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“Why would I?” Lara said. “As far as I knew you were in the service. You probably didn’t have a pot to even piss in. Isn’t that a saying your father used to use?” She was laughing at her own comments.
She’d always cut his parents down when she was around them. Not to their face but behind their back. He’d stick up for his parents, but she’d smirk at him and say he was too sensitive.
“What if you didn’t figure out I was dating Grace? Would you even do this?”
“It has nothing to do with who you’re dating,” Lara snarled. “It’s embarrassing you and making you feel some of my pain. I’m hoping you lose your job over this.”
“Not happening,” he said. “Why would it? It has nothing to do with them. With any of them.”
Lara was just as vindictive as he’d thought. Talk about feeling like an asshole that he was bringing this to Grace’s family.
It did have to do with Grace. If he weren’t dating her, he would have never been filmed. None of this would have come down on her family.
“If they won’t fire you, the next best thing is to see if I can get some money out of this before I start going to the press or social media. I doubt you want bad press when you’re getting so much good right now.”
“It’s not the first time we might get bad press in our family,” Hunter said, shrugging. “We are almost immune to it.”
“All of this could go away with one little deposit. I’ll pretend you were never here. I’ve got my bank information all ready.”
“How much are you looking to get out of this?” Lincoln asked. He wanted as much detail as he could get. He hated what they planned on doing, but he knew it was the right thing.
“Two million sounds like a good number,” Lara said. “I can pick up and move. Get me a nice house fitted for someone in a wheelchair.”
Hailey was walking around the room looking at pictures while Lara talked. She was a cool one.
“This picture looks somewhat new,” Hailey said. “You’re standing on crutches.”
“That’s old,” Lara rushed out to say.
He moved closer to the picture and looked. No, it wasn’t old. “Are you walking?”
“No,” Lara said. “I’m in a wheelchair. Are you blind?”
“But you’re standing on crutches here,” he said. “I’ve known you most of my life. You weren’t on crutches before the accident. Ever.”
“I had surgery a year ago,” Lara snapped. “For a short period of time I had the strength to stand with crutches but not walk. I can’t anymore.”
He looked into her eyes and knew she was lying. It wasn’t worth arguing over. They had more than enough.
“We are sorry for your accident,” Hunter said. “We wish you well.”
“Two million will go a long way,” Lara said. “So, thanks.”
“Sorry,” Hailey said. “You’re not getting any money from us. This was just a courtesy call to find out what your end game was. Now we know.”
Lara’s face almost twisted with anger. “For that, it’s up to four million. You’re going to regret playing me, Lincoln.”
“As you’ve said, I don’t have a pot to piss in. You won’t get anything out of me. But I will give you a word of advice. You’ll find yourself in a shitload of legal trouble if you try to go anywhere with this. You should do a bit more research into who you are trying to blackmail. I’m sure you’ll be in touch.”
The three of them left after that.
“Damn,” Hailey said. “She’s greedy.”
“Always been that way,” he said. “Wish I’d seen it before.”
“Stop beating yourself up over this,” Hunter said. “It’s not on you.”
“Yeah,” he said. “It is. If I weren’t dating Grace I wouldn’t be on film. I brought this to your family. I should have just kept my distance like I’d told myself. I’m not meant to mix with you guys on anything more than being an employee.”
