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“Going missing? What do you mean? I always saw him pack his work. Unless he was doing you the same way he was doing me… giving me his work, telling me I needed to earn my paycheck, and he would put in a good word for me when he got promoted.” She huffed out a breath, really playing it up.
“He never gave me his work to do. You know Jacob printed everything and put the manuscripts in our inboxes. Well, some of the ones he was assigned just happened to… find their way to my inbox. A few swipes of my green pen, and you’d have thought I did actual edits.” He laughed manically, making me want to choke him.
“Nothing less than he deserved,” Cass said. There was some rustling, then she said, “Excuse me, I have to get this,” and the recording stopped.
I looked at her phone for a second, then at her. Her face was set, letting me know that she didn’t plan to sit on this recording. “How did you manage this?” I asked her.
“He kept asking me to dinner, so I told him one day I would go because you and I had a falling out. I told him I wanted to get some things off my chest about you, and he was eager to listen. I wanted to see if he would tell me what went on if he thought you and I weren’t friends anymore.”
“And what do you plan to do with this recording?”
She held her hand out for her phone, and I plopped it on her palm. “I’m sending it to Jacob, of course.”
“No, Cass. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me. Please, just this one time, listen to me,” I said, overriding her objections. “David will obviously stop at nothing to get any revenge he deems is necessary. He didn’t have a real reason to dislike me, and he got me fired. Imagine what he would do to you if you’re the reason he doesn’t have a job. We’re going through enough right now. I don’t want to worry about if you’re safe at work.” I hated to play that card—I really did—but I needed her to understand where I was coming from. David would get what was coming to him, but it would not be at the expense of my best friend. Her face fell, and she looked away, eyes glassy.
Then she nodded. “You’re right.” She let out a deep breath and added, “Fine. I won’t send it. But I’m not going to delete the file. I might need it one day.” I opened my mouth to speak, but she talked over me. “I’m not saying I’m going to send it right now. But just in case. You can’t convince me to delete it. I won’t do it.”
I left it alone. I knew Cass. If she had her mind set on something, it was set, and there was no changing it. I repeatedly asked her not to interfere with my being fired, and she still tried. Begging was the only way she would listen, it seemed. I knew she meant well. But these days, people would do anything when they felt slighted. And if David were unhinged enough to steal work from my desk to frame me, he would do unspeakable things if Cass sent that recording and he got fired. “Did he get the promotion?” I asked.
Cass really laughed then. “Hell no. Jacob brought in someone from another publishing house after he did our evaluations. He said his work was starting to slip because he was overworked.” Served him right.
The overhead speaker made an announcement, calling for the first class of our flight to board. And just like that, the somber mood descended over our little group again. Pop snatched up his and Momma’s bag, and with a hand on the small of her back, he led her to the ticket counter. I grabbed Cass’ bag, and she held onto my waist as we walked to scan our tickets. When we found our seats, I stashed her bag in the overhead compartment and sat beside her. She put on her seat belt and tucked her feet under her, grabbing my hand.
It was tough, knowing I was separating from Lucas. We’d left each other earlier, but this was bigger. I wouldn’t be in the state of Georgia to get to him if he needed me. I would be in Mexico later tonight, safe, while he was alone and in some unknown danger.
As the plane filled up, I became anxious. I could not stop tapping my leg, and I felt like I would have exploded if my skin wasn’t holding me together. I tried to calm myself, needing to keep control for Cass. I made a promise to be there for her, and I wouldn’t break it. I owed it to Lucas. He sent me away to keep me safe, even though he didn’t owe me anything. Whoever this attacker was didn’t know about me, didn’t know about our connection. That was too new for them to be privy to it. He was protecting me anyway.
When the plane drifted from the gate and taxied down the runway, I turned off my phone and couldn’t help it. The tears fell, hot and fast. Too fast for me to catch them and too fast for Cass not to notice. She reached up and wiped my tears and kissed the back of the hand she was holding. “How did it happen?” she whispered.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged and sighed. “He snuck his way into my heart. Which I didn’t think was possible. I mean, I just got out of a relationship with Devin. I went there to get better like you told me, but getting to know him, talking to him, laughing with him… it just happened. He was so open and honest with me that I did the same with him.” I chuckled dryly. “We were cooking breakfast one day and—”
“Oh no. He cooked?” Cass asked incredulously. I had to laugh at her expression because he was a hopeless cook.
“Well, I was cooking, and he was trying to help. And he looked… free. Like he was the happiest man on Earth, trying to pour pancake mix, even though he was fucking it up and burning the pancakes. And I realized I wanted to see him look like that every day. I wanted us to fuck up pancakes together for the rest of our lives. It sounds stupid, but I fell in love with your brother over burned pancakes.”
“It doesn’t sound stupid.” She squeezed my hand. “No one plans to fall in love. It really does just happen sometimes. And there’s no timeline. I don’t know if you know about my parents, but Pop tells us the story all the time, with Momma blushing like a schoolgirl. They went on one date, and Pop told her that he was going to marry her. They were married the next month and have been inseparable ever since. He fell in love within hours of being with her. And they’re still in love. Like really in love. He knew when he saw her that she was his soulmate. I believe love happens when it happens.”
I laid my head back on the headrest, feeling both better and worse. Better because Cass didn’t seem upset about this turn of events, and I was able to be honest about my feelings. Worse because I shouldn’t have left him. I was going to be over six hundred miles away in Florida, then over fifteen hundred miles away when we landed in Mexico. I wouldn’t be able to protect him from the nightmares.
“Lucas is a good man.You’rea good man. You both deserve to be happy. When this is over and we’re all safe, you’ll get your happy ending. I know it.”
I loved her optimism. Even when her brother was in danger, she wanted us to have a happy ending. I hugged her close to me, kissed her forehead, and we stayed like that for the rest of the flight.
When the plane landed, I turned on my phone, eager to call Lucas. I needed to hear his voice, to make sure he was okay. I pressed his contact information, and his phone rang once and went to voicemail. I frowned and called again. And again, it went to voicemail. When we disembarked the plane, I called one last time. Voicemail. I stopped walking and looked at my phone. Cass was walking a little ways ahead of me but noticed when I stopped. She came back over to me and asked, “What’s up?”
“He’s not answering my calls.” She frowned as well and pulled her phone out to call him. When he didn’t answer, she shook her head. “Mine either.”
I felt hopeless. I couldn’t leave the country, not when he was isolating himself like this. “I gotta go back, Cass. I’m sorry. I know you need me, but he needs me more. He needs someone to keep the nightmares away. I can’t leave him alone.”
She nodded and grabbed my hand. We walked to the ticket counter, and she asked the attendant, “How can we book a flight back to Atlanta?”
After the attendant at the counter issued me a new ticket, I checked it for the departure gate. It was on the other side of the airport. Cass drew me into her arms and said, “I have to catch our connecting, or I would walk with you to your gate. Momma and Pop are probably wondering where I am. Don’t worry. I’ll tell them where you went. Be careful and take care of him. I know it would be foolish to ask you to stay, so please,pleasebe safe.”
“I will, love.” I kissed her cheek, and she wiped away the lone tear that escaped one eye. With one final shaky smile, she hurried off, leaving me standing in the middle of the airport. My flight wasn’t due to leave for another three hours, and I had nothing but my phone to occupy my time, so I went to one of the stores and bought an overpriced charger and plugged it in. I was only on twenty-five percent, and I needed to have a full charge for when I landed because I would be hurrying to get to Lucas and wouldn’t have time to think about charging my phone. I would worry about my checked luggage after I got to him.
I sat, wondering how he would react when I popped up at the door. He would be pissed, I was sure. Angry with me that I broke my promise and I wasn’t protecting myself. But he didn’t understand. He needed to be protected too and didn’t have to be alone. And not answering his phone proved he was trying the I’m-an-island bullshit, and I didn’t like it. I would have to tell him to cut the shit because his family needed to hear from him. He wasn’t in this alone. He had people who cared for him and wanted him to be safe. If he wasn’t answering his phone, they would think the worst and head back to the States to check on him, which would defeat the purpose of him trying to send them away.
Maybe we could leave the cabin, him and I. Go somewhere under my name, where we had no connection to his family, the FBI, or the case. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before. People knew that Cass and I were best friends, but this accomplice wouldn’t know that. It would be suspicious for the person to randomly ask people she knew about our whereabouts. I wasn’t an FBI agent or anything close to it, but I had common sense, and it told me that no one would ask about any type of relationship we had. Hell, the people who knew Cass and me knew I had never met her brother. I made up my mind. We would hide away together, keeping each other safe.
