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Excusing myself, I waited in the small corridor for probably a minute, though it felt like an eternity before she finally came. My heart raced when she instantly reached for me. “Jake.” My name gasped from her perfect lips like she hadn’t breathed in ages. The sound lit fire to every nerve in my body. I pulled her in, breathing hard as I rested my forehead against hers. Thank you, God.
I had never in my life been so grateful to merely touch someone.
“Lara, what happened last night?” I finally asked her. But with voices coming our way, she shuffled me into the bathroom. Once the door closed behind us, I couldn’t hold back. Cupping her cheeks, I kissed her hard against the wall, pressing every inch of my body against hers to remind myself that I had her now. That she was safe.
“I’m so sorry. I was scared. He has all these things that make it look like I killed Gabrielle but I just saw the surveillance tape from the news,” she revealed all in one breath. “And I know this sounds crazy, and I know he was wearing a mask, but I recognize the man who broke into her apartment that night.”
“Was it Jackson?”
“No. I think it was the man he hired to break into our house.”
“Lara, what are you talking about?”
“The guy who broke into our house at the beginning of the summer – the one who attacked me and cut Jackson. Jackson hired him. Off Dane McNulty. Sawyer told me at brunch the other day, while you were outside with Sloane. He hired that guy to be there when I came home that night, so he could save the day and win me back.” She closed her eyes for a second. “Which he did because I was an idiot – ”
“Lara – ”
“I was, Jake. I really was. But I swear to God I’m not anymore.” She curled her arms around my neck desperately and I breathed her in, my blood rushing as I watched a fire blaze in her eyes. “I’m not going to let Jackson hold me hostage forever,” she exhaled, the sound of her adrenaline spiking my pulse. “I’m going to prove to the cops that he killed Gabrielle.”
I pulled back with surprise.
“I know you think it too,” she breathed before I could say a word. “So please help me do this. I didn’t think I’d find a way out so fast but this is it. One way or another, I have to stay with him so in the meantime, I might as well find something. Something to prove that he hired the man who killed Gabrielle. I have to, or I’m never going to escape him, Jake – I won’t.”
My jaw was tight. “If you think he killed someone, Lara, your first instinct should be to get away. I left you alone with Jackson for a night but I don’t know if I can do it again. We’ve established that he’s dangerous.”
“For me,” she whispered intensely. “He’s dangerous for me. He killed for me. If there’s one thing I know about Jackson, it’s that he will never hurt me because all the disgusting, despicable things he does are for me.”
“Lara, anyone who’s capable of what he’s done isn’t completely there in the head,” I argued. “You can’t say with complete certainty that he’ll never crack and turn on you.”
“Which is why I’m not going to give him any reason to. I’m going be
his perfect little fiancé again. I’ll give him no reason to be suspicious. What other choice do we have?”
I brushed the hair from her face, studying her beautiful, bright eyes. “Leaving,” I replied. But I barely finished the word before she was adamantly shaking her head.
“No,” she whispered. “No. If I leave with you now, he’ll make it look like I fled the country and eventually, they’ll find us, and I’ll never get to relax even a minute with you. I’ll never know what it’s like to just lay on a beach with you all day or make you dinner and sit on the couch in front of the TV.” She laughed, her eyes wet with tears that refused to fall. “I know it’s stupid but that’s all I want, Jake. When it’s all over, I want it to be over. Truly over. Or I’ll never know what peace is like with you and right now, the thought of that is the only thing that gets me up in the morning so please, do this with me. For me. Please.”
I stared at her – at her flushed cheeks and swollen lips and the radiating beauty that made me for once consider something besides my own way. A million doubts raced through my mind but as I breathed her energy, I found myself nodding and pressing my lips to hers in agreement. “Of course. We’ll do it. Together.”
Chapter Three
Lara
Days after the news came out, detectives made their rounds throughout Lyle and Sofie Winter’s social circle. But they were bored, almost apologetic by the time they got to Jackson and me.
“We did see from phone records that Gabrielle often conversed with her parents’ friends. We also noted a few flirtatious text exchanges between her and several of Mr. Winter’s friends and colleagues. There were none between Gabrielle or Mr. Kinsley here,” the detective said to my surprise as he nodded at Jackson, “but we did see that Gabrielle used to message you, Miss Pierce. About personal issues. Boys she liked – in and out of school.”
I stared, recalling maybe a handful of texts she had sent me after a dinner a year ago, during which Sloane and I had played big sister and told her how to handle a crush.
“Had she spoken to you since then about any boys or men who were angry with her? Maybe she rejected them or cheated on somebody?”
I stared into space as he mentioned cheating. How had Jackson’s phone number not shown up at all? They’d spoken on the phone at least once before. There was a voicemail to prove that. What the fuck? I tried desperately to wrangle my thoughts and return to the real world, especially as two detectives stared me down in my own living room. But it was dawning on me suddenly that Jackson should have looked guilty to these investigators awhile ago. After all, he was the last number to appear in Gabrielle’s outgoing calls.
At least he should’ve been.
“Miss Pierce? Did you hear our question?”
My eyes fluttered up to the detectives. “I’m sorry – yes, I heard. But no, she hadn’t spoken to me about any boys since,” I answered hastily.
