"Get out of Anguilla. Take whatever money they paid you up front and go home. Tell the bridesmaids you couldn't get the proof. Tell them whatever you want. But walk away from this before you get hurt."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I said I need the money!" The words burst out of her. Then she doesn’t stop.
"I have bills. I have debt. My sister's tuition is due in two weeks and if I don't pay it she loses her spot in the nursing program she worked her ass off to get into. I sold my car last month to cover rent. I'm two hundred dollars in the red in my checking account. So no, I can't just walk away, because fiftythousand dollars is the difference between my sister getting her degree and her ending up like our mother!"
She's breathing hard now, eyes bright with something that might be tears or might be fury.
I've never wanted to fix something more in my life.
"How old is your sister?" I ask quietly.
"Twenty-two."
"And you've been taking care of her since—"
"Since was she’s fourteen and I was nineteen. Since our mom died." She wipes at her eyes angrily.
"So lecture me all you want about safety and bad decisions, but I'm doing this. With or without your interference."
The sudden instinct to shield her from Blake—hell, from herself—locks into place like a hit I can't avoid.
The fact that she's had to carry this alone since she was nineteen. The fact that she's here, risking herself, because no one else showed up.
I can't let her do this alone.
I can't let her do this at all.
But if I try to stop her, she'll just find another way. Another angle. Another catastrophically stupid plan that ends with her hurt and Blake laughing about it later.
Unless.
The idea is half-formed, reckless, and completely insane.
Which is probably why I say it out loud.
"I'll help you."
She stares at me. "What?"
"I'll help you get the proof you need. But we do it my way. Safely. No private beaches. No getting cornered alone. I'll coach you through it."
"Why would you help me?"
I take a deep breath and hold her gaze, letting her see that I'm serious.
"Because you're going to do something for me in return."
Her spine snaps straight. “I’m not sleeping with you.”
"I don't want to sleep with you either."
Lie. Complete lie, and we both know it based on the way her cheeks flush.
“Then why?” Jane asks again.
