All Jacked Up (28 page)
Authors: Lorelei James
Tags: #Romance, #Contemporary, #Adult, #Western, #Red Hots!, #Contemporary Romance
Tittering and whispers.
Keely wanted to crawl into a hole and die. This situation was beyond any horror she’d ever encountered. Nothing would make these women be civil to her. They saw her as fresh off the farm meat and decided to cut her down to size, one petty, shallow little slice at a time.
Fight back.
No. She wouldn’t embarrass Jack in front of his colleagues, which meant no firing off rude suggestions. She’d suffer the humiliation with whatever dignity she could muster. But if Jack wanted to hang around with his vicious friends after dinner, she’d plead a headache and return to the room.
Don’t you mean slink off to your room like a whipped pup?
Backing down and biting her tongue was a new experience. These blowhards needed a serious smackdown, but Keely McKay couldn’t wield the verbal paddle tonight. Or any other night.
People started drifting into the banquet room. Keely didn’t budge, praying the pit vipers would slither off. Maybe she could regroup with others who weren’t so incredibly vile. But mostly she hoped Jack would come save her.
So much for her feminist mantra of not needing a man to rescue her.
Martine whispered loud enough for all her friends to hear. “I realize you’re used to hearing a dinner bell clank as a signal for chow time, but if you follow the herd you’ll realize they’re starting to serve dinner.”
“Thank you.”
You miserable, tight-assed sow.
“Or you can just come along with me since we’re sitting together.”
Sheer panic arose. She wasn’t sitting with Jack?
Martine’s lips curled into a sneer. “Oh, you poor thing. Didn’t Jack tell you? Typical of him, he’s so aloof and unconcerned for anyone except himself. At these events they separate the men and women. So 166
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the men can talk business and the women…well, you can imagine how fun it’ll be, us getting to know you over five dinner courses.”
Her stomach lurched. She doubted she’d be able to choke down a single bite.
And if Keely thought it couldn’t get worse, she was sadly mistaken.
Theresa asked if she chewed tobacco.
Reagan asked if she used hay as toothpicks.
Laura asked if she hunted and killed her own food.
Martine asked if she made all her own clothes.
After they tired of making fun of her, they took great joy in ferreting out how rural Keely was. They gasped upon hearing she’d never been to New York City. Or the Caribbean. Or the Orient. Or Europe.
She’d never heard of any of the clothing, shoe and handbag designers they yammered on about ad nauseum. She’d never attended an opera or a Broadway play or the ballet. When Keely admitted she’d been to an art opening—namely her brother Carter’s—they’d rolled their eyes. “Western” art wasn’t real art.
Keely hadn’t anticipated Martine’s snideness. But it’d gone beyond Jack being her former lover type of jealousy. And Keely didn’t understand why Martine bothered to engage in the “Kelly is a low class bumpkin” attack if she believed Keely so far beneath her social stratosphere.
The meal, the insults, the sheer horror of the night dragged on. And on.
During a pause in the speaker’s program, Keely retreated to the ladies room, debating on whether she should cut bait and run. When she exited the stall, Martine was freshening her lipstick at the sink.
Keely couldn’t muster a smile. Or even meet Martine’s cruel eyes in the mirror. She washed her hands slowly, hoping Martine would leave.
No such luck.
Martine waited while Keely dried her hands. Naturally, they appeared to be the only ones in the bathroom.
“You won’t hold onto him, you know.”
Keely didn’t respond.
“I know Jack told you about me. About us. I’m sure he also told you I left him for his partner. But I’ll bet your frumpy dress he didn’t cough up the truth about why I left the gorgeous, sexy, charming Jack Donohue for an older man?”
For money
hovered on the tip of Keely’s tongue.
Martine slithered closer and Keely forced herself to hold her ground. But she refused to look at her.
“Jack is a workaholic. I suspect he has something to prove because of his humble background. I didn’t mind his obsession with business when we were first together. He was so dynamic I forgave him.
Eventually I couldn’t continue to overlook the missed dinners. The broken plans. The ruined vacations. The last minute cancellations because he prioritized business over everything. He had few friends. He had
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nothing to do with his family. Jack is all about work. He will do absolutely anything to get ahead in this business.”
A strange tingle worked its way down Keely’s spine. Much as she hated to admit it, there was a lot of truth in that statement.
“When he deigned to spend time with me, he expected that time to be spent on my back in his bed.
Yes, Jack was an amazing lover, but I found his sexual appetite to be rather primitive and excessive. More kinky than I was willing to give him. I’ll bet he’s found that ‘anything goes’ dirty girl type of kink with you?”
Do not blush.
Martine sighed. “I can see by your stubborn silence you don’t believe me. I pity you. I’ve been where you are. I’m lucky Baxter could see I was unhappy whenever I went to Jack’s office and Jack wasn’t there.
Baxter treated me as I deserved, lavishing time and attention on me. He’s given me everything I’ve ever wanted. Baxter and I are well suited, which between us, bothered Jack far more than anything else about the situation. Jack knew no matter how much money he made or how successful he’d ever become, he’d always be trying to prove to everyone and to himself that he was good enough for me.”
Keely’s mouth fell open at Martine’s completely asinine assessment of Jack. But she finally met the snake eyes in the mirror. “You honestly believe if you and Jack would’ve stayed together, it would’ve been because he accepted he’d…married up?”
Her eyes were chips of ice. “Better than marrying down.” Those revulsion-filled eyes raked her head to toe. “Good God. Could you be any more of a country mouse? You don’t even know how to properly dress yourself for a business function. How embarrassing for Jack. He’s really scraping the bottom of the barrel with you, isn’t he?”
Bull’s-eye. Martine’s maliciousness torpedoed any remnant of Keely’s confidence.
“Don’t kid yourself he’ll actually go through with marrying you. Every year, it’s the same sad story.
Jack shows up at the conference with his latest piece of ass. Young. Hot. Oblivious. Everyone knows he’s trying to make me jealous. Trying to prove to his male colleagues what a stud he is. We all laugh. It’s so pathetic. I’m sure you noticed all the staring and whispering you attracted. This is a small community, and you’ll find no one will take the time to befriend you. What’s the point? This time next year you’ll be gone.”
Don’t cry. God, do not give this woman the satisfaction of seeing your tears
.
Martine rearranged wisps of her hair in the mirror. “I feel sorry for you. You’re as gullible as you look and you’ve fallen hard for Jack’s charm. My best advice is to keep that ring he’s given you. It’ll buy you a new horse or repairs on your truck or whatever pitiful thing you need after he dumps your mousy ass back in Wyoming.” She twirled on her heel and flounced out.
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Blood scorched Keely’s cheeks. A sick feeling of betrayal and finality settled deep in her bones. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to move. But she didn’t have the strength to stay either. Not in the bathroom, not in the hotel, not in Colorado. Not with Jack.
Go home. It’s where you belong
. She felt like Dorothy in
The Wizard of Oz
, when the phrase “There’s no place like home” repeated in her head as she trudged back to the room.
In something of a daze, Keely changed her clothes and packed her suitcase. Rather than chancing running into anyone, she bypassed the elevators and hoofed it down the stairs to the garage level where she’d parked her truck. Oddly, it fit her frame of mind to discover she’d parked on the lowest level.
After she’d cleared the Denver city limits, she realized she was in no shape to drive to Sundance.
Holing up in hotel didn’t appeal to her. She didn’t want to see anyone she knew or talk to anyone she knew.
Confessing Martine’s degrading remarks would be bad enough. But hearing platitudes about how she shouldn’t let Martine’s insecurities affect her would be much worse.
Martine’s words had cut to the bone. Maybe they were just nasty barbs, but barbs stung whether the connection with them was intentional or accidental.
All Keely wanted was to reconnect with herself. To remember who she was.
On autopilot, she drove to the refuge she’d fled to the years she’d lived in Denver. She’d always found herself here. But before she climbed out of her truck, she curled up in the bench seat and cried.
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Jack had tuned out the speaker’s drone an hour ago.
About the last time he’d seen Keely.
And whose fault is that?
His. He’d been busy networking and hadn’t realized Keely had gotten stuck with the coven at Martine’s table until the dinner was over.
His gaze zeroed in on her empty chair again. Where the hell could she have gone?
Clapping echoed as the speech finally ended and he distractedly joined in. Immediately Jack was on his feet. When his colleagues stopped him to talk, he couldn’t very well walk away, since he’d attended the conference to work. By the time he’d made it out of the banquet room, another twenty minutes had passed.
And still no sign of Keely.
Jack was starting to get worried.
“Jack?”
He turned as Gina Arguello approached him. When Jack lived in Chicago, he’d collaborated with Gina’s husband Donnie on a couple of projects and he’d been to their house for the occasional barbecue.
“Gina. Nice to see you. How are the kids?”
“Getting big and ornery.” She hesitated and twisted her wedding ring around her finger. “I’m happy to see you here. I know the last couple years were rough on you.”
“Brutal. But things are looking up. Was there something you needed?”
“Ah. Well, I don’t know if it’s my place to say this or not, but I accidentally overheard a conversation between your fiancée and…Martine.”
“When?”
“An hour ago.”
An odd feeling of foreboding replaced any sense of relief. “Where was Keely when you heard it?
Because I’ve been looking for her.”
Gina blushed. “In the lady’s room. I’m pregnant and I wasn’t feeling well after dinner so I went to the restroom. I was about to come out of the last stall when I heard Martine start in on her.”
Shit. “What did she say?”
“Martine went off on this tirade about you. Then she started belittling Keely. It was vicious. If I thought I’d felt nauseous before, it was worse by the time Martine finished with her.”
All Jacked Up
Jack forced himself to stay calm. “Tell me all of it.” When Gina finished, Jack stared at her in absolute horror.
“I know I should’ve jumped in and put a stop to it, but I don’t want to tangle with Martine. Ever.
Donnie needs the consulting work with Baxter, especially with another kid on the way. I’m sorry—”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to apologize. There’s no way to stop the shit that Martine spews. Do you know where Keely went after Martine left?”
Gina shook her head. “I planned on talking to her and telling her Martine was full of lies, but when I left the stall, Keely wasn’t around.”
He squeezed Gina’s arm. “Thank you, Gina.”
His gut was tied in a mass of knots.
Stay calm
.
As he walked to the elevator, Jack dug out his cell phone and called Keely. Automatically the message kicked over to her voice mail.
Stay calm.
He drummed his fingers on the handrail as the elevator whirred up to his floor.
Stay calm
.
Jack even managed not to take the length of the hallway at a dead run.
Stay calm
.
He inserted his key card and called out, “Keely?”
No answer.
When he saw her key card on the dresser but no suitcase, all calmness evaporated.
She was gone.
“Goddammit straight to fucking hell, Keely McKay. Where the hell did you go?”
Jack called her cell phone again. He left another message.
Over the next hour, Jack called her cell phone twenty-seven times. He called her home phone twenty-nine times.
After nearly wearing holes in his shoes from pacing, he called information in Sundance. His heart raced as the phone rang. An irritated female voice snapped, “You’d better have a good reason for calling me this late, whoever you are.”
“AJ. It’s Jack.”
She went on alert so fast he felt her panic through the phone lines. “What happened?”
“Keely’s gone. She’s not answering her cell phone and I’m going crazy.”
“What did you do to her?”
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“Nothing! I swear. We were at a business banquet, we got separated at dinner and evidently an old…girlfriend of mine said some upsetting things. Keely left without a word to me. I only know that much because a woman overheard their conversation.”
“So you guys weren’t fighting again?”
“Not this time.”
“When did this happen?”
“At some point in the last two hours she got in her truck and took off and… Shit, I’m worried because I know she’s upset. Jesus.
I’m
upset. And I will wring her neck if I find out she’s driving all the way back to Sundance this time of night by herself.”
AJ was quiet. “Let me try calling her. Maybe she’s just not answering your calls.”
Jack closed his eyes. “Thank you. Call me right back. Please. And if you do talk to her, tell her I’m sorry. So goddamn sorry and I had no idea that she’d gotten stuck—”
