"Tenn—" Before I knew it, she was in my arms, her body pressed to mine, mouth way too close to my neck. I shuddered in revulsion. Vanessa was one of the most beautiful women I knew. She was also a viper.
Closing my hands around her wrists, I pulled her closer as she hummed in her throat.
"I could be so good to you, Tenn. If you let me, I could—" She shrieked as I yanked her arms over her head, transferring her wrists to one hand and patting her down with the other. "What the hell are you doing? Let me go!"
"I'm looking for a weapon. Do you think I'm an idiot?" Not lingering on her curves, I checked for anything hidden on her person that could do damage. In Vanessa's hands, even a nail file could be a potential murder weapon.
"I'm not—"
"Save it, Vanessa." Finished with my search, I released her hands and shoved her back, putting a few feet between us. "First, I wouldn't fuck you with someone else's dick. Touch me again and I'll knock you the fuck out. I don't give a shit that you're a woman. Got it?"
"Tenn, I don't know what you—"
"Got it?" I repeated.
Vanessa ground her teeth together, glaring at me, her dark eyes narrowed. I was unmoved.
If I had the slightest inclination to feel sorry for her, it dissolved at the memory of Royal's girlfriend covered in blood, the hours in the hospital as we waited to find out if her best friend would survive Vanessa's attack. She'd come close to killing J.T. Could have killed Daisy. And in the end, her target had been my brother.
Yeah, this woman was poison. I slid my phone from the armband I used for running. "You know what? I think I'm going to call West anyway. Pretty sure trespassing is a violation of your parole."
"No!"
Great, more shrieking. I was done with this.
"I'll tell you who killed Prentice!"
I paused, finger hovering over West's number on the screen. "Keep talking."
Vanessa hesitated. She'd tried this game with Royal. He didn't think she knew anything. I wasn't so sure. She chewed at her red lipstick. "Give me enough cash to get away from here, and I'll tell you everything."
"How much cash?" She'd asked Royal for a cool million. Had she gotten smarter since then?
"Two hundred and fifty thousand."
She had gotten smarter. A million in cash took time. Two hundred and fifty thousand was doable. Not that I had any intention of handing that kind of money to Vanessa. Especially if she was going to use the money to jump bail. She'd almost killed a man. I wasn't rewarding attempted murder with a quarter of a million dollars.
Vanessa thought I was the same soft-touch I'd always been. The irony was, before she'd come after my family, before she'd hit Royal up for a million and then tried to kill him, I'd been considering helping her. Not because she deserved it. Mostly just to get her out of Sawyers Bend. Griffen was newly married and Royal had been falling hard for Daisy. Neither of them needed Vanessa around causing trouble.
I'd been planning to talk Griffen into giving her just enough to get rid of her. Then, she'd tried to kill my brother and I'd grown a nice, thick callus over my soft spot. If she hadn't gone over the edge, she might have gotten her cash. Instead, she'd lost her chance. Not that I was going to tell her that. Not yet. I had some questions first.
"What proof do you have?"
"Proof?" Vanessa echoed, glancing back over her shoulder at the empty gardens.
"Yeah, proof. Your word on who killed Prentice isn't going to get Ford out of jail."
"I don't have proof. I'll tell you who and why. With that, you can find your own proof."
I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head. "No way. For a quarter of a million in cash, I want more than gossip and speculation. If you want the cash, bring me proof. Otherwise, I'll give you ten grand for the who and why. That's all it's worth to me, and that's generous."
I wasn't going to give her a goddamned penny no matter what she told me, but she didn't know that.
Vanessa wrapped her arms around herself, rocking from one foot to the other, chewing again at her lipstick.
"I don't have all day, Vanessa," I pushed.
"Ten grand won't get me anywhere, Tenn. I need to get away from here, start over. When he finds out I told you, my life won't be worth anything." Another furtive glance over her shoulder.
He. She'd said he. It was debatable whether Vanessa's information was worth anything, but the word had slipped out.
He.
Maybe she did know something.
"Ten grand is all I can get you on short notice." A lie, but she didn't need to know that. "Give me a name."