Page 30 of Blackmailing the Bad Girl

“I also know that the job you went down for wasn’t the first you did. I never could understand where you got the money from. And I didn’t question it too much, because I was scared to find out. You changed my life.”

Her mother had been in a long-term care facility before Summer had bought this place, and employed Ginny, plus a host of others, physiotherapists, occupational therapists. All of it had been paid for through the trust fund she had set up from the first job she’d done.

“Just tell me one thing,” her mom said. “Are you safe?”

She thought about Nik and his file on her and sent up a little prayer that she was telling the truth. “Of course I am. And I never took anything from anyone who couldn’t lose it. Besides, they owed you that money.”

“You stole from Trenton?”

Trenton Industries was the manufacturing company her mother had worked for before the accident. She’d been injured when one of the machines had blown up. They’d lied, claiming it was negligence on her mother’s part, and had refused to pay out on the insurance, leaving her mother unable to work, or even walk and look after her daughter. It had torn their little family apart.

“They owed you,” Summer said, suddenly fierce.

Her mother was smiling. “I wish you’d never had to, and I worry they’ll catch up with you. But it’s justice, in a way.”

“It’s a dead end now. They’ll never come after me.” Unlike Nik—who’d clearly kept looking. Why couldn’t she stop thinking about him? She was going to have to see him every day from tomorrow on. Couldn’t she give herself a break until then?

Ginny poked her head around the door at that point. “Has she told you about her boyfriend yet?”

“You have a boyfriend?” Summer glanced at her mom. She’d never had a man friend as long as Summer could remember.

“He’s not a boyfriend. Just a friend.”

“Who’d like to be more,” Ginny put in, before disappearing again.

“Tell me about him,” Summer said. “What’s his name? What does he do?”

“His name’s Pete and he runs a construction firm.”

“Sounds good so far. And he wants to be your boyfriend?”

Her mom waved a hand down at her legs. “How could anyone really want me? And I won’t be a burden. He’s a friend, and that’s all he can be.”

Summer leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. “You’re beautiful. But I won’t nag you today. Next time, well, that’s a different matter.”

She stayed for the rest of the day. Taking her mother for a walk, then lunch outside at the local pub. She felt almost like a normal person.

As evening fell, she stood to go. “I’ll get my stuff.” She didn’t have a lot, just some clothes and a few books. She’d never accumulated much, since she’d always felt transitory. “Then I’ll order a taxi.” It would cost a lot, but she couldn’t carry all her things on the bus.

“There’s no need.”

At that moment, the door opened and Danny stood there. Summer felt a smile tugging at her lips. She ran into his arms. He lifted her off her feet and swung her around.

When he put her down, she just stared, that silly grin still on her face.

Danny, in his way, was as gorgeous as Nik. He had Romany blood, with black hair, olive skin, and golden eyes. He was the cleverest person she had ever met, with a bad habit of getting into other peoples’ computer systems. He was the one who had helped her set up her alternative identities—she would never have been able to do her crimes without him. But luckily, no one had ever linked them. Danny had done time in a juvenile facility when he was seventeen, for computer hacking, but he’d learned his lesson, albeit a different one than Summer had learned. He’d just decided to be more careful.

She’d met Danny when they were both fourteen. Danny had been in and out of the foster system all his life. He wasn’t bitter about it and knew his way around. For some reason she’d never been able to fathom, he’d taken pity on first-timer Summer, taken her under his wing and stopped the others from bullying her. It certainly hadn’t been because he fancied her; at that point, she’d been fat and frumpy. She’d been a pathetic specimen back then, devastated over the loss of her mother, angry with the system and the company that refused to pay out the compensation that might have allowed them to go on with their lives and stay together. She and Danny found a connection over books, since both were voracious readers. Danny had taught Summer about computers, about what she could do with them. And together, they’d come up with Summer’s plan for revenge. It had been a game back then.

Summer had already been predisposed to hate wealthy businessmen at that point. After all, her father had been one. Elizabeth Delaney had been eighteen and working at her first job when her boss had gotten her pregnant and then refused to acknowledge the baby. Her mother had accepted a one-off payment rather than go to court. What was the point? It had made her mother bitter; she’d been in love as only a teenager can be, infatuated with an older man, a wealthy man. A married man, as it turned out, though she hadn’t known that at the time. She’d made it her life’s mission to ensure that Summer did not make the same mistakes. Her “father” was dead now and she didn’t care. He wasn’t really her father.

Summer had lost her virginity to Danny when they were both sixteen. It had been fun and they’d been lovers on and off in the years since, whenever they’d lived in the same city. But she hadn’t been with him since she’d met Nik for the first time all those years ago. Something had changed then.

Maybe she’d finally acknowledged that while she loved Danny, she wasn’t actuallyin lovewith him. He was family.

“It’s good to see you,” she said.

“You, too.” He looked her over critically. “You’re too thin, though. We need to fatten you up.”

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