Make Your Move - By Samantha Hunter Page 0,44

their choices, but finally she rang them up and returned to Jason.

“So, I believe we were at a point where you were threatening me again?” she said bitingly, her good mood down the drain.

“It’s simple. I asked Dan a favor, to help push through approval on a project of mine, and he’s declined the application. It was stupid of him. If he had made a wiser choice, none of this would have happened.”

Jodie saw red, and held her hand up in a stopping gesture while she got hold of what he was telling her.

“Wait—you mean this was all about blackmailing Dan? You’re using me and my bakery to try to make him do favors for you at the school?”

“I don’t think of it as blackmail, I think of it as fair play. I have been on the unfair side of things for a while, and I want to even the playing field. You were a handy tool in trying to make that happen.”

“You’re the one who made the huge mistake, if you ever thought Dan would sell out, for anything. Even for me, or this bakery. You played the wrong hand, buddy,” she said.

Jason’s eyes widened. “You aren’t the least bit upset that he would betray you, that he wouldn’t do something as simple as signing over some money to a good project in order to save you more distress, and maybe even save your business? If he really loved you, don’t you think—”

“Stop right there. Like you would have any notion of what it means to love someone,” she accused.

She was the last one she thought would be making this particular argument, but her heart told her exactly what to say. “I would never want him to sell out on his ethics for scum like you.”

In truth, though she would never let Jason see it, his words scorched her. Why hadn’t Dan told her about this? Dan had been operating on a whole other level. Was he afraid to tell her what was going on because he thought she’d stop having sex with him?

No, she couldn’t believe that. Not of Dan. But she also wondered why he would keep this from her, and what she was going to do now. His betrayal wasn’t in holding the line with Jason, but in not telling her what was really going on. Didn’t he think she could handle it?

“That’s sweet, but not very practical. Are you sure he’s worth risking this business for? What you’ve worked all these years for?” he asked with a sweeping gesture of his arm around the kitchen.

Jodie tipped up her chin, ready to fight. For herself, Dan, and for her bakery.

“And just how do you suppose you can threaten any of this? You’ve taken your best shot. And you’re right. The FDA doesn’t have any concerns about my formula. Dan already ran it by the people he knows there, so you’ve been cut off at the pass on that one,” she said with no small amount of satisfaction.

Jason nodded, looking far too calm. “Right, but should your special formula be released into the wild, then you have a whole new set of problems. What would happen should your competitors get hold of it, or say, it just sort of made the rounds on the Internet?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I have no choice. Dan seems to need a little extra motivation to push that proposal through. Sharing that recipe…that would hurt, wouldn’t it? Your product would be one more overpriced cookie among a sea of them, driving down the price and making it not very special at all. You might survive, like you did before, but your signature product would be a thing of the past.”

Jodie felt the blood drain from her face down to her feet, and the hand that had been around a rolling pin earlier now gripped the counter.

“You can’t do that. I’d sue you. That’s a patented formula, and we could take anyone who used it to court.”

“Sure, you could, and rack up legal fees, more press coverage, wasted time—and meanwhile, you have no proof I stole or distributed anything, and your competitors would be selling cookies like hotcakes,” he said, and frowned mockingly. “Hmm…that is a mildly humorous comparison, isn’t it?”

Jodie was mute with rage. He was right, but what could she do? She walked to the kitchen, needing to catch her breath, and heard him follow her.

“So what do you think I can do about it, Jason? There’s no way I’m going to ask Dan