The Perfect Letter (28 page)

Leigh kept her eyes on him, only on him. She wouldn't think about Jake on his way here. She wouldn't answer.

“Oh come on,” Russell said, his temper flaring. “I saw you come out of the bank. I saw you come back with a duffel bag. I know it's here. Just hand it over, and you can go on back to your nice little life.”

There was no point in stalling for more time: Jake and Chloe weren't going to be able to fix this mess. It was time to pay up.

Finally Leigh went to the door of the cottage and pulled the duffel out from underneath a pile of clothes. She shoved it at him. “Here,” she said. “And I never want to see you again in my life.”

Russell looked at the bag greedily. He set it down on the bed and unzipped it, picking up a couple of bundles of cash and flipping
through them quickly. “You may see me again, you may not,” he said. “Depends on whether you're a good girl or a bad girl from now on. I suggest you be a good girl, Leigh Merrill.”

She flung open the door of the cottage. Outside, a couple of conference attendees packing up to go home were startled by the noise and looked up to see what the commotion was about. “Get out,” she said.

Satisfied, Russell put the money back in the bag and zipped it. “Gladly,” he said. He paused at the door and put his clammy hands on her waist, pulling her close to him and laying a long, wet, disgusting kiss directly on her mouth. Then he pulled away and took a long, lingering look at her.

“I don't blame Jake,” he said. “I'd have gone to jail for you, too.” Then he turned and went out the door.

Leigh flopped down on the bed of the cottage, exhausted, heartsick, and now completely broke to boot. Every cent she had left. She'd managed to live frugally her whole adult life, but that had always been easy when she knew she had a safety net in the bank, something to land on if everything else went wrong. Now she was going to have to reconsider all her financial decisions. She'd need to go back to Manhattan and look for a new job, and the sooner the better. She'd probably have to move out of her apartment, not to mention look for a roommate, and she really didn't want to have to deal with
that
right now.

If only she hadn't been forced to pay off the nastiest, foulest, lowest form of life on earth, she could have lived with herself. If only she'd done something useful with that money, something positive. She should have given it all to charity a long time ago. She should have given it all to Jake the minute she saw him again at the end of the dock. She should have given it to him to leave her the hell alone.

She sat on the floor and looked into the cold ashes of the fireplace.
She hadn't felt so lost since Jake went to jail and her grandfather died. She'd brought all this on herself, after all. Being careless. Being selfish. Being so young and scared in those few seconds before the sheriff arrived, that night long ago. She'd sold her soul. She'd given it all up for her freedom, and her trust fund was simply the price that had to be paid.

She was about to start packing up the cottage when she heard Chloe's orange Karmann Ghia pulling up to the winery once more, the muffler rattling, tires skidding to a halt in a hail of gravel, the car doors slamming. Chloe seemed to be drawing as much attention to herself as was humanly possible.

“Jesus, Chloe,” Leigh said, coming down the hill in her bare feet, “take it easy! I already gave it to him. He just left.”

“You didn't!” Chloe said. “I told you not to! Don't you read your own damn text messages?”

“What's the point?” Leigh groaned. “He's got me, Chloe. I didn't have a choice—”

Then Jake was flinging open the passenger door, a frown contorting his features. Leigh's stomach tightened. She didn't want to see him, didn't want him here. From what Russell had told her, Jake was in on the scheme as much as Russell and Ben; more so, since he'd seduced her and then told the other two where she was. The sight of him there, at that moment, just reminded her of how foolish she'd really been.

“Where did he go?” Jake demanded.

“What do you care?”

Jake gave her a strange look. “Chloe told you not to pay him, Leigh. He's a dirtball. But don't worry, I think we can get the money back from him.”

“Sure,” Leigh said, barely containing her anger. “That part of the plan, too? Pretending you don't know what he's up to? Seducing me and then dumping me again so you could scam me for my trust fund?”

Jake crossed the distance between them in three long strides, grabbing Leigh hard by the shoulders. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Russell told me everything.”

Jake's fingers tightened on her shoulders. “
What
did he tell you?”

“That you're in business with him and your dad. That you're the one who led them to me. And I let you. I even slept with you. Jesus, I'm so stupid. I can't believe I didn't see it sooner.”

Chloe said, “Leigh, hold on—”

“Stay out of this, Chloe,” she said. “You only know part of it.”

Jake was breathing like a bronc in a rodeo pen, his skin rippling with anger. “You think that's why I'm here? To help Russell and my dad rip you off?”

Leigh was exquisitely angry, filled with a fury towering into a thunderhead; she wouldn't back down now. “That's what Russell told me.”

“And you believed him? I told you he's a con artist, Leigh! He'd say anything to make you feel like you were out of options.”

Leigh, didn't know who or what to believe, she only knew that she'd lost everything, that she'd never felt so alone. Russell had said Jake was involved, and it had sounded like sense to Leigh, who had been bewildered by Jake's erratic behavior ever since he turned up at the conference, telling her he loved her, he wanted her, then disappearing again in a fit of anger.

“It sure is a coincidence that he turned up the same time as you,” she said.

“It sure is a coincidence that he turned up the first time you came back to Texas. You ever think of that?” Jake said. “It's not like you were in the witness protection program, Leigh! Your face was in every newspaper and magazine for five hundred miles. The governor probably knew you were coming, for God's sake.”

“Maybe I want to believe him,” she said, lifting her chin. “Maybe
Russell makes more sense than you do, showing up here, telling me you still love me, and then running away again.”

“I can't believe you'd think so little of me, after everything.”

Leigh's anger, which just a moment ago had burned white-hot, started to collapse on itself. If she was wrong . . .

“I don't know what I think,” she said at last. “I only know you left. You could have stayed, but you left me, Jake. You told me it was over, said I should have a nice life. What was I supposed to think?”

“Hey, Romeo and Juliet, can we talk about this later?” Chloe asked, shifting impatiently from one foot to the other like a junkie waiting for a fix. “Which way did Russell go?”

Leigh was still looking at Jake, whose eyes were sparking anger. “He took off down the road about five minutes ago,” she said. “Just before you got here.”

“Which
way
?” Jake demanded.

“I don't know! Left!” Leigh shouted. “What the hell difference does it make?”

“Get in, Leigh,” Jake said.

“Why? I—”

“Leigh, get
in,
” Chloe said. “We have to catch him.”

“Will someone please tell me what's going on?” Leigh demanded.

“Leigh,” Jake said, “we got the letters. The copies Russell made of your letters. We found them. We took them.”

“What?”

“Look.” Jake held up a fat manila envelope. Leigh opened it to see a stack of photocopies, four years' worth of letters written in her own hand. “Where did you find these?”

“Ben's truck,” said Chloe.

“He's been leaving it parked behind Dot's Diner lately, since he's been sleeping with Dot,” Jake said. “When you first told me what Russell was up to, I started looking through my dad's apartment, his
office, but I never found any of the letters, nothing but his phone bill with a bunch of calls to Russell's cell. I knew he wouldn't let Russell keep the only copies of the letters. He never trusts other people with something this important. When Chloe found my place and told me Russell was coming back for the money this morning, I remembered to look in the truck. He had them in the glove box, same place he stashed the drugs.”

“The man's consistent,” Chloe said. “You have to give him that.”

Jake never took his eyes off the envelope in Leigh's hands. “You're safe,” he said. “My dad and Russell, they can't touch you, not anymore. It would be your word against theirs.” He raised his chin, giving her a grim look. “Unless you think I'm still part of my father's scam to get my hands on your trust fund.”

Leigh was completely, thoroughly rattled. She wanted to believe him. She wanted it more than anything, but the sands had shifted under her feet so many times the past few days that she always felt like she was about to fall. Wrung out, on the brink of tears, she asked, “Is this the truth, Jake?”

He crossed the distance between them and kissed her, deeply and firmly, so there could be no doubt any longer of his heart. “I couldn't hurt you,” he said. “I never would. I swore to protect you my whole life, Leigh. That hasn't changed.”

She felt like weeping, but she wouldn't—she was spent. She looked at the spot in the middle of his chest, the place where she always used to rest her head. She wanted to do so again now, but she wouldn't, she wouldn't, she absolutely would not.

She said, “I don't know who I can trust anymore.”

“You can trust me,” he said. “You know me. You know it's never been about the money for me, Leigh. I just wanted you. That's all.”

Leigh felt like she could hardly breathe. After everything she and Jake had been through—after everything they had put each other
through—he had still helped Chloe find the letters and bring them to Leigh. He had still rushed right out to find out where Russell was and what he was up to. That had to count for something, especially against the word of a con artist. If Jake were in it with Russell and Ben, he wouldn't even be standing in front of her now, would he? He'd be off spending her money, celebrating with them. There was no reason for him to be here anymore, none but one—that he still loved her.

She took a deep breath and blew it out again, slowly. “Okay,” she said. “I believe you. You're not involved with Russell. I believe you, Jake.” It felt good to trust him again. She took a step toward him. “You might be the most stubborn man who ever lived, but I know you'd never deliberately try to hurt me.”

“Thank you,” he said. His voice was low and husky with emotion. “That means a lot to me. I know my dad hasn't made it easy for you to believe in me, but I hope I can prove to you that I'm not a part of his schemes. That I never will be, not again.”

“Aw, ain't that sweet?” Chloe said, stepping between them before they could embrace. “But can we get going before Russell gets away? This is the most fun I've had in years, and I am
not
letting you two spoil it for me.”

They were less than a mile outside the town limits of Burnside when they spotted the taillights of Russell's brown Chevy up ahead, braking as he turned off the highway and into the dirt driveway of an abandoned homestead. As they pulled up, they saw the drive lead through an overgrown green pasture to a small wooden house faded to a peeling salmon pink. Out back an old dairy barn had collapsed like a diseased lung, and a series of small outbuildings with broken windows showed spaces filled with rusted-out farm equipment, old oil-company signs, a creaking windmill leaning at an impossible
angle. An old hardware-store sign staked next to the drive read
NO TRESPASSING
in bright orange letters.

Chloe drove past the driveway a little ways, then pulled up and stopped along the grassy ditch, pulling to the side away from traffic. She left the engine running.

The whole thing made Leigh nervous—the situation, the scene. It was Russell's place, Russell's advantage. They had no idea what the inside of the house looked like, but if the outside was any indication, it would be a hoarder's paradise, probably covered in boxes and crammed with old newspapers and overrun with mice. Even now Russell was probably stashing the money someplace deep inside the house. It was possible they could tear the house apart and never find it. Not a good situation in the best of circumstances. In these circumstances, well . . .

“What do we think, kids?” Chloe asked. “Do we go in or not?”

But Jake already had his hand on the handle of the door. “I'm going,” he said. “You two stay here.”

“No way,” said Leigh. “I'm not staying in the car.” She was thinking of all the ways this situation could go wrong, not to mention that she was terrified of what might happen to Jake in that house, with that man. What would Russell do when he realized his back was up against a wall?

But Jake was having none of it. “He might have a gun, Leigh. In fact, I'd be shocked if he didn't. I don't want you risking yourself again over my father's stupid schemes.”

“Russell won't shoot me,” said Leigh. “He's having too much fun ripping me off. You should have seen him gloat this morning.”

Jake crossed his arms over his chest. “What happens when he stops having fun?” he asked. “You think of that?”

“You said he was in prison for fraud,” said Leigh. “You really think he'd risk a murder charge?”

“He might,” said Jake, “for a million dollars. A lot of people would.”

“Then he'll have to shoot all three of us at once,” said Chloe. “Come on. We can't let him get away with it. At least not without trying. Let him see he's outnumbered.”