He was nodding, brushing a fly off his thigh as he took another sip of his now luke warm coffee. “You’re in for it, son. All I can do is wish you good luck.”
“Jesus Christ!” I cursed. “How the hell am I going to bail myself out of this one without tipping off Linc. He’s got her genes and mine; he’s no dummy. Even if I get to her and straighten this out, her sudden reunion with me is going to tip him off and all my planning will be for nothing.”
“Helluva mess, son, helluva mess.” I heard his words of consolation but knew he really didn’t pity me. After all, Auggie was his primary concern, as well as Ford. At this very moment, due to my meager attempts at manipulation, the people I loved most were in the hands of the people who stood to do them the greatest harm. It was my fault.
“Sir, would you do me a favor?”
“What’s that, Worth?”
“Would you call her? Would you ask her to come here and bring the baby to see you? Then just let me talk to her? Please? I have to get her alone. I need to explain what I was doing. I can’t let her just leave there for no reason. He’ll get suspicious. Hell, for all I know, he might try and hurt her or the baby.”
Mr. Langford considered my request at length, looking at the problem from all angles. Finally, he agreed it was probably the best shot. He went inside and came out shortly thereafter. “She’s on her way. Pull your car around to the back of the barn or she’ll just keep on going. I don’t like ambushing her like this, but I don’t see any way around it.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Worth
Auggie was not long in coming. She and her dad had a special relationship and if he needed her, she never hesitated to come. He met her outdoors and took the baby, telling her to go inside.
She walked into the room and saw me sitting there. Like a doe on high alert, she began to turn on her toes to leave.
“Auggie, wait! It’s not what you think.”
“How do you know what I think?” she asked, her tone hateful.
“I know you’re hurt. I’m pretty sure I know what you think is going on and you have every right to be pissed. But it’s not true, and if you’ll just give me five minutes to explain, I’ll settle for whatever you want to do after that.”
She just stared at me.
“Please, Auggie?” I’d never begged her before and she knew that. She looked over her shoulder through the window to see her dad sitting comfortably on the patio with Ford bouncing on his lap. She looked down at the hardwood floor, bare now that her mother’s Aubusson rugs had been removed. She nodded, finally, and took a seat near me on the high back sofa. The light made her hair glow as if it were an entity unto itself.
I began my explanation and to her credit, she sat silently and heard me out. “I had to figure out some way to get Linc out of the picture. I know he’s jealous of me and all that we have together. I think that’s his main purpose in being here. The story about the syndicate was just to scare me. He’s really here to break us up and to take what he considers his birthright.”
“I agree,” she said quietly, lifting her hair and nervously twisting it into a pony tail over her shoulder.
“I was reaching, Auggie. I had to figure out a plan. The only thing I could think of was to create a distraction and have him latch onto something else that appeared to appeal to me, to lure him like a moth to a brighter light. I know it was a shitty plan.”
“You’re talking about Jessie Klinger?” she asked in a hopeful voice.
“Yes, sweetheart. I don’t care anything about her. It’s all been a set-up. I pretended to be crazy about her and the only way to make him fall for it was if you were jealous. It would be hard for you to pretend — you’re not the phony I am — but I never thought it would go so far as for you to find out and get hurt by it. It was never, ever my intention to hurt you.”
“I’m not a fool!” she said in an angry, hurt voice. She slammed a sofa pillow down and I couldn’t blame her if she threw it at me.
“That’s my fault, for underestimating you. I’m so sorry, Auggie.”
“So?”
“So…? What?” I asked her, puzzled.
“Did it work?”
“Oh, that. Yes, he bit. I staged an event at the clinic on Thursday night and he showed up, just like I expected. I made a show of having her at my side and before the event was even over, they sneaked out together. Actually, they’re well suited. They’re two of a kind.”
“I know.”
“How did you know?”
The corner of her mouth lifted. “Because she’s in his room at the farm right now.”
“You mean, he brought her home?”
“Yes. Mother is fit to be tied. It takes away from her power to have another female in the house. I couldn’t figure out how she got there. Eventually, it made sense. I didn’t realize you were behind it. I just thought Linc had stolen her away from you.”
“I’m glad. That is, I’m glad the plan worked, even if it was really unfair to you. I’m sorry you got hurt, sweetheart. I just didn’t think.”
“We talked about this, Worth. This habit of yours to manipulate people. I told you I wouldn’t support your doing that any more. You agreed, remember?”
“I know. I know.” I was abashed. “I just couldn’t think of any other way to get this accomplished and I fell back on what I knew best.”
She was silent.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, fearing the worst
“I can’t get angry with you because I did the same thing.”
“Oh?” I relaxed just a bit, thinking she was finally coming clean.
“I decided to beat you at your own game. I went to Linc and convinced him I wanted to teach you a lesson. I promised to get him connected to the inner circle around here and convinced Mother to help. I told him I’d turn his farm into a breeding center and make him rich. He thinks he’s taking me away from you by getting me invested in his business. He figures he’s ruining you, and it was my plan. So, I’m not any better than you are.”
We sat in silence for a long time, thinking about what each of us had done and what that meant now that we were privy to the same information. I realized that she and I would always be a united team, no matter how many arguments we had. She was my equal and I deserved to be horsewhipped. So did she.
“Where do we go from here?” she asked finally. “If I don’t go back to his farm, he’ll know something is up and eventually will figure out the Jessie Klinger part of the plan too. Then we’ll both be out of ammunition and Mother will be added to his stockpile.”
“I can’t imagine him enjoying living with her,” I speculated.
“He doesn’t,” she supplied, grinning for the first time. “It sort of backfired on him.” I had to grin at this. “Worth, I don’t want to go back to that farm. It’s an evil place. The baby hated it there, crying the whole time. There’s too much bad history; it emanates from the walls.”
“I know,” I said. “It always felt that way to me too. I thought it was just me.”