‘Well, there’s one way to find out.’
The threat hangs in the air between us, and I feel my carefully built world tilting on its axis. Everything I’ve worked for, everyone who trusts me, the entire community I’ve become part of… it could all disappear with one phone call, and I don’t know what to do about it. I’m scrambling to think up an alternative, something that will make him go away, but murdering someone with a whisk and a teapot is really rather difficult, and far more illegal than stealing a campervan.
‘We cared about each other once.’ I try appealing to his better nature, but my voice is even shakier than it was earlier. ‘I’m sorry I took your van, but if you destroy my business now, you won’t get anything.’
‘I’ll get the satisfaction that I saw on your face as you drove off in my van.’
‘That wasn’t satisfaction, it was pure terror!’
He does a cheerful shrug. ‘Well, you haven’t started baking yet and it must be nearly opening time for the Marzipan Campervan Café. I can’t wait to meet some of your customers and gauge the reaction to having a criminal living in their midst for all these months…’
My teeth are slicing through the inside of my cheek and I can taste blood, but it’s the only way I can stop myself bursting into tears or wiping the self-satisfied smirk off his face in an uncharacteristically violent way. I know Jared well enough to know that he isn’t going to give up until he gets what he wants, and what he wants today is apparently to see my life crash down harder than I ever crashed Campervan, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
22
‘What do you want from me?’ I’m pacing the couple of steps in front of the bed, back and forth, still trying to reason with Jared. ‘I’ve offered to pay you for the van, undoubtedly more than it’s worth, but I can’t magic that kind of money out of thin air. It’s more than reasonable to pay by instalments, and you have no right to sit here and intimidate me. I want you ou?—’
Jared talks over me before I’ve finished trying to order him out. ‘And I’ve already told you, I want the value of the van plus compensation for the trouble you’ve?—’
The van door flies open with such force that both Jared and I jump. Reece appears in the doorway, shirtless and dripping wet, his hair plastered to his head and his legs shoved unevenly into a pair of avocado pyjama bottoms. Water is dripping down his bare torso and he’s breathing hard, like he’sraceddown here without catching his breath. ‘Is everything okay? I heard raised voices.’
He looks between me and Jared, and his demeanour changes when he instantly understands the situation without a word being said. I’m so relieved to see him that I struggle not to burst into tears on the spot just from the feeling of having back-up. Especially shirtless back-up, but that’s a thought for another day.
‘Nothing that concerns you, friend.’ Jared looks Reece up and down with distaste. ‘We’re having a private conversation.’
‘And I believe all private conversations of this nature should involve me.’ Reece gives him a false smile and leans into the van, offering Jared a wet hand to shake. ‘Reece Sterling. Miss Lymford’s legal representation.’
I blink in surprise. I didnotexpect him to do that, and I get a warm flush of reassurance. It feels like that scene inLegally Blondewhere Elle Woods pretends to be Paulette’s lawyer and they rescue her dog from an evil ex.
Jared is too surprised to shake the hand Reece is offering. ‘You don’t have a shirt on.’
Reece glances down at himself like he hadn’t noticed. ‘My sincerest apologies. Had you made a prearranged appointment with my client as youshouldhave, I assure you, I would not have been mid-shower when you turned up announced.’
‘You have avocados on your trousers.’ Jared sounds like he hasn’t got a clue what’s going on.
‘Be that as it may, it sounds like you’re trying to threaten my client and that’s completely unacceptable.’ Reece sounds calm and authoritative, despite being half-naked and soaking wet. ‘Perhaps you could explain exactly what it is you’re doing here, Mr…?’
‘Stevens. Jared Stevens.’ Jared huffs, clearly thrown off his game by this unexpected arrival and trying to figure out how I’ve got legal representation who can appear so fast andsowet. ‘And if you’re her legal representation then you know exactly what she’s done. I’m the wronged party here. I’m simply trying to reclaim my stolen property and secure compensation for my losses.’
‘I see. And what evidence do you have that the vehicle was stolen?’
Jared’s confidence wavers, as anyone’s would in the face of Reece’s imposing voice. ‘She took it without permission.’
‘She didn’t need permission to take it – she had a key. Possession of a key implies permission. If you give someone a key to your house, for example, a reasonable assumption would be that the person is welcome to enter your house and would not be doing anything wrong if they did, indeed, enter your house using the key given to them. You were the person who gave Miss Lymford the spare key to the vehicle, were you not?’
‘Well, I?—’
‘That’s what I thought.’ Reece sounds completely unruffled, like a consummate professional, despite his harried appearance. ‘She simply made use of a shared household vehicle during a relationship breakdown following the discovery of infidelity, after you ejected her belongings and terminated the relationship. It’s my assumption that you weren’tintendingto make your girlfriend homeless with no back-up plan in place, and that surely you knew she would make use of the aforementioned household vehicle until alternative arrangements could be made.’
‘I did not— No, of course I didn—’ Jared splutters, sounding flustered by Reece’s calm delivery of words that are hard to argue with, and I’m so grateful that I want to throw my arms around his neck and kiss him. Where Jared wasn’t interested in listening to me, Reece has appeared with exactly the right words at exactly the right moment.
‘The legal definition of theft requires premeditated intent to permanently deprive the owner of their property. That was never Miss Lymford’s intent – she was simply using a familiar vehicle during a period of emotional distress. A very reasonable thing to do considering that you shared a house and she had a key to said vehicle.’
I think I might actually love this man. No one has ever stood up for me like this. There’s no argument that I was in the wrong, but he doesn’t waver, not even for a second.
‘It’s registered in my name! She drove it to Yorkshire and started a business in it!’ Jared’s face is turning redder by the second.
‘And she was intending to make arrangements to repay you for your investment in the vehicle, but it appears that you’ve decided to employ intimidation tactics before any such arrangement could be made.’ Reece glances at me for confirmation like a lawyer communicating silently with his client in a courtroom, making it look like this is something we’ve discussed many times before.
