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“Very close friends.” Jay’s lips pinched. “We work together. And there’s nothing to see in this building other than the picture on the table.”
Jared didn’t look at Jay. “Ready?”
“Ella, if you’d rather me sit in with you,” Jay snipped.
Jared tilted his head. “Rocco, the non-boyfriend. Now.”
“Why would we talk separately?” Jay asked.
“Jay.” Ella bugged her eyes at him. “They’re here to help me. They’re part of our team. They’renotthe people we have to team up against and fight off.”
Jared’s eyebrow eased up. “Youroutinelyteam up and face off with people like us?”
“Sort of.” Feeling as though she’d maybe impressed him, she hid her smile, but she was pretty proud of her work. “Most recently in Congo, Costa Rica, and then there was that time in the Amazonian jungle.”
Both of Jared’s brows went up. “Interesting.”
Jay huffed, and the man named Rocco hovered between them. Ella shifted, deciding it was best to let those two have their own pissing contest.
She and Jared left the conference room, and Jared found a desk for them to sit at as though he’d been in Tara’s office a hundred times. “So, Ella. Let’s break down what’s been happening and what you need to do moving forward.”
Please, please don’t say make an appointment with the police and explain.While she loved the boys in blue, the ones she had talked to so far hadn’t taken anything seriously. This conversation was about to be disappointing. “Okay.”
“My night was like a game of telephone. Ever play that?”
She nodded. “A long time ago.”
“Thought so.” He cracked his knuckles. “Your grandparents met my guy, Rocco, at an airport a couple years ago, and they agreed if there was ever an emergency, he owed them a favor. Your grandmother had emailed the story to your parents—and I have to admit that it’s a hell of a story—because I got a phone call from your father. He said he had a problem and was cashing in the favor.”
“I’m the favor.” She dropped her head, hating the fact that she was anyone’s responsibility, but she also paused. How had no one told her that Gamma and the man who’d just been identified as Rocco had had a situation at an airport that resulted in a favor years later?
“Ella? You with me?”
“Yes.” She focused. “I’m the favor.”
“Yes.” He nodded, eyes crinkling at the corners as his ever-assessing once-over paused. “And good thing for you, as it turns out, Rocco also watches a lot of TV.”
Ella raised her eyebrows. “He does?”
“The reality crap, particularly.”
Her eyebrows arched higher. “Okay.”
“And from what he said, you’re level-headed in a sea of bullshit.”
“Oh, okay.” While that was true, in her opinion, normally people didn’t outright say that. “Thank you?”
Jared cracked his knuckles against the table. “You’re a favor. You’re a known entity. You’re in deep over your head.”
Over her head?“Well—”
“You”—Jared scowled—“are going to get yourself killed over a fucking clean-the-planet blog. Do you know that?”
Her spine went rod-iron straight, and her jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”Good-bye warm fuzzies from safety patrol.If this Jared Westin character was going to attack Eco-Ella, he had another thing coming. She was officially back on duty. “Or in the process of talking to people on the blog, on all social media, and in real life, I will save lives, animals, marine life, insects, and basically nature’s life cycle.” She met his gruff stare. “Mr. Westin, it’s more than aclean-the-planetblog.”
“And you talk to yourself on videos.”
Ella balked. “I vlog.”