Page 62 of Healed Heart
I glare at him.“Jason didn’t do this to you.”
He lifts an eyebrow.“And youknowthat?”
“Yes.I’m sure of it.”
“Oh?How are you so sure?”
I cross my arms.“Because he told me he didn’t, and I believe him.”
“You have no idea what you’re dealing with,” Ralph says.“The man’s no saint.”
“That man has seen more loss in his short lifetime than anyone deserves,” I say.“And now you want to make more trouble for him.What the hell do you have to gain by any of this?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?”he says, closing his eyes.
“Yeah,” I say.“None of it makes any freaking sense.Why do you even care?Why do you care about me?”
“You’re a Steel,” he says.
I groan at that.“So, as I suspected.You’re after my money.You want me to pay you off not to file a report against Jason.”
“Oh, no.”He grins.“I already filed the report.”
“Did you?”
He lifts three fingers.“Scout’s honor.”
I let out a scoff.“Scout’s honor?If you had any honor at all, you wouldn’t be doing any of this.”
“Yeah, I was never a Boy Scout anyway.”He drops his hand.
“Shocking,” I say, rolling my eyes.
He grins.Sort of.“But I did file a report.”
“You can also elect not to press charges,” I say.
“I could, but why would I do that?”
I grit my teeth.I’m so against paying anyone off.It’s never the answer.My family, with its wealth of resources, has been blackmailed many times, and our one rule is never to succumb, because it’s a never-ending cycle.Once you pay the person off, they can come at you again and again, demanding more money.Or they’ll tell their friends that you’re easy to get money out of, and soon you’re stuck in a cash-sucking spiral.
But I know Jason didn’t do this, and I won’t see him be arrested for something—God, go on trial for something—that he didn’t do.
So for now, I’ll at least make Ralph think I’m playing along.
“How much will it take?”I ask.
“You really think this is about money?”
I raise my hands in the air.“What the hell else is it about?I don’t have anything else you want.”
“But you do.”He narrows his eyes.“Didn’t I make that clear that night when I kissed you?”
My heart drops to my stomach.
“No way.I’m not going to bed with you.Hell, you probably can’t even get it up in this condition.”
But then my gaze is drawn to the tent underneath the sheet.
