meeting when the call came through and almost let it go to voicemail, but then something told him to take it.
“Excuse me, gentlemen, but I need to take this call,” he said, and walked out of the room as he was answering. “I assume you have news.”
Gage sighed. “Yes, sir. She’s here, and I’m in jail.”
Blaine froze. “What the hell do you mean, you’re in jail?”
“She was tipped off as to my presence and confronted me. She caused a big scene and accused me of being a hitman you sent to kill her.”
Blaine’s gut knotted. Once again, he had underestimated his ex-wife.
“That’s ridiculous,” he said.
“I need a lawyer,” Gage said.
“Yes, yes, I’ll see to it immediately,” Blaine said. “Just sit tight.”
“Well, sir, I have no other options considering I’m behind bars right now because you misled me about this job. I had no idea you had threatened her life.”
“I already told you, that’s not true,” Blaine said.
“Your word. Her word. And I’m stuck in the middle of it.”
Blaine felt his control of the situation slipping. Gage Brewer was obviously angry and unaccustomed to being jailed for anything, and Blaine didn’t want this getting out.
“Yes, yes, we’ll get this all sorted out,” Blaine said. “I’ll have a lawyer there to bond you out before dark.”
“That isn’t going to happen today. This is small-town America. It appears judges aren’t available at a moment’s notice around here. I am trusting you, Mr. Wagner, to keep your word.”
“And I’m trusting you to keep my confidences,” Blaine countered.
“Yes, well, I’m not your doctor, and I’m not your lawyer, and what you omitted to tell me about all this before I took the job got me arrested, so fix it.”
The line went dead. Blaine told himself the jailer ended the call. He didn’t want to think that Brewer had hung up on him, because that would constitute something of a threat to his own well-being.
He made a quick call to his lawyer, explained the situation, demanding swift action and the end result he expected, and went back to his meeting.
Gage Brewer handed his phone back through the bars.
“Can I have some water for my eyes?” he asked. “They’re still burning.”
Lon pointed at the sink inside the cell.
“There’s your water.”
“That’s harsh,” Gage muttered.
“Shit happens when you get in bed with the wrong people,” Lon said, and walked out.
* * *
Cathy was humiliated by the ugliness of her past coming into the lives of good people, and she stayed silent all the way back to the farm. If it wasn’t for Duke, she would have packed up and started running again. But she’d fallen in love with a man worth fighting for, and didn’t have it in her to give him up.
Finally, Duke reached for her hand. “Cathy…honey…talk to me.”
“About what? That whole scene was ugly and embarrassing. Your life isn’t like this. You don’t deserve to get mixed up in this.”
“None of this is your fault, and no one thinks it is. You are a victim of what I would consider a dangerous man, and I think it’s time to turn the tables on him.”
“What do you mean?” Cathy asked.
“What if some of the heat he’s throwing burned him a little? Who do you know back in Las Vegas who would be willing to leak his complicity in a stalking complaint? Would it make any difference in his life if people knew he’d threatened your life?”
“But I can’t prove any of that. No one heard him but me,” Cathy said.
Duke shrugged. “He’s playing dirty. I think the only way he’s going to back off is to protect himself. In the world we’re living in, facts don’t seem to matter. All it takes is the story to be told, and that first step has already been taken by the local newspaper.”
It was the first time since all this happened that Cathy even had an inkling that she might be able to fight back. She had the ammunition. She’d just never thought to use it.
“Well, it could make him madder,” Cathy said.
“Or…if his threats were ever made known and publicized in social media in some way, it would put the spotlight right on him, should anything ever happen to you,” Duke said.
Cathy’s eyes widened. “You’re right. He would be the first suspect.”
“Exactly,” Duke said. “So, with his name attached, the story you just gave to the local paper could wind up on the national news. Who do you know in Vegas who would be willing to use the story