Page 37 of The Negotiator

Lauren didn’t want any part of confronting Bob. He’d messed up so much of her life with his lies and deceit that it exhausted her to think about it. He set her up and then screwed her a second time by calling in those loans. It was a miracle he hadn’t ruined her business for good.

That’s why she was there, in the boat shed. With the paddles and boats hanging on the wall and the boat slip with the lapping water by her feet, it was one of her favorite places. She came here to think and to work. Waves caused water to splash against the slip and sometimes spill up and over the retaining wall until the enclosed space smelled like dead fish. For other people that might be a problem, not her.

She’s thought she’d stored the artificial Christmas tree in there among all the other boxes and supplies. If so, she couldn’t find it.

Giving up on the search, she opened one of the double doors and stepped into the cool December wind. The snow had passed north of them and socked in New York. They’d been lucky. At this time of year, they usually woke to a frozen ground and threats of snow and school closures. Instead, they had gray cloudy skies and a chill, but it was bearable.

She took one step and stopped suddenly. Her stomach sloshed around from the abruptness of it. Seeing Jake standing there, uncharacteristically disheveled and shaking his head, threw her off. She hadn’t expected him and he hated boats, so he rarely ventured out past the marina to this more secluded, nontouristy spot.

“What are you doing here?” When he stood there with wild eyes and stiff shoulders, not talking, she tried again. “Jake?”

“Some business guy from DC?”

The words sounded clear but they didn’t make any sense. She knew he was grieving, but this was so out of the ordinary that she started to worry he had some sort of health issue.

She reached out and put her hand on his forearm. “What are you talking about?”

He glanced down at her fingers. “I’ve given you time. Room. Then I heard about this other guy, but I convinced myself he was a client.”

She dropped her hand as her heart began to race. “You’re talking about Garrett?”

“Carl said you were cold, but I never believed him. See, I saw you first. I talked about asking you out then he came in and...” Jake shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now.”

Lauren backed up until her shoes hit the door. “Maybe we should—”

“He promised he wasn’t coming back.” Jake stopped scanning the area and stared at her then. Fury filled his intense gaze. “That you were mine.”

Her stomach heaved. She had to force her body to remain still as she swallowed. “I’m not yours, Jake. You know that. What are you saying?”

“He ran through all the money and Maryanne got needy. He hated needy women.”

He was talking about some of the people who’d made her life hell. Jake mentioned them as if he’d sat around the table and planned it all with them. Then it hit her... he had. She’d been blaming Bob, and that made sense. But Jake was a part of this, too. He was the person Carl ran to when he got back to town. He’s the one Carl would have bragged to about Maryanne back then.

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears and her legs shook so hard she was surprised she could still stand. She fought it all back, the waves of panic and the numbing fear, and stayed focused.

She thought about her phone and tried to remember where she’d put it. She could scream but between the wind and her distance from the marina and office, no one would ever hear her. That left fighting and running, and she was prepared to do both.

First, she tried to calm him. “Jake. Let’s go to the diner and talk about this.”

“So you can run to your new boyfriend? That’s not going to happen.”

The comment made sense. No matter what was happening in his head, he wasn’t too far gone. Reason didn’t work but more drastic means might. “What do you think is going to happen between us?”

“You need to fix this.”

She nudged the door open behind her. If she could slip inside then she could grab a weapon. She calculated the chances of that choice versus just bolting. In his mood, she had no idea what Jake would do or if he had any weapons on him. She couldn’t see any, but his thick jacket could hide a lot of scary things.

“I killed Carl for you.”He delivered the rage-filled words through clenched teeth.

They punched into her brain and sat there. She felt dizzy and sick. The need to throw up almost overtook her this time. “Jake, please.”

“He was going to step in and ruin your life again. I tried to talk him out of it but he just laughed.”

“What did you do?”

“Carl had to leave. The documents, the money... I know it hurt for a while. But you rebuilt everything. You made the business more successful than it ever was.” A smile broke across his face. “I was so proud of how hard you worked. I couldn’t let Carl come in and rip it apart.”

She preferred his yelling. The smile scared the hell out of her. “You were at my house?”

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