“You’re about as defenseless as a snake in the grass,” he said. “Rallying your troops, trying to shut down my resort.”
Chey lifted her brows. “Your resort, is it?”
“It will save this town,” he said heatedly.
“So will mine,” Chey countered.
“You tree huggers have no idea what this town needs. And you, you’ve lived here no more than a minute and you think you know what’s good for us? This resort will help all those people you’ve got so twisted up, thinking we’re trying to screw them out of house and home, when we’re doing the exact opposite.”
“What you’re screwing them out of is the place they call home,” Chey said. “Significant distinction. We just want everyone to have the chance to live a decent, happy life.”
“Well, we can make sure they live a hell of a sight better than decent.”
“Not everyone is looking to make a fortune, Mr. Hammond. Not if it means losing their way of life in the process. If they’d wanted that, they could have moved down to Turtle Springs, or out to Valley View, or sold out to any one of the developers who have been sniffing around up here.” She tilted her head to the side. “Seems like the one most interested in making a fortune out of all of this is you. And I’m guessing a majority vote of the town council stands to benefit personally as well?” She shoved her other hand in her back pocket, all laconic, laid-back cowgirl, using the stance as a cover to fiddle with the cell phone that was stowed there. She double pressed the button on the side, then slid the screen twice and pressed, hoping she was doing it right.
“If you’re just looking to make some money off the deal, you could invest in our project,” she told him. “We have the full support of the community. Join us instead of creating this division and peddling your distorted truth of what folks’ lives will be like once that resort is built. You may not make the windfall you’ll get from whatever deal you have with the guy building the Taj Mahal of resorts, but you’ll do well enough and have the added benefit of being a town hero. I mean, how much more money do you need?” She noted his eyes dart away and he shifted his stance. That was when she realized this wasn’t about greed. It was about desperation.
Hammond didn’t just want whatever money he stood to make from his side dealing. He needed that money. Badly, if the amount of sweat beading up on his forehead was any indication.
Hammond did take a step closer then, and she saw the anxiety mingling with his utter contempt. Her pulse was racing, and she wasn’t nearly as calm as she was putting on. She doubted he’d do anything to her with the entire town in screaming distance, but she really wanted to get this little tête-à-tête over with. Desperate men could do desperate things, and she didn’t plan on sticking around long enough to find out what those things might be.
Hammond’s voice was low and ugly, and just this side of spitting when he said, “You’re going to head on up to that stage and pull your pretty boyfriend aside and explain to him that there won’t be an alternate plan put up for a council vote today. We have the contracts in hand, and we will sign them in front of God and everyone this very afternoon. And all the aging celebrities in the world aren’t going to save your sorry, whiny little asses. You get me?”
“Why would I do that?” she asked, because she honestly wanted to know. “You’re not even asking nicely. Are you offering me part of the pie? What?”
He barked out a laugh at that, then shot a wad of spit at the ground, just missing her boots. “You may not care about money or power.” His sneer went from nasty to downright twisted. “Not surprising, I suppose. Poor little rodeo girl can’t manage to hang tough when her brother gets stomped because he thought it was a good idea to get on the back of a bull with a cinch around its nuts.”
That shocked Chey back a step. It was such an unforeseen attack, she couldn’t hide her response.
Seeing her falter only lit up his ice-cold gaze. “Oh yeah, I did a little search on you. On all of you. Come out here and farm all the goddamn lavender you like. But stay out of my business, out of town business, you and that old whore showgirl and freak show genius. The only normal one of you is the painter, and she’s going to her grave thinking about her dead kid.”
At Chey’s gasp and stunned look of disbelief, he did pause.
“I’m sorry for her,” Hammond said, appearing to realize he’d crossed one line too many, though there was zero contrition in his voice. “Hell, I’m sorry you lost your only kin.” He spit again and doubled down. “But sorry don’t take care of this town.”
Chey had gone stock still as he’d spewed his venom. First in utter shock and disgust, then in an effort to reign in the overwhelming urge she had to take the knife out of her pocket and stick it somewhere lethal. “What happened to make you such a vile man?” she asked, barely getting the words out, her jaw was clenched so tightly. “You have every advantage, all the money, all the power you crave.”
He laughed in her face and his breath smelled like sour chewing tobacco, making her flinch and her stomach heave. “Nice don’t get you where I am, missy. Nice don’t get you shit. When I first got wind of your little scheme, I thought you all would dance around and sing ‘Kumbaya’ and talk a good game but fall far short of putting your little plan together. You surprised me, I’ll admit. But you’re all too damn nice.” He sneered the word. “The world I live in doesn’t reward nice. And that’s what will bring you down. You don’t know how to play dirty.” His grin was gleeful. “But I sure as hell do.”
Chey tried hard to focus on pity and not rage, because he was certainly a pitiable man. “I’m good with being the nice one, if getting where you’ve gotten means behaving like you are right now.” She put her hands on his chest then and pushed. Hard. Caught off guard by her sudden move, he stumbled back a few steps and took a swing at grabbing her wrist, but she was too fast for him. When he righted himself, she was holding her knife in front of her. “Don’t,” was all she said.
He blinked, clearly caught off guard by that, too. Then he laughed, amused by her display.
She calmly flipped the knife so she held the blade end between her fingers, then lifted her hand. “If you don’t think I know how to stick a pig, and at such a close range, try me.”
He seemed surprised by the cold edge in her tone now and kept his eye on her knife, but he was clearly not cowed. Chey didn’t care what he was, she just wanted him gone.
“You’ll tell everyone that the deal has fallen through,” he said, pointing his finger at her as he spoke.
She balanced the knife and he did take a step back. “Or?”
“I will ruin your little video star boyfriend.”
The threat was so unexpected, and so utterly insane, Chey laughed outright. “Seriously?”
Hammond wasn’t happy with her reaction and even less with her sarcasm. He took a step forward.
“Neck or heart?” she pondered out loud, shifting the knife direction slightly.
He stepped back, but then he laughed, and there was a new note there that sent a slice of cold fear straight down her spine. This was no idle threat he was making. And given he’d dug into her background, it only made sense he’d done the same with Wyatt. Still, she couldn’t fathom how Hammond could hurt Wyatt, no matter how much money he had. Or if he had any at the moment, which, given his desperation, was also up for discussion.
“And your plan would be?” she asked evenly.
“A little rumor here, an innuendo there. Could be anything, any story that paints him in a bad light. Stealing, fraud.” He shrugged. “Sexual assault is big these days.”
Her eyes widened, the threat was so bizarre. “And your proof would be?”
“Aw, honey, now I don’t need any proof. I just need to pay someone a lot of money to say whatever I want her to say. There’s lots of nice reporters over there. I’m sure they’d love to get that scoop. Make sure all his little basement dwellers hear about it and change channels right swift.” He lifted his hands and made little explo
ding motions with fingers. “What do they call it, going viral? I’ll use his own army of tree hugger idiots against him.” He took another step back when she made a step forward, the knife quivering now in her hand. “And sure, he can sue me, but the damage will be long done by then.” He smiled. “I’ll even cover his court costs. Consider it a nuisance fee.”
Years in the ring had also given Chey something that you couldn’t fake. Moxie in the face of significant opposition. She lifted a shoulder. “I don’t mind that plan so much. Then he can stay here with me instead of traveling all over the world.” She smiled. “One of my biggest problems solved actually. Thanks.”
He simply smiled at that, and if Chey had thought Hammond couldn’t look any more cruel or vicious, she’d been dead wrong. “Sweetheart, you really are way out of your league. But nice try.”
“Be that as it may, unless you want to spend the rest of your life seeing the world out of one eye, let’s not test just how nice I actually am.” She advanced on him.
“I’m giving you the easy way out,” he said, but lifted his hands as he stepped back. “But I’m perfectly happy to take what I worked so hard to get the hard way.”
Chey merely lifted an eyebrow.
His smile was downright vulgar now. “I heard you had a bit of a power outage at your place this afternoon. Slowed you down getting here.” He lowered his hands. “Be a real shame if anything else happened to that farm. Or anyone on it.”
That froze her right on the spot.
Hammond chuckled. “See what I mean? You have no idea what I’m capable of. This is why you need to think bigger picture, sweetheart. Power and wealth come in mighty handy when things need to get done,” he said. “Now, it’s been real nice chatting with you, but I don’t want to be late to my own party.” He lifted one hand and gestured toward the field where the meeting was going to take place, making a big showy gesture. “Ladies first.”
It took everything Chey had not to accidentally stick him in the ribs as she walked by. She wasn’t sure what part she hated most, that he’d actually put fear into her, or that he’d purposely culled her from the herd because he saw her as the weak link. She had two vulnerable spots in her life now. Wyatt and Lavender Blue, along with the people she loved who lived there with her. Would Hammond actually go so far as to hurt one of them? More likely, he’d hire someone to burn the place down, or, as he said, destroy their reputations and with them, their business, rather than physically harming them. Things that didn’t involve him getting his hands quite that dirty but delivered the desired result.
As she walked, hating with every fiber of her being that he was walking behind her, she played out the scenarios he’d laid out. Then she remembered her phone. She slid it from her back pocket, not caring what he thought.
“No phone calls now,” he said.
“Who would I phone?” she called back to him. “The police? The fire department? I’m assuming that won’t do me any good. Someone as powerful as yourself would have them in your pocket.” She played to his ego as she looked at her phone, then tried not to slump in defeat when she saw that while she’d managed to get the camera turned on, she hadn’t gotten it to the video setting as she’d hoped. Recording their conversation had been the only solution she could think of. Even muffled, it would have been something. She did, however, turn it on now.
“Don’t think about sending a heads-up text, either,” he said.
“What good would that do?” she chided him. “You’ve threatened to burn down my house and destroy Wyatt using his subscribers against him. What text is going to fix that?” She angled the phone up close to her shoulder, just out of his line of sight, hoping she’d baited him into saying something, anything, incriminating.
“Well, now you’re just making stuff up, honey,” he said, and she suspected he was well aware she was recording him. “Here I offered you an escort and you’re saying all kinds of crazy things. Have you had a little something to drink? Maybe you’re on medication to deal with all that pain and tragedy in your past. Terrible thing,” he said, sounding sincere. “No one would blame you a bit, of course, but I know they can mess with your mind.”
She shook her head. Oh, he’s good. Disgusting and terrifyingly evil, but very good at it. She’d bet he’d had lots of practice. And to think Vivi had been out with this asshole in the middle of a lake, with no one around for miles. Thank God they hadn’t come up with their alternate resort plan until after that. She shivered, thinking of all the things that could have gone so terribly wrong that day. That Vivi had made him swim to shore, Chey was certain, was also why he’d chosen to target Lavender Blue specifically with his threats. She was just thankful Grant had been with Vivi pretty much the entire time since then, or he’d have likely tried to extort her. Or worse.
Chey slid the phone halfway into her back pocket, so the camera at the top remained uncovered, video still recording. Then she lifted both hands up, the knife still in one of them, though she held it butt end now. “No texting,” she said. “Happy now?”
“No, but in about an hour from now, I plan to be very, very happy.” This last part was said far too close for comfort. She could smell his breath again and tried not to flinch. He snagged her phone from her back pocket, turned it off, and handed it to her. “Amateur hour. Now come on.”
He took her elbow in a bruising grip and steered her toward the stage. She didn’t give him the satisfaction of trying to yank free, knowing it was doubtful she’d succeed. They were only a dozen yards from the stands and the picnic area, both filled to maximum capacity. Apparently, he was no longer worried about the knife now that they had an audience.
They had to walk through the gauntlet of media trucks to get to the back of the stage, which wasn’t much more than a deck with a podium on it. “Show time,” Hammond breathed, then shoved her forward a step, letting her go as they arrived.
And that’s when Chey got an idea. Showtime, indeed.
“Hey, you made it,” Wyatt said, hopping down and coming over to her.
Hammond had walked to where three of the five council members were standing, all three of them men, one of whom was Henry Bassett, the lead councilman. All three looked very relieved to see him. Good. Now she knew who else was in their developer’s pocket.
Wyatt leaned down to kiss her as she folded her knife and tucked it into her pocket.
Seeing that, he frowned, then followed her gaze to Hammond. “Everything okay?” he asked, then really looked at her for the first time. He started to turn them both away, but she slipped free.
“I can’t explain it all right now,” she told him, “but I need to do something. Before we get on stage. Could you snag Vivi and Grant, and meet me over where Hammond and the councilmen are standing? I’m going to get Addie Pearl.”
“What’s going on, Chey?” he asked, looking truly concerned now.
“Just your standard small-town corruption and extortion,” she said, then smiled and kissed his cheek in case Hammond was watching her. “But we’re about to take care of that. Or at least a good chunk of it.” She started to go, then turned back. “Hey, is Peli here?”
He nodded.
“No streaming, but do you think she could maybe wiggle in somewhere inconspicuous and put a lens and maybe a mic on our little meeting?”
“Sure, but—”
“There’s no time to explain. We need to do this before they get on stage,” she said. “Just . . . please trust me, okay?”
“Absolutely,” he said, “always.”
Chey and Addie Pearl merged with Wyatt, Grant, and Vivi just as the three councilmen and Hammond turned toward the stage.
“Hello,” Chey said to the foursome. “I thought you all might like to meet Wyatt Reed and Grant Harper,” she said with a broad smile. She could feel the heat of Hammond’s glare coming at her from the side. She spied Peli behind the bushes just in back of them. She gave Chey a quick thumbs-up, then ducked back down. Chey corralled the group closer to the bushes a
s they made their introductions and shook hands.
“We really need to get this going,” Hammond said, striving for a convivial tone, but the strain was there on his face.
“I know, I know,” Chey said, “but there was a small matter I needed to discuss with the councilmen first. Can we get the other two of them over here?”
The three older gentlemen standing beside Hammond looked surprised.
“It’s important,” she told them. “It’s about the proposal we were going to make today.”
She saw Hammond’s shoulders relax the moment he heard her use the past tense in reference to their plan. Good. The better to catch you off guard with.
“Let’s move a bit more out of the way, shall we?” she said. “This really needs to remain private.”
Vivi was looking at her questioningly now.
“Is there a problem?” Grant asked her, openly concerned now, too.
“I’ll wait until we’re all gathered before—here we are,” she said, as the remaining two members of the council joined them, also both men. The mayor, Tom Fielding, stepped over to join them as well. Even better.
They all had expectant expressions on their faces, clearly happy about what was happening in the park that day. There was more shaking of hands, and greetings with Grant and Wyatt; then they looked at her.
“It’s come to my attention that there is a serious problem with one of the proposals today that I was unaware of until I just spoke with Mr. Hammond out in the parking lot.”
Now Hammond frowned. Oh, you’re going to do a lot more of that when I’m done.
“What seems to be the problem, Ms. McCafferty?” asked Henry. “And which proposal are you referring to?”
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