Page 12 of A Deceitful Pact

“I’m not avoiding you, I’ve just been busy being a town sheriff,” I point out, though he knows as well as I do that I’m lying. In this town, no one’s ever busy, the crime rate is low, and thankfully, all the free time I’ve had has given me the opportunity to look deeper into the Gendry family… Not that my research has amounted to anything. Those fuckers are careful and rarely leave any trails.

“Busy with…the erm…the baby thing?” Sawyer lowers his voice as his eyes drop to my stomach, and I quickly shake my head.

“No…No. Not with that. I’m not pregnant,” I blurt out, suddenly realizing we’re standing outside the local store. “I told you it was just an idea, I have a few things I need to settle before I...” My logical inner voice tells me to shut the hell up.

“So you're still going through with it?” He moves his eyes away from mine, and I can’t figure out if that's because he’s disappointed or angry… or why he would be either. What I do shouldn’t matter to him. Sawyer Anderson could have any girl in town. I see the way they all look at him. Beth Delaney is never far behind him and always wears that ridiculous, dopey smile on her face when he gives her his attention. I may have been avoiding this man for three months, but it doesn’t mean that I haven’t been watching.

“Yeah. I’m still going through with it.” I smile confidently, hoping that will be the end of the conversation

“You know I’ve looked into it and?—”

“Wait, you looked into it? Why?” My voice rises in shock, and when Eleanor Chambers walks by with her arm linked in her husband’s, I notice how her neck cranes in an attempt to listen to our conversation. Sawyer quickly takes my arm and marches me down the alley between the grocery store and Daphne Pritchard's salon. With his huge body towering over mine and his palm pressing against the wall behind me, he cages me in.

“Yeah, I fuckin’ looked into it. I looked into it because I was serious about the offer I made you.” His voice confirms that he’s angry, not sad. “I also looked into how much that clinic charges, and you could save yourself a whole lot of money if you stopped being so stubborn.”

“This isn’t about being stubborn, Sawyer, I’m trying to be realistic. Do you really think you're gonna feel comfortable with me walking around town, going about my business, carrying your kid?”

“I think I’d be just fine with it.” I watch the way the corners of his mouth pick up into a smile.

“And when it gets here, do you think you could handle seeing a child that’s yours being raised when you have no claim over it?” I shake my head, wishing that things could be different because I’d really like to bless my child with some of Sawyer’s features.

“I’m just asking you to think about this before you go gettin’ all knocked up by some guy you don’t know.” He shocks me when he finishes his sentence by kissing me hard on the mouth.

“Sawyer.” I force him away when I realize how out of control this is getting. I made myself a promise before I came here, and I have to stick to it. “You can’t do that, you can’t just kiss me.” I look back out onto the street to check that no one saw us. “If I were ever gonna consider this as an option, it would just complicate things. Everything has to be black and white in a situation like this. There have to be rules and boundaries. Something tells me you're not good with those kinda things,” I point out.

“That’s starting to sound more like a yes.” He raises his eyebrows and doesn’t look angry anymore.

“It’s not a yes, it just isn’t a no.” I duck under his tattooed bicep and carry my hamper back to my car. After placing it on the back seat, I hear my phone vibrating on the console, but it stops before I can get to it. Reaching across to pick it up, I tap the screen and see that I have fourteen missed calls, all of them from my sister.

The sister who only ever calls when she’s in trouble.

Her name starts flashing on my screen again, so I quickly answer it.

“What do you want, Sash?—”

“Riley….Riley, thank goodness you picked up. I’m in some serious shit.”

She sounds panicked, and I automatically roll my eyes.

“Okay, okay, calm down. Where are you?” Sasha has a tendency to be dramatic. She’s also a free spirit who never stays in one place for too long. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve had to send her money for cab fares and plane tickets over the years.

“I’m in L.A.,” she tells me with a tremble in her tone that makes me uneasy.

“L.A.?” I repeat, almost choking. “Last time we spoke, you were heading for New York.”

“I haven’t got time to explain why or how I got here. I…I need you to loan me some money.”

“I should've guessed, how much do you need this time?”

“Riley, this isn’t like before. I told you. I’m in some real trouble.” Hearing how frantic she sounds is making me start to wonder just how bad this trouble is

“How much do you need?” I ask, trying to stay calm.

“20k,” she whispers.

“Twenty thousand dollars?Twenty thousand…what thehelldo you need twenty thousand dollars for?” I can’t contain my anger. How one person can be so self-destructive is beyond me.

“I told you, I’m in trouble. I went to audition for that Broadway show like I said I was, and I didn’t get the part. I was low and felt so useless, but then I met some guys who invited me to a party. I didn’t realize the party was in L.A. until we got to the private jet. Then what was I supposed to do?”

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