Page 18 of Vengeful Seduction
“Okay, okay, I get it.” Angela held her hands up in surrender, laughing a little bit. “You’ve got it bad for this guy. It’s fine. And you’ve got us to watch your back, right? So it’s all good.”
She seemed satisfied and so did the other two women, who I didn’t know all that well.
Something in Joan’s eyes, though, said she didn’t seem to feel the same way. On the surface, it was all fine. Joan dropped the subject and the conversation moved on, though every so often one of the four other women would shoot me a bit of a look.
It was a lot to take, I knew that. Not only the whole thing with David, either, but just the fact that I’d gotten so much money. I hadn’t even tossed any figures around—I was too cautious for that—but they were still worried for me.
The whole David issue was a big part of the problem. I even understood why. If someone had told me everything that had happened, I would have thought there was a pretty good chance they were going to get themselves into trouble too.
David wasn’t like that, though. David had opened up to me. He’d shown me sides of himself I somehow knew he didn’t show to most people. These four women were good people, but they didn’t know him.
Somehow, I felt like I did know him. At least a little. Enough to be sure that he was not the monster I’d sort of thought he was when I’d first learned about him. He had reasons for everything he’d done.
What really got to me was how badly he felt about all of it. He’d made a terrible mistake, and I knew he was paying for it. He would keep paying for it. I wasn’t sure he would ever forgive himself.
Maybe I was just the woman who had nursed his grandfather, but I figured if I could forgive him, it was a start. Maybe it could get him to the point where, someday, he could forgive himself.
I would help him. And I would get to spend time with him too. My motives were pure, of course, but I would admit I enjoyed being around him. Not just because he was handsome—though he was—but also just because of the person he was inside.
He’d shown me that person. He’d become vulnerable for me, and I had already made the decision. It didn’t really matter what my girlfriends thought. I valued their opinion, but I would make my own choices.
I was going to be friends with David Black if he would let me. It seemed to me like he needed a friend, maybe more than anyone else I’d ever met.
If he wanted me, he could have me. As a friend. And I definitely hoped he did.
When I’d held his hand, it had sent little shots of electricity through me. He and I had some kind of a connection. Maybe it was because we both cared deeply about the same man. Or maybe it was something else altogether.
Whatever it was, I wanted to see it through. And I had hope that he would too.
David
When I remembered the night Brent and I had made this plan, the one thing that stuck out in my mind was how open I’d been and how honest I was with the alcohol in my system. How I’d said things I normally wouldn’t have said, just because the beers had taken my inhibitions away.
Why not use that?
I knew from texting with Kaye, as I had started doing now and then, that she had taken my advice and moved into my grandfather’s old house. It burned me up inside to think of her living there. The woman who had, the way I saw it, essentially robbed my grandfather.
It did mean, though, that I knew where to go to find her. After impatiently waiting a few days, I put the next part of my plan into motion.
It was a balancing act, deciding on timing. I wanted to act quickly enough to keep her interest, but not so quickly that it would seem strange. Still, I wanted her safely married to me by the time my grandfather’s estate was settled.
From the research I’d done, it could be as soon as six months, especially since I had no intention of contesting the will. My grandfather had paid someone to act as the executor, and I would let him do his job without the slightest hint of protest.
I had a much more sure-fire way to get the money, after all. Why get involved in a nasty fight I had no chance of winning?
Still, it was time to get a move on, which is why I drank one beer. Just one, so I would smell and taste like it.
Staggering up the walkway to the house, I let my eyes blur. Leaning carefully against the side of the house, as though I could barely stay on my own feet, I knocked on the door. I closed my eyes and bowed my head, as though it were almost too heavy for me to hold up.
It was night time, but only just. The sun had gone down about an hour ago, so I knew there was a good chance she would be awake.
“David?” She pulled the door open and those remarkable green eyes of hers widened as she looked me over. “David, are you okay? Come in. Are you sick?”
“No.” I let my words slur a little bit and pushed myself away from the wall, acting as if it was all too much for me and collapsing back against it. “Sorry for bothering you.”
The woman had quite the caring nurse act going, and I was willing to bet she wouldn’t let that slip. It was possible that she even did feel sorry for me. I was doing everything I could to be pitiful, and when I felt her arm slip around my waist, I knew I was doing it well.
“It’s grandpa,” I whispered, wrapping my arm around her shoulders and leaning on her just enough to make my story plausible. This close, surely she could smell the beer. She smelled like coconut and fruit, and damned if she didn’t smell good enough to eat.
