Page 36 of Raging Inferno

“Ma’am, it’s against the law to smoke in here,” the server said as she brought their drinks.

“Oh, sorry.”

Tamera tapped the tip against the table to put it out, and the server frowned at her. Tamera didn’t notice as she slid the used cigarette back into the pack. Then, she stuck a straw in her glass and took a drink. “Are you sure you didn’t tell your husband?”

Jessie narrowed her brows. “Sham hath no deal.”

“What?”

Jessie swallowed and concentrated on not slurring. Her words were precisely measured. “Sam doesn’t know.”

“We’re next. I know it.”

“Tamera, I hath . . .” She cleared her throat and took time to pronounce the words. “I have excellent security. Come stay with me.”

“I can’t do that,” Tamera insisted. “I didn’t marry money like you did, Jessie. My husbands were all deadbeats. If I don’t work, my bills don’t get paid. I’d lose my house and business.”

Jessie wanted to snap off another retort, but Tamera wasn’t wrong. Jessie had married into wealth. She would not apologize for it.

“Well, well, look who’s here,” Tamara murmured.

Jessie swung her head around and instantly regretted it when the room kept spinning. When did she jump on a tilt-a-whirl? When it finally stopped and she could focus, she saw her husband marching toward her. What the hell was he doing here?

“Time to go home, Jessie.”

Tamera scooted out of the booth and threw herself into Sam’s arms. “Sam King, you big hunk. Long time no see.”

Maybe Jessie ought to be jealous. Tamera was newly single, and Sam slept with anyone with boobs—and Tamera’s were too perky to be anything but surgically enhanced—but honestly, she couldn’t care less.

“Hey, Tamera,” Sam said. “How are you?”

“I’m good, sugar.”

“What’re you doin’ here?” she demanded of Sam.

“I’m here to take you home.”

“How’d ya know?”

“That you are here? One of my employees watched you slam back half a dozen drinks and called me. Damn it, Jessie, what you do reflects on me. I have a reputation to maintain.”

Jessie felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment. And anger. She opened her mouth, but Sam cut her off.

“Either you walk out of here like an adult, or I will make a scene and carry you out ass first.”

He would, too. She hated that Tamera was witnessing her downfall, and that sobered her up. Jessie had once been the leader of their group. She and Gwen. Every other girl in school wanted to be them. They had been royalty—literally. Gwen had been the homecoming queen for four years running and the prom queen their junior and senior years. Jessie had always been the first runner-up. Funny, but it was the same for Sam and Dominic. Dominic was the king alongside Gwen every year, and Sam had come in second like Jessie. She always assumed it meant they belonged together. How wrong she’d been.

“Fine.” She scooted out and focused on not stumbling when she stood.

Sam paid their bill, and they walked outside.

“Are you going to Margy’s funeral?” she asked Tamera.

Tamera paused and then shook her head. “I can’t go through that again.”

Jessie didn’t plan on attending either. Maybe that made her a bad person, but she was already going to hell. What was another sin in her life’s ledger?

Chapter Eight

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