Chapter 18

To Jadon's growing fascination, the woman actually dared to walk around him and the car and resume her trek home. Yeah, Jadon wasn't letting that happen. Before she could get more than three steps away from him, he grabbed her waist and lifted her off her feet.

"What! Put me down!" Tapiwa screeched, her arms immediately flailing.

Jadon ignored her. Instead, he shifted her to his side so he could pin her to him with one arm while his free hand opened the passenger door. Like wrestling a slippery puppy, Jadon then maneuvered her into the seat. He received an elbow to the chest for his troubles, making him grunt, but Jadon didn't back down.

Thankfully, soon enough, he had her buckled in with her seat belt secured. Jadon then quickly stepped back and closed the door, but not before flipping the child lock on the door. By the time he picked up the backpack that had dropped, rounded the vehicle, and got behind the steering wheel, Tapiwa had removed the seatbelt and was attempting to climb between the two front seats to get into the back to access another door.

With a groan of frustration, Jadon grabbed her and forced her back into her seat before throwing her bag into the backseat. He then started the vehicle and drove off, effectively preventing any more escape attempts unless Tapiwa planned to jump out of a moving vehicle.

"This is kidnapping!" Tapiwa spat.

Jadon shot the disheveled woman a look. She was glaring at him with her arms crossed over her chest. She also hadn't re-secured her seat belt and was half-turned in her seat to face him. "I told you we need to talk," he answered calmly. "Now put on your seat belt."

She ignored his request. "So you kidnapped me? That's a crime!"

"I didn't kidnap you," Jadon corrected evenly. "I will let you go just as soon as we are done talking. You could have avoided all this by just agreeing to talk to me."

Tapiwa snarled. "Fine! Talk!"

"Seat belt."

"What? You suddenly care about me getting injured?" she challenged.

"There is no 'suddenly' about it. We have never known each other for me to care about you or for you to claim otherwise. Just put the damn seat belt on."

She didn't.

Jadon huffed. He checked the road and saw that they were approaching a mall. Figuring they were better off having this conversation in a stationary vehicle, he took the exit and parked in one of the slots furthest from the usual mall traffic.

For a long minute, he didn't say anything and Tapiwa only glared at him. He had half expected she would start banging on the windows and calling for help as soon as he entered the car park, but she seemed content to just wish him a gruesome death with her eyes.

Jadon shook his head and loosened his tie. Not for the first time, he felt as though he was being choked. Physically and mentally. "Let's just talk so we can both be on our way. I want to be here just as much as you do."

"I don't want to be here."

Jadon nodded. "Exactly my point. So don't waste my time. Tell me how you got me in bed with you. Who are you working with?"

For a beat, Tapiwa only blinked at him. Then she spoke and venom dripped from every word. "Are you deaf? I already told you I had nothing to do with it. I don't know how I ended up in bed with you and I am not working with anyone."

"And I'm just supposed to believe that we randomly just fell in bed together, had sex, conveniently forgot about it, and then some other random guy just happened to have the pictures and is now blackmailing me?"

Throwing her hands up in the air between them, Tapiwa shrugged. "That's one version. The other is that you drugged me and took advantage of me. And now your accomplice is blackmailing you to keep the secret."

Jadon looked at her as though she had grown a second head. "How is that version even possible?" He removed the envelope and threw it between them on the center console. "Until I received those pictures, I didn't even know I had slept with you! I certainly hadn't taken advantage of you." Jadon felt his stomach twist at the very idea, and he was reminded that the blackmailer was claiming the same thing.

"How are you sure?" Tapiwa asked, her voice suddenly shook as her eyes fell on the envelope. "If neither of us claim to know what happened, who's saying you didn't raHurt me?"

The word she avoided to say hung in the air like a ticking timebomb. Jadon ground his teeth together. He had to ask. "Was there any evidence that I Hurt you?"

Slowly, Tapiwa raised her eyes and met his. She seemed to consider her words for a long beat before she spoke. "And if I say yes, would that make you more willing to forget that night ever happened? Because that is exactly what I want to do. I want to forget it and never be reminded of it for the rest of my life."

For some inexplicable reason, her words hurt Jadon. He felt them like a punch to the gut. Hearing that he had hurt her should have been worse but this was. Which didn't make any sense. He should want the same thing, but hearing Tapiwa so desperate to forget the experience angered him. Before he could question himself or his emotions, which he had no desire to analyze right then or ever for that matter, Jadon unlocked his door and jumped out of the vehicle.

"Hey!" Tapiwa called out.

Jadon ignored her. He walked around the hood until he was on her side. Without preamble, he yanked the back door open, retrieved her backpack, and then opened her door and shoved it at her none too gently. "Get out and go home."