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How in the hell is he an undercover cop?
We’re all standing around, but the kid slumps into a chair when he seems to make up his mind and relent.
“I met her, Jules. Um… I-I am technically on assignment. Arrick has me on an errand looking for his wife and kid again. A-and her.”
Shit. He’s talking about the doctor and her kid.
He turns to look at me then. “Look, if you’re here, then you’ve gotta know where she is.”
He looks back and forth between Jay and me.
“Please, I wanna make sure she’s okay.” The sincerity in his voice is clearly working on Jay, but I’m not quite so trusting.
“You’re a cop,” I say. He flinches. “And you handed her over.”
“Yeah. So what? You were her best chance of getting out of there alive. I couldn’t do anything without more time.”
The fight comes back into him, and I grin at the change. Maybe this pup possesses a bit more bite than it seems.
“You wanna tell him?” I direct this to Jay.
I can tell he is still debating internally, but I know he’ll end up doing what Juliana asked. After all, it’s her asking.
“She’s safe.” The audible sigh of relief from the kid is humorous. “And she’s asking for you.”
“What, really? Can I see her?” He stops suddenly and furrows his brow, suspicion taking over. “Wait… why are you making this so easy?”
“Well, Juliana is asking. Plus, Sage vouched for you,” I say.
“Sage? Sage Mathieson?” His shock seems completely genuine. “Shit, probably not good I know. Shit.”
“Look. You wanna see her or what?” I cut in.
“Yeah. Of course! It’s just complicated if Sage is involved. That’s all.”
“Course it is,” I mumble. “Ain’t none of this been easy from the start.”
Like before, we make arrangements for meeting, and then Griffin departs, leaving only Jay and me in the club.
It’s already decided Jay will stay behind and continue his normal routines, much as it seems to pain both him and Juliana to be separated. But it needs to appear like nothing is out of the ordinary, and having him up and disappear is not a good way to do things.
The parking lot is empty when Jay and I exit the club. Plan is to drop him off at his apartment before going back home.
Pulling out of the lot, everything appears normal, but something has the hair on the back of my neck standing up. I’m on alert, and something feels wrong. My head on a swivel, I keep an eye out as I drive, following Jay’s directions.
Slowly, I pull over to the curb in front of his building. Then I spot a car I thought I’d seen before.
“Jay. Don’t look back. There’s a car following us.”
When he starts to move, I reach over to slam him back into the seat.
“I said. Don’t. Look.”
“What should we do?” His voice is level and firm. I’m impressed at the lack of fear I would expect from someone new to my world.
“We redirect and lose them.”
It takes an hour of driving aimlessly around the city before I am confident we lose the tail. I’m a bit turned around. It takes time for Jay to guide us back to his home. We arrive, and Jay begins to climb out, but I grab his arm.
“Don’t fuck this up because you’re too eager. There’s a new normal. Accept it. Or else you’re gonna get hit with some hard truths.” My gaze meets his own cool jade-green eyes. He doesn’t fight me, but he doesn’t crumble under my attention either. I can appreciate that about the guy.
He doesn’t understand, but I hope my words sink in eventually. If he cares about her safety, it’s not me who needs to be on alert.
The drive home is quiet, but my thoughts keep circling back to the car from earlier. Ember and I have lived under the radar for too long for someone to randomly take such interest in our activities. The girl, on the other hand, everyone seems to be invested in.
Not that I blame them.
