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“Let him fucking try.” Anger isn’t an emotion Shane handles well, especially when it concerns the things he loves.
Willow’s eyes snap to him.
Her tears roll down her cheeks as she raises her voice. “That’s easy for you to say, Shane. He isn’t threatening to tell everyone you are a slut and an unfit mother. He isn’t threatening to take your daughter away. He wasn’t pointing a gun at you.”
“WHAT?” I hear my voice in stereo as Shane joins my outrage.
“He fucking pointed a gun at you?” You would think that would have come from Shane, but it was all me, and I let go of my friend’s arm, approaching the counter.
She steps back.
“He’s not even interested in Annie. He—he said if I got him the money, he would leave.” My heart sinks at the hopeful look in her eyes.
Guys lick Dale never just leave.
They will always come back.
“How did he know—about us?” Shane joins me, resting his palms on the counter and sliding the knife away from us.
Willow shakes her head. “I don’t know. But he said he found out about your set up and then about Annie from someone’s sister—”
“Who’s sister?” I cut her off. “Did he say who exactly?”
Her eyes move to a table by the window as though she’s recalling the conversation.
“He said the woman you sent to sleep with him—her sister.” She looks between us.
If she’s expecting us to feel remorse or regret for the role we played in her ex’s downfall from grace, she’ll be disappointed. I would do it to him all over again.
I look at Shane.
We know who told him.
“Candice.” I say quietly and Shane nods.
Candi’s sister was eager to take the cash we offered her to get caught fooling around with Dale. She quit shortly after and skipped town, but Candice continued to work for us and we thought nothing of it.
Candi’s sister left her on the hook for an outstanding debt with a loan shark and we helped her out, making the payments for her and allowing her to pay us back, and now it seems as though she’s decided to sell us out.
Willow’s startled gasp draws our attention to her and we wait for her to tell us why she sounds so surprised.
She lowers her eyes to the counter between us.
“I am stupid.” Her shoulders slump forward.
Shane tenses beside me and I tap his forearm once. I know he’s ready to punish her for her self-loathing thoughts but we need to let her speak.
She raises her eyes back up to ours.
“Candice told me about your secret game. She said it might help me out. I thought she was helping me.”
I whisper a profanity under my breath.
Candi wasn’t helping Willow out. She was working with Dale to set her up. They put her in our line of sight. They gave her the tip to walk through our doors, and they put her back in our bed. Then they set her up and blackmailed her for it.
Dale has been here all along.
Between Shane and I, I am the voice of reason, usually the one to stay calm in a chaotic situation.
