Breathe. “Then you don’t know your mentor quite as well as you think you do.”
“Twenty-four hours,” he reminded her as he started to go once more.
Say it! “Think about it, Tanner,” she appealed, “they’re all using you. Making promises, pumping your ego, and pretending the past never happened. Why now? Why you? There’s a hidden agenda here and you’re just too blind to see it. Or maybe you don’t want to.” Now she was really pissed off. Annette held her breath, forced her heart to slow. Lose control and you’ll lose him.
He moved in, even nearer than before, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Give it up, Baxter. You can’t win. I’m not going to stop until I’ve got you right where I want you.”
He smelled like leather and wood, earthy and sexy. She hated herself for noticing ... she hated herself even more for staring at his lips as he spoke.Just tell him!
She wet her lips and shifted her gaze to his. “Did Wainwright tell you about the meetings he arranged with Stokes before you were informed he’d been apprehended?”
Tanner’s gaze tapered. That muscle flexing in his jaw temporarily distracted her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Finish it. Survival. This was about survival. “August eighteenth.” She grabbed back self-control and banished the crazy sensations he somehow provoked. “That’s when Wainwright first met with Stokes in Mobile. The police picked him up three days later, after an anonymous tip.”
One, two, three seconds elapsed with him staring at her before he reacted. “I don’t believe you.”
“You just don’t see it yet.” She held that cold stare, didn’t flinch. “History never fails to repeat itself. The good old boys run the show. It doesn’t matter where you live or what you do, there’s always that handful of men who own your world. Wainwright is one of those men.”
“What does that have to do with any of this?”
Was he finally going to listen? “Drake, Wainwright, Holderfield, and that’s just the beginning,” she said quickly. “They own this city. They make things happen. You’re a part of their grand plan and you don’t even know it.”
Fury tightened his features. “Corruption happens wherever there’s power. But I”—he banged his chest—“know these people. I trust them implicitly.”
She was losing ground again. Fast. “I guess you’ll just have to learn the truth too late. The same way you did about Holderfield’s death.”
“Talk is cheap, Ms. Baxter.” His gaze cut straight through her, but she refused to flinch. “You want me to seriously consider this bullshit, give me something real to back it up.”
There were so many things she could tell him. But first she had to know with complete certainty that she could trust him to do the right thing with the knowledge. She would give him this one thing ... something, as she’d told him, so very personal. If he didn’t let her down with that, she would give him more.
“Talk to Stokes.” She took a breath, ignoring the alarms going off in her head. This was suicide. If he went to Wainwright, she would be dead before daylight. Tanner might be as well. “He’ll confirm what I’ve told you.”
Tanner didn’t comment. Didn’t say a damned word, just stared at her.
“Go see him,” she pressed. “Then you’ll know. Wainwright isn’t who you think he is.”
Annette stepped around Carson. Climbed the steps without looking back.
She’d played her trump card. Now it was up to him.
11:30 p.m.
Huntsville, Alabama
The Gentlemen’s Club
The Gentlemen’s Club was definitely misleading. There wasn’t a gentleman in sight.
Annette took a seat at a table in the farthest, darkest corner and watched as the drunken men pawed at the women dancing on the catwalk above them.
Slick, swaying bodies, wearing little or nothing, teased the men. Gyrated and rotated evocatively.
Hungry fingers tucked money into thongs. Bulging eyes leered at the young, toned bodies.
A waitress, also scantily clad, sashayed up to Annette’s table for her order.
“Vodka.” She met the girl’s world-weary gaze. “And a moment with that girl.” She pointed to Candi Tate, the one swinging around a pole. Annette passed the waitress a one-hundred-dollar bill. “There’ll be another just like that for her.”
