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With trembling fingers, I reached for the bag, but he pulled it away before I could touch it. “You bought a pregnancy test?” I whispered as I watched him step to the counter and set the bag down. He reached inside and plucked the box out, quickly ripping the top open and withdrawing a test wrapped in white. Without hesitating, he had the wrapper open and the test held in the air. After looking it over, he pulled the cap off one end and held it out to me.
“You haven’t peed yet, have you?” I narrowed my eyes at his amused smile but shook my head slowly. He knew I usually turned the shower on to heat up as soon as I woke up, then did my business before hopping in to wash the night away. “Good. Sit. Pee.” He waved the stick toward the toilet.
How this man seemed to be so on top of every single thing in his life was a wonder I would probably never figure out. With a huff, I snatched the stick from him and stomped over to the toilet, but inside, I was a tangled mess of girlish delight. He didn’t look bothered in the least that we could have made a baby after barely knowing each other. In fact, he looked rather smug.
I didn’t even bother trying to tell him to leave. That had never worked yet, and with the way he was staring with intense eyes, I knew it would have been like telling a wall to move. As I held the stick, my breath caught. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, though that wasn’t true, was it? I wanted this man more than I wanted to breathe. He had become my everything, and now that the possibility was in front of us, I knew I wanted his child.
With a deep breath to center myself, I allowed myself to relax. Closing my eyes, I did what I needed to. Jack was there in a heartbeat, taking the stick from me, replacing the cap on the end, and setting it on the counter. He washed his hands as I cleaned myself up. He moved over so I could wash my own hands as my eyes stayed glued to the stick the whole time. I felt his fingers on my chin and broke the staredown with the test to meet his eyes.
“You’re mine, you know that, right?” His black eyes were fierce as they looked into mine. I could read his emotions there, which he rarely showed, even to me. I lifted a hand to grasp his wrist.
“I’m yours.”
“Good. No matter what, you will always be mine. You will never leave my side, Sally. You’re here to stay.”
Oh. Oh no. There was one thing I hadn’t told him yet. Something that he wouldn’t be happy about, and I wasn’t sure how to tell him I had to leave in about three months. I started to open my mouth to tell him, dreading his reaction, when my phone rang from the other room. He let my face go, and his eyes softened.
“Go ahead.” I nodded and started to step away but paused. I stepped up on my tiptoes and placed a kiss on his lips before dropping back to dart into the bedroom to grab my phone. There was only one person who would be calling me, and I hadn’t heard from her in weeks.
“ADA Ramirez, how are you?” I kept my eyes on Jack, who had stepped into the room, following me with his eyes. His eyebrows drew together as he heard my greeting.
The urgent tone of her voice had my spine stiffening and cold dread, making the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “Sally, there’s a problem. Listen, I don’t know if he knows where you are, but you need to leave. Go somewhere else. Now, quickly.”
I let out a sob and pressed my fist to my mouth. “What happened?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. The phone was snatched from my hand. Jack pressed the speaker button so we could both hear Ramirez’s words as she said something that could only have come from my worst nightmares.
“The other girl that was a witness for Dr. Stein turned up dead three days ago. We had gotten an email from her saying she wanted to talk to us and that there was something we needed to know. Before we could meet with her, she disappeared. I didn’t find out that she was dead until this morning.” She paused and took a deep breath as if she were bracing herself. Just that sound made me want to run away. I grabbed Jack’s hand and gripped it tightly.
“Sally, Dr. Stein has disappeared, too. I was just informed this morning that three days ago, he failed to report to his parole officer.”
“Three days…” my voice was barely audible, but she must have heard them because she began to frantically demand that I leave my current location again.
“Please, Sally. You need to leave. He may already be wherever you are.”
“How did he find her?” Jack’s harsh, growled words had Ramirez fading into silence before asking me what was obviously a ‘what the fuck’ question.
“Sally?”
“It’s okay, ADA Ramirez. You can speak freely. Jack is my… boyfriend,” I finished lamely.
“I’m a lot more than her boyfriend. How did he find her?” He demanded again.
“I’m not sure that he has. Sally told no one where she was going, but her phone number was on file. It wouldn’t take more than a two-bit hacker to trace her location. Look, Jack, if you care about Sally, you need to convince her to leave. And she needs to leave her phone behind. Sally, don’t use any credit cards. Cash only. Don’t use your ID for any reason that would have your information entering a computer system. Obviously, you won’t need to be back here for the trial in three months. This stunt he’s pulled has guaranteed him a spot in the penitentiary with or without your testimony.”
“Do you know if he’s the one that killed that other girl?” I dreaded the answer but needed to know. As far as I understood it, Dr. Stein was a monster, but he hadn’t actually killed anyone.
She sighed, sounding much older than her thirty-something years. “Tests are still being run. The forensics system runs pretty fucking slowly and is always overtaxed. But, yes, it looks like he is likely the one that murdered her.”
“I’ll take care of everything,” Jack said. Then, without waiting for anyone to say their goodbyes, he punched the disconnect button and tossed my phone onto the bed. He turned to me slowly, the look of a man ready to kill. I swallowed back any protests that I would have made about him being rude to Ramirez as I looked up at him. “There’s more you needed to tell me.” His voice was flat, hollow.
“I was going to tell you the rest of it today,” I offered up lamely.
“It’s too late for that.”
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, the fingers getting caught on the tangles I still hadn’t brushed out. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
I walked over to the dresser and opened the drawer that held my meager belongings that weren’t hanging in the closet. I snatched my hand back when he stalked up behind me and slammed the drawer shut.
“You aren’t going anywhere.” His tone was final, and I looked up at him in disbelief.
