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I gasped but kept my hand on Jake’s cheek. “Oh god, what did you do?”
“Panicked,” Jake admitted. “Took off like a bat out of hell.”
“Did they see you?”
Jake shook his head. “No, but I knew it wouldn’t take long for them to figure out I’d made a run for it and why. I knew I couldn’t go to the authorities in Colombia because so many are on the payrolls of drug lords. I stopped at the apartment I was staying at only long enough to get my passport before getting out of there. When I landed in D.C., I went straight to the FBI. They interviewed me for hours and hours and finally told me they were bringing in someone from the DEA. They figured the dealer, Diego, was Diego Garza, a high-value cartel leader the DEA had been trying to find for years. The FBI thought I could lead the DEA to Garza or that, at the least, they could try to get me to identify the other guy–I was actually looking at mug shots while waiting for the DEA agent, a guy named James Barton, to arrive.”
Jake took a breath and said, “A fucking soda saved my life.”
“What?” I asked in confusion.
“They had me in this interview room looking at the mug shots. I was thirsty, so I left the room to get a soda from the vending machine. I was on my way back to the room when I saw him.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Him. The guy who’d shot Megan.”
“What?” I asked in disbelief.
“He was talking to the agent I’d been working with. The agent pointed to the room I’d been in and the guy–the shooter–walked toward it. I knew who he was,” Jake breathed as he shook his head. “I just knew.”
“The DEA agent,” I whispered.
Jake nodded.
I closed my eyes because things were falling into place. I’d already accepted how bad it was considering what had happened this afternoon, but to know someone from our own government was involved?
“I took off,” Jake said. “I knew I couldn’t trust any of them. The vending machine was by the stairs, so I just walked out of there.”
“What did you do? Where did you go?”
“I was terrified,” Jake admitted. “I didn’t know what to do. I knew I couldn’t go to the cops or back to my place. I only knew one person locally who’d help me.”
“Peter,” I said.
“I asked him to meet me at a café near the hospital, but I didn’t tell him why. He had a shift to finish, so we agreed to meet afterward. I just… I wandered the streets until then. Always looking over my shoulder, sure that Barton was going to find me at any moment. I just wanted to get to Peter because I knew he’d help me figure out what to do. I wanted to…” Jake paused for a long time before he sucked in a breath. “I was sure I was never going to see him again, and I wanted to tell Peter I was sorry that I hadn’t told him how I felt. I wanted to tell him I shouldn’t have left without telling him I loved him.”
My heart constricted painfully in my chest. Jake’s pain and regret were so profound that there wasn’t even room for any jealousy to surface.
“When I got to the café, he was already there, waiting out front. He was so happy to see me,” Jake murmured. “He hugged me and then told me I shouldn’t be out in the cold without a jacket. He… he gave me his blue scarf.”
I stilled at that as I remembered the beautiful scarf in Jake’s closet.
The one I’d callously tied around a pillow. “Oh Jake, I’m sorry—”
“No,” Jake whispered, cutting me off with a soft kiss. “Don’t even think about apologizing for that, Oz. You had no way of knowing.”
Jake’s hand began coasting up and down my side. “After giving me his scarf, Peter said we should talk inside. He said he had stuff he wanted to tell me too, and I knew it was about us. I’ll never forget how he looked at me. Like he’d never been happier than in that moment.”
I felt tears stinging the backs of my eyes because I knew what was coming.
“He leaned in to hug me and that’s when I heard the pops. I felt this searing pain along my side just above my hip and then Peter collapsed against me. People began screaming and running–it was complete chaos. I guess that’s what kept the shooter from taking another shot at me. I rolled Peter over and started CPR, but it was too late.”
Jake choked back a sob as he whispered, “I just left him there.”
“You had no choice, Jake,” I said softly as I moved closer to him, disrupting Boo in the process. But all she did was shift a little so she was curled against Jake’s chest. “He wouldn’t have wanted you to risk your own life by staying.”
