I groaned, then pushed up. He let me but took my leggings off as I moved. My t-shirt was long enough to cover my ass, but that wasn’t why I felt exposed. Tucking my legs under me, I sat in the middle of my bed as Jed, naked, remained on the side.

“Macon rewarded me by pulling me out of the basement. Dinner meetings to learn the ropes.” I made finger quotes in the air for the last. “Turns out, I wasn’t the only one he made deals with. In fact, for East, I was the offering.”

He stood, grabbed his jeans from the floor and tugged them on. He didn’t button them, but when he turned to face me and he raked his hand through his hair, he was at least covered.

“He offered you how?” he asked. “Golf partner?”

I laughed. “I’m actually pretty good at golf. But no. I was to fuck a potential business connection.”

Jed went over to the fireplace, grabbed a glass vase and threw it into the cold hearth. It shattered into pieces, some flying across the carpet. Eddie lifted his head but settled back to sleep when I didn’t move.

“Did you?” he asked finally, running a hand over his beard.

“I knew in advance. He told me what I was going to do for him. Giving my consent was the trade for East staying healthy and going off to school like his brothers. The night it was to happen, I told him I had my period. To stall. Fortunately, that worked. It seemed Macon didn’t want to even hear about such things.” It had disgusted him. “He pushed it back a week, but that was when he had East kicked off the team, putting extra pressure on me. I had to go through with it or he’d have lost his scholarship, and broken his leg.”

I licked my lips. I hadn’t told anyone about this. It was hard because while it had been consent, it had been coercion. Jed’s anger made it easier.

“I went with Macon to the restaurant in a hotel in Billings. Made introductions. Had a drink with the guy, then Macon left. The guy, a big Texas oilman, took me up to his room. He’d had a lot to drink by then and I offered him more. It seems an overweight, sixty-year-old man with a liberal dosing of GHB in his whiskey can’t get it up. Or stay conscious. Or remember anything that had happened.”

“You date rape drugged him?” He didn’t seem mad, more surprised. His eyebrows were at his hairline.