Seth picked it out.
“What the hell are you doing, Tora?” I said. I didn’t care if it wasn’t her name. She was Tora to me.
“It’s a nickname,” she said. Then she turned and pulled a single strand of pearls from the top of the dresser. “Can you help me?”
She held the pearls out and turned her back to me. I took them from her and stepped forward. Tora wore her hair up in a classic bun. I slipped the pearls around her neck and fastened them. I rested my hand on her shoulder and breathed her in. She looked at me in the mirror. My eyes were hooded and dark. She looked down and turned to face me again.
“Are you going through with this?” I asked.
“Are you going to stop it?” she answered.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t.”
“Can we sit?” She motioned to the bed. “Will you hear me out?”
“How do I know you’re not just going to lie to me?”
She sat on the edge of the bed and patted the space beside her. “Because you will. Because you’re the only person I haven’t lied to. You could have gone to Seth a thousand times to tell him what we’ve done and you didn’t. I’m not a whore Jack ... or maybe I am. But not the kind you think.”
“You’re married,” I said as I sat next to her.
“That’s what R.J. told you?” she asked.
“Tora,” I said. “I will listen to you. That’s all I’ll promise, okay? But don’t play coy or cute or do anything other than tell me the direct truth. I’ll know you’re lying and I swear to God I’m going to walk out of here and blow this whole thing up.”
She nodded. “Declan McLain isn’t my husband. He’s my father. He had me when he was seventeen years old. And he’s serving a life sentence for something he didn’t do. He’s been there since I was ten years old and now I know who’s responsible. Everything else R.J. told you was true.”
I covered my face with my hand. “Miranda.”
“Yes,” she said. “She was his lawyer. She was supposed to be the best. My father was part of a motorcycle club. The Great Wolves. They had – have – a reputation. Some of it is warranted. Miranda represented some of the members over the years. But something happened. I don’t know all of it yet. But I believe she framed my father to protect another client – someone she thought was more powerful.”
“Do you know who?”
She nodded. “I didn’t until last night. I’m going to ask you not to make me tell you who just now. Not yet.”
“Why Seth?” I said. “Where does he fit in?”
“He brought me access to Miranda. Then when she died he brought me access to her house. You were right, Jack. Miranda has a lot of secrets hidden here. And they’re not all mine.”
“What do you mean?” The hairs stood on the back of my neck.
“When I worked at Crane there was a rumor that Miranda took a lot of files with her when she left. There was some sort of falling out. When I didn’t find the things I needed on my dad at the office, I figured they had to be here. I found them. Finally I found them. In the attic. But your things are there too. Family photos. Your parents’ wedding album. There’s a computer up there that looks like it’s from the ’80s. It was your dad’s?”
The Amiga. Bubbling rage heated my blood. My father had found a way to open my soul on that clunky box of a computer. He spent hours, late into the night, working on reading software to help me make sense of letters that jumbled and turned on me. I took a breath, then another, until the red haze receded from my vision.
“So you’re telling me you think Miranda actually framed one of her own clients?”
“He wasn’t what they thought of him,” Tora said. “My dad. He saved me. For so many years it was just the two of us. I lost my mother, too, Jack. Not in the way you did but she wasn’t there. He was. That place is killing him. Little by little. Every day. He has no hope. I have to give it back to him.”
“And you think this con with Seth is going to give that back to him?”
She rubbed her thumb across the palm of her other hand. She was small, delicate, and yet made of steel. The rational part of my brain told me she could be conning me now. Why wouldn’t she? Except my heart said something else. I’d seen Tora when she was vulnerable, when she thought no one else was looking and the things I knew she saved only for me.
I think I loved her.
“What do you want from me?”
“Seth was involved,” she said. “He as much as admitted it to me last night. He was drunk or high or both. He doesn’t remember any of it this morning. I thought I was done. I thought I had enough to get started. I don’t, though. I still need him. I still need to stay close to him and I need you to let me. I need you to trust me.”
Oh, God. She wanted to go through with it. She wanted me to stand by and watch while she married Seth.
“I don’t have anything to give you in return and I understand that you don’t have any reason to trust me. I know what I’m asking you.”
“Tora, don’t do this. I can help you find another way. Don’t marry Seth. Don’t let him touch you. Don’t
let him think you’re his. Not for another second.”
Her eyes shone as she cocked her head and looked at me.
“There isn’t another way. Not when the stakes are this high. I promise you. He’s covered his tracks very carefully. But he’s slipping. Without Miranda around to tell him what to do he’s going to break all the way. And I have to be there. I have to be brave enough and so do you.”
It was killing me. Sitting this close to her. Listening to her convince me why I should let her walk into another man’s arms would kill me bit by bit and she knew it. And I had no answers for her. Dammit, I wished I did. Even from the grave, Miranda still took things away. I couldn’t prove it, either; I had only Tora’s word but in my heart I knew she was right. Miranda would have been too careful. Seth alone was fallible.
I pulled Tora into my arms and kissed her. I couldn’t stand not touching her anymore. Her body responded. Her hands went up into my hair and she sank into the kiss. She tasted so sweet. I put my hand on her thigh and she parted them, just like I’d started training her to do. I wanted to tear that dress from her body, leaving her naked beneath me forever.
She moaned against me and I slid a hand further up until I touched her silk panties. They were already soaked through. God, I couldn’t hold back. She could be lying. She could be nothing more than everyone said she was. I didn’t believe it or I didn’t care. I just wanted.
“Jack.”
When she gasped my name it undid me. I stood up and she came with me. I turned her and she bent over the bed. I put my hands on her thighs and slid her dress up over her hips. She held her ass high in the air as I pulled at her panties, dragging them down to her knees. Her sex was wet and swollen, already gaping for me as I fumbled with the zipper of my pants.
I was going to do it. I was going to fuck her and claim her and I didn’t care what anyone else said or thought. It was only about her.
“Do you want me?” I leaned forward and whispered in her ear.
