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Gabby didn’t flinch, but she did pace. She walked back and forth in front of Jessa’s desk. “I left messages. When that didn’t work, I hunted down your cell number, and you ignored those calls, too.”
“Some people would take all of that as a hint.”
“I would have gone to your house, but I have no idea where you live these days.”
“That’s a relief.” Jessa tried to maintain the snide volleys because that had become their sole means of communicating, but she messed up and looked at Gabby’s face—pale. Mouth in a line. Rigid muscles. A tiny bit of sympathy crept in. “What happened?”
Gabby dropped into the chair across the desk from Jessa. “Do you know Detective Schone? We talked about her before, right?”
“Unfortunately.”
“She’s going after Liam, my brother-in-law.”
Jessa still didn’t understand the reason for the meeting. “Okay.”
“For killing Baines.”
“Oh, shit.” No more shots. This was serious and way out of Jessa’s experience. She reached for a binder where she kept a referral list. “I’m a divorce lawyer, but our firm often pairs with excellent criminal defense—”
“He has a lawyer.”
“Then I don’t understand why you’re here.”
“Retta. The group.”
Jessa leaned back in her chair and prepared to be annoyed. “Not this again.”
“You can stop pretending it doesn’t exist and that you’re not a member or trying to be one.”
Gabby was so sure, and so right, that Jessa wasn’t sure how to react. Gabby took the existence of the group as a given and plowed forward from there. That left little room to maneuver, but Jessa tried to anyway. “This conversation is exhausting.”
“Do you understand what’s happening?” Gabby rested her arms on the desk and leaned in. Unspent energy buzzed around her. “They killed him, for whatever reason. And now Liam could go to jail. He would be ruined. Wrongly imprisoned. And my life... well, there are things I don’t want... known.”
Out of control. There was no other way to describe Gabby’s fidgeting and rush of words. It was the best position for a nemesis or frenemy or whatever she was, but Jessa couldn’t call upany enjoyment. Seeing the usually even Gabby frenetic and desperate didn’t bring any satisfaction.
Jessa tried to wade through the words and figure out what exactly was happening in Gabby’s world. “Is Liam really Kennedy’s dad? I know I said the things about the rumors, but I was messing with you. Baines referenced getting a DNA test but then refused to talk about it. He made it clear to Covington that Kennedy was his daughter, and no one could take that from him.”
Gabby nodded. “For all his faults, he did love her.”
“Covington saw a way to score points and potentially turn a judge against you. He also wanted to eliminate Baines’s responsibility to pay child support, which would amount to a lot of money, but Baines wouldn’t agree.”
“The Liam and Baines question is... delicate.”
So, yes.“You, the person who drags up my past and pummels me with it every five seconds, have naughty secrets to hide about your brother-in-law? What a shock.”
“I’ve made mistakes. I thought I had good reasons, but none of them matter now.”
The honest response threw Jessa off. She had the ammunition and the power but lacked the will to use them. She’d never thought of herself as the all-talk, no-follow-through type, but that’s where she landed when it came to Gabby, and that realization had Jessa fumbling.
She tried not to let it show, but she had to ask. “Did you ever think I might feel the same about my mistakes?”
“I’m trying to figure out why you care what I think about youat all.” The comment came out more as an honest question than an accusation.
“Because you won’t shut up about things I did.”
Gabby’s shoulders fell as a bit of the dramatic tension spinning around her dropped off. “I could have spilled every sin in a motion during the divorce. You filed your false affidavit, and I didn’t come after you or your law license. My attorney begged me to write out what I knew about you and attest to it under oath, but I didn’t.”
“Why?” That’s the part Jessa never understood. Because she would have used every salty bit. She would have gathered even the most inconsequential pieces of intel and shot them right at Gabby if their positions had been reversed.
