And then I thought about Reed’s bruises.
“Are you also responsible for what happened to Reed’s face?”
Jasper threw his napkin on the table and raised his hands. “I can’t personally accept full responsibility, but yes, I had a hand in it.”
“I fucking hate you!” I snarled, pushing to my feet. My legs were trembling, and I had to grab onto the table to stop myself from collapsing.
Jasper released a slow, exaggerated breath. “It’s always amazed me how far a woman will go for hot abs and a killer throwing arm.”
I glared down at him as he continued to eat his meal like we were having a normal conversation. The man I hated the most on the entire planet raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you sit down so we can carry on this discussion. If you make a scene, I may carry out my threat anyway.”
I lowered my body into the chair. I had no choices left. My heart sank.
“Why Jasper? At least tell me why you are doing this? Why me?”
There was a long moment of silence before he enlightened me. “Money, my darling. Isn’t it always about money?”
“But you’re already loaded. Your father is a wealthy man.”
“Not anymore,” he replied whimsically.
Shock bled through me. “What? Why? I don’t understand.”
“It appears my daddy dearest has a gambling problem and decided to involve some not very nice men. I won’t bore you with the mundane details, but it has fallen to me to dig us out of the shit, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
“When did this happen?”
“A couple of months ago,” he informed me.
That was when Jasper had started to put pressure on me about the wedding I’d put off for four years. Shit.
“But surely, if Theo went to my father, he would help. They’ve been friends for years.”
A strange smile twisted his expression. “That just goes to show how much you don’t know about our parents. My father resents yours, ever since that day Dominic stole the mayorship of Newport from him.” The venom in his tone suggested he felt the same way as his father. “I have it on good authority that Dominic Summers secured that position by underhanded means. Ask his undertaker-like assistant, David Burns, about that one.”
“What do you mean?” I had met David many times and had always thought he was shady.
He let out a long sigh and placed his fork down, waving off the waitress when she asked if we’d like more drinks. “Let’s just say, money exchanged hands. My father never got over it.”
I felt like I was being torn in two by an information overload. I had been so obsessed with carving out a career for myself that I had missed so much.
My mouth hung open as Jasper then blurted out everything that had happened over the last four years and why he returned from Connecticut. The bad blood must have been something Daddy was still unaware of. He’d never said anything to me. But then why would he? I had my own life and my own problems. I had been so immersed in my own shit that I hadn’t stopped to worry about my father’s. The strain of my parents' marriage had also made me turn my back on family issues.
At that painful moment, I felt like a failure as a daughter as well as a woman.
“Aren’t you eating?” Jasper muttered with his mouth half-full, pointing towards my meal with his knife.
“I’ve lost my appetite.” My shoulders slumped as I placed my hands on my lap.
And I didn’t just mean for my meal. I had lost the appetite to fight. There was now no way out. I was locked in and couldn’t do anything but marry the man in front of me.
The threat to Reed was now real and raw. I studied the expression on my fiancé’s face, hating him with everything I had. I had no alternative now but to let the man derail my entire life.
In less than a week, I would become Mrs. Jasper Dean Remmington the Third.
REED
After our mission, I drove Harper and Phoenix back to Ma’s house. She’d invited us to dinner that afternoon. As we pulled up the driveway next to Hudson’s Ford Ranger, he and Molly were climbing out of the car.
