Page 90 of Set It Right
She punched in his number, and a small, jealous part of me relished that Jackson wasn’t saved as a contact in her phone. Infact, she’d had to unblock him in order to dial—that was how completely out of her life he was.
She held the phone between us. Two rings before he picked up. “Hello?”
“Hey, Jackson. It’s me,” she said.
He made a disgruntled sound through the speaker. “Christ, Zara. I’ve been trying to call you for a while. You had me blocked, didn’t you?”
She ignored his question. “I’m assuming you know there’s a private investigator looking into you. He’s called me and my job asking questions. What are you going to do about that, Jackson?”
“He called you?” He cussed under his breath. “Why would he call you? You have nothing to do with…look, it’s all a misunderstanding. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“That’s not true, and we both know it. Whose money did you take?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m handling it.”
“It doesn’t seem that way. The PI called myjobtoday—did you hear that part?”
There was a long pause before he asked, “Where are you working? No one checked with us for references.”
Her chin jutted, stubborn and proud. “That’s none of your business.”
“Everything about you was my business for a long time. It wasn’t my idea for that to change.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Look, I’m only calling about this PI. He threatened to fly out here to speak to me in person, and I really don’t want that to happen. I need to know you have an actual plan to fix thismisunderstanding.”
I covered her hand with mine, and she leaned into me even harder. That this conversation was difficult for her—that this man had her feelinganythingstill—killed me. But the realitywas she had a past, and he was a big part of it. All I could hope for was for him to stay where she’d left him so she could keep moving on.
“You’re not in Portland?” he rasped, sounding shocked. “Where are you?”
“I have a summer job in another state. That really doesn’t matter. I’m—”
He cut her off. “You’re in Wyoming, aren’t you? On that fucking ranch? I should’ve known you’d go there the second you left me. Should’ve seen it coming a mile away.”
Her spine straightened, and her cheeks flushed pink. She opened her mouth, like she was gearing up to tell him off, then clamped her lips together and took a few deep breaths.
“I’m working with a lawyer, Jackson.” Her voice changed, losing its tremor and smoothing out, like glass cooling into something solid.
On the other end of the line, Jackson huffed a laugh. “Oh yeah? And what did your lawyer say?”
“He informed me of my options and reminded me I have no obligation to protect you and your brothers since anything tying us was severed the second our divorce was finalized.”
Dell Rivers had been handling the ranch’s affairs longer than I’d been alive. Hell, he handled most of the legal needs of Sugar Brush. He was the call I made after speaking to my father. While Zara had been out leading a trail ride, I’d laid it all out for him, and he’d gotten to work, looking into Jackson and Mercer. By the time she was done for the day, we’d come up with a game plan. She’d only spoken to him for a few minutes, but he’d given her the buttons to press when speaking to Jackson. The path of least resistance had been his first choice, and he’d been hoping leaning on Jackson would get him to do the right thing.
I wasn’t so sure—especially not after hearing how he was talking to her, but this was only the first step. If Jackson didn’t come through, we were armed with a plan on what to do next.
“I don’t need you to protect me,” Jackson said after a long pause.
“Maybe, maybe not. I do know I’m notwillingto protect you from the mess you made all by yourself. Well, with your brothers.” She flipped her hand over and curled her fingers around mine, holding on tight. “My lawyer and I are preparing a statement for your investor. I don’t know much, but I’ll tell them what I know.”
Jackson let out a sharp breath. “You don’t need to do that. You don’t know anything, Zara. I made certain of that. What could you possibly have to say?”
“I’ll tell them I discovered what you were doing and kept documentation of the account numbers you were hiding—the ones I never had access to. Not to mention the emails I sent to you and your brothers questioning the discrepancies. It’s not proof of what you did, but itisproof I had no part in it.”
“You were my wife,” he shot back. “Anything you say makes you look involved.”
“I don’t think so,” she said softly. “It makes me look stupid but honest.”
Something fierce and protective lit in my chest. She was far from stupid. She’d trusted her husband. Hadn’t she been supposed to? The problem was, she’d married a man who’d never been worthy of that trust.
