Her breath caught in her throat. There he was. At the bar, leaning in and sitting too close as he chatted up a topheavy bim. Anita could see him clearly between the shoulders of two cowboy-hatted men sitting across from their wives at a tall narrow table. She quickly looked away, praying she hadn’t been spotted, and crouched down a little behind Ellen in an effort to avoid being seen.

A moment later, she hazarded another glance in that direction.

And their eyes met.

“Shit,” she said.

He left the bar and started toward her.

“Oh, shit.”

“What is it?” Ellen asked.

Anita nodded toward Steven. “I’ve been trying to avoid him but he spotted me.”

Sharon squinted. “Is that the guy from the nursery?

“Yeah.”

“He always seemed alright to me. In fact, I thought he was kind of cute.”

Anita didn’t respond as she watched him approach. There was a smirk on his face and a swagger in his walk. She remembered the last time she’d seen him, in the greenhouse with his pants open and his erection out, and when she brought the bottle to her lips to take a fortifying sip of her beer, her hand was shaking.

“Hey there, ladies.” He nodded. “Anita.”

She ignored him, turning to Ellen and trying to come up with something to say in order to make it seem as though they were in the middle of a conversation, but her mind was blank.

“I haven’t seen you for a couple of days,” he told her. “What’re you up to?”

“Nothing,” she said, still not looking at him. She kept her hands on the table to keep them from shaking.

“Well, I’m expanding my business,” he bragged. “Getting into home security.”

She gathered up her courage. “A nursery and home security,” she said drily, letting the idiotic incongruity speak for itself.

What had she ever seen in him?

“That’s right. Got some major backing from that new bank. They believe in me.” That last was accusatory since it was clear even to him that she did not.

Good.

Something was needling her, a subtle nagging in the back of her mind, and it took her a few seconds to realize what it was.

Got some major backing from that new bank.

That was it.

The bank.

Just thinking about the place made her shiver, and she recalled with guilt and horror her initial—

sensual

—reaction upon meeting Mr. Worthington, her guilty feelings amplified by the fact that the banker had shielded Victor from the police after Victor had slaughtered his parents.

What in the world was happening in this town?

Steven was describing the alarm and surveillance systems he could install in houses, apartments and trailers. It was an attempt to make himself sound professional and successful, and while it was ostensibly for the benefit of everyone at the table, Anita knew his pitch was really aimed at her.