her face with her hands. “See? This is the reason I didn’t want to tell you or Luke. Look, Kirk wanted money to leave the country, or else he’d kill Luke, then start killing my friends. That’s what he said. And I believed him. I’ve seen him beat people up for no reason, and I got scared. He didn’t start off with the first text wanting that kind of money. At first, it was just a hundred or so wired to this money outlet in Portland. But last Friday, he started upping his demands. He got greedy.”
Gemma finally sat down across from Lianne. “Once you give a blackmailer anything, they always come back for more. Didn’t you learn anything from Leia’s ordeal with Tiffany?”
This time, Leia sat down, too. “This Kirk must know something about you that you don’t want Luke to know. Am I right? Because that’s how blackmail works. That’s what Tiffany used on me with Zeb.”
Lianne nodded. “I’ve been on edge for two months, carrying around this secret. Afraid. I couldn’t tell anyone the reason.”
“That’s just not true. But we’ll get to that detail later,” Gemma inserted. “Right now, let’s get to what happened after I dropped you off last night.”
“I went into the house, gathered up my stuff, took it out to the car. That’s when I spotted Kirk’s truck parked down the street. I knew he was watching me. I didn’t want him following me to Collette’s. Or anywhere else, for that matter. That’s when I got this brilliant idea to try to lose him. So I started driving around town, leading him through streets unfamiliar to him. I turned into neighborhoods trying to confuse him. But at some point, I realized I was low on gas, so I pulled into Farley’s garage. Imagine my shock when I realized Farley was still there working on a car. Anyway, I explained the situation to him, and, bless his heart, he said he’d fill up the tank and that he’d keep my Civic out of sight. He even offered me a place to stay for the night.”
Leia traded angry looks with Gemma. “So, let me get this straight. You could tell Farley what was going on in one stop, but you couldn’t level with the man you’re going to marry next month? Or us? Have I got that right?”
“I know you’re angry…”
“Damn straight, I am. And I’m getting angrier by the minute. It’s tough to listen to this. Maybe because you’d rather let Luke, let all of us, believe you were cheating rather than set us straight about this ex-boyfriend of yours. That’s low, Lianne.”
“Kirk is violent. Okay? And spending a year in jail did not help his temperament any. Eventually, I knew he’d demand more money. I knew the hundred dollars here and two hundred dollars there wouldn’t be enough to keep him away from Luke. And then, one day, I realized he’d eventually show up to get more in person. I didn’t want to touch Luke’s money, so every time Kirk upped the ante, I took the money out of savings, my savings. It didn’t take long for Luke to catch on to all the texts, though. He’s not stupid. But by this time, it was easier to let him believe I was interested in someone else than to own up to the six thousand or so dollars I had already given Kirk.”
Gemma eyed Leia. “If you think about it, it’s not that different than Tiffany blackmailing you to keep a secret from Zeb. In fact, that’s the same thing you did to keep Tiffany quiet about Taylor Rainford. It’s the same principle. You were afraid to tell Zeb the truth, and Lianne is afraid to tell Luke she’s already given Kirk a lot of money.”
Leia blew out a breath and stared down at Lianne. “Okay, I get it. What’s the secret you’re afraid Luke will discover? What’s this jailbird holding over your head?”
Lianne blew out a tense intake of breath. “We went to high school together—Kirk and me. We used to hang out. One Friday night, he picked me up in a brand-new convertible sports car. I don’t know what kind it was. But I knew it wasn’t his. When I asked about who it belonged to, he cracked some joke about borrowing it from a friend. I knew it wasn’t true. I figured he was lying. Kirk didn’t have that kind of friends. But I got in anyway. I was sixteen. About four