“Why? What could he possibly be holding over her?” This wasn’t something Cam was expecting.
“This is so much harder than I thought. I don’t want to betray my best friend. But she needs us.”
“If you aren’t going to tell me, then why in the hell did you come down here and throw out the bait?” Cam snapped, jumping from his chair and pacing his office.
“I’m trying to tell you,” Sage countered.
“If I’m going to help her, then I need all the information.”
“Jimmy was a monster—is still a monster. How do you think he managed to go from ranch hand to an important position in an exclusive art gallery? The man has skills, backwoods kind of skills, and he’s dangerous.”
“I know all of this, Sage.”
Cam was losing his patience. He turned away and took in a long, deep breath as he tried to pull himself together. Sage needed to work up to telling him whatever it was she knew, and if he pushed her, she would clam up again.
“I’m sorry, Sage. I’m just worried about Grace.”
“I’m worried about her, too,” Sage said with a sigh. “We all abandoned her after high school. But it started with you, when you left and didn’t come back that summer we graduated. You left for law school and she was devastated, but she had faith that it would all work out. While you were gone, she met Jimmy. Everyone knew she was your girl, and the hands warned the new kid on the ranch that Grace was a hands-off kind of gal. He ignored them. He pursued her. She didn’t think anything of it at first—just that he was a nice guy and she was helping him.”
“I was in law school, a good law school. Considering I was in foster care up until I was thirteen years old, that’s a pretty damn good accomplishment. I didn’t mean to abandon Grace. I was coming back for her. I was just busy . . .” Cam trailed off. He could spout that all day long, but he knew he’d left her, the calls starting to come in less and less, the visits rare. He’d left her because he figured she’d be waiting for him when he came back. He was twenty-two at the time, young and foolish.
“That doesn’t matter. Grace turned her sadness into anger, and so she flirted a bit with Jimmy—not enough to cross a line, but enough to make herself feel wanted. Then Jimmy didn’t appreciate the fact that she was playing with him.”
When Sage’s eyes filled with tears, Cam wanted to stop her, didn’t want to hear what she was going to say, although he already knew. Grace hadn’t admitted it that night a few months ago, but he knew what had happened.
“He raped her. She wasn’t sure at first, because he had drugged her. And she didn’t tell anyone, feeling ashamed and dirty. It was right after I left for college. He’d been priming her for an entire year, and then he did his filthy deed when she was all alone. We’d all left her, something I feel horrible about. She never told me, never told anyone. Then they moved away, and she figured she’d seen the last of him, but he showed up, and he had horrible images of her—horrible, Cam.” Sage stopped to calm herself.
“What do you mean, ‘horrible images’?” Cam asked.
“Once she was drugged, a friend showed up . . .”
Sage jumped from her seat at the sound of the wall breaking when Cam shoved his fist through it.
“What happened, Sage?” he thundered.
“There were pictures, lots of pictures of her with them, and the way they did it made her look like she was a willing participant,” Sage whispered.
“Why didn’t she go to the police? Why didn’t she charge them with assault?”
“Her mother talked her out of it.”
“What?” Cam stood rigid next to the window, the need to strangle someone so overwhelming that his fingers hurt. “Why? Why would she do that?”
“Because she convinced Grace that if she cried rape, they would turn it around on her, making the Sinclairs look bad. Mommy dearest couldn’t allow that to happen,” Sage said, scorn dripping from her tongue.
“Grace won’t prosecute this bastard even with all of this. It’s bullshit,” Cam raved.
“And I think he’s coming after her for more money, now that he knows she’s back where it all began. I don’t know if he’s trying to get a nice fat sum of money in his account before his fiancée figures out exactly who he is, or if the well has run dry from his job—but I think he’s trying to scare the crap out of her, make her weak, and then exploit her for all she’s worth.”
“Why wouldn’t he just demand more money? This doesn’t make sense,” Cam said, anger still ripping through him, but trying to calm down so he could think.
“I don’t know, Cam. I really don’t know, but there’s too much coming at her right now, and I don’t think she can handle anything else.”
“So the threats have nothing to do with the embezzlement,” Cam stated.
“I don’t know. I don’t know how any of this is happening to Grace. She doesn’t deserve it,” Sage said in a defeated tone.
“I’m going to solve this. I think it’s time Jimmy and I have a little chat.”
Cam couldn’t hear anything further. He needed action. Yes, he was a man of the law, but at this moment the law couldn’t help him. Although he had friends who could—no questions asked.
It was time to call them.
“Hi, Grace.”
Her spine stiffened at the sound of his voice. Disgust and shame all at once filled her. “Why, Jimmy? Why are you back in my life? Why are you calling me?”