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Jaci stepped into Moriah’s apartment, staring into the other girl’s eyes and seeing the cold, hard resolve there.
“They’re in the study. ” Her voice was faint, husky, as though with emotion.
There was something off with her demeanor, though—a cold, hard light was in her eyes that Jaci hadn’t expected.
Jaci nodded, gripped her purse, and followed Moriah through the apartment to the study. There was a back door just through the hall in the kitchen. It led to an iron balcony and a fire escape to the alley. Just in case Annalee had brought her handy dandy little whip with her.
Jaci breathed in deeply as Moriah headed to the kitchen and she stepped into the study.
Annalee was as beautiful as ever. Long black hair that flowed to the middle of her back, gracefully arched brows and blue eyes. She was slender but not skinny. The soft, pale peach silk dress she wore emphasized the golden hue of her flesh. It also made her appear almost innocent. A far cry from the black leather, stilettos, and whip she had worn that night so long ago.
In contrast, Richard appeared confident, aloof. Almost aristocratic. The aristocracy was spoiled by the hint of nervousness in his eyes and the sheen of sweat on his brow.
“Margie isn’t here?” Jaci looked around, wondering where their secretary was lurking. The one who had been sheened with sweat and sex that night, her dark eyes wild with lust.
“Margie isn’t needed here. ” Annalee leaned against the desk at the side of the room, her hands braced on the walnut top behind her. “There was no sense in upsetting her. Margie can be delicate sometimes. ”
Margie was as delicate as a barracuda, but Jaci understood the other woman’s hardness as she thought about Moriah’s experience with the Robertses.
“Yeah, that happens when you mess with a kid’s head,” Jaci snapped. “Tell me, Annalee, did you choose Margie when she was a teenager, too?”
Annalee blinked at her in surprise. “Sorry, Jaci, but I don’t do teenagers,” she sneered. “Strange, I didn’t expect you to resort to lies after all these years. ”
Jaci snorted at that. “I wouldn’t dare try to fight you on those grounds, Annalee. I can accede to the fact that you’re by far the best liar here. So I will stick to the truth. And if teenagers aren’t your style, then how do you explain Moriah?”
Annalee looked to Richard with an expression of confusion. That look sent her stomach sinking. Something was off, either it was genuine confusion, or they had to know they were being taped. Had Moriah given the game away somehow?
“Moriah is an adult, Jaci, and a very good friend of Annalee’s. There’s a difference between a friend and a lover,” Richard finally said. “And we’re not here to discuss the whys and wherefores of our personal lives. If that’s why you called this meeting, then we’re all wasting our time. ”
Why she had called the meeting?
“What?” She stared at both of them in confusion. “I didn’t call a damned thing. ”
“Look, Jaci,” Annalee’s delicate voice flowed over her protestation. “I regret we had to take the steps necessary to ensure that nothing you said against us was ever believed. I can understand it’s been frustrating to you over the years. But we’ve always made certain to compliment your design abilities, to send clients your way. There are rules to the little skirmish we’re involved in. Rules we’ve all had to abide by. ”
That flash of regret had to be a lie, Jaci thought as she watched the emotion wash through Annalee’s eyes. Who the hell were these people, and what happened to Richard and Annalee Roberts?
“You two are certifiable. ” She shook her head at the sight before her. “Excuse me, Annalee, you’ve told everyone for years that I tried to steal from you, that I was a home wrecker, but you say you regret it? Why don’t I believe that?”
Richard breathed out heavily. “Because you don’t understand the world you’re stepping into,” he told her impatiently. “We accept responsibility for the situation. ”
Well now, wasn’t that just big of him?
“You tried to rape me, Richard. You, your wife, and your demented little secretary,” Jaci snapped, her voice full of fury. “Excuse me, but that’s a little more serious than you obviously want to accept. ”
She felt as though she had dropped into the twilight zone, and she didn’t like it. She had come here with several certainties—one being that it was time for this “skirmish,” as they called it, to end.
Richard grimaced heavily at her declaration. “You misunderstood that night. ”
“I didn’t misunderstand that damned scar on my hip from your wife’s whip,” she bit out. “For God’s sake, what the hell is this?”
“Look. ” Annalee raised her hand to still the animosity rising between them all now. But there was no stilling it. Jaci had spent years being angry, years fighting their lies. “We’re aware your association with Cameron Falladay and his employer Ian Sinclair halts anything we could do to still your retaliation against us. We’ve already received our first warnings. I assumed you wanted to discuss the parameters of the truce that would evolve now. ”
Jaci stared back at them in silence. She scratched at the back of her head, wondering at the niggling warning there, as she gave her head a quick shake.
Something wasn’t right here, and it didn’t make sense. She had never imagined, not in all these years, that this meeting would be conducted with such civility and rationality. Hell, she wanted to scream and yell and throw things. And they were being nice?
She stared around the room before shaking her head and turning back to the conversation.
