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“She owes people money. One of them is doing this. Who does she owe so I can put an end to it?”
For the first time since Beck had walked into my room to find Jessica there, he wasn’t looking at me like he hated me. He looked sorry for me.
“I know what it’s like to want her,” he said. “I know what it’s like to get trapped in her. Trust me.” He laughed sadly and walked to his bed to fall heavily onto it. “But, man . . . she doesn’t owe anyone but me. She isn’t paying anyone but me. Even though you don’t want to think anything bad about her now, it is Jess. She is crazy. Have you considered that maybe she’s lying to you?”
“Dozens of times,” I said immediately. “In the beginning.” I pushed from the wall and dropped my arms, sliding my knife into its spot. “Who she really is? She’s not crazy, and she doesn’t lie.”
Not to me.
“Keep telling yourself that,” Beck murmured. “I’ll be here for you when you realize how good she is at playing her game.”
I walked over to the wall and pulled my knife from it. “How do I find her brother?”
An amused huff burst from Beck until he realized I was serious. “Dude, she doesn’t have a brother.”
I nodded and tapped the blade against my open palm as I turned for the door. When I had it open, I stopped and looked back at Beck. “Have you ever considered she’s been lying to you?”
With everything going on with the ghost, I’d started to wonder if I was losing my ability to find anyone. Or if Jessica had dulled my mind to anything other than her.
The fact that I was staring at the person I’d spent less than thirty minutes tracking confirmed I hadn’t lost a thing.
The guy Mickey hired was really damn good. Or, as I’d told Beck, didn’t exist. It would be like Mickey to have us scrambling around, looking for someone who wasn’t there. And I’d be pissed if that was what it came down to.
But with nothing more than an easy slip into the Raleigh Police Department’s system to check a schedule and get an address and phone number, I’d followed Jessica’s brother to where he was having lunch with a pregnant blonde in Wake Forest.
All I could see when I looked at her was Lily.
And I hated Beck for telling me the way he did. For telling me at all.
It would’ve been easier never knowing.
I watched as she stood from the table and ran her hands over her swollen stomach, her diamond ring flashing in the light of the restaurant as she laughed about something. She started toward the
back of the restaurant, toward me, but I waited until she was halfway there before I moved from where I’d been tucked into a darkened corner.
She smiled as she passed by, but I kept my eyes ahead.
I couldn’t look at her when I would only see a failed job and future that I’d lost . . . even if it should’ve never been mine.
Jessica’s brother tensed, his hands fisting on the table when I soundlessly slid into the side of the booth his wife had just left.
His dark eyes flashed, then widened with recognition. I could see the way his body tensed and twitched, like he wanted to check on the girl he’d just let go.
His teeth gnashed. “Can I fucking help you?”
“Jentry, right?”
He didn’t answer.
I pointed toward the fisted hand that showed his wedding band. “Your wife? She’s fine. But I plan to be gone before she comes back. So this will go faster if you answer.”
“Then talk,” he said through gritted teeth.
I could see the darkness rolling beneath the surface, and for a second I almost smiled.
Jessica might’ve been right when she’d said we were alike.
“Why won’t you help your sister?”
