Descent (Black Heart Romance)

Her interest is piqued. “I do like cats. And I suppose what’s done can’t be undone, but Calvin, you swore to me you wouldn’t hurt anyone else without explicitly warning me first.”

I hold up a finger. “That was when I was doing it to punish you. That’s not what this was.”

She shoots me a look. “I don’t need you being my personal harbinger of vengeance, either.”

I beg to differ. She hasn’t sought a bit of vengeance for herself, ever. Until I came along, people thought they could walk all over her and still get her to show up to help them out of a bad situation.

And they were right.

Obviously, I don’t say that.

She’s still like that, and I don’t want to cure her of it. That tendency to forgive is the only reason she’s sitting at the table calmly discussing this like we’re having a minor marital tiff rather than running screaming to the police station with all she knows.

Which is a lot. That night at Purgatory she couldn’t have done much to me, but with all she knows now… well, that would be hard to get out of.

I don’t acknowledge that she holds some power over me now. I’m sure she knows, but she’s not the type of person who needs to flaunt it.

“Oh, I bought you something. Forgot to pick it up, though. I’ll send Hollis to get it before dinner.”

She levels me a look that tells me she is not amused. “This is not the time for presents.”

“It’s always time for presents.”

“No. This is the part where you promise not to arrange anymore murders on my behalf.”

I shake my head. “Not going to do that. I will promise not to kill Charity, though. It’s important you know that’s true, because the things she has been digging up… If your friend’s not careful, she will get herself killed. Nick won’t show lenience to nosy new lawyers who start poking around his business. He can’t. He hasn’t been boss for that long, he can’t have people thinking they can walk all over him. Charity needs to stop playing Rambo and get her little ass out of my business.”

Fear flashes across her face, but I can see that she believes me. “I’ll tell her,” she says nervously. “She’s not trying to be nosey, she just wants to protect me.”

“I know.” I add an extra dash of compassion on because I’m grateful as hell she believed me so easily. It’s the truth, but with all that just came out, I thought it might be harder to convince her. “You don’t have to talk to her about it. I will.”

Hallie frowns. “You?”

I nod. This is where I have to lie to her. I don’t like it, but it has to be done.

“I’m going to tell her about the blackmail.”

Hallie’s eyes widen. “What? No, Calvin, you can’t. If she knows you’re blackmailing me—”

I shake my head, interrupting. “That’s not the part I’m going to tell her. If you want to, that’s your prerogative. I wouldn’t because then she’ll really get the idea that you’re in a bad situation. I’m just going to present the blackmail to her and… well, use it on her. Obviously, I’m not blackmailing you to be here anymore. We’re in love and having a baby, it’s all real now.”

“In love,” she echoes dimly.

“We’ve calmly discussed murders I arranged and you’re still here, Hallie. You love me.”

“Oh.” She frowns. “Maybe.”

She does and I’m happy about it, but we can celebrate later when I get her pretty little ass in bed. “I’ll lay out what I have on her and explain that if she wants to be a thorn in my side, I can be a thorn in hers, too. I’m not sure she and I will ever get along, but I’m not sure we ever would have, to be honest. We both have strong personalities.”

Hallie smiles faintly. “That’s the truth.”

“But I’ll do my best to get along with her, and I’ll encourage her to do the same. We have a mutual interest in you. As long as you’re happy, I don’t see why we can’t get along.”

“She won’t like being blackmailed,” Hallie warns me.

“Obviously.”

“Doing it to me was not adequate preparation for doing it to her.”

“I understand.”

I just also understand what she doesn’t; that the blackmail I have on Charity isn’t the Hallie special.

No, fucking Charity had a packet all her own as soon as I came into possession of Jackson’s phone.

Chapter Forty Five

Calvin

I knew I would have to trick Charity to get her to meet me, so I text her from Hallie’s phone asking her to meet me at the place with the amazing goat cheese.

It sounds like Hallie, and it sounds like Hallie trying to be Nancy Drew and give a sneaky code, so she does.

I bought out the restaurant for the night because I needed privacy.