The Favor

“What she’s not telling you,” began Jen, her eyes on Dane, “is that—inspired by Travis’s idea—she had one of her boy-toy’s try to steal Vienna’s laptop so she’d get access to company secrets, only Vienna had taken it with her to Vegas.”

Hope’s face went rock hard as she turned to her sister-in-law. “Oh, trying to shove everyone’s attention onto me, are you?”

“The burglary,” I said, shocked, as the pieces came together. “You set that up.” I looked at Dane, whose eyes now glittered with so much anger it was no wonder that Hope took a step back.

“She told the guy it was important that he make it look like a standard burglary,” Jen added, the snitch.

Hope snickered at her. “It won’t work, Jen. They’re not going to let what you did slide just because you’re giving up info on me.” Hope sliced her gaze to Dane. “Go on. Swear you’ll make me pay. Promise you’ll ruin my life. It’s already in ruins, thanks to your brother’s gambling problem. You have no idea how much we need that money, Dane.”

A muscle in his cheek flexed. “If you’d needed help, you could have asked for it. But you couldn’t swallow your pride and come talk to me. You would rather have taken what was mine right from under me.”

“Well, it’s not like you need it.”

“Neither do you,” I told her. “Not really. Travis may be in debt, but the two of you still have a lot more than most people do. Sell some stuff. Downsize. Shop in cheaper stores.”

Hope looked at me like I’d suggested she munch on dog shit. “And have everyone know about our debts? Have them laugh and ridicule us?” She shook her head. “Oh no, not a chance.”

Then Dane was right. This was about pride. She wasn’t prepared to lose face and have anyone know how far down she and Travis had fallen … just like Barron hadn’t been able to do.

“You wouldn’t have helped us, Dane,” said Hope. “You wouldn’t have cared that we were close to losing everything. You would have told Travis it was his own mess and that he’d have to fix it on his own.”

“I guess you’ll never know if you were right or not,” said Dane. “You can be sure of one thing, Hope. You really will feel like your life is in ruins by the time I’m done with you. You had countless warnings to leave Vienna alone.”

Hope scoffed. “Like you really care. I’ll admit, I fell for it in the beginning. I thought you two were serious. I thought she did indeed care for you.”

“So you tried to make me doubt him,” I said. “When that didn’t work, you upped your game. And when that failed—”

“It became obvious that this marriage isn’t real,” Hope finished. “My warnings about him didn’t send you running, the pictures didn’t send you running, the text message didn’t send you running.”

“Because I trust Dane.”

“No, because he’s paying you to stay right where you are—it’s the only thing that makes sense. You have no other reason to stick by him.”

“Really? You stuck by Travis.”

She shook her head. “I’m done trying to save that man from himself. He can’t be helped. Neither can Dane. They’re both too fucked up, thanks to Barron. I’m cutting my losses.” She looked at Dane. “You truly are welcome to come at me with everything you have. But there won’t be much for you to take from me—Travis will make sure I walk away from the marriage with little to nothing, the cunning bastard.”

Dane cocked his head. “Have you so easily forgotten that I can bide my time when need be? There’ll come a day when you have something important in your life again. I’ll make sure you lose it, just like you tried to make me lose what’s important to me.”

Fear glimmered in Hope’s eyes. “Even though my attempts came to nothing?”

“Even though,” he confirmed. “You knew what you were risking when you played these games. You played them anyway. That was your mistake.”

Hope gestured at Jen. “What about her? She wasn’t so innocent in all this, no matter what she might say.”

“Oh, I know that.” Dane looked at Jen even as he said, “Vienna, call Kent. Tell him to meet us out here. Tell him to bring Travis.”

I quickly did so and then rang off.

Tears welled up in Jen’s eyes. “Please don’t tell Kent, Dane. Please.”

“I’m not going to tell him,” said Dane. “You are. He’s going to hear it from you. He deserves that much. You did all this behind his back. He has every right to know. I’d want to know, in his position. I’ll be damned if I’ll keep it a secret for you.”

“I did something stupid, I know, but I don’t deserve to have my marriage wrecked.”