I collapsed into him, tears finally welling up in my eyes. “What happened?” I cried. “Where did you go?”
“I wanted them to think I panicked and drove off. It was a bomb, Nina. They wired your car with a bomb.”
I paused, my eyes widening. “I killed her. I gave her the keys to my car and sent her to her death! Oh my God, Jared, she’s dead! She’s only twenty-two years old! She just got off the phone with her mother not half an hour ago!” My voice grew shriller with every fact.
Jared hugged me to him, unable to find words of comfort. “I should have sensed it. I should have smelled it — something.”
“Nothing?” I said, looking up at him with wet eyes.
He shook his head. “Not a damn thing. The baby and how it affects your body saturates my senses. They must have wired it after you arrived at work. I don’t understand. I wasn’t half a block away. I should have seen it.”
“We have to call the police,” I whimpered.
“Let someone else do it. If whoever placed the bomb somehow mistook her for you, it may buy us some time. That’s why I made such a show in the street. They’re probably watching.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. Must have been a shell. There’s no way to tell how many are around.”
I nodded, and Jared pulled my hand, leading me to the stairwell. He held his finger to his mouth, and then opened the door. We descended four flights of stairs into the basement level, and then sneaked out an access door to the alley.
My shoes tapped against the wet pavement and sloshed through puddles. The moonlight glistened on the wet pavement we walked upon. Jared led us through labyrinthine alleyways cluttered with green trash bins and litter until we finally reached the Escalade.
“This wasn’t your fault,” he whispered.
“Then whose fault is it?” I sobbed, hitting the door with my fist. “I want to know! I want them to be held accountable for taking an innocent person’s life! She was mean and spiteful, but she had her whole life ahead of her! It’s not fair!”
“No, it’s not. It’s sloppy. They’ve never made a mistake like this.”
“You think it was a mistake?” I sniffed.
“One way or another.”
My face fell again. “She was in love. With Grant, and she never told him.”
Jared frowned. “I’m sorry for Sasha. I’m sorry for her family when they learn of her death, but we have a bigger problem here. We’re leaving in one week, and you won’t be allowed to leave the country if you’re involved in an investigation. We have to explain why she was in your car, and why your car was there and you weren’t. That’s after they declare it wasn’t you in the car. That could be a while.”
“Stop.”
He thought for a moment. “We’ll have to go away. Write a note to Beth explaining that we went on a short getaway and that you left your car keys on the desk in case she needs it, and I’ll have Bex put it on the floor under your desk in your office so that it looks like it fell.”
“Stop, Jared.”
“We’ll go away for a few days. Figure out our next move.”
I squeezed my eyes tight. “Just stop it!”
“What?”
“It won’t matter.”
Jared grabbed each side of my face and looked into my eyes. “Don’t do that. You’re not going to give up.” One hand left my cheek and touched my stomach. “We have a reason to fight more now than ever.”
His cell phone buzzed in his jacket pocket. “Ryel. She’s fine, but it was her car. No, her car exploded. They wired explosives to it. I’m not sure, yet. She let Sasha take it for coffee. No,” Jared said, his voice low. “We’re going to leave town for a few days; buy us some time. Send Bex. I need him to run a note to Nina’s office. Bye.”
Sirens sounded in the distance. Jared put his phone away and cupped his hands over my shoulders. “You with me?”
I nodded. “I need paper and a pen.”
Jared patted his jacket and pulled out a pen, and then he blurred out of sight. A few moments later he returned with a pink memo pad. I scribbled a few lines to Beth explaining my impromptu vacation and the location of my keys in case she needed to move my car, and then signed it. Five minutes later, a motorcycle pulled into the alley.
Bex planted his feet on the ground and pushed the visor of his helmet up. “Whatcha got?”
“Put this in Nina’s office, under her desk as if it fell. We need to explain this away.”
Bex pulled off his helmet and grabbed the paper. “You guys staying here or…?”
“No. We’re leaving town for a few days. I’ll call you when we get there.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know, yet,” Jared said. “Stay out of sight, and go straight home to Mom.”
Bex nodded once, and then sprinted down the alley toward Titan. The sirens grew closer. Jared squeezed my hand and kissed my cheek. He opened the passenger door, and brushed the broken glass from the seat, and then repeated the process on his side. We drove south, stopping just outside of town. Claire and Ryan were waiting in Ryan’s Tundra truck.
“I figured you would need a vehicle with windows for your road trip,” Ryan smiled, tossing Jared the keys.
“Thanks,” Jared said.
Claire pointed to the bed of the truck. “We brought your luggage. Good thing you were going on a trip, anyway.” I nodded, feeling a little lost. Claire offered a sympathetic expression and a hug. “Sorry about Sasha. You’ll be soaking up the sun on vacation, and I’ll be here finding out who tried to kill you. Whether they’re human or not, they won’t bother you again.”
I frowned, and then tears pushed over my eyes and fell down my cheeks. I squeezed her tight.
“Don’t worry,” she said, making a point to look into my eyes. “This will all be over soon.”
Chapter Twelve
Road Trip
South on Interstate 95. With my head rested against the passenger side window, I kept the beat in my head with the white lines as they zoomed past and out of sight. My body felt empty and numb; I didn’t know if I was awake or asleep. Traumatic events should have been second nature to me. Maybe that was why I wasn’t a crying, shaking mess. I wasn’t coping — or maybe I was. Maybe I was simply feeling acceptance, but it was hard to know without feeling anything.
Jared moved a piece of hair from my face. “Why don’t you try to sleep?”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“Try,” Jared said, rubbing my arm. It was just a comforting gesture; we both knew I wasn’t cold. Bean coming sooner rather than later suddenly seemed a relief. Summer was unbearable for any pregnant woman, but considering my heightened temperature, it could mean trouble. Jared’s hand left my arm and rested on my stomach.
My eyes finally shut sometime soon after entering the Bronx, and didn’t open again until we were just south of Philadelphia’s City limits. It was still dark when I awoke, my hair plastered against my cheek, warm and moist between my face and the console. Jared had made the distance in half the time it should have taken.
It wasn’t long before I processed where we were and why, and then the tears came. “Oh,” I said, wiping my cheek. Being unsettled and upset was a strange relief. I was normal, after all.
“It’s going to be okay, sweetheart,” Jared said, leaning over to kiss my hair.
“Have you heard from anyone?”
He nodded. “Claire shot me a text. They put out the fire and found the body. They think it’s you. Everyone will probably find out in the morning.”
“My mother….”
“Claire already informed her. She will play dumb and devastated to the police. She knows the routine.”
I let a puff of air escape my lips. “At least she won’t think I’m dead.”
“It could be Monday morning before anyone notices Sasha is missing.”
“I don’t know,” I said, picking at my fingernails. “She was on the phone in my office talking to her mother. They
seemed close. Her family could file a missing persons report today or tomorrow.”
Jared nodded, deep in thought.
It didn’t feel right letting Sasha’s death go unannounced. If she typically spoke with her mother daily, she could be waiting for her call, her worry turning into panic. My hand drifted to my midsection, resting over the bump that protected our child. Sasha was someone’s daughter. Her mother had brought her home from the hospital, taught her to crawl, walk, and raised her to the young woman she is; was. That woman, who loved Sasha more than anything else in the world, was sleeping peacefully for the last time. The moment Sasha crossed her mind — the moment it occurred to this woman to call her daughter — would be the first moment of thousands that she would feel a horrible sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. More guilt washed over me.
“Stop, Nina. It’s not your fault,” Jared said.
“I don’t suppose we can tell Beth?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
Jared only offered an apologetic expression.
We pulled into a gas station for the second time. Anyone else would have thought twice about stopping at such a nefarious-looking place in the wee hours of the morning. Bars guarded the windows, and several unscrupulous characters loitered next to the front door. Jared, however, stepped out and walked past them as if he were at the mall.
I waited in the truck hoping none of the people staring back at me would become curious enough to wander over. Jared was only inside for a moment, and then he emerged, holding a bottle of water and something deep-fried and stuffed with cheese and chicken.
He frowned as he handed them over. “It’s not the healthiest thing, but I thought it would tide you over until we could find a decent restaurant.”
I took a bite. It was disgustingly wonderful.
Just as Jared pulled back onto the highway, my cell phone buzzed. The display lit up, and I instantly tensed. “It’s Beth,” I said.
Jared sighed. “You have to let it ring.”
“She is probably sick with worry. I can’t just let her think I’m dead.”
Jared took the phone from my hand. “I sympathize, I really do. Beth doesn’t deserve that, but we don’t have a choice.”
I shook my head and looked out the window. Jared was right: Beth didn’t deserve a friend like me. She had only been patient, honest, kind, loyal, and protective. I couldn’t imagine the despair I would feel if I answered a call that Beth’s car had exploded with a charred body inside. My heart ached for her, and if I wasn’t riddled with guilt before, now I was so ashamed I could barely stand to be in my skin. Tears welled up in my eyes and fell down my cheeks. If Beth ever found out that I knowingly allowed her to suffer over my death, she would never forgive me — and I would never expect it from her.
The phone stopped ringing, and the voicemail chimed, letting me know she’d left a message. I held out my hand to Jared, but he shook his head.
“Do you really want to hear the worry in her voice? You feel bad enough.”
I covered my face with my hand and shook my head. “This is awful, Jared. This is so wrong.”
Jared leaned over and kissed my temple. “I’m so sorry, Nina. I’m so, so sorry.”
I looked over at him and could see he was just as upset as I. If he could find another way he would, but once someone knew about our life there was no going back. I didn’t want that for Beth, either.
We continued south, and by daybreak reached Maryland. The morning sun glistened on a sign that read Eden Pop.793. Trees lined the median on one side of the road; railroad tracks on the other. Other than a few billboards and a patch of land used for tractor sales, I couldn’t see much of Eden.
“That’s an interesting name,” I said.
“It fits, too,” Jared said straight-faced. “The town is just as hard to find as the garden.”
“Ha, ha,” I teased, unimpressed with his joke. “So do we have an actual destination?”
Jared smiled. “We do, now. When I saw we were on Ocean Highway, I thought of the perfect place.”
“Which is….?” I trailed off.
“Virginia Beach.”
I smiled. “I’ve never been there.”
He met my eyes, matching my expression. “I thought it would be a relaxing place for you to wait while the investigators figure out what happened, and then when they contact us — and they will — we will return in a few days, upset and flustered.”
I frowned. Jared’s plan wouldn’t work. If anything, once the Providence PD followed the breadcrumbs we left for them, we would look more suspicious. Jared’s loft had already been declared an act of arson, and they had assumed it was him. Unable to prove anything, no charges were filed. But now that my car had also been targeted, he would be under investigation again. If they found out we were there at the time of the explosion, they could charge and hold us for a number of things. With every thought, my concerns compounded.
“It’s not the first time I’ve had to explain myself to the police. I promise there is no need to worry. We’ll explain our version and leave for Jerusalem as planned. If I can kill a dozen or so dirty cops in one night and keep our names out of it….”
“But her family. Don’t you think the police stopped looking back then because they dug deep enough to see what was going on? Sasha’s family will want answers.”
“Ryan and Claire will take care of it. The family will have answers. They’ll just have ones that don’t imply either of us. You have a bodyguard that everyone knows about, Nina. Now everyone will know why. You’re a target, and Sasha was collateral damage. It’s not far from the truth, actually. The only difference is that we won’t have to explain why we fled the scene.”
Jared took my hand and kissed my fingers, and then pressed my knuckles into his chest. “I’m sorry about Sasha. She didn’t deserve to die, but you can’t blame yourself for her death. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.”
I stiffened. “How can you say that? You couldn’t have known—”
“I should have known. That very easily could have been you.” He frowned at the thought. “I’m glad it was her and not you. I know you’re wallowing in guilt about what her family will feel when they get the call, but I want you to think about the moment that car exploded. If it wasn’t her? Honey, I would have watched my wife and child’s death in the same moment. You can’t wish that for me.” He released my hand and wiped his eyes with his thumb and index finger, and then sighed. “I’m just glad it wasn’t you.”
I wanted to tell him that it shouldn’t have happened at all, but I was afraid it would only make him feel worse. “First the loft, now the car,” I sighed. “We won’t have anything before long.”
“We need to take out whoever the hell knows anything about explosives, that’s for sure.” He laughed once, sounding exhausted. “This being so in tune with you and Bean that I’m missing important things like a bomb on your car is also a negative.” He shook his head. “It was ignition-based, so it couldn’t have been there before you left for Titan. It had to been set up between the time you got there and when it blew. Bex would have sensed it. The only time they would have had a window is after I arrived.”
“How is that possible? You were in the Escalade a few feet away.”
“Exactly,” he said, his expression unsettled. “It was difficult to focus before….”
“Before what?” I asked, knowing better. Jared had become skilled at leaving me out of the loop. It wasn’t like him to slip.
He replied with only a sigh, but he was visibly upset. It was then that I made a decision. I no longer wanted to be in the dark. I was a mother now. With so many important things at stake, it was time I took an active role in the effort to save our lives.
“Tell me,” I said.
“After we…I’ve been more in-tuned to you for a while. I had just become used to wading through the mess to get to the basics of what I used to feel when you…when we….”
“This would be a good time to forget your
usual hour-long explanation and just get down to the naked truth.”
“The baby. I sense it, too. It’s amazing, but it’s also distracting. Very distracting.”
“You sense the baby?” I smiled. “So is Bean your Taleh, too?”
Jared frowned. “This whole situation is unprecedented. That would mean the baby is human, and that’s obviously not the case. Maybe it’s because the baby is a part of you. I just don’t know.”
From that point on, Jared remained silent except for the few times we made pit stops. As the sun began to set, we had just breached the outskirts of Myrtle Beach. I couldn’t help but think about the fact that Sasha’s mother hadn’t heard from her for a full day, and at any minute they would go to her home, and the panic would begin. Sasha would be reported missing any moment. The guilt began to close down around me once again, so much so that it was hard to take in the beauty ahead.
While we were eating a late lunch, Jared had called ahead and reserved a condo at Myrtle Beach’s most Northern Point, the Grande Dunes Oceanfront. As we pulled up to the resort, I gasped at its extravagance. It worsened my sense of guilt.
“What is it?” Jared said. I could see the hope in his eyes. He wanted this to be an escape, but I couldn’t stomach maternity massages and facials knowing my friends and Sasha’s family were going through hell.
“I appreciate what you’re trying to do. I really do. But this is not a real vacation. We’re hiding out while most of the people I know think I’m dead, and Sasha’s family frantically search for her.”
Jared nodded and squeezed my hand. “That’s the idea, but I’m not pitching a tent on the beach for my pregnant wife. You deserve a little comfort while you’re busy stressing out for everyone.”
“’A little comfort’ would be the Super 8 down the road, Jared. This is a resort.”
“It’s beachfront, and the ocean will clear your head. C’mon.”
Jared checked in while I tried to seem completely normal about the fact that we brought two large full suitcases for a quick getaway. The staff was too pleasant, almost eager that we had arrived. I thought that strange for two reasons: One, Jared called for reservations just a few hours before; and Two, we weren’t celebrities. Their behavior quickly had me convinced that they were shells, and they would attack us at any moment.
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