if you know that, why don’t you just leave?”
“I will when I get you to admit all of this was part of a blackmail scheme. You came to my hotel to extort money from me.”
“No.” She looked away, but he lunged off the bed and got right in her face.
“You thought you had everything figured out, didn’t you?” His tone went from angry to abrasive. “You did your homework and found out about my Hodgkin’s Disease. You learned all about Cryogen Labs. And your scheme might have worked if the vials hadn’t been destroyed. That’s the part you didn’t know, the part you couldn’t have known. Cryogen kept that under wraps to avoid negative publicity.”
“Now will you get out?” she asked.
“Not yet. You had your say, and I want mine. Care to guess what I found out when I had you investigated?”
That got her complete attention. She forced her expression to stay calm. Well, she forced it as much as she could, considering that her heart was about to pound right out of her chest. “What?”
“That you’re not really Jessie Briggs.”
Her false composure slipped a considerable notch. She had to escape. But how? She didn’t think he would let her out of his sight this time. Besides, he probably had his thugs waiting outside for her. “Just who am I, then?”
He didn’t say anything for several moments. “You’re nobody. You don’t even exist. Don’t you think that’s odd? In this day and age, there are absolutely no records for a Jessie Briggs who comes even close to matching your description. No driver’s license. No social security number. Nothing. And trust me, if there had been something, my people would have found it.”
She didn’t dare breathe easier yet. She could tell from the gleam in his eye that he had a trump card left to play—and that card might get her killed.
“Care to know what I did next?” he asked, slowly enunciating each word.
“No.”
He ignored that and continued. “I had the fingerprints checked on your gun.”
She slowly met his icy-blue stare. God, this couldn’t be happening. How stupid could she have been to go to this man in the first place? She knew how dangerous McClendon was, knew what he was capable of doing, and yet she’d walked right into his waiting arms. She had all but pulled the trigger for him.
“And? What did you find out?” Jessie waited. Held her breath.
“They belong to a woman named Jessica Barrett. There’s plenty of information on her. A rap sheet, for one thing. Shoplifting. Petty theft. Writing hot checks. She’s twenty-eight. Born in Dallas. And matches your description to a tee. Her last job was as a cocktail waitress at a gentleman’s club, and I use the words gentleman and waitress loosely. My security people say Ray’s Cantina is nothing more than a sleazy strip joint known for its prostitutes and drug pushers.”
His voice lowered to a dangerous level. “Would you like to tell me now that you’re not the lying, scheming con artist that I know you are?”
Jessie tried not to look too relieved. “All right, so you’ve figured me out. The game is over. Now will you please leave?”
“No. Not until you tell me who put you up to this. Because I’m not buying that you did all of this on your own.” He caught her by the shoulders. “Let me tell you my theory. My political opponent is a man named Abel Markham, the dirtiest SOB who ever wanted to sit in the Texas Legislature. He’s the reason I’m running for office. I don’t want him anywhere near the State Capitol Building, and he knows I can stop him.”
“You’re a real Boy Scout, aren’t you, McClendon.” Jessie figured she had nothing to lose now. She couldn’t possibly rile him any more than he already was.
“No, I’m not. But I don’t go around trying to trash other people’s lives. I think Markham came up with this little scheme because of your most recent place of employment.”
She fired a narrowed glance at him. “What do you mean?”
He mumbled something and shook his head. “A woman named Christy Mendoza worked at Ray’s Cantina, too, and she died at my ranch about eight months ago. It was an accident, but Markham’s always tried to turn it into something else.”
Jessie couldn’t believe he’d laid this in her lap. Too bad she couldn’t question him about it. But it wasn’t the right time. All she wanted was to get out of there.
“This kind of plan smacks of the dirty dealings that Markham’s so fond of,” he continued. “What did he want you to do? Go to the press with this idiotic notion that I’d gotten you pregnant?”
“Abel Markham doesn’t travel in the same circles I do.” But it was something to think about. Had her questions about Christy put a man like Markham on her trail?
“No, but he could have found you,” Jake insisted. “He could have chosen you as the person to try to ruin me. Know what I think happened next? You went along with it, except at the last minute you got greedy and decided you could cut yourself in for some bigger bucks. So you came to me with that insemination story, hoping you could blackmail me. Because even if your story is a pack of lies, the media would have a field day with it. And it is a pack of lies, isn’t it, Jessie?”
“Yes,” she said softly.
“There was no kidnapping. No insemination. No plan to kill you. Just a dirty congressional candidate and a money-grubbing con artist who thought she’d found the goose that laid the golden egg.” His grip tightened on her shoulders. “Am I right? Tell me I’m right!”
“You’re right. Now please go. I’m leaving town and won’t bother you again.”
The shrill beeping pulsed through the room. Jessie gasped before she remembered what it was. The timer on her watch. She quickly pushed the small button to stop it.
“Well?” he prompted, when she didn’t move. “Why don’t we look at the results of the test together?”
“Why would you even care? You already know this was a con.”
“Let’s just call it idle curiosity.” He picked up the box and quickly read through the instructions on the back. “It says if it’s positive that a little blue circle will appear in the bottom of the tube.” He caught her arm and pulled her out of the chair. “Let’s have a look, shall we?”
Jake nudged her toward the night table. Jessie eyed the vial as if it were a deadly rattler. And she prayed. Because it was the only thing left to do. There was a chance. A slim chance.
“A real moment of reckoning, huh, sweetheart?” he asked. He snared her gaze for a long, cold moment, and together they turned and looked at the vial.
Jessie flattened her hand over her stomach and squeezed her eyes shut. There was no need to say anything because it was there. There. In the tube.
The blue ring.
A groan clawed its way past her throat. “Oh God,” she mumbled. “Oh God.”
