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Her eyes widened. “You have that much faith in a God you’ve never seen?”
“We walk by faith, not by sight. And we’re able to walk in faith because God shows us how to in the Bible,” he said.
She scoffed. “Maybe that explains it. I’ve never held a Bible in my hands, let alone read one.” She wondered what it must feel like to have that sense of trust that everything would be okay. It had been a long time since Anna had trusted anyone but herself.
Jackson gave a small smile. “There’s still time,” he said.
She would’ve voiced her rebuttal but at the mention of time, she knew she needed to get home soon.
“I need to know something else before I drop you back at your car,” Jackson said.
She felt him studying her, and she raised her eyes to meet his. “What do you need to know?”
“Does this word, or maybe it’s a name, mean anything to you?Craven.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Craven? Why?”
He shook his head. “Answer the question, and then I’ll tell you.”
“I knew something was wrong when Olivia went missing—I can’t explain it, but I just felt it in my soul. A few weeks later, I went to visit my mother’s grave. I changed the dead flowers, as I always did. When I pulled out the flowers, a piece of laminated paper fell out with them. I recognized Olivia’s handwriting immediately. She had this beautiful, cursive writing. The piece of paper saidDiaz Smith - Cravenfollowed by eight digits. I’ve never been able to make sense of it, nor could I find anything else linked to this Craven. But I knew Olivia had put it there, and it was meant for me only. I’m the only one—besides Olivia—who would visit our mother’s grave, and it was laminated for a reason. I’ll give you the numbers, but first, tell me why you ask.”
Jackson chewed on his cheek. “We’ve been looking at industrial sites—warehouses and old manufacturing plants—that have been bought and sold in the past year. A company, Craven Enterprises, bought one two years ago... the old QARI site. However, Craven Enterprises doesn’t seem to be doing anything with it, and that’s an expensive purchase to sit there and not be used.”
She frowned. “The old space agency factory?”
Jackson nodded and she felt like he was searching her soul again, perhaps for buried lies.
But she wasn’t lying. She knew nothing about this, which only reinforced her decision that she needed his help. She’d spent years with Diaz, but Jackson was yet again telling her things she had no idea about. If she was going to burn Diaz to the ground, she needed information.
“I’ve never been there, and he’s never mentioned it to me,” she said, pausing. She narrowed her eyes. “Hang on, why are you looking at industrial sites?”
“Because we think Diaz has a secret operation, one I don’t think anyone but Dominic knows about,” Jackson said, and she looked at him, her eyes pleading for him to continue. “We don’t know what it is. But I need to get inside that building, one way or another. I need you to find out anything you can about Craven Enterprises. So far, we can’t get Diaz on his drug trade, but we might be able to get him on this, where he’d least expect it.”
Jackson continued, “I think Olivia knew exactly what he was doing and that’s why she was killed. But I don’t know if it was Diaz who killed her. I’m starting to think Dominic is the brains behind the entire operation and he’s the one in charge. I think Diaz is the front... a distraction. We’ve been too busy watching Diaz when we should’ve been watching his brother.”
“How would Olivia have known about Craven Enterprises?” Anna asked.
“We think she was dating Dominic,” Jackson said, and her jaw dropped open. “I don’t know if Dominic or Diaz killed her, but if it was Diaz, I think it was on Dominic’s orders.”
She swallowed hard. “It doesn’t matter—they will all pay for her death. Give me your phone and I’ll enter the numbers.”
Anna had never given this information to anyone—she’d never trusted anyone else—but she wanted to give them the best chance of surviving, and that meant telling Jackson everything she knew. She entered the number sequence into his notes app.
This needed to end.
She handed his phone back to him; he looked at the numbers, then back to her.
“Thank you,” he said in a way that pulled on her heart strings. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had said those words and truly meant them.
Jackson exhaled. “Time to go.”
She nodded, even though it hadn’t been a question.
She looked at him once more, surprised by the pull she felt toward him. She didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay wrapped up in the promise he lived by—the promise that everything would be okay—but that wasn’t her world, and he wasn’t her Prince Charming.
“Oh, and Jackson, be careful if you decide to raid Diaz’s house... the gardens are primed with explosives,” she said. “You’re lucky you didn’t set any off that day.”
His eyes widened. “Good to know, thank you,” Jackson said, his eyes far away for a moment.
