His fingers wrapped around her wrist as she walked by him.
“Let me go, Jay, or I’ll ugly you up, and we both know how much your appearance means to you, don’t we.”
“I just want to talk to you, Hope.”
“What could you possibly have to say to me?”
He dropped his eyes, but Hope wasn’t buying that act. This man was cold and calculating. What he’d done to her had been planned meticulously for months. It had been a ruthless destruction of her life. That wasn’t a spur of the moment thing she could forgive.
“I heard about your next project.”
“So?”
“Are you really going to work with John Finch?”
“I can’t possibly imagine what the hell that has to do with you.”
“I just want to make amends, maybe help you a little. You know how I’ve always wanted to work with him. It’s been a dream of mine for years.”
He touched her then, cupping the side of her face and looking deep into her eyes. Once, she’d loved it when he did that. Now it made her skin crawl.
“You don’t seriously think I would consider doing anything with you again, do you? Now move your hand before you lose a finger!”
“Come on, Hope. We had a good thing. Maybe I went a bit too far, but we could still make it work.” He pushed her hair behind her ear.
“A bit far.” She shook her head. “I lost my job, you stole my photos and my money, and my reputation was ruined, because you set me up to look like I was using, Jay. I can never forgive you for that. The only right thing for you to do would be to come clean.” Surprisingly, Hope had calmed down. She no longer wanted to shriek or yell; inside, she felt controlled.
“I can’t do that, babe, but I could probably put in a good word, and you could come back.” He leaned in, and she shuddered at the thought of him kissing her.
Did he really believe she was foolish enough to fall for this again?
“Then you leave me no choice but legal action,” Hope said, surprising herself.
Before her eyes, his face changed, twisting into a snarl. “Surely you don’t want that video out there for everyone to see. You drunk and off your face.”
“I wasn’t. You drugged me, which if proven, along with everything else you did, would put you in a whole heap of trouble.”
He stepped closer. “Who would believe you? Everyone likes me and thinks you’re some social misfit with no friends.”
Hope itched to slap that sneer from his lips; instead, she inhaled.
“People respect me, and my work, and those photos were mine. Add to that, some of the Wildlife people saw me taking them, and a few are willing to testify about that, then I think it’s you who should be scared, Jay, not me.”
He grabbed her hand, but she shook free.
“Don’t come up against me, Hope, you won’t win. I’ll make sure of it.”
Sheer willpower kept her eyes fixed on his, when inside she was shocked, and yes, a little scared at the rage twisting his face.
“John Finch is coming here to work with me because he likes what I do. Not you. And I would see you in hell before I ever considered working with a scum-sucking limp dick like you again.”
The surprise on Jay’s face turned to shock as she raised her knee straight into his groin, hard. He staggered backward then fell to his knees. She then stepped closer and slapped his face hard.
The clapping made her look up, and she saw Newman a few feet behind them. She hadn’t known he was there. Something made her dip into a curtsy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Hope woke early the morning of the photo shoot, which had been delayed several times due to Mikey’s grandmother’s passing. She still had the key to the cottage, but hadn’t used it, because she and her mother were managing to live in relative peace. Which surprised the hell out of both of them.
