Page 7 of Dirty Gambit

“Maybe in your line of work, you’re used to opening your legs for just anyone so long as you get what you want.”

Something flickered behind her eyes … shame? Hurt? He didn’t care.

“What exactly is it you want?” he went on, narrowing his eyes. “Money? You could have just said. I’ve never paid for a lay, but I might have made an exception for you.”

“Jaxon, enough,” his father said softly.

Lena said nothing. She moved around him to the desk. She kept her eyes on them as she set the gun down and began fastening her clothes.

Her calm only further infuriated him. Seeing her so aloof and untouchable made him want to grab her and shake her.

“Say something you stupid bitch!” he snarled, struggling against his restraints.

Her brown eyes met his. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

Jaxon stunned into silence, but only for a moment. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

She shrugged. “No, but I don’t think you’d believe me if I told you the rest. Just know that I didn’t want this and if I had a choice—”

“You do have a choice,” his father said with a kindness Jaxon couldn’t bring himself to muster over his boiling rage and betrayal. “Just let us go. We won’t press charges. We won’t even tell anyone. You can just leave, and we’ll forget this ever happened.”

There was no mistaking the remorse in her eyes this time. “I’m sorry. I can’t do that.”

Jaxon opened his mouth to ask again what she wanted when the door opened and his mother scurried in, Jessie clutched tightly to her chest. She was weeping softly, but the sound increased when she spotted Jaxon and his father.

“Robert?” Her blue eyes went wide with terror. “What’s going on?”

His father made to get to his feet, but the cuff yanked him back down. “It’s all right, sweetheart. Just do what they say.”

His mother’s gaze shot to where Lena stood, gun now back in her small hands. “What do you want?”

Lena leveled his mother with an even stare. “I want the child.”

His mother blinked. “What?”

“No!” his father shouted.

“She’s not yours,” Lena said firmly, shoulders straightening. “I want her back.”

His mother began shaking her head, slowly at first, then faster. “No … No! The adoption agency said … you can’t have her. She’s mine. She’s my daughter!”

The gun was lifted, aimed for his mother’s head. It was cocked. Jaxon had an irrational urge to lunge, to tackle Lena to the ground, and shove the gun out of his mother’s face. But the fear of so much as breathing and startling Lena crippled him. It kept him immobilized in his seat.

“Please don’t make me,” Lena said in a slow, calm voice. “I don’t want to. I just want Jessie. Please. Give her to me.”

“She’s mine!” his mother wailed again. Jessie, awakened by the noise and the crushing folds of his mother’s arms released a sharp cry. “Please don’t take her. Please don’t … please, I’ll give you anything. Name your price. Just … please!”

Lena seemed to hesitate. That gleam of remorse returned to her eyes even though her face remained stone-cold.

“This isn’t a negotiation, Mrs. Westwick,” Lena said quietly. “Take a pick. Your son or the girl who has no ties to your blood.” The gun was turned on Jaxon, aimed straight for his face, and at that range, there was no way she would miss. “I don’t have all day.”

His mother lost what little color remained in her cheeks. She began to sink to the ground. The server caught her and eased her into the loveseat next to his father.

“You stupid bitch!” Jaxon hissed, fury ripping through him. “I’m going to kill you.”

Lena ignored him. “Take her,” she told the server.

“No!” His mother’s screams rebounded off the office walls, twisting with the wails from Jessie. “No!”

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