Blackmail & Lace

by Tracy A. Ward

  I shoved the brochures back where I’d found them and swiftly swept up the broken glass and flower petals. Then I stood and dumped it all in the trash. By the time I turned to face him, Adam was standing too. I made one last plea. “Come with me to Swiss Mountain, just until the storm is over. Then you’ll never have to see me again.”

  “Again, why?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  He crossed his arms. “Try me.”

  I ran through the options in my head, all of which were based in truth. Only each led to more questions. And none of them were questions I could answer.

  “I can’t say, but I am going to make it easy for you. We’re running out of time.” My gaze remained on his as I pointed above his head. “It’s obvious you’re concerned about the camera. Wonder why that is?” I didn’t need an answer and he didn’t give one. “What do you think might happen if someone were to anonymously leak a particular segment of surveillance footage…like, the first twenty seconds after you arrived?”

  The steel of his gaze became unsettling, but I refused to be intimidated.

  “Are you blackmailing me?”

  I got out two shot glasses, poured tequila in both. “I said I would do anything. You’ve left me no other option.”

  He pointed his index finger in my face. “The truth will come out and you’re going to end up looking like a media whore, doing anything for attention.”

  “Will I?” I tossed back one shot and handed the other over to Adam. When he refused, I drank his too, my adrenaline too high to feel the burn. “Not before the narrative’s set and the worst of the damage done. You’ll have become an embarrassment to your firm, caused your star client more negative publicity. And you’ll have made people doubt the truth of your allegations against his agent, Michael Gold.” I poured another shot. “I would never make false claims. How that video looks isn’t a lie.” I smiled and raised my glass. “Shall we drink to being snowed in?”

  “Tell me how much you need, I’ll write you a check, and then I can forget we ever met.”

  I don’t know why his words stung, but they did. I drank the third shot. “What makes you think I need money?”

  “Number one motivation for blackmail. Unless you’re some kind of fanatic who’s unhappy with the verdict in one of my cases. With that in mind, how do I know this isn’t some kind of set-up?”

  “I guess you don’t.” I poured a fourth shot and held up my glass again. “If you would have come with me when I asked, it never would’ve come to this. And we both would be getting good and properly laid.”

  He took the shot from my fingers before it reached my lips. “You sound disappointed that isn’t the case.” He downed the glass. “Getting drunk might ease your conscience tonight, and lie or no lie, you’ll still have to live with what you’re doing tomorrow. Might as well get used to the feeling now.” Adam looked at the empty glass, turned it in the light to see it refracting within the swirls at the bottom. “This blackmail thing…you’re bluffing.”

  “Is that a fact? Or a hope and a prayer?”

  “You’re just a barmaid. You probably don’t have access to the security cameras.”

  Just a barmaid. He made it sound like I was dirt on his seven-hundred-dollar shoes. Elitist prick. Like the egomaniacal doctors I despised who talked down to their nurses.

  Worse yet, he was calling my bluff. Which was exactly what I’d been afraid of. But if Adam Holder knew the real reason, that I needed to spend the next few days snowed in with him to get my dead sister, a girl he probably didn’t even remember, out of some kind of purgatory, he’d think me plain certifiable.

  Unless…

  Unless I wanted him to think I was crazy.

  Crazy worked to my advantage. It made me the wildcard. Crazy was flat-out unpredictable.

  Resolve settled over me like a warm blanket. With a straight face and unshakable determination, I met Adam’s eyes. “If you were so confident this whole thing is a bluff, you wouldn’t have used a term like probably.”

  A little smile turned up the corners of his mouth. He nodded the concession.

  Going against my initial impulse, I put all my cards on the table. “Does the name Rebecca Montgomery mean anything to you?” When all I got for an answer was a vacant stare, I went on. “You would’ve been a junior, maybe a senior. She was a student athletic—”

  “—trainer,” he finished. “I never knew her last name. Yeah, I remember.”

  “She was my sister.”

  Again, the stare, but Adam didn’t miss my meaning. “Was.”

  “She passed away a few years ago.” I took the piece of paper from my pocket, unfolded it and handed it over to him. “Her dying wish was that I check all the boxes on this list. In her place.”

  “A Haitian High Priestess? Is there such a thing?”

  I nodded. “The kicker is this. In order to fulfill a death-bed promise and bust Rebecca out of limbo…”

  His eyes shot to mine. “Limbo?” Disbelief laced his voice.

  “I know. I had a hard time with it at first, too.”

  “Only at first? You really believe that?”

  “I sure do. Now I have to fulfill the bucket list she never got to. Next up on that list is you. Adam Holder. The guy she crushed on in college but didn’t have the guts to go for.”

  His chin lowered. “I’d say you’ve got enough guts for the both of you.”

  “So unless you want that video released…the one of you playing a game of grab-ass with an unsuspecting victim, the torn shirt and you getting cold-cocked and ending up on your tail, you’d better follow me to Swiss Mountain.” I took the list from his hand, walked out from behind the bar and began shutting off the lights. “And just remember, if I’m crazy enough to believe this,” I held the list high in the air, “and I assure you after tonight I most definitely do, I’m crazy enough to release that tape. Like I said before. I’ll do anything to save my sister.”

  Chapter Six

  Adam

  If there was one thing a crazy woman disliked being confronted with, it was the fact that she was crazy. As much as I tried to pin the label on her, there was just something about Grayson’s vibe that made me think she might be one of the most well-adjusted people I’d ever met—which made the fact that she believed all this nonsense about Rebecca being stuck in limbo all the more difficult to swallow. But as I watched her finish closing down the bar, I came to the only realization I could, considering all factors. I couldn’t gamble on the consequences if the video was released. The ramifications to the firm I could deal with. It might put a kink in my plans but the truth would eventually come out. But not before casting a pall on the fresh conclusion to the Smith case. And Michael Gold didn’t deserve any sort of break in the negative publicity he was currently receiving.

  A distant second, but still on my mind, was the fact that my family was expecting me. Tonight. I’d have to buck up and pay hell to my cousins. They’d already given me enough shit about being Mr. Big & Important. Ditching Grandma again was one thing. Ditching her to hole up in the mountains with a beautiful but possibly off-kilter woman was another. They’d never understand.

  Grandma Rosie might though. Having descended from Navajo blood, if there was one person who understood the importance in honoring the wishes of the dead and respected that there was a spirit life after death, it was my Grandma. Though she’d taken me and my cousins to festivals and artistic gatherings as children, to me it was more about running wild and less about learning the Navajo Way. To this day, Rosie was sorely disappointed that more of those traditions hadn’t been repeated in the lives of her descendants. But there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that if I explained Grayson’s plight, Grandma would insist I accompany Grayson to Swiss Mountain.

  Still, it wasn’t only fear of public embarrassment that had me on the cusp of giving in to Grayson’s blackmail demands. There was also curiosity. I might’ve considered Grandma Rosie eccentric and maybe sometimes a l
ittle radical for believing the things she did, but I’d never call her crazy. Grayson wasn’t either. She was shooting me straight, believing wholeheartedly in the predicament of her dead sister.

  And what if she was right?

  Who knew what happened after death? There was just enough of Rosie’s blood in me to admit there were many things in this life that couldn’t be explained.

  Though I hadn’t thought about Rebecca in years, she was the reason Darius Harding missed the block that resulted in the tackle, causing my career ending injury. Thoughts of her inevitably led to thoughts of him, and guys like him weren’t worth a single second of my time. But I thought about her now. And wondered. What happened to Rebecca after I graduated? Most of all though, I wanted to know how and why she died so young.

  From the looks of the storm, I’d have plenty of time to get that and all my other questions answered. And if I was being truly honest with myself, after the kiss we’d shared, if I was being forced to wait out a snowstorm with anyone, blackmailer or not, Grayson Montgomery ranked at the top of my list.

  With the lights off, except those required for security, I followed Grayson outside. Standing under the outdoor awning, I pulled my car keys from my pocket while she consulted her phone then punched in a code. A red light blinked three times and stopped. After that, she double checked the doors to make sure they were secure.

  Grayson turned to me, shifting from one foot to the other, bracing herself against the cold and the stinging pellets of snow singeing us as we stood beneath the awning. “What’s the verdict, counselor?”

  “Leave your car.”

  Catching what my statement implied, a grin spread across her face, bringing those dimples out in full force.

  “After three shots,” I continued, “you’re not fit to drive in optimum conditions, much less these. And that’s not mentioning your nearly dead battery.”

  “Hold on, I need to get a couple of things from the Jeep.”

  I warmed up the rental while Grayson gathered her things. While waiting, I placed a quick call to Grandma, letting her know I wouldn’t make it in tonight. Then for safety, I placed a call to my cousin Ty Beckinsale, a former Secret Service agent. Just because I didn’t truly believe Grayson was crazy didn’t mean I had any intention of letting her get away with blackmail. Turning her over to the cops wasn’t an option. I’d have to take justice into my own hands.

  “Surprise, surprise,” Ty said in greeting. “Dinner’s ready and everyone’s here. Except you.”

  I didn’t have time for his shit. “I need a favor and you owe me big.” Double big if you counted that not only did I get Ty in with the best physical therapist after he’d been shot, but he’d also met the woman of his dreams. I just hoped he recognized what a good thing he’d found with Faith Artino.

  “Grayson Montgomery,” I said, watching her dig through her Jeep in my passenger side mirror. “I need you to find out everything you can on her. And I don’t mean how many parking tickets or how many times a week she volunteers at the soup kitchen. I want dirt.”

  Ty dialed his voice down a couple of decibels. “Do I even want to know why?”

  “Probably not. Just let me know what you find.”

  “Okay. I’ll make a couple of calls.”

  “Exactly, Ty. Calls. Nothing in writing.”

  Seconds later, Grayson threw a bag in the second row seat then opened the passenger door, joining me inside. She placed a wooden box on the floorboard at her feet. Then she melted against the leather interior. “Ahhh…seat warmers. Thank you for turning them on for me.” She unzipped her coat and slipped it off.

  I pointed to the box, hoping it wasn’t what I thought it was. “What the hell is that?”

  Avoiding my eyes, she laid her coat over the box. “Pretend she’s not here.”

  She.

  Grayson referred to the box as she, as if a living breathing woman were trapped inside rather than cremated remains.

  “Do you take her with you everywhere?”

  “Pretty much.”

  I was beginning to rethink the crazy.

  I shook my head and programmed the GPS for the Swiss Mountain address Grayson gave me. After that, I put the car in gear and followed the map.

  Minutes seemed like hours in the silence as I drove. The farther up the mountain we went, the more treacherous the roads. I analyzed everything Grayson had said. Until my mind got stuck on one thing.

  “If you would have come with me when I asked, we’d both be getting good and properly laid.”

  In the heat of the moment, I hadn’t given this statement its due. Or her disappointed tone when she’d said it. Not that it wasn’t true enough, or any big revelation. Grayson had tried an age-old trick to get what she wanted. Truth was, she wasn’t the only one disappointed. And now that we were headed into seclusion during a winter storm not even the paparazzi would risk, I wasn’t too keen on seeing that option removed from the table.

  From the time the ink dried on LaKendrick Smith’s retainer, all eyes around the country had been on me. But working around the clock and having zero downtime had actually done me a favor. It put an end to a relationship that had reached its expiration long ago. It also marked the beginning of a sexual dry spell I’d been too busy to rectify until today, day one of the sabbatical Allan Stovall had urged to ward off burnout.

  Maybe that’s why I’d been so hell-bent, running into the bar rather than calling Madi as I passed. Saving an old friend from her forgetful self soon became my number one priority, especially when I knew there’d likely be a reward for my heroic efforts. Being with someone I knew and trusted was simple, uncomplicated, and safe. Better still, there were no expectations on where our relationship was headed. It was headed exactly where we both wanted it…nowhere.

  Catching Grayson unawares put a huge wrinkle in my subconscious plan. Kissing her had shown me exactly what I’d been missing. Worse yet, it had made me crave more. Of her. I’d been semi-hard since I’d woken up to my own personal nurse, at my service.

  Which left me with only one thing to do now.

  I pulled off to the side of the road and put the car in park.

  Grayson flicked a glance my direction. “What’s wrong?”

  The snow had become thicker the higher into the mountains we went. Just to be safe, I made a show of pushing buttons, putting the SUV in four wheel drive. Then I turned to her and said, “I’ve agreed to go along with your demands, but now I have conditions of my own.”

  She adjusted her seatbelt and turned to face me too, notching her left knee against the console. “Maybe you should Google the rules. This is blackmail, not quid pro quo.”

  “Rule number one about blackmail is there are no rules. You left your car behind. I’d bet your phone’s buried deep inside a pocket somewhere and not where you can reach it quickly. I’m guessing if you can’t get to your phone, you can’t get access to that video.”

  Realizing she might’ve been too trusting, Grayson swallowed.

  “I’m willing to play along with your ‘Free Rebecca’ plight, but right now, you need me more than I need you. So we’re going to do this my way.”

  “Okay.” She licked half-smiling lips. “I’ll play along. What are your demands?”

  “I wake up like clockwork at 5 a.m. I expect coffee brought to me in bed by 5:10 and a hot breakfast by 5:30.”

  “Those are your demands?” She gaped, then snorted a laugh. “You really don’t ever loosen up, do you?”

  “There’s another thing,” I added. “I want you naked when you serve me.”

  And I also wanted revenge.

  Chapter Seven

  Grayson

  Demands? Was he kidding?

  “Aren’t you forgetting one little detail?” I asked.

  His eyes scanned my face, then lowered to the purple lace camisole I wore beneath my now button-less flannel shirt. His gaze lingered on my breasts and I remembered the feel of his hands traveling over my body. Radiant heat sprea
d through my belly and down, warming the places he’d yet to touch. I’d had lovers before, though they were few and far between. Not one of them had ever turned me on with as little as a gaze the way Adam did.

  He spoke, breaking my focus. His words came out tense and husky. “What’s the detail?”

  “You rejected me.”

  His eyes jolted back to mine. “I didn’t reject you. I rejected the timing.”

  I grinned. “That’s your story?”

  “Had you not gone Ghost Whisperer meets The Proposal on me—”

  I held out my hand, palm up. “You need to hand in your man card for knowing what either of those shows are.”

  He shrugged. “I’m secure.”

  “And you called me a groupie. Ewww.”

  Adam cocked his head. “Why do you find the term groupie so unusually insulting?”

  “There was this certain doctor during med school all the girls went nuts over—”

  Adam did a double-take. “You went to med school?”

  I’d never meant to share personal stories but something about Adam loosened my tongue. Maybe it was all the research I’d done, planning for this day. Made me feel like I knew him. “I’m deferring my last year of residency.”

  “Why?”

  The bottom edge of my boot made a clink clink sound as it tapped against the urn.

  “Just when I had myself convinced you weren’t actually crazy.”

  I reached over to pinch the underside of Adam’s bicep, quickly discovering the only thing there to pinch was hard muscle. “That’s not fair.”

  He grabbed for my hand. “It’s not unfair either. You took that angle for a reason, didn’t you? No one can guess what crazy will do. It’s unpredictable and rather brilliant on your part.” Adam studied my face long and hard. “How old are you, Grayson?”

  I didn’t know why, but I’d always hated this question. Maybe it was because of people’s assumptions when they heard the answer.

  “I’m twenty-five.”

  I could tell by his expression, Adam was doing the math.