“Get it if you need to. I don’t want you lying awake stressing,” I said.
She silenced it again. “It’s fine.”
It buzzed with a message, so she turned it over in her hand.
Nate:Call me back. Now. You’ve had long enough to think about it.
I shouldn’t have read it over her shoulder, but the tone of it sent tension rocketing through me, instantly snuffing out the warm afterglow from the sex.
“Think about what?” I said carefully.
Her voice was smaller than it had been a second ago and I wanted to throttle the guy through the phone. “I own the restaurant where he works and he wants it.”
I turned her over so her back was to Kelly and I could see her face. I was trying not to be overbearing, but there was something she wasn’t telling me and from her reaction, I was worried about her. “What’s the rest of the story?”
She wouldn’t meet my eyes. “He can’t afford to buy it from me, so he said he’s going to tell everyone I used to be a sex worker if I don’t just give it to him.”
I jerked upright. “I’m sorry…he’s trying toblackmailyou and you’re just now mentioning it?”
How long had this been going on?
“We’ve been busy,” she said feebly, then sighed. “I didn’t want you to know. I feel so stupid for putting myself in this position.”
Puttingherselfin that position?I might actually kill him.
“You haven’t done a fucking thing wrong here, Maia. If this guy is threatening you, we’ll take care of it. You don’t have to deal with this alone. Have you at least told Ophelia?”
She hung her head. “No. She warned me about him from the start and I hate how often I have to lean on her when something is wrong.”
I lifted her chin, hating the way I could see her folding in on herself in front of my eyes. “Baby, that batshit woman loves you and would want you to tell her.”
“How does blackmailing you even make sense?” Kelly asked. “If the threat is that it’ll supposedly destroy you, how does that get him the restaurant?”
She huffed a laugh. “He thinks the fact that I used to be a sex worker is so horrifying that I’d do anything to stop other people from finding out. It hasn’t occurred to him that other people might not be bothered or that I might not be ashamed of it. And that’s the part I’m struggling with. I can afford to give him the stupid restaurant. But I’m not ashamed of being a sex worker and I don’t know if I can live with letting it be a dirty secret someone holds over me.”
I tugged her up onto my lap and wrapped my arms around her, wishing it was so easy to shield her from this. “But if you’re going to go public with it, it should get to be on your terms, not the story that piece of shit wants to tell.”
Kelly studied her, and it was like I could see his instinctive shield dropping down around her. He didn’t let people in easily, but now that he trusted her, he’d see her as his to protect, just like he did with everyone he cared about.
He took her hand. “And you shouldn’t be forced into it. Speaking my truth is the most liberating thing I’ve ever done, but if someone had forced me into it by threatening to expose it first, it would’ve been traumatic.”
Her phone buzzed again.
Nate:I’m losing patience. Should I take this as your answer and start making calls?
I fought the urge to snatch the phone from her hand and tried to sound civilized as I said, “Please let me talk to him.”
There was nothing civilized about what was going through my brain.
“Much as I wish it were that simple, it would only give him a juicier story.”
She was right of course, but it didn’t stop me from wanting to do it anyway.
She texted back, “Working through transfer details with my attorney, but I’m overseas. Let’s schedule a meeting for Monday when I’m back in LA.”
She’s leaving.
Kelly held my eyes, seeing exactly what I was thinking. He looked at me significantly, silently urging me to talk to her. He slid out of the bed. “I’m going to leave the two of you to it and go get some sleep, but thank you for blowing my mind.”
