bulleted up the charts. "Got everything you wanted."
Damned if he'd let her make him feel guilty because he'd made something
of himself "That's right."
"Some of us get more than they want." She tossed her long hair back. The
paint on the swingy gold balls she wore at her ears was chipped and
peeling. She smiled again, posing a moment. At twenty-four she was a
year older than Brian, and considered herself much more savvy. "I'd
offer tea, but I wasn't expecting a party."
"We didn't come for tea." Brian stuck his hands in the wide pockets of
his low-riding jeans. The sulky look he'd worn throughout the drive
over had hardened. True, he was young, but he'd grown up tough. He had
no intention of letting this old, gin-soaked loner make trouble for him.
"I didn't call the law this time, Jane. That's for old time's sake. If
you keep ringing, keep writing with all your threats and blackmail,
believe me I will."
Her heavily lined eyes narrowed. "You want to put the hobbies on me,
you go right ahead, my lad. We'll see how all your little fans and
their stick-in-the-mud parents like reading about how you got me
pregnant. About how you deserted me and your poor little baby girl
while you're rolling in money and living high. How would that go over,
Mr. Page? Think you could get Bri and the boys another royal command
performance?"
"Miss Palmer." Pete's voice was smooth and calm.. He'd already spent
hours considering the ins and outs of the situation. One glance told
him he'd wasted his time. The answer here would be money. "I'm sure
you don't want to air your personal business in the press. Nor do I
think you should imply -desertion when there was none."
"ooh. Is he your manager, Brian, or your blinking solicitor?"
"You weren't pregnant when I left you."
Didn't know I was pregnant!" she shouted and gripped Brian's black
leather vest. "It was two months later when I found out for sure. You
were gone by then. I didn't know where to find you. I could have
gotten rid of it." She clung harder when Brian started to pry her hands
off. "I knew people who could have fixed it for me, but I was scared,
more scared of that than of having it."
"So she had a kid." Johnno sat on the arm of a chair and pulled out a
Gauloise which he lit with a heavy gold lighter. In the past two years
he'd gotten very comfortable with expensive habits. "That don't mean it
was yours, Bri."
"It's his, you freaking fag."
"My, my." Unperturbed, Johnno drew on the cigarette, then blew the smoke
lightly but directly into her face. "Quite the lady, aren't we?"
"Back off, Johnno." Pete's voice remained low and calm. "Miss Palmer,
we're here to settle this whole matter quietly."
And that, she thought, was her ace in the hole. "I'll just bet you'd
like to keep it quiet. You know I wasn't with anybody else back then,
Brian." She leaned into him, letting her breasts press and flatten
against his chest. "You remember that Christmas, the last Christmas we
were together. We got high and a little crazy. We never used anything.
Emma, she'll be three next September."