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“Like,The One With All the Poker,you mean? You seriously thought you were in a sitcom, Ben?”
I genuinely don’t know whether to laugh or cry right now. Any time I watch something on TV where the characters decide to play poker, I immediately switch off. It’s one of my pet hates. But Ben, it seems, was not only been watching, but taking notes. And somehow he found himself playing the main character.
And here was I thinkingIwas the one who had ‘accidents’.
“Look, I know how it sounds, okay?” he says, looking embarrassed. “I know how stupid I’ve been. But that’s all it was, Emerald. It was stupidity, not something I planned. Peer pressure, I guess. At first I just went along to keep this guy from work company, but before I knew what had happened, I owed everyone money. And these guys… well, you really don’t want to owe them anything, let’s put it that way. Because, one way or another, they’ll make sure you pay them back.”
“And, let me guess: you didn’t have the money to pay them, so you took mine instead?”
Ben’s face has turned so pale I’ve lost the urge to laugh at him. I’m starting to feel quite sorry for him, actually. Poor, bumbling Ben, somehow managing to get himself embroiled with literalgangsters, who must have seen him coming a mile off, and instantly decided to relieve him of all his money.
Well, all ofmymoney.
So maybe I don’t feelthatsorry for him.
“No,” he says quietly. “No, that’s just it. I didn’t take your money to pay them back. I couldn’t; it wasn’t enough. I just took it to get away from them.”
“So… you still owe them? Is that what you’re saying?”
I glance nervously over my shoulder, as if “they” might be hiding somewhere, ready to pop out and pounce on us both.
Ben nods.
“That’s why I didn’t want anyone to see me. If they knew I was here —”
He lets the words hang dangerously in the air, and a shiver runs down my spine.
“But… Rose?Sheobviously knows you’re here? Didn’t she help plan this whole thing?”
“Don’t worry, Rose is cool,” Ben assures me. “She got out around the same time I did; completely cut ties with Dean. We stayed in touch, though; she lets me know what he’s up to, where he is — that kind of thing. We can trust her, Emerald. She’s on our side.”
“There is no ‘we’ in this, Ben,” I reply, rattled by his casual assumption thatI’mon his side. “There hasn’t been a ‘we’ since you walked out. And Rose definitely isn’t onmyside; not if she’s been feeding you information about Jack.”
“Ah. Yeah. About that.”
Ben looks deeply uncomfortable, but I don’t care. I just want to know the truth — whatever it is.
“Look, everything I told you about Jack is true,” Ben tells me seriously. “The land he’s building on belonged to the McTavishes. Jack’s grandfather essentially conned them out of it, and Jack knows that. So does Rose. That’s howIcame to know about it — because she told me. It’s not exactly a family secret. Well, except for—”
Except for me.
I fiddle with a loose thread on the sleeve of Jack’s sweater, hoping I’m not going to embarrass myself by starting to cry. Ben always hated it when I cried.
“When did she tell you?”
My voice shakes slightly, but he doesn’t seem to notice.
“Not long before I sent you that first message — a couple of days, maybe. She was helping her dad research his family tree, I think. We talk from time to time, like I told you, and I happened to call her that day. She said she’d told Jack about it, but he went ahead with the planning, anyway. I guess money’s more important than friendship to him.”
“You’re one to talk,” I retort, hating his pious tone. “Or have you already forgotten how you stolemymoney to save your own skin?”
“I know, I know.” Ben raises his hands in the universal gesture of surrender. “I have no right to criticize Jack. I just thought you should know about him, that’s all. I thought you should know what kind of man he really is.”
“So I don’t make the same mistake twice?”
I stare at him challengingly. Ben only manages to hold my gaze for a few seconds before lowering his eyes, defeated.
“Look, Emerald, I obviously went about all of this the wrong way,” he says. “I went about everything the wrong way, actually. Our relationship. My life. But I’m trying to make up for it now. That’s why I came here; so I could see you and warn you about Jack. Rose told me Dean was out of the country for a bit, so I figured this was my best chance. I couldn’t risk it before.”
