Calamity Jena (Invertary 4)

“The cop?” Her mother scoffed. “Yeah, like he can help your career. Frank is willing to let you headline his club. You would be the star attraction.” Her eyes glittered with envy. “Imagine the publicity, the attention. You’d be famous not only in Atlantic City but throughout the country. He’s got the power to make you a star. Don’t turn your back on that.”

“He wants me to strip.”

Abby sucked in a breath and bugged her eyes at Jena. “The man wants you to become a stripper? At his club? The same club where he slept with his other strippers?”

“Yeah,” Jena drawled. “Frank is classy like that.”

Her mother ignored the comment. “You’ll be famous. You’ll have money. What else is there?” She clearly could not understand Jena’s refusal to go with Frank.

“Uh, how about self-respect, dignity, a life without men drooling over you and making lewd gestures they think will turn you on? I’m pretty sure all of that is better than fame and money.”

Her mother stood. Disgust clear on her face. She grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Don’t be a fool. You’re a dancer and Frank is offering you the perfect opportunity to do what you love. He’ll take care of you. You’ll want for nothing. If you pass this opportunity up, you’re an idiot.”

With one last look of disgust, her mother turned on her four-inch heels and stalked out of the house.

“She’s charming,” Abby said sweetly. “Positively delightful.”

Jena chuckled dryly. There was nothing funny about her mother. “I’m sorry about that,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s forgotten. You did brilliantly. You didn’t let her walk over you even once. I’m seriously impressed.”

“I was shaking in my shoes,” Jena confessed.

“You couldn’t tell, and that’s the main thing. Now, don’t go ruining this new and improved you by chasing after her and apologising for everything you said to her.”

“I won’t. I feel no urge to hunt her down. Trust me.”

“Good.” Abby nodded firmly. “Keep it that way. If you feel the urge to screw things up, call me and I’ll talk you down.”

As Jena reached for the cheesecake, her eyes flicked to the door her mother had disappeared through. In her mind she knew she’d done the right thing. The way her mother treated her wasn’t love. Still, it was all she’d ever known, from the only family she’d ever had. And it hurt to be unwanted, to be used, to feel alone.

As if reading her mind, Abby covered Jena’s hand with hers. She gave Jena a sympathetic smile.

“Let’s talk about the non-relationship you have with Matt,” Abby said.

Jena rolled her eyes, but she smiled. Abby’s tactic worked. Her attention was no longer on the pain her mother left in her wake, but on the sexy cop who thought he lived with her. As she grinned at her best friend, she changed her opinion. She wasn’t alone. Not anymore. She had Abby. And she had Matt.

For now.

25

“I’ve changed my mind,” Grunt told Joe on Monday morning. “I don’t like this plan.”

“It was your plan.”

“Yeah. I was wrong. This is a bad plan. We need to abort the plan.”

Joe sighed as he turned in his seat to face Grunt. They were sitting in the front of an inconspicuous white van Joe had rented that morning in Fort William. The van was parked in the alley behind the high street shops. All that stood between them and the back door to the hardware store was an old yellow Dumpster. If it wasn’t for the fact Grunt had spotted a white van making deliveries in the same alley three days in a row, they would have stood out like a sore thumb.

“We’re committed. We told Frank. He’s expecting us. If we don’t turn up now, if we don’t carry out the plan, Frank will dump us and go it alone. That would be bad for Jena.” It was clear Joe was losing patience. With Grunt. With Frank. With everything. “If you didn’t like this plan, you should have kept it to yourself. You’re the one who saw Jena take out the trash. You’re the one who spotted the white van that would get us into this alley. And you’re the one who said we should ‘borrow’ her long enough for Frank to chat with her.”

Grunt was about ten seconds away from turning green and roaring in rage.

“Don’t Hulk out on me,” Joe said. “You know we don’t have any other options. Jena’s a sensible woman. I’m sure she’ll understand.”

“Claire won’t.”

Joe sighed. “This isn’t the time to worry about what your latest toy thinks.”