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“You’re kidding, right?” Her nails bit into her palms, the pain helping to keep her temper on lockdown. “It’s a little too late for that, don’t you think? The damn pictures are already on the internet.”
Larry tilted his chin toward the sky and blew a series of smoke rings. “This time it’s a video, not pictures of your tit-jiggling show.”
“Watch it.” Mateo took a threatening step forward, chest puffed out and a look on his face that would send smarter men than her ex scurrying for cover.
Instead, the idiot tossed his cigarette down and stubbed it out. “Cool it there, Two-Face. My business is with the chick, not you.”
She slid between the two posturing men, ready to claw Larry’s face to pieces herself. “Larry, I’m going to string you up by your balls if you don’t get the hell out of Salvation.”
“I will as soon as you pay me for the video.”
The man was unbalanced; he had to be. “ You’re the one who emptied our accounts. I don’t have anything left.”
“You better find some or the world is going to be fapping to this.” He held out his phone, keeping it angled so that she could see the video playing, but not Mateo.
She glanced down. A black-and-white video of an elevator interior played. A man and a woman were in one corner. At first it didn’t register—and then the memory came rushing back.
Her and Mateo’s last night before his deployment. The striptease in the elevator.
Fear and panic squeezed her chest hard enough that she was surprised her ribs didn’t crack under the pressure. If this got out, everything would be ruined. Mateo would never forgive her for putting him under such an unsavory spotlight. The town would turn its back on the fundraiser and the Sweet family. Her future niece or nephew would grow up under the same harsh community glare that she and her sisters had.
“How?” It took a supreme effort just to get the single word out.
Larry smirked. “A source at the hotel contacted me after he saw the photos of you that I had posted. I paid a pretty penny for this. You’re going to repay me for that, plus interest, and then you’ll get the file.”
Chapter Eleven
Pounding this douchebag into an over-cologned pulp sounded good to Mateo. Too good—especially for a police chief. So instead, he stepped closer to Olivia and placed a comforting hand on the small of her back while giving her ex the death stare.
The guy did a double take and took a step back, which was the first smart thing the prick had done since he’d had the balls to talk to Olivia.
“Oh my God, it’s you,” Larry gasped. “The dude in the video. It took me a second but it’s definitely you. Damn man, what happened?”
The world jarred to a stop. “What video?”
“The before and after of this could jack up the interest,” Larry said as he eyeballed Mateo’s scars, as if he could catalog each crooked line. “Some people really go for that kind of thing.”
Olivia stepped out of his embrace. “Larry, stop. Please.” Her voice trembled. She pivoted in his arms, unshed tears pooling in her blue eyes. “I’m sorry, Mateo. I had nothing to do with this. Really.”
Nothing made sense beyond the fact that this dirtbag had a video that could turn Olivia from a fighter to a woman on the verge of tears. “What video?”
“This one.” Larry flipped his cell phone around.
It was a little grainy and in black and white, but there was no mistaking Olivia in a trench coat dress that he’d remember on his death bed—leather, red and easily unwrapped. She’d strutted into that bar and the rest of the world had ceased to exit, including the security cameras in the elevator.
Up until the end, it had been the greatest night he’d ever had until last night—and now some douchebag who thought blackmail was an enviable skill was treating that moment like it was a dirty bargaining chip.
On the phone, Mateo turned, revealing the unmarred left side of his face, the way it would never be again. It was the face of a cocky asshole who thought the world would always fall at his feet; the overconfident jerk who never thought that one bad judgement call would result in his team turning into a bloody mist in front of his eyes; and the idiot who didn’t realize how much Olivia meant to him until he’d pushed her away.
Olivia’s image on the phone caught his eye. How could he see the love so clearly on her face now when in person he’d missed it completely?
Because now his outside matched his inside: ugly and unworthy of Olivia. She deserved better than the cocksure pretty boy he’d been and she sure as hell deserved more than the scarred wreck of a man he’d become. The best thing he could do for her to make up for it all was to get out of her life.
“Larry, you’re a real piece of shit.” Olivia grabbed at the phone, but her ex pulled it away before she could yank it out of his hand.
“I can live with that as long as you give me my money,” he replied.
“You took all of my money, you moron.” Olivia trembled with anger.
