The Perfect Ingredient (Dare Valley) (28 page)

His nod told her his demons had been vanquished.

Now she only needed to vanquish hers with Vince.

Chapter 31

When Terrance left her with a long, sweet kiss, Elizabeth broke down and cried, releasing all of the pent-up emotion crushing her chest.

Over a cup of chamomile tea, she told herself she’d done her best against Vince. Elizabeth was stronger than Liz. She would need that strength to keep this secret from Terrance.

But she couldn’t keep it from Jane.

Twenty minutes later, she knocked on her best friend’s door. Matt answered, which threw her for a loop. If he’d come home for “lunch,” they were finished. He was dressed in tan dress slacks and a white shirt.

“Elizabeth! Hi! Come in. Jane and I have been thinking about you.”

Jane and I. It was still weird, adjusting to the new tagline they used, but it was nice to have someone else who cared about her.

He gave her an impromptu hug. “You look like you needed that. Come on in. Jane’s in the kitchen. I was just heading back to work.”

Annie trotted up to her, and because Elizabeth needed the comfort of that sweet dog, she stooped to pick her up. Henry, who’d followed his smaller friend, immediately whined.

“He’s still a little jealous when other people don’t pet him first,” Matt said. “We’re working on that. Right, Henry?”

Matt held his hand out for a shake and the dog lifted his paw. Given how rambunctious Henry had been when Jane and Matt first met, the progress was remarkable. Rufus looked on like a proud papa from the corner where he lay sprawled.

Sure enough, her BFF was washing up a dishpan when Elizabeth walked into the kitchen.

“Look who’s here, hon,” Matt said, following her into the room. “I’ll leave you two to your girl talk. This guy’s gotta get back to work.”

Walking over to her friend, he planted his hands on her waist. She leaned back and gave him a soft kiss. “Mayoral candidates can’t be slackers—even if they sometimes eat lunch at home.”

“I’ll text you when I can meet you at the park to walk the dogs. I love you.” He gave her another smacker and then turned away. “Bye, Elizabeth.”

Stroking Annie’s tuft of hair on her head above her yellow sweater with blue flowers, Elizabeth managed a smile. Barely.

“Are you okay?” Jane came over and hugged her immediately, dog and all. “I was so worried when Rhett told me about those tweets. You know me. I’m not on Twitter, despite all your prodding.”

Since Jane was a rising poker star, the exposure would do her good, but that was the last thing she wanted to talk about.

“
Jane.
”

Her friend must have heard the quiver in her voice because she pressed back instantly. “What is it? What’s happened?”

Setting Annie on the floor, Elizabeth took Jane’s hands and squeezed them tight. “You have to promise me something. I won’t ask you not to tell Matt, but you can’t tell Rhett or anyone else what I have to tell you. Especially Terrance.”

Only last month, she and Jane had finally blown the lid off their secret because of Jane’s love for Matt. Now she was asking her friend to put it back on because of her love for Terrance.

“Okay,” she said after a long moment. “What happened, Liz?”

She felt herself dissolve, the muscles in her face toppling like bricks in an earthquake. “Vince found me, and he’s Terrance’s banker.”

Jane’s face paled. “
No.
”

“Yes,” she responded, nodding her head erratically, the shock rolling through her again.

Her friend’s arms came around her and squeezed her tight, just like they had when she came home from her first run-in with Vince. “Tell me.”

Through tears and a few sobs, she told Jane everything. By the time she finished, she was shivering again, and the dogs were whining, sensing her distress, nudging at her legs in comfort.

Jane finally stepped back, her hands on Elizabeth’s shoulders. “You’re safe. He can’t touch you. I promise you, Liz.
He’s not getting to you this time.”

The worry that Vince might come for her in Dare Valley had crossed her mind, but she’d told herself he had too much to lose. “I’m afraid for Terrance. Jane, he all but threatened to destroy him. I can’t let that happen.”

“So you’re going to keep quiet and not tell him? Liz, Terrance has a right to know he’s doing business with the man who hurt you, who’s
still
hurting you.”

She should have guessed her friend would feel that way. “You don’t know how much Terrance wants to be Wolfgang Puck with his kitchen items and gourmet food products, not to mention the primetime TV show. Everything he’s worked for is just starting to come together.”

“Not at the expense of you and your safety. That wouldn’t be worth it to him. Dammit, he came to me to ask me what he could do after your run-in with Ryan on the street. He loves you, Liz.”

She remembered the tender way he’d looked at her in bed a few hours ago. “I know it, and I love him, which is why I have to protect him from Vince.”

“Let someone else finance Terrance. He’s a hot enough commodity. I know it would be difficult from a business perspective since his products are just launching, but he’d do it for you.”

“Vince already anticipated that.” And she told her about the full threat concerning Terrance’s business venture.

“Damn Vince!” Jane reached down to stroke Henry when he whined again. “It’s okay, boy. I don’t care what Vince is threatening. Liz, Terrance wouldn’t want you to protect him, not like this. Tell him and let him decide what to do.”

“Enough! Even without Vince’s threats, you didn’t see how close Terrance was to hitting Ryan yesterday. He’ll tear Vince apart with both hands, and that will give Vince plenty of ammunition to do what he wants. He’ll ruin him.”

“You don’t know for sure Terrance will react that way. He restrained himself yesterday.”

She did know. She’d felt the caged tension in his body last night, which was his reaction to simply hearing about Vince. “This is totally different and you know it.”

“I disagree. You need to give Terrance the choice. Just like I did when Matt was running for mayor.”

“
Mayor?
I’m sorry, but Terrance is a
celebrity,
a national figure. That’s nothing like running for mayor in a small town.”

There was a stunned silence as Jane turned away.

Elizabeth reached for her. “I’m not saying this to hurt you or impugn Matt in any way. I’m only trying to explain why it needs to be this way, Jane. I don’t want to deal with Vince ever again, and if this is the price, I’m willing to bear it.”

“And what about those parties Vince mentioned Terrance bringing you to?” Jane asked, her voice rising now. “This isn’t over. He wants to see you again, Liz. He’s still obsessed with you. What are you going to do then?”

Visions of him finding her at a party and putting his hands on her again made her want to vomit. “I’ll make up an excuse not to go. It will be fine.”

It had to be.

Her friend remained cold and silent.

“Please, Jane! Support me in this.” Tears coursed down her cheek. “I need you. When he called…I was so scared.”

One tear trickled down Jane’s face, and then another. They reached across the room for each other, crying, each reliving those horrible months at Harvard that had changed their lives.

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth cried. “This is the best I can do right now.”

“I know,” Jane whispered. “Just promise me you’ll be open to another way if Vince doesn’t keep this…I won’t call what that bastard offered a truce.”

The venom in her voice dried up Elizabeth’s tears. “Okay. We’ll see how it goes.”

“I don’t like keeping this from Rhett,” Jane said, clutching her tight. “He’ll be hurt if he finds out we didn’t trust him.”

Hadn’t she thought of that and hoped there would be a way to confide in him? “I know, but you know what he’ll do. He’ll join forces with Terrance to beat the shit out of Vince. It would hurt both of their careers.”

“Rhett wouldn’t care,” Jane responded, pulling back so she could grab some tissues from the counter.

But would Terrance? He would defend her. That she knew. But would he regret losing everything he’d worked for? How could he not? Cooking was everything to him, and they hadn’t been together for that long. Even their love was new.

“This is how I want it to be.”

After blowing her nose, Jane washed her hands and poured them two glasses of water. “Okay, but I don’t like it. Any of it. I’ll tell Matt, but only if he promises not to say anything. He won’t like it, but he’ll do it for me.”

No, Future Mayor Boy wouldn’t like it. The man was the All-American kind who kissed babies and shook hands with citizens because he liked it, because he wanted to better the community.

“Thank you.”

Jane handed her one of the glasses, and Elizabeth took a big drink to soothe her aching throat.

“That’s what best friends for life are for, right?” Jane had said the same thing to her when Vince first became a problem. Elizabeth had told her to find a new roommate and to avoid her until the danger passed.

Jane had refused.

“I love you, Jane,” she whispered.

“I love you too, dammit,” Jane said, picking up Annie and scratching her under the ears. “I don’t like this. I want to see Vince get what he deserves.”

“So do I, but perhaps that’s not in the cards.”

“We make our own luck,” her friend said, eyes troubled.

“This is life, Jane, not poker, and the stakes are much higher.”

You couldn’t get much higher than someone’s life. Their career.

“Promise me you’ll tell me everything. I don’t want you hiding things from me too because you’re afraid Vince might hurt me.”

Her mind went blank for a second. It hadn’t even occurred to her that her best friend was at risk too, but if Vince knew she was Vixen, he also knew Jane was Raven.

“Stop,” Jane said, reading her mind. “I don’t think he’ll do anything to me.”

But what if he did?

“If he does, we’ll find another way,” Elizabeth told her. “I won’t let him touch you.”

“Neither will I,” her friend said, putting Annie on the ground. “We found a way to handle Vince before. We’ll do it again.”

But last time had involved running for their lives and leaving everything they knew and wanted behind.

“If it comes to that, we’ll stand and fight this time,” Elizabeth said, and the vow coursed through her veins like a powerful elixir.

“Yes. We’re not the scared girls we were then. Vince better not mess with us.”

Elizabeth nodded.

If he did, he was going to see just how much older and wiser they were.

Chapter 32

Tuning out Chef T was impossible. He was eroding her “zone,” the one she needed to get into while catering the annual Raiders Spring Training dinner. Natalie finally walked the expanse of the kitchen, past yards of catering trays filled with prepared food, and stood her ground. Something she needed to do with her brother. She didn’t know how he’d managed it, but she had a brand new bumper sticker on her Nissan SUV.
I LOVE SPAM!
Matt was a dead man, mayoral candidate or not.

“You’re making my staff nervous,” she said to the celebrity chef. She wouldn’t admit he was the reason for her nerves. A bigger alpha was causing that problem, and he hadn’t shown up yet.

But he would. It was only a matter of time.

Terrance said something under his breath, but since he didn’t fish out a Benjamin Franklin, she knew it wasn’t a cuss word.

“Can I help it that I’m this good looking?”

A reluctant laugh sputtered out—a feat since her mind and body were busy coping with the fact that she was going to see her sinfully hot ex-husband shortly. “I know you want to observe them, but I told you this wouldn’t be fair. Poor Portia over there is covered in chocolate sauce because of you.” She only hoped they would still have enough to serve with the raspberry cheesecake—the coach’s favorite.

“I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you can say ‘poor Portia’ three times,” he teased, standing there casually in jeans and a short-sleeve T-shirt that showcased his famous griffin tattoos.

He deserved the fish eye for that.

“Hey! It’s not my fault I walked in when she was pouring the chocolate sauce.”

Portia had been star-struck until the ribbons of chocolate landed on her buxom chest and the floor. “And she didn’t bring a change of clothes…” Poor Portia—okay it really was funny—looked liked she’d been attacked by a wild painter using chocolate brown for his live human artwork.

“Whoa, Portia!” a familiar voice said from the kitchen doorway. “What in the world happened to you, girl?”

Her long-time and usually unflappable assistant grinned at Blake, who didn’t glance her way. No one frowned at Mr. Football Universe. Everyone liked him, and their divorce hadn’t changed that with her staff. Traitors.

“I…got distracted,” she said, an uncharacteristic blush staining her cheeks.

Who wouldn’t blush in front of Blake Cunningham? He was wearing a charcoal Armani suit that hugged every muscular line of his body. His sandy brown hair was styled in the way she’d always liked—long enough for her to run her hands through it. And that jaw…it was perfectly chiseled and with just enough stubble to make her want to meow at the sheer sexiness of it all.

He still hadn’t looked her way, and she knew he was biding his time until he could give her his undivided attention.

“Don’t let my linebackers see you like this, Portia. You look good enough to eat. They might tackle you and lick that chocolate right off. They’re like hungry wolves around food. You know that.”

Great. Now Portia looked like she was going to swoon, and who could blame her? The Raiders had some pretty hot linebackers.

“Did anybody see the new bumper sticker on Natalie’s rig? You know, even though we were married, I had no idea she loved Spam. What a stocking stuffer that could have been.”

Sure enough, everyone chuckled.

“Spam, huh?” Terrance asked softly, laughter in his voice, not disguising his interest in the scene.

She felt herself giving into a foodie blush. Between Terrance and Blake, she was losing complete control of her staff at the worst possible time. A few of the other women were spooning salad onto the counter instead of the gold-rimmed plates while another bobbled the sterno cans they were taking out of boxes.