“He was ashamed of me. He said I was getting old, and that I looked tired or didn’t talk intelligently enough at parties or…anything, really. He told me I embarrassed him.”
“I see. Thank you.” Officer Min wrote something briefly. “What happened after he hit you?”
“It wasn’t a hit, he was holding my arm and—not important. He left. Damien showed up and I gave him the folder and told him to take the stairs.” I tried to remember that night. “He told me that the elevators weren’t broken, but I insisted, and he agreed to take the stairs. I took a shower and got ready for bed, and when I went out to the main room…”
I tried to breathe. No details about Jack, I reminded myself. Nothing to identify him. Everything to paint him in a good light.
“Yes, Miss Thomas?”
“There was a man there.”
“Describe him.”
“I can’t remember.”
They both stared at me and I forced a smile. “It’s all such a blur, I’m sorry. He was…taller than me.”
“Old? Young?”
“I don’t know.” I actually didn’t know how old Jack was, I told myself fairly. “Not white hair or anything. Hard to say.”
“Can you remember any identifying characteristics? Scars, tattoos…”
Yeah, a gorgeous set all over his arm and his back. “Nothing that I could see.” Right then, anyway. “He asked where Ms. Thomas was, and I told him that was me.”
“He…asked you that?”
“Yes.” I looked up. “He was very surprised, you see.”
They both blinked at me. They didn’t seem to know quite how to interpret that. Then again, I supposed I hadn’t, either.
“He asked how I knew Adrian Witte, and I explained that that was my fiancé. He got…angry.”
“With you?” Officer Min clarified.
“No.” I steeled myself to begin lying. “He told me that I had to leave at once. He said that Adrian had hired him to kill me, and that he had assumed from what he was told that I was crime boss of some sort. When he found out I was Adrian’s fiancé, I think he was genuinely…affronted.” The word seemed ridiculous. “He didn’t like the idea that he’d been hired to kill someone like me.”
They were both still staring at me.
“He told me to leave and not go back, not trust Adrian.” My hands clenched. “I didn’t want to believe it, but—it sounds crazy, I know—I did. It seemed like something Adrian would do. He’d been getting more unpredictable. He was drinking more, he always seemed to be angry.”
“So you left with the hit man.”
The words were sly, and if I hadn’t been waiting for them, I might have agreed without thinking. I shook my head and tried to keep my expression from giving away my guilt.
“I don’t know where he went. I left alone.”
“Where did you go?”
“To my sister’s house.”
“Are you still staying there now?”
“No. She…offered to send me back to Adrian. For ten thousand dollars.” Betrayal made my voice break. “She had him send people to collect me.”
“You escaped, clearly.”
“Yes. As odd as it is, I think—the hit man helped me. Someone kept them from getting to me, and I was able to run away. I just kept running, that’s all I know.” It was the best balance I could think of to give them sympathy for Jack while not telling them anything more about him. “I’ve been staying somewhere else. I’m…I hope you understand, I don’t want to say more.”
“Miss Thomas, we absolutely understand.” Officer Min reached out to touch my hand briefly. “But we’re here to help you. Please let us help you find a safe place to stay.”
“I’ll be safe.”
“Miss Thomas.” Officer Smith cleared his throat. He looked miserable. “We have to insist on this one. You’re a witness, and unfortunately, we have reason to believe that Mr. Witte has hired another hit man.”
Hit woman. But I didn’t correct him. “I see.”
“Not only that, we’ll have to release him soon if we can’t find evidence. While your testimony will be invaluable, we don’t have anything right now to show that Mr. Witte knew the man who showed up to kill you. He could easily claim that this man made everything up.”
“He—” wouldn’t do that. I bit off my instinctive denial. It revealed too much. “I see. Well, I think I know somewhere I can stay.”
I didn’t want to stay there, but that was beside the point.
“If you would take this.” They slid a box with a phone and a charging cable across the table. “We want to know we can reach you if necessary. Our numbers are programmed in there, as is the general police department number for the precinct.”
And a tracking device, I was sure. “Thank you. I’ll go arrange new housing, then.” I pulled a piece of paper close and wrote down the address. “That’s where I’ll be.”
“All right.” Officer Min nodded; it made sense to him. “We’ll be in contact soon. Miss Thomas. If I could give you some advice, hire a publicist and a lawyer. Maybe two lawyers. Mr. Witte is well-represented, and you don’t want to find your name in all of the papers like this.”
“Right.”
“Do you need anything? Clothes, food?” Officer Smith seemed worried. I wondered if he had daughters.
I managed a smile. Where I was going, I wouldn’t need anything at all. “No. I’ll be quite all right, thank you. Thank you for the phone, too.”
“Of course.” He opened the door for me and trailed worriedly behind me through the lobby. As I left, I got the sense that he was staring down the street after me, as if waiting for a hit man to appear out of nowhere and shoot me.
It wasn’t exactly reassuring.
I waited until I was a few blocks away, and called Jack from a payphone.
“How did it go?” His voice was quiet.
“All right, but…I can’t come back.”
“Why not?” I heard the sudden worry.
“I think they’re following me. It’s not anything bad, they seem really worried that Adrian will have me killed. But if I go back to the hotel…”
“Right.” He sighed. “But—I could leave. Where will you go otherwise?”
“You know where. Damien’s.”
“I don’t want you there with him.” The words were instinctive. He sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t—I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. It’ll be okay.”
I opened my mouth to say that I was his, that I didn’t want Damien that way, that I was Jack’s, body and soul.
And then I remembered this morning: the distance behind his eyes, the brusque way he’d bundled me off to the police station. The unconscious synergy between his movements and Joanna’s. I had never seen two people more alike, and he and I…
Well, we didn’t think the same way. Last night hadn’t meant the same thing to him that it meant to me, I told myself brutally.
“It’ll be okay,” I said again. I forced myself to keep my voice level. “You stay safe. I’ll call when I can. I’ll…talk to you later.”
I waited, foolishly hoping that he would argue with me. But his voice, when he spoke, was quiet.
“Right. Take care, Lara.”
Chapter 31
Jack
“Where will you go otherwise?” I didn’t want Lara out in the city alone. I hadn’t even wanted to let her go to the police station alone, but Lara and Joanna agreed on that one—it was a bad, bad plan.
“You know where. Damien’s.”
“I don’t want you there with him.” The words came out before I could stop them, and I sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t—I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. It’ll be okay.”
I waited, trying to think what to say, wishing I could think of anywhere better for her to be. If Adrian killed Lara while she was at Damien’s…well. Surely the man knew better than that, and if he didn’t, his second-in-command would. With them coming for me, it was best that
I stay away from her.
I wanted to tell her that this wasn’t easy, that I wanted her to be here with me, instead, but I couldn’t find the words. I opened my mouth—
“It’ll be okay,” Lara said again. Her voice was almost cold. “You stay safe. I’ll call when I can. I’ll…talk to you later.”
I swallowed hard. Whatever I had thought last night meant, the warm feelings were clearly gone. “Right.” I kept my voice light. “Take care, Lara.”
I hung up the phone and stared at it.
“So…are you done with that yet?”
I jumped and swore. “When did you get back?”
“Just in time to catch the rest of that touching conversation.” Joanna rolled her eyes as she sat. She looked at me and grimaced. “I have some bad news.”
“Great. Let me have it.” I flopped back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.
“I can’t a lock on Adrian.” Joanna pulled off her shoes and rolled her neck, easing the tension of a morning spent following targets.
“It’s him doing this.” I rolled my head to look at her.
“Yeah, well, all of the trails go back to his best friend and…” She paused for dramatic effect. “…his mother.”
I sat up and stared at her.
“I know, right?” She sounded almost impressed. “Mother-in-law from hell. Like, really.”
“Has she done this sort of thing before?”
“Not that I know of. Seems like she never liked Lara much, though. My bet? Adrian boo-hoo’d about something and she told him she’d take care of it.”
“Damien was on his tail about the embezzling.”
“Ah, so, two birds.” Joanna was grinning.
“This isn’t funny,” I reminded her.
“Oh, come on, it’s kind of funny, right? Beloved son starts embezzling, mother hears that he might get caught, decides to frame the guy who caught him and get the young, pretty fiancée out of the picture at the same time? I don’t know what she thought she had to worry about, though.” Joanna looked almost bored. “The girl’s a pushover of the first order.”
“She is not a pushover.”
“Are we talking about the same person?”
“Jo…you and I are survivors, and so is she. She just picked a different path.”
“The path of being a pushover,” Joanna said remorselessly.
“It’s not like that.” I shook my head.
“God, you’re just gone, aren’t you? Fine, she’s not a pushover.”
“Listen to me. She’s more like you than you know. She gave up on any idea of romance or anything like that. She was with Adrian to keep herself out of the gutter. If you saw where I found her when she went to go stay with her sister…”
Joanna fell silent at that, and I knew I had her. She’d worked her way up from nothing, too.
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t ever make myself some yes-dear trophy wife,” she said finally. Her voice was sullen. “Can you imagine having to slink around and smile all the damned time?”
“I know. That’s kind of my point. But she survived, and when he crossed the line, she left. Can’t you respect that a little bit?”
“Fine. Yes. But, seriously, Reed, what the hell do you see in her?”
I looked away. Someone who’s as lost as I am. Someone who makes me believe I can find my way out. Someone I think could actually love me.
But Joanna was right. Lara was never going to want to love everything. When it came right down to it, I was a hired killer.
“It’s not important.” I let out my breath. “You were right about her, for what it’s worth.”
“What?” She frowned.
“That this couldn’t work.” I rested my elbows on my knees. “She’s…okay, you want to know what I love about her?” I didn’t wait for an answer. “She grew up around people who thought she was nothing, you can just see it, and not just that—they treated her horribly, they had nothing. And she’s still hopeful. She still wants to see the good in people. She’s kind to people, people who don’t deserve it. She’s funny. She has this way about her…” I buried my face in my hands. “I want to make her smile. I want to make her laugh. I want to build a life with her, paint a house, make pancakes on weekends. When we’re together, it’s easy, somehow. And it’s all just…a lie.”
“Jack.” Joanna sounded like she wanted to cry. “You love her?”
“Yeah, fine. No, I don’t, I’ve known her for however many days and there’s no way I could know that. I get it.”
“No, I…I think you do.” She sighed. “Am I making it worse?”
“I don’t know. No.” I picked my head up and looked blankly at the wall. “My stupid mistake. I don’t know what happened to me. I’ll get over it.” I managed a laugh. “Gonna hurt like hell, though.”
“You think you can get over it?”
“Of course I can.”
Her eyes were doubtful.
“Fine. No. I don’t see how I can—goddammit. Look.” I spread my hands. “You were right. I don’t know how this could ever work. But if I don’t ever get over her, what am I losing? I didn’t have anyone before. I just…want her to be safe. I want to know she ends up happy at the end of this.”
“God, Jack.” Joanna reached out to rub my back. The touch was awkward; she’d never really known how to be nice or comforting. It made the attempt endearing. “I hope it works. I really do.”
“You said it won’t, and you were right.”
“I thought you were just fucking her,” she admitted. “But if you love her, Jack…if you love her? If you want all that crazy crap like pancakes and—aw, shit, you want babies, don’t you?”
“Maybe. Shut up.”
“Jesus.” She was laughing. “Jack Reed wants to settle down and have babies and stop killing people. You’re going to want to go straight, right?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Then go for it.” She was smiling.
“You’re telling me to go for it.”
She looked down at her hands, and I saw a bemused smile play over her face. “I’ve never seen you happy before,” she admitted finally. “I’ve never seen you look like that. Your face lights up when you talk about her. Maybe it won’t work, but how are you ever going to know unless you try? This isn’t all there is to life, killing people. We both know that.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Yeah. Um. So…what do I do now?”
“They’re going to have evidence soon. We’ll find something. And even if not, it’s not like she’s going to go back to him, right?” She nudged me with her elbow. “You just gotta wait a while longer and then you can make your move. You already got into her pants, it’s not like it’ll be a total shock, right?”
“Right.”
But somehow, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wouldn’t be quite that easy.
Chapter 32
Lara
I missed him. My feet clumped up the stairs at a relentless, unchanging pace; I hadn’t done all those hours of stairmaster for nothing. I missed Jack. I missed him, I missed him, I missed him.
And I didn’t want to go to Damien’s. Why else would I be walking up twenty-eight flights of stairs? Why else was I considering continuing on up even though this next floor was his?
I shook my head at myself and emerged into the hallway. I needed to stop being a wimp about this. Damien was a nice guy. He was a good friend.
Indeed, he opened the door almost as soon as I knocked, and there was a smile on his face.
“I’m so glad you’re here. I…” He hugged me and released me quickly. “I’m so glad,” he repeated. “Come on, sit down. You want a drink?”
“No, thanks—wait. Actually, yeah. It’s been a week.” I grinned as I flumped down on the couch and smiled over at him.
“White wine? Red wine? Whiskey, champagne…”
“Whiskey.”
“Really.” His eyebrows came up. “I didn’t know you drank it.”
I didn’t, but for some
reason, it seemed like the sort of thing Jack would drink, and I wanted to remember him.
I sobered. Jack was better off without me, I reminded myself. I was the reason there was a hit out on him, and he was never going to want a little trophy wife. He would want a woman like Joanna, someone pragmatic, someone who understood what it meant to be a part of his world.
When this was over, I’d tell him that he didn’t need to worry about me making a fuss. I wouldn’t be one of those clingy women who thought sex meant more than it did. I ignored what felt very much like the start of tears and took the offered glass from Damien, taking a drink before I thought about what I was doing.
I choked and almost spit the stuff out. It burned, more than I was expecting. Damien clapped me on the back and I waved him away.
“Sorry, I was off in my own little world.” I just had to keep it together until I was alone. Then I could cry. Cry, and berate myself for being stupid enough to think Jack would want someone like me.
“What are you thinking about?” Damien sat at the other end of the couch. “I know you didn’t want to tell me where you were, and I won’t ask, I swear—but Lara, how have you been?”
“Fine, I guess.” I looked down at the rest of the whiskey. “Or…not fine.”
He said nothing, watching me.
“Everything fell apart,” I said finally. “I told myself for years that if I could just be good enough, witty enough, elegant enough, that everything would work out. He might cheat, he might…yell. But if I was good, I would earn his loyalty in the ways that counted. As long as I didn’t fuck up, everything would be fine. I’d be set. My kids would be set.” I bit my lip. “And that’s not what happened, and I don’t know—it sounds stupid and it sounds little, but I swear it’s not. I don’t know what to do. I built my whole life around a lie.” I looked up at him. “What the hell do I do with that?”
“You can still have that life.”
“I don’t want it anymore.” How had I never realized that it was too big a price to pay?
“Not the…yelling and the cheating.” He set his own glass down. He was almost shaking, I realized.
HUNTED: A Bad Boy Romance (Books 1-5) Page 14