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Something in her tone must have convinced the woman she meant business, as Annabeth took a step forward, her eyes wide and imploring, and Meredith felt much of her rage dissipating. “Mer. You wouldn’t really do that. We might have our differences, but we go back a long way. We’ve helped each other as much as we’ve hurt each other. You’d kill my career.”
“Depends on what kind of career you’re talking about. I was pretty convinced that you should have a career in pictures.”
“It’s not just me you’d be hurting.”
With that statement, the rest of Meredith’s anger disappeared. Because Annabeth was right. For all his faults, the mayor had a wife. Family. Kids who didn’t need to be subjected to the humiliation of seeing their father cheating on their mother. Even Annabeth’s husband, while not the brightest bulb, was sweet and kind. His humiliation would be no less painful than Meredith’s had been.
Her shoulders sagged as she realized how despite everything she’d promised Travis—that she’d changed and wasn’t the same vindictive person—here she was back to her old tricks. She’d been mean. Baiting Annabeth. Trying to crush her just like the old days.
Her heart seemed to seize, and she steadied herself as she realized something else.
Everything, every word, every threat she’d just spoken, had been overheard. Watched. By Meems…and Travis.
“Just go, Annabeth. I’m not going to tell anyone.”
Annabeth studied her for a minute, her face uncertain, then she nodded, and head held high, swept out of the room.
Shit. What had she done?
All this time she’d been trying to convince Travis that she was different. That she’d changed. But here, at her first opportunity to show she was the better person and let the occasion go by without trying to reap anything for herself, she’d sunk her teeth in, ready to draw blood.
She walked back into the hall, making her way toward the light in the main foyer. A tall figure walked toward her and she knew with a sinking heart who it was before his hand gripped her arm, pulling her back into the corner.
Travis’s face was ragged and fierce. The look in his eyes, even in this darkness, was of rancor. Disgust.
He was going to hate her forever now. She was going to lose everything.
Chapter Sixteen
Travis had spent much of the night watching Meredith effortlessly work the room, particularly with such preeminent figures as the Salt Lake bishop and the city’s mayor. She was glorious, and it had made him proud and humbled to know her, to know that he had her trust and, hopefully, more.
Until the moment she’d confronted Annabeth, threatened her with what some mig
ht call blackmail, all to settle an old score. Sure, the woman had been catty and mean, but Meredith had led him to believe that she was different. And unlike yesterday at Annabeth’s studio, when she’d acted admirably and let the woman’s insinuations roll off her back, Meredith had jumped back in, claws out.
Worse, he couldn’t help but wonder, how far would she go if she really had that footage? If she could somehow convince Meems to release it to her, would she hold it over Annabeth’s head for the next decade?
His gut twisted, and he realized what he should have known all along. She was the same. Would always be the same. Ready to roast someone, publicly humiliate them, and for what? A moment’s satisfaction that would taste bitter, like embers in her mouth, when she was done. Only she didn’t think that far ahead. Just in that moment.
Now she stood before him, her face a mix of sorrow. Regret.
And it killed him to know how easily he could just try and forget what had happened, to let himself completely fall for this woman. Until the day he misstepped, caused her some grievance, and she made him pay as only she knew how.
But he didn’t have time for this. He had a job to do. He just wanted to make sure she was neutralized.
“You’re wanted inside,” he said, keeping his tone neutral. Cold. “I think you have a speech.”
“Travis, I don’t know what came over me, but you have to know that as soon as I did it, I regretted it and tried—”
But he wasn’t going to hear it and strode away. She could give her excuses later, for all the good it would do her. For now he needed to continue what he’d been hired to do so he could finish the job and get the hell out of town.
He heard Meredith enter the bathroom as he continued down the hall.
“Travis, don’t be too pissed at her,” Meems said through his earpiece.
Damn microphones. She’d have heard everything, as he had, of course. “Annabeth is a real piece of work, and if you lived here, the honorable mayor and his high moral ground on family values make everything we saw the cherry on top.”
Be that as it may, it didn’t change the fact that after all Meredith’s promises that she had changed, it took only one moment for her to revert back to her old habits.
