Against The Wall (14 page)

Jess only got as far as the driveway before she hit the brakes and checked her watch. She couldn’t go yet.
Damn.
After slamming her palm on the steering wheel, she cut the engine.

“What’s wrong?” Tanner asked, jogging toward her.

“I have to wait before going back to Maurice’s. If the guys are still there, they’ll know something’s wrong. It would take me at least an hour to get from the condo to the restaurant and back again. Probably more in morning traffic.”

Tanner lifted dark eyebrows. “Good thing you thought of that.”

Jess checked her watch again, rolled her neck and leaned her head against the seat back. Emotion clogged her throat, made her chest heavy. She wanted to do something
now.
The waiting killed her.

Tanner opened the car door. “Come with me,” he said, dragging her out. He took her to the back yard and eased her down next to him on the bench. It seemed completely ridiculous to be sitting when her family’s life hung in the balance. But at the moment she had nothing else to do. Showing up at Maurice’s place wouhis guys that something was wrong.

Something was wrong. There was something she needed to do… “Oh, my God.” She hopped off the bench, pulled out her cell phone and called Maurice’s potential investor, an oilman from Houston, waiting at the restaurant. With a very genuine apology, she cancelled the meeting with Robert McBride, giving Maurice’s regrets and promising a phone call in the near future to reschedule. No reason to give the idea that a meeting would probably never happen. Not if she ended up trading Maurice for her family, which she might have to do.

Her stomach churned at the thought.

Bobby, as he insisted she call him, took the news in stride and didn’t seem too worried. He simply thanked her for passing on the message and hung up.

Jess made another call before it got too late. She told Hector, Maurice’s long time muscle, that the meeting was canceled and Maurice wanted to go location hunting for the next film. Deciding it was best to plant the seed now, she mentioned that since Maurice had groveled so effectively and begged her not to quit, she’d reconsidered. After assur“I don’t think so.” sating the man they’d meet up later, she stuffed her phone in her pocket and dropped her chin to her chest. What happened if she messed up? What happened if a detail got by and someone found out she had Maurice handcuffed in her garage?

“Jess.” Tanner’s low voice sent an instant wash of goose bumps along her arms. It was crazy. She turned when he tugged softly on her T-shirt. “You doin’ okay?” he asked.

She could fall apart any minute or she could be more like her mom. Get determined, get the job done. She faced him. He didn’t seem the least bit frazzled by all this. His relaxed strength only made her more jittery. More on edge.

“Am I doing okay?” she repeated. She sat next to him and shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. I’ve had better days.”

“I hear that,” he muttered. He shifted and grimaced.

“Your stitches hurt?” she asked. Had he pulled them out when he hit Maurice? “Should we check?”

“Naw. I’m good. Every once in a while I get a little twinge. Nothing major.”

Her shoulder still twinged, but it probably didn’t hurt half as much as Tanner’s side. Jess remembered last night. Pictured Victor stitching up Tanner and thanking him afterward. Her curiosity got the best of her. “How did you help Chino in prison? Why did Victor thank you?”

Tanner shrugged a shoulder. “Chino had been in a gang and when a rival gang-banger landed in our cell block, the punk thought Chino had ratted him out. He came after him, set him up, and I happened to be there.”

“You mean you saved his life.” Jess didn’t ask. She knew it. The more she learned about Tanner the more she liked him. That was very dangerous. Because he was very dangerous. He hadn’t done the crime that put him in prison, but prison life had made him a hard man. She’d gotten a glimpse of the man he was before his incarceration, but the dominant, ex-con prevailed most of the time.

“Five-to-one odds pissed me off,” Tanner admitted. “Chino’s not a big dude. Don’t get me wrong, he can fight, but he couldn’t have handled all five guys alone.”

Five guys?
Tanner was either very brave or very stupid. She picked brave. He couldn’t have gotten onto a secure lot last night and gotten them both out of there if he was stupid. “And that’s where you came in?” It was crazy, but Jess found herself smiling.

Tanner grinned back. “I just wanted to even the odds for him. He didn’t rat out anybody and he didn’t deserve what was going down.” The smile faded. “Besides, I’d been there before. Faced lousy odds and it sucks.”

No wonder the man had nightmares. Anybody would. Jess swallowed as a wave of compassion rolled through her chest. What broke her heart most was that Tanner might land back in prison if they kept going on their current path.

“I don’t want you to go back there,” she said.

experience in show business wanted to howTanner cocked his head and faced her. “I don’t plan to.” He searched her eyes. “Why would you say that?”

She gestured to the garage before she stood and paced away from him. “You should go home or go somewhere, but you shouldn’t be caught here with Maurice tied up in my garage. This is crazy.” She turned and saw him standing too. An ominous figure with a scowl on his face. “Look, I know you want revenge or retribution or whatever, but don’t you see? You finally have your freedom. Don’t risk it for someone like him. You deserve better, Tanner. You deserve your own life.”

“You don’t get it, Jess. I don’t have a life.” Tanner took three giant steps and got in her space, but she didn’t move. He didn’t scare her anymore. “He took that from me and I plan to make sure that what’s left of his life is as miserable as mine was for the last seven years.”

“But is it worth the
rest
of your life?” Jess stared up at him, hoping to break through his anger. She’d have a tough time doing this whole thing without him, but she’d manage.

Tanner looked up to the sky and let out a frustrated laugh. “Unbelievable,” he muttered.

Jess didn’t understand. “What?”

“You sound just like…” He bit off whatever he was about to say and turned away from her.

“Who? I sound like who?”

“Never mind.” He checked his watch. “Are you sure you can do this by yourself. I don’t like you going there alone.”

The change of subject threw her off, but Jess went along with it. She should’ve known better than to try to convince him to leave. He’d made his intentions more than clear. He didn’t care what happened to himself as long as he got even, and she couldn’t begin to control him. Why bother trying.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him as she checked her watch. “You tagging along will only cause problems and besides, we need you here to make sure Maurice doesn’t try to escape.” She went back to the bench and sat down despite her frustration. She still had time to kill.

Tanner took the spot next to her again. The bench creaked under their combined weight. His shoulder grazed hers. Birds chirped in nearby trees. A cool breeze lifted her hair. Seconds ticked by and neither of them said anything. She kept her focus on the hedges on the far side of the driveway and didn’t dare look at him. They were too close. She couldn’t take the chance of another kiss. One had been more than enough and she didn’t have time to kiss him anyway. Thank God, he’d pinned her arms because if he had any clue how much she’d wanted to touch him, he’d be all over her now.

Why was she thinking about that stupid kiss?

“Can I ask you a question?”

It beat sitting around thinking about kissing him. “I guess,” she said.

“Why did you start streaked down her faceurat working for Maurice in the first place?”

Jess leaned her head back and stared up at the sky. “I wanted to learn about filmmaking and I knew his name from my dad. I’d interviewed with a dozen different companies by the time I met Maurice and I was desperate to get my foot in the door.” Maurice must have been laughing inside when he found her. So eager and willing to work her ass off just to learn about the business.

“So your dad told you about him?”

“To an extent, yes. I mean my dad didn’t want me working for him, but he never gave me a specific reason why. I don’t think he was a big fan of Maurice’s. I just needed an in. I wanted to meet people, make connections. Without connections it’s impossible to get a project off the ground. If I want to make films, I need to know the players.”

“What is it you want to do specifically?”

“Write, produce and direct.”

Tanner arched a brow. “That all?”

Jess huffed a laugh. “I gave Maurice a screenplay I wrote a few years ago and he keeps telling me that it needs work. That he’ll consider shopping it when it’s ready, but not before, and that even if he finds a backer, I probably won’t be able to direct because no one’s going to give a first time screenwriter the chance to direct her own film.”

“Why not?” Tanner asked.

Jess snorted. “Because it rarely happens. The people who invest big money want to know they’ll have a veteran directing their film or at least someone with a track record.”

Tanner nodded. “So basically, Maurice has been dangling the carrot for three years to keep you towing the line.”

Oh God. She was the biggest idiot on the planet. How long would she have continued to work for Maurice before realizing he was never going to help her? He used her any way possible as long it benefitted him, including let her take over Caitlin’s position the past couple of weeks. Jess had only wanted to prove herself and instead she’d just made herself a bigger doormat.

Tanner shoved his knee into hers. “Hey, the good news is you only lost three years. The better news is it wasn’t behind bars.”

Meeting Tanner’s gaze, Jess felt a fresh surge of compassion for the man. “What about you? What were you planning before…” She couldn’t finish the sentence, afraid to bring up the chunk of life that Tanner lost.

“Before Maurice put me away?” Tanner finished her question and she nodded. “I’d only been in college a few months. I wasn’t sure what I wanted. I figured I’d go into business. It seemed pretty general and I could—” He cut himself off. “No sense in talking about it now.”

“You could go back to school, you know. It’s not too late.”

He laughed. “Uh, yeah. I think it is too late. Can you imagine me sitting in a class with a bunch of eighte experience in show business wanted to howen year olds?” He shook his head. “I sure as hell can’t see it.”

“If you walked out of here right now. Where would you go? What would you do?”

The question seemed to stump him. He looked up at the trees and pressed his brows together. Finally, he looked at her, his gaze soft. “I don’t know, Jess. I have no idea.”

Jess ran her hands through her hair. It was crazy to talk about the future when the present was so screwed up. She couldn’t think about tomorrow when she had to get through today first. “If it’s any consolation, at the moment, I have no idea about anything either. I know more than I did three years ago about filmmaking. I’ve learned a ton.” Jess sighed, sick at the way things had turned out. “I’d give it all up to have my family back here and safe.”

Jess jumped up to pace in front of him. “I hate this waiting. I feel so trapped.” It took another two steps before her words caught up to her brain and she shot a look at Tanner. He’d waited for seven years and he’d definitely been trapped. She ran her hands through her hair again. “I am so sorry.” Sitting next to him, she inhaled and exhaled, long and slow. “That was stupid of me.”

He shrugged. “Trapped is trapped. Yours is different than mine, that’s all.”

Because he’d spent it locked in a cell.

Every conversation came back to the same place. To Tanner’s prison stay. Jess couldn’t take any more. The conversation or the waiting.

“I have to go,” she said, heading to the car.

“Jess.”

She turned and found him right behind her.

“Be careful, okay.” He looked worried. It was an odd feeling having him concerned for her. “Call me when you get out of there. If I don’t hear from you within the hour, I’m coming over.”

Nodding, Jess opened the car door. She still had more time to kill, but she’d rather drive around than stay in Tanner’s reach. She needed alone time. Needed to think without the distraction of his presence.

She waited another twenty minutes, sitting in the lot of a nearby park and using the time to text Hector from Maurice’s phone. Thoughts of her family, of Tanner and Maurice swirled in her brain and jumbled together until her head threatened to explode. She couldn’t afford to make any more bad decisions. Too many lives depended on her. Her partnership with Tanner could only go so far. His help was a means to an end. Her main concerns centered around Maurice, his computer and his bank accounts. Without those things, she had nothing to bargain with. Losing her family wasn’t an option. How could she live a life knowing she’d cost them theirs?

With new determination, Jess headed to Maurice’s penthouse. Her stomach flipped as she took the plush elevator to the top. Her mouth went bone dry as she opened the penthouse door. The place was silent, not a bodyguard in sight. Her pulse revved when she walked into his office, her footsteps echoing on the Italian marble. With shaking working for Maurice in the first place mt him hands, she scooped the laptop into her arms and shoved it in its case. She shouldn’t be worrying, since she’d told Hector she hadn’t quit. She felt as if the lie had been marked across her face in a black sharpie and anyone looking at her would know.