to send Jane a text to tell her to end it when I noted Gaines asking for the check.
Shit.
I hurried to do the same and had just paid as Jane and Gaines got up from the table. He put his hand on her lower back to lead her out, and my eyes zeroed in on the spot. I wanted to rip his hand off.
Seething, I followed them out of the restaurant at a distance and sent Jane a text to tell her to find an excuse to finish up the date. There had to be another way to get to Wright. One that didn’t involve Jane lying to a cop for weeks.
To keep up the ruse, Jane had taken my Porsche and I was driving her car. Whatever she said to him had him leading her to where she’d parked the sports car a block around the corner from the restaurant. I couldn’t get parked near her. Fucking downtown. It was a miracle she’d found a parking spot this close to the restaurant.
Keeping my distance, I watched as Gaines suddenly slipped his hand around Jane’s waist and bent to kiss her.
Not just a peck either.
No, he went for it.
And she kissed him back.
My heart stumbled as I watched her press her palms to Gaines’s chest. Wait, was she kissing him back or pushing him away? Panicked, I made to stride toward them when they suddenly broke apart and she gave the dickhead a shy smile. He brushed his thumb over her cheek, pressed a kiss to her nose, and stepped back.
Adrenaline shot through me, and I barely had time to turn around and walk away before the cop spotted me. I disappeared around the corner and peeked back to see if Jane was in the Porsche.
What the hell was that? Why the fuck did she kiss him back?
What else was she supposed to do? I argued with myself as I marched to Jane’s car.
By the time I got back to Silver Lake, my Porsche was in my parking space. I drove Jane’s into hers and dashed inside the building. I didn’t know what I expected when I hammered my fist on her apartment door.
I wanted to kiss her. To make the taste of Lincoln Gaines a distant fucking memory, and I didn’t care what that said about me.
She called out that the door was open. I strode inside her apartment, slamming the door behind me, and came to an abrupt halt.
Jane stood in the middle of her living room, and she looked tortured.
Actually tortured.
Acid burned in my gut.
“I’m sorry,” I blurted out before she could speak. “I shouldn’t have asked you to do this.”
“Because it made you jealous?”
“Yes, I was jealous.” I surprised the hell out of myself by admitting it. “But that’s not why I shouldn’t have asked you. I’m putting you in a position I would kill someone else for putting you in.”
“You hate me. Why do you care what any of this is doing to me? Isn’t it part of your grand plan, Jamie? I mean, I’m just Asher Steadman’s whore to you. I fucked around behind your back when you were in prison, right? That’s what you told yourself. I’m a traitorous bitch you threw away because you stopped having faith in—”
I couldn’t listen to this. “Jane—”
She stepped toward me, face mottled with fury and pain. “Who cares who I have to lie to, or what personal morals I have to compromise, or who I have to fuck so you can get your revenge, right? I should see it as a positive, shouldn’t I? Fucking Gaines will expand my experience, let me catch up with yours.”
I grabbed her biceps, forcing her to look at me. “Stop it.”
“Oh, does that bother you, Jamie? Thinking of me and Lincoln. Or do you get off on it? Does the sting of jealousy feel good? The knowledge that you’ve pushed me right down to where you think I belong? I’m just scum, right? I don’t need you to care about me anymore. I don’t need you or Asher or Lorna to want me, to love me. I don’t need to hide behind a name my adoptive parents gave me because I grieve for the life that should have been mine. I should stop living in a fantasy world.
“I’m just Jane Doe. I’m nothing. I’m unlovable. I’m an emotional punching bag. Use me for what gets you off and then just spit on what’s left.” She laughed hysterically.