RequiredSurrender (27 page)

“And the engagement?”

“There isn’t one. There never was. It was my dad’s wishful
thinking and Anjay taking advantage of his confusion.”

“You said he has pictures?”

Jo nodded.

“That was gutsy of him.” He looked away, and for the
briefest second she was hopeful, but then he turned back and his eyes were cold
steel that slashed right through her. “Tell me, when you spoke to Anjay that
night did you run into him or did he seek you out?”

She’d been afraid he would focus in on that. What she hated
to have to admit. She really didn’t want to because she knew he’d be furious.

“Jo, quit shuffling your feet and tell me.”

“He followed me into the bathroom.” His look sliced into her
and she rushed on. “I wanted to tell you. I did, but every time I…I tried—”

“He wasn’t worried about me finding out like you said. You
made that up.”

She nodded.

“So after you were caught lying the night at the restaurant,
you did it again. Only worse because it was deliberate and thought out in order
to deceive me.”

“I’m sorry.” She hoped he heard her. Her voice was quiet, a
whisper, as her heart raced and her stomach churned.

“I’m wondering…” He leaned against the doorframe and crossed
his arms over his chest. “Do you finally understand that it wasn’t what Anjay
did to you that’s been eating you up inside? That being drugged and rendered
unaware, although disgusting, was possibly not the worst thing that happened to
you in all of this?”

Jo searched his face. The heavy evening shadows played over
his features and the lone light coming from the living room cast half of him in
a dark silhouette. He was waiting. Her heart skipped a beat, because back at
the restaurant she’d begun to acknowledge that it was her mom and her perceived
betrayal that devastated her, but she’d put aside analyzing the possibility in
lieu of concentrating on finding him. Now that she’d found him and he wanted an
answer she figured she’d have to deal with it. “Yes. But h-how did you know?”

“Your problems weren’t sexually driven. I had my suspicions
about this. I’ve been waiting for you to open up to me and you didn’t. Instead
you lied and went the extra mile to deceive me a second time.”

“No, I swear I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t.”

“But you did.”

“I thought I-I didn’t have any choice.”

“You had a choice. You just made the wrong one.”

“I’m sorry.”

He came away from the doorframe and took hold of the door.
“I’m sorry too. I’m also disappointed. I gave you simple boundaries and you
overstepped them twice. I’m glad that you finally have a place to start healing
from, but that place isn’t with me anymore. Go home, Jo. No hard feelings
though, okay?”

Jo gasped and stepped back as the door closed right in front
of her. She stared at it for a good thirty seconds before her whole world fell
apart. Her purse slipped off her shoulder, and she barely acknowledged the thud
it made when it hit the bricks at her feet. Through a tear-filled gaze she
followed her outstretched hand to the wood and pressed her palm against it. The
high-shellacked mahogany was cool to touch. Distant and uninviting. God, she
wished. Prayed that the barrier would swing open and he’d be standing there,
but it didn’t and he wasn’t. Instead her knees wobbled and she collapsed
sideways against the wall as the rushing tears got the best of her and slid
down her cheeks.

Chapter Nineteen

Ted closed the door and took a deep breath. That was one of
the hardest things he’d had to do since…well, since Selena. It was his own
fault. He never should have let Jo in. He should have kept her at a distance.
He should have known it from the start. The women he gravitated to always wound
up hurting him.

He came away from the door and went into the kitchen.
Grabbing a beer out of the fridge, he twisted off the cap and took a swig. As
he brought the bottle down and put it on the table he frowned.

Pictures?

The fucking slimy bastard.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he pressed star two.

“What do you need?”

Despite how bad he felt Ted smiled. His attorney was always
ready to fight. “Hi to you too, Alistair. Listen, you know that Patel guy we’re
screwing to the wall?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s got something I want. A few things, so I’m thinking we
can offer him a trade.”

“What are the items and what do you want to swap?”

Ted shook his head at how stiff and to the point the guy
was. “Patel has some pictures I want. He’ll know what you’re talking about when
you approach him. I want all copies and originals. Have him sign his life away
on that, okay? If I ever find a copy of one of them, even ten years from now on
someone’s computer in the tundra, I’ll be collecting from him, got it?”

“Sure. What does he get in return?”

“I’m cashing in my ironclad insurance policy I had on the
guy. He’ll get the pictures I took of him the day I visited with him at his
office. I’ll shoot over a couple. Feel free to send them to him as incentive.”

Alistair whistled. “Interesting. Does this have something to
do with Nehr?”

“Don’t worry. Josephine Nehr and I history. I’m doing this
trade as a parting gift to her, is all.”

By the time he hung up and polished off his beer he figured
he better check to make sure Jo had gotten a cab. He went up to the second
floor and peered out of his recently installed palladium window. With a sigh he
turned away. She was still on the doorstep. Damn.

He whipped out his phone. “Cam?”

“Yeah, boss?”

“I need you to swing by the house. Ms. Nehr will be waiting
at the door for you to take her home.”

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

Ted went back downstairs and waited. He was sure Jo wouldn’t
go willingly and fifteen minutes later, after she threw a tantrum and Cam
called him with the news that she wasn’t budging, Ted put a call in to her
friend. If there was any way he could leave without having to deal with this he
would have. The last thing he wanted was Colin showing up, because then he knew
the odds of disaster striking would be doubled upon her arrival. But the way he
saw it? He had no choice.

Fuck.

* * * * *

Jo shielded her eyes when the car headlights came down the
street right toward the house. Her ass was numb and every muscle in her body
begged for her to get up, but she wasn’t going to because Cameron might decide
to grab her and carry her off if she did. Already she’d had to take drastic
measures to keep him the twenty feet they currently had between them, and she
wasn’t ready to give up any ground. Not until Ted talked to her. Closing her
eyes, she took a deep breath and willed the aches to go away. She’d get through
this even if it killed her.

Two minutes later, she wanted to die. The car stopped and
she gauged it was right in front of his house. Then the car door slammed and
she couldn’t hold back a flinch that turned into a deepening cringe as heels
clicked on the walkway. High heels. Now she was going to be mortified while he
had a woman visit him?

“Cameron Tate. I thought you were better than this? Letting
a woman sit out in the damp and cold. Shame on you.”

“Collie?” Colin probably didn’t hear her, but that didn’t
matter. Jo was so relieved it wasn’t one of Ted’s groupie subs she could have
smiled. Almost.

“Look, I tried to get Ms. Nehr up so I could take her home,
but she…she bit me.”

Jo’s eyes snapped open and through her tear-hazy and barely
focused eyes, she saw her friend wave him off. “Oh come on now. You’ve got a
hundred and a half pounds on her, am I right? How bad could it be? I’m going to
tell your mother on Sunday when I see her. I promise.”

Jo waited to speak until Colin got within three feet of her.
She held up her hand and said, “I’m not going. I’m staying here until he
t-talks t-to me.”

“Are you crying? Jo?”

She turned away but she was sure, despite the blackness,
that Colin could see that she was.

“What did he do to you? Tell me.”

“He shut the door in my face,” she took a deep breath and
turned back to look up at her friend, “right after he told me that he and I
will have n-nothing to do w-with one another ever again.”

“I see.”

For some reason that phrase made her feel better. “You sound
like Ethan.”

“I’m going to be Ethan tonight. All I want to hear from you,
is ‘yes, Colin’, you understand? Now come on, get up.”

“If I leave I might never…”

“Oh fuck him. It would serve him right if you never spoke to
him again, that’s what I’m thinking.”

She held her hands out and Jo stared at them for a beat
before she relented and grabbed hold, allowing Colin to pull her up.

“Hey, where are your shoes?”

“I,” she sucked in a breath and let it out in a rush, “one’s
in the tree and the other one is behind the holly bush. It’s like fighting a
panther to get behind it, and with the one stuck up there?” She pointed to the
Japanese maple branch where her BCBG pump dangled. “I saw no point.”

Colin mouthed the word “wow” and said, “You should have
thrown stones.”

“I tried but Ted told Cam to make sure I didn’t get hold of
any.”

She took Colin’s arm and squeezed in close. For the first
time in hours she felt almost normal as they walked down the walkway toward the
car.

“You see, Cam?” Colin said as they got close to the
iron-gate entrance. “This wasn’t so hard. Would you be a dear and get the
passenger door?”

“Sure thing, Mrs. White.”

“Jo, hold onto the gate for a moment, would you?”

Jo side-stepped a pebble as she took hold of the gate,
because Colin had abandoned her. The next thing she knew there was a loud
crash, more like a high-pitched shatter, and then an alarm going off.

“There,” Colin said very calmly as she dusted off her palms.
“Now
said
asshole has hold of the biggest stone in his yard, so you
can’t get hold of it even if you wanted to.”

Jo blinked and shook her head. Colin was smiling and Jo knew
what that meant. Ted better not come out here pissing vinegar because Colin was
furious.

“Thanks, Cam. Jo, get in.”

“You…you broke Mr. Basel’s new window.”

“So? Get in, Jo.”

“He’s not going to be happy about it.”

Colin slammed the door but Jo could still hear the exchange
through the closed passenger window.

“He’d be more of an asshole than I already think he is if he
were happy about it.”

“What?”

“Would you like me to wait here until the police arrive?”

“I think you should. That window cost a fortune and it was
just installed. Mr. Basel—” Cameron checked his text.

“You were saying?”

“I, ah… Have a good evening, Mrs. White.” He rushed to open
the driver side door for her and Colin hopped in.

“Thank you, Cameron. I’m sure we will.”

They drove for nearly three full minutes in silence and then
Colin’s cell went off. When she made an immediate right Jo sat forward and
scanned the store parking lot. “Why are we stopping?”

Colin pointed to her phone. “Ethan. He doesn’t like me to
drive and talk at the same time. Sorry.”

Jo sat back and looked out the window while her friend
answered.

“Hi. Yes I know. That’s why I left you that note.” There was
a long pause and then Colin sighed. “She’s fine. Him? I don’t care. No. I will.
Okay, I am. Just a minute.”

“Jo?”

“Yeah,”

“Ethan wants to know if you’ve eaten dinner.”

“I’m not hungry.”

Colin ignored her grumble and spoke to Ethan again. “No she
didn’t. All right.”

“Ethan says he’s going to make you something.”

Jo shrugged and Colin fielded the action.

“Jo says great. No, I swear she did, I just had my hand over
the receiver.” Colin’s eyes bugged out at Jo in a warning to behave. “We’re
coming straight home now. Do we have wine at the house? Great. I will. Love you
too.”

When Colin clicked off Jo said, “I quit drinking remember?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I have to.”

It was silent again as Colin made her way back into the
evening traffic flow. Jo watched her for a second in the flashes of light that
lit the car interior from the street lamps. Colin really was the best. Clearly she
wasn’t going to press her until Jo was ready to be pressed.

“You broke his fancy window. Even I wasn’t going for that
one when I threw my shoes.”

“Yeah, I was never very good at softball.”

“You shouldn’t have.”

“Too late now.”

Jo put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Since it’s
already done though, thanks.”

* * * * *

Several nights later at the club, Ted collected the markers
from one of the steel drawers, and then went to the wall cubbies and grabbed
his black bag.

“Hey.”

He stiffened when Ethan came in sporting the “the look” Ted
knew so well. E was ticked, no doubt over the situation with Jo. “Hi. I’ll be
out of your way in a minute.”

“Markers? Are you going to be scribbling on some female
flesh tonight? I thought tonight was poker night.”

It was poker night, and since it had been more than a month
that he’d sat in on a game, a game where he’d played more with Jo than with the
cards, he figured he needed a distraction tonight. He’d called in four
different subs to entertain the guys, but mostly him, while he tried to forget
about her.

“It is, but I wanted to shake things up a bit. Make it more
interesting, you know?” He pulled a piece of paper out of a drawer and used one
of the markers to write down a number. “Here.”

Ethan looked down at it and frowned. “What’s this?”

“What you owe me for your wife pulling a Mickey Mantle on my
new window.”

“It’s over five grand!”

“Yeah,” he tapped the paper and squinted, “that’s even after
they gave me ten percent discount for being their new best customer.”

“With that aim,” Ethan folded the paper and put it in his
pocket. “I’d say Nolan Ryan was a better description.”

Ted didn’t say anything to that. He knew E wasn’t at the
club and in this room to discuss this shit, and what he did want to discuss,
Ted didn’t. “Do you want to sit in on the game tonight?”

“No and I’m not sure you should either.”

Ted adjusted his bag, clenching it under his arm and raised
a brow. “Oh?”

“Jo’s on her way here.”

Ted worked to maintain his calm even as he hated the rush of
excitement that coursed through him at the thought of seeing her again.

“Look, let’s cut the crap. Jo’s upset and desperate to make
things right with you, so I don’t think you should stick around.”

“I shouldn’t stick around? You want me to leave? This is my
club.”

“So? You know she’s reckless and if you really mean to stick
to a clean break with her, leaving is the best thing to do.”

“No.”

Ted couldn’t say what affected him more. The prospect of
seeing her again or his buddy choosing her side over his.

“She’s got a plan in mind and from what Colin told me it
isn’t a smart one. She couldn’t be talked out of it.”

“Who are you more worried about, me or her?”

“You. I’ve never seen you like this and Jo’s…well, she can
be a handful, I know.”

“She’s a big girl and I’m no monster. Don’t worry, I’ll try
not to make a scene when I kick her out.”

Ted went to walk past him, but Ethan grabbed his arm. “I
don’t want you to do that.”

“What do you mean?” Ted spied the set line of his friend’s
mouth and scowled. “You’re serious.” He yanked his arm out of his grasp. “What
happened to the Three Musketeers? Me, you and David. We made a pact, remember?
And now you’re taking a woman’s side over mine?”

“It’s not just any woman. It’s Jo. And as to that, you’ve
already done enough damage. Let it go. Disappear tonight and maybe by tomorrow
she’ll forget her plan to stalk you and come to her senses.”

“I don’t think I want to do that. Running away and hiding is
not my style for anyone. Even her. Especially her because she’ll take that as a
win and you know how I hate to lose.”

Ethan sighed. “I thought as much, but I figured I’d give it
a shot. I’m going to leave Michael here in case there’s a problem and she needs
a ride home.”

Ted nodded. “I’ll try to behave—”

“There’s that word.” Ethan tilted his head and winced. “Try?
You’ve never been good with that and in your present mood I’m worried.”

“You want the truth?” Ted snapped his bag out from under his
arm and tossed it up, catching it. “I’m worried too, so we’ll just have to hope
she doesn’t push me too far.”

Ted was still hearing the echo of those words as he entered
the green room and spied his usual posse at the poker table. The invited subs
were scattered about the room. Two wore nothing at all, while another wore a
chainmail halter with matching skirt, and the other sported black leather
shorts and a tank top. He should have been stoked. These were four of his
favorites. His favorites before Jo came along.

“I’ve got the markers.” He put them on the table and grabbed
one. The dark-copper-brown one. Nearly the exact color of Jo’s henna. Turning
to Ruth, one of the all-naked subs, he smiled. “I’m ready to do a little
scribbling.”