Burned Deep (Burned 1)

I collected my files and notebook and preceded Kyle out the door and down the corridor to the main conference room, where I did everything in my power to get through the rest of my day, keeping my shaky hands in my lap and forcing a bit of calm into my voice.

On the inside, however, I was nothing short of a nervous wreck.

chapter 22

My mother called my cell the next morning. My tension hadn’t eased the slightest bit from the day before. Especially when Dane had told me he’d learned the identity of snake-tat guy and that he’d apparently skipped town after paying off a few debts. Dane suspected he hadn’t acted solely on his own—that someone had likely offered him substantial cash to torture me. The very cryptic, “Don’t worry, I’ll find him,” from Dane only made me more apprehensive.

“I don’t have anything new to say to you,” I told my mother.

“It was all a bluff,” she unexpectedly blurted, her voice cracking. “There is no synopsis, chapters, proposal. I made it all up.”

I sank onto the armrest of a sofa in the great room and asked, “You what?”

“I had no choice but to blackmail you, Aria Lynne. I needed the money.”

“Needed?” As in past tense.

“Everything’s fine now,” she rushed on, as though she wanted off the phone ASAP. “I won’t bother you again. Ever. I understand you don’t want me in your life and that’s fine. Consider me gone.”

My stomach knotted. “Just like that?”

“I don’t know what sort of people you associate with—I’m not even really sure who you are. But you won’t hear from me again.” The line went dead.

I sat for a few minutes, trying to process what had just happened. Then I slowly got to my feet and sought out Dane in his office.

“You couldn’t be in two places at once yesterday,” I said without preamble. “So while Amano tracked down tat guy, you were … what? Buying off my mother?”

“She won’t cause trouble for you in the future. I made sure of it.” He didn’t even look up from his laptop, just kept typing.

I stared at him, momentarily at a loss for words as anger roiled through me. I tried to tamp it down, but there were some seriously conflicting feelings clawing at me and I couldn’t get a grip on them. My mother thought I’d become some sort of monster. Had I?

Because I was perfectly happy that I wouldn’t have to deal with her ever again. That she wouldn’t hurt my dad any more than she already had. It was a monumental relief, really. A huge weight off my shoulders.

Conversely …

“You had no right to take care of this. I was handling it.”

Finally, he glanced up. “Were you? Or were you just feeding into her scheme? Because she kept calling you, didn’t she? And five grand here or five grand there would have only snowballed into more and more—until all you were doing was signing over your paycheck to her. And, baby, you work too damn hard to make that sort of sacrifice.”

I wanted to cry. He was right, of course. At the same time, I honestly feared how he’d reconciled the issue. My mother had not sounded normal on the phone. In fact, she’d sounded terrified.

“You threatened her?”

“I got her name from Molly, since she’s called twice at the office. I had someone who works for me locate her. She happened to be at home, which made it easy to write her a check and tell her to stay the hell out of your life.”

“You just said money wouldn’t solve the problem.”

“I said five grand here or there wouldn’t solve the problem. Trust me, she understands that my offer was a one-shot deal.”

“Because you threatened her,” I repeated.

“I did what I had to in order to get my point across.”

That flash of danger in his eyes—the darkness that rimmed his emerald irises—told me very specifically why my mother had been so nervous on the phone.

And the dark side of me that I’d not known existed until now made me pleased that she’d finally gotten a taste of her own medicine. She’d tormented my dad. She’d broken both of our hearts. And she hadn’t cared that she’d done it.

“Ari,” Dane said as he stoo