by Evelyn Glass
“I know a safe house outside of town.” Elijah stepped towards him. “It’s not much, but it’s something.”
“What do we need to do?” Jazz finally conceded, and relief passed over Elijah’s face.
“Where’s Ella?”
“With a friend.” Jazz glanced over at me. “Mona was just about to go get her.”
“Get her here, and get her stuff packed up,” Elijah ordered, taking control. “She can ride with me to the safe house and you guys can follow behind.”
“I’m not going to let—”
“It’s safer this way,” Elijah assured him. “They won’t know my car from yours, and I can get my guys protecting us both on the way up. I just need to put in a couple of calls, okay? Then we’re going to get this thing under control.”
The next hour was a flurry of activity; Jazz picked Ella up, and I packed up a little suitcase of her clothes for her to take on her trip away. I knew this would be killing Jazz—the last thing he had ever wanted was for his little girl’s life to be disrupted by anything or anyone, but there was no arguing that this was the best course of action for the time being. Jazz would have been crazy to argue anything else. She wasn’t safe staying here—neither of them were. I tried to push the thought that this crazy guy might have laid eyes on me as well from my head as Scott and I did a sweep of the house to pick up anything we needed.
“Are you going with him?” Scott asked as we grabbed Jazz’s phone charger.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I want to, but…”
“Trust me, I think he needs it right now,” Scott remarked gently. “Even if you don’t stay, go with them tonight. For a bit of normality.”
“You’re right,” I sighed, and before I could expand on that thought, I heard the door slam downstairs. I hurried out of the room, and found myself faced with Ella and Jazz. It was such a relief to see her unharmed, even though I knew nothing could or would have happened to her while she was out. I ran down the stairs and gave her a tight hug.
“You want to go pick out one of your toys to take, sweetheart?” Jazz suggested, and she bounded up the steps two at a time towards her room. We watched her go, then convened next to the door.
I looked at Jazz. “We’re packed. Is she ready to go?”
“I told her that we were taking a trip for a couple of days.” Jazz ran his hands through his hair. “Is it all sorted?”
Elijah hung up the call he’d been on and nodded. “We’re ready to go when you are.” He patted Jazz on the arm. “The escort will meet us once we get to the outskirts of town so we don’t attract too much attention, the safe house will have a room for you when you get there.”
“Thank you,” Jazz met Elijah’s gaze and nodded thankfully. “We need this.”
“I know,” Elijah nodded briskly. Ella appeared at the top of the stairs, clutching her dinosaur plush to her chest and smiling down at us.
“You’re going to be riding with Elijah!” Jazz tilted his head towards him and Ella eyed him suspiciously for a moment. Jazz beckoned her closer, and she scurried down into his arms.
“Trust me, sweetheart, this is what’s best,” he promised her. “It’s not a long drive, and then we’ll be back together again, okay?”
“Okay,” she said, nodding. I wondered if she’d made the connection—if she’d figured out that this was to do with the man who’d been here before, the man she’d fled from. Maybe she’d been expecting this for a long time. Maybe she was ahead of all of us.
“I’ll ride with you.” I squeezed Jazz on the arm, and he glanced over at me with a small smile.
“You don’t have to come with us,” he protested, but I could tell that he was only doing it for show.
I shook my head. “I’m coming.”
Scott hugged me goodbye and made his way back down the road, and soon enough we were following Elijah’s car across the quiet suburbs and towards the safe house outside the city.
Jazz and I rode in silence most of the way there—I could tell that he was lost in his thoughts, and I didn’t want to interrupt him. I couldn’t imagine the pain he was going through at that moment, the suffering, how much he was beating himself up over not being able to stop this all going down. I knew nothing I could say would make it better, so I kept my mouth shut, eyes trained on Elijah’s car where I could see Ella’s head leaned up against the backseat. It was a comfort, having her in my eye line—and to think that only a few months ago I had hardly known this girl at all. It seemed like a ridiculous thought now, but here I was, leaving home to protect her and give her what comfort I could.
My thoughts were stopped short as I glanced over at Jazz and noticed a furrow in his brow. Oh no. That wasn’t a good sign.
“What’s up?” I asked softly, breaking the silence between us. He was peering in the rear view mirror, his eyes flicking between the car behind us and Elijah’s car ahead.
“That car,” he began slowly. “I think it’s following us.”
“What the hell?” I craned my neck and peered out of the window in the back of the car. The vehicle behind us was dark blue, and looked vaguely familiar, though I couldn’t put my finger on why.
“How long has it been following us?” I turned back to him.
“No idea,” he admitted. “But at least the last five miles.”
“Maybe he’s just heading in the same direction?” I squinted into the mirror, trying to make out the guy behind the wheel and failing. “Or she?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like this,” he murmured. “It’s a strange route out of town unless you’re going where we are.”
“What do we do?” I shot him a look. I had no idea how to handle all of this. I had signed on as a babysitter, not as some partner-in-fleeing-crime.
“We give it a few more miles, then we pull over and see if they pass.” He glanced into the rear view mirror again.
“How will we let Elijah know that we’re stopping?”
“Looks like he already figured it out.” Jazz nodded ahead, and I glanced forward to find Elijah’s car pulling over and off the road. We did the same, and Jazz hopped out of the car.
“You saw it too?” he asked, and Elijah nodded.
“I got in touch with the guys who are waiting to meet us,” he went on. “And they ran the plate for me.”
“Oh yeah?” Jazz leaned forward, glancing into the car to make sure that Ella was okay. She was out cold, dead to the world. I felt a little pang of relief seeing her like that—at least she didn’t have to worry. At least she was safe from the panic the rest of us were lost in.
“Yeah.” Elijah nodded ominously. “I’m pretty sure that it was a woman driving, but the car’s registered to an Ian.”
“Ian?” I blurted out. “As in…?”
“Yeah, an Ian who used to live next door to you,” Elijah filled us in grimly. “I’m sorry, but I think you’re in serious trouble here. I would get used to the idea of staying out of your place for a long time yet.”
Jazz bowed his head, and I could see that he was shaking—with anger or fear or both I wasn’t sure. I took his hand without thinking and squeezed it; he squeezed back, apparently grateful for the comfort.
The car had vanished by that point—maybe out of fear that we were going to cotton on and call the cops on them. We climbed back into our vehicles and took off once again, this time faster. There was no time to waste.
We met the escort just outside of town, as promised, as we made the rest of the short journey to the safe house. I kept on sneaking looks at Jazz, glad that I had agreed to come and relieved that I could be here with him. Yeah, it wasn’t exactly our best method to keep each other at arm’s length, but I didn’t care. He needed an adult with him, someone else who could understand the weight of the situation. Someone he could talk to honestly without fear.
The safe house was small and discreet, a three-story place that had a single light blazing away in the hall when we arrived. I saw Jazz visibly relax, and he jumped out
of the car as soon as we were parked up and went to scoop Ella out of the backseat. The way he touched her and picked her up, it was even more gentle than before, as though he was concerned about breaking her. As though all of this had served as a reminder of just how delicate and precious she was.
He carried her inside of the house, and I grabbed her bags and followed the two of them in. As the light in the hallway filtered through her eyelids, Ella came back to consciousness. Jazz smoothed her hair back from her head comfortingly, and turned to find Elijah following us in. I had no idea what to do next, and was glad Elijah was with us to let us know the protocol.
A few seconds after we walked in, a woman emerged from upstairs—she approached Elijah and shook his hand warmly, then turned to us.
“You must be the family Elijah called us about.” She frowned sympathetically. “We’re so sorry to hear what you’re going through. We can get your forms and everything filled out tomorrow, but just now, let’s get you to bed so you can catch some sleep, okay?”
“Sounds good.” Jazz smiled thankfully. The woman bustled off to get things sorted for us, and Elijah rubbed the heels of his hands over his eyes and then spoke once more.
“You guys’ll be fine here,” he promised. “I’ll be back in forty-eight hours. I’ll give you some time to settle in and let the heat die down a bit, and then we can figure out what we’re going to do from there.”
“Elijah—” I began, stepping towards him. I was exhausted, but I still wanted him to know just how much this meant to all of us. He held his hand up.
“No, it’s fine, really,” he assured me. “This is the least I could do. And don’t worry—I’m going to get to the bottom of this no matter what.”
“Thank you, Elijah.” Jazz nodded at him seriously. “I think I owe you more than I can ever repay.”
“Maybe when I catch this guy. Meantime, get some sleep. I’ll be back as soon as I can to get everything under control, okay?”
We watched as Elijah made his way outside. The woman returned, and gestured in the direction of the stairs. She handed me a key.
“Third room on the right on the second floor.” She smiled kindly. “Sleep well.”
“Thank you,” I sighed at her, and helped carry the meagre bags we’d packed up the steps and towards their new home. Our new home? I still wasn’t sure if I’d be invited to stay after all of this. I prayed I would, because I was on the point of passing out as it was and didn’t think I could manage the drive home.
As soon as we were through the door, I dropped the bags, flopped down on to the couch, and watched as Jazz carried Ella through to one of the bedrooms and tucked her carefully into the covers. Despite everything, I couldn’t help but smile at how sweet and tender he was with her. He made his way back through to the living area and glanced down at me.
Chapter Seventeen
“What are you grinning about?” I asked as I sat down on the edge of the couch next to Mona. She shook her head and glanced in Ella’s direction.
“Nothing,” she replied, and let out a yawn. “God, I’m exhausted.”
“Well, I’m just hungry.” I got to my feet and made my way over to what I assumed stood in for the kitchen; a small counter, a stovetop, and a cupboard. I opened the cupboard, and found it stocked with the basics—pasta, oil, some vegetables. I pulled out a handful of ingredients and set about making us something to eat. Mona watched me in silence from the couch, and I wondered whether she was regretting agreeing to come with me. She probably wanted her own bed in her own apartment by now—but I didn’t know what I’d have done without her here. I would never have asked for or expected her presence here, but I was glad to have it.
“What are you making?” Mona got to her feet and peered into the pot I was now stirring atop the stove.
“Just some pasta.” I shrugged. “There’s not much here to work with, honestly.”
“It smells amazing,” she sighed, and leaned up against the counter for a moment. She eyed me for a moment, and I suddenly became very aware of how alone we were together. Any attempts we might have made to keeping this thing entirely platonic seemed to be undercut by the machinations of the universe.
“I can’t wait till this is all done with,” she went on, and I glanced up at her, brow furrowed.
“What, dinner?”
“No!” She laughed at my lack of comprehension. “All of this. You know, when we catch whoever it was and get this sorted for good.”
“I don’t think we have to pretend we don’t know who it was,” I pointed out. “It’s Ian. It’s just a matter of getting our hands on him, wherever he is.”
“Fair point,” she admitted.
“But you’re right.” I glanced up at her. “When this is done…”
I trailed off. I knew what I wanted to say—that when this was done, the two of us could be together and that would be that. Well, if she still wanted me after all this time and everything that had already wedged itself between us. I turned back to the pot, hoping she didn’t fill in the blanks for herself. But Mona wasn’t that stupid; she cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes, honing in on what I hadn’t said.
“What are you going to do when this is done?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “This…so much has changed. Not just because of this.”
I looked up at her, and I could see the comprehension in her face, the look that told me that yes, she understood what I meant and yes, she felt the same way. She had come into my life adjacent to this nightmare, and it felt as though she would always be connected to it. Until we could put it to bed, she would be embroiled in it in the back of my mind. I knew it was all coincidence, but that didn’t do much to assuage the irrationality at the back of my brain that said different.
“I know,” she murmured.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” I blurted out. I didn’t mean it to sound so needy, and I instantly turned back to the food to avoid her gaze—but I couldn’t unsay it. I didn’t want to. It was true, after all.
“I’ll be here as long as you need me,” she assured me, placing a hand on my arm—there it was again, that flicker of attraction and affection between us, the one that I had been doing my best to ignore up until now. She moved her hand, as though she felt it too and didn’t want to push our luck. I spoke again, filling the silence.
“Really?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, smiling at how ridiculous it sounded. “After her mom dumped me, I didn’t want to let anyone else get too close to her. I thought, if her mom can just up and leave, what’s there to keep anyone else from doing the same?”
“Is that why you never dated?”
I didn’t meet her gaze, but I nodded. “The thought of dragging her through all of that again, I just couldn’t bear it,” I went on, tasting the sauce that was coming together nicely in the pot in front of us.
“So that’s why you kept me as the babysitter.” She cocked an eyebrow. “So you could keep me at arm’s length.”
I hesitated; I knew I should have shut the conversation down before it even started, but it seemed stupid to try and deny the obvious. Everything was so raw tonight, the evening around us feeling as though it couldn’t possibly be happening in real life. And in that strange space, I felt as though I could say anything.
“Yes,” I admitted with a nod. I still couldn’t look at her—if I so much as glanced in her direction, I knew that I would gum up again.
“Jazz…” She got to her feet, and just hearing her say my name sent a prickle up my back. Fuck, this woman—I had no idea how I felt about her, whether it was lust or love or something in between, but she had an effect on me that no one else had ever had in my life.
“I can’t stop thinking about that night,” she murmured, her voice low. It was the first time either of us had mentioned it since we’d had that conversation agreeing to keep sex and romance off the table. But then, how long could we conceivably pretend that it hadn’t happened? It was so obvious there was some
thing between us, and hearing her confirm it just made it even harder to ignore.
I didn’t reply, unable to find the words to say what I needed to. I pulled the pot from the stove instead, and began plating up dinner in silence. I handed her a plate, and she took it gratefully and began to tuck in. Okay, maybe we could move past this…? Maybe there was some way to pretend that conversation had never happened. Yeah, we were both vulnerable and emotional and hungry and that was all it came down to.
We sat at opposite ends of the couch, and I groped around for something to talk about. But my mind kept drifting back to what she had said—that she hadn’t been able to get the night we spent together out of her brain. I knew exactly what she meant, because those memories had lingered at the back of my mind for longer than I’d have cared to admit.