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CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

JADE

“Garret, did you hear me?”

“Yeah, I was just trying to think of the various torture devices I would need if a guy ever got near my daughter.”

“So you’re saying she could never date? Not even when she’s 16?”

“Sixteen? Hell, no! She can date when she’s 40 or 50 or whenever I’m dead and not around to see it.”

“You’re terrible.” I keep my arms around him. “If we have kids, you better hope they’re not girls. I think they’d give you a heart attack.”

“I’d take girls,” he says quietly.

He smooths my hair as I close my eyes. It’s been a stressful week and it feels good to just lie here as his hand moves down my back and up to my hair again, repeating the pattern.

I probably confused Garret just now with my comment about us having kids. I didn’t mean to say it. It just kind of came out when we were talking about Lilly. Maybe because I’ve been thinking more about kids ever since we got married. I haven’t told Garret that. I don’t want to get his hopes up and then tell him I don’t want them.

The thing is, I think I do want them. But as soon as I think that, I question it. I tell myself that maybe I only want them because Garret does. I love him so much that I don’t want to deny him something he really wants. But I can’t make a huge decision like that based only on what he wants. I have to make sure it’s what I want, too, and that changes from day to day.

I haven’t spent much time around kids so how do I know if I could even take care of one? What if I couldn’t? Lilly is the only kid I’ve really been around. And I love her, and I love being her big sister, but it’s not the same as being a parent.

As much as I’ve tried to get over it, I’m still scared to death of being a mom. I have been ever since Garret started bringing up the topic. Before I met him, I never even thought about it. I didn’t think I’d get married so I definitely didn’t think I’d have kids. And I was okay with that. I didn’t feel like I was giving up anything. But falling in love with Garret changed all that. In my head, I can see him being a dad. I can imagine us playing outside with our kids and putting them to bed at night. And those images make me happy. Really happy. Then my internal panic button hits and I tell myself it’ll never happen. That it can’t happen because I don’t trust that I’d make a good mom. I still fear I’ll become the mom who raised me.

My mom’s influence on me is more than I care to admit. As much as I’ve forgiven her, part of me still hates her for what she did to me. I hate how much she’s affected me as a person. I blame her for my indecision over having kids. I should want them, right? Doesn’t everyone? I guess some people don’t, so maybe I’m just one of those people. But I don’t think I am. When I saw that photo of Sara’s baby, I got this warm feeling inside. He looked so sweet and tiny and I just wanted to pick him up and hold him. I thought that was a sign I should be a mom, but then I realized everyone feels that way about babies.

I’m so confused. I don’t know what I want. I need to think about it some more. I don’t have to decide right now. Garret wouldn’t want kids for years. He wants to get through college and maybe get his MBA or start his business. So I have time.

“It’s Friday night.” Garret’s voice startles me. “You want to go out?”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Let’s go to a movie. Friday night’s date night, right?”

I look up at him. “Do you have a date?”

“Are you saying I don’t?”

“You should ask a girl on a date, not just assume she’ll go out with you. I bet even Max knows that.”

“Hey, don’t start talking about bow-tie boy. I’m trying to forget about him.”

“Are you going to ask me out or not?”

He tucks my hair behind my ear and says very formally, “Jade. Would you go out with me this evening to the local cinema?”

“Do I get to pick the movie?”

“Yes.”

“Do I get popcorn?”

“Yes.”

“Do I get a cold beverage of my choice?”

“Yes.”

“What about candy?”

“No, just popcorn.”

“Why can’t I have candy?”

“Movie, popcorn, a cold beverage, and me. I think I’ve offered enough here, Jade.”

He always makes me laugh when he’s so serious.

“Just one more request before I’ll go on a date with you.”

“You can ask, but there’s a good chance I’ll say no.”

“You won’t say no.” I kiss him.

“What is it?”

“Can I take you home after the movie and have my way with you?”

“I think I’ll need you to define what that means before I agree to it.”

I rub my hand over the front of his jeans and whisper over his lips. “I’d like you to strip me naked and—”

He kisses me before I can finish. “Forget waiting until after the movie. We’re doing it right now.”

We end up going to the late show. Date night heated up fast and the sex portion of the night went on a little longer than planned.

I love date night. I hope Garret asks me out again.

* * *

Over the weekend I force myself to do homework and study. It’s really hard to stay focused when the sand and the ocean are right outside my window and I just want to lay out in the sun. And then Garret keeps breaking my concentration by watching TV or doing stuff in the kitchen or kissing me or luring me to the bedroom for sex.

It’s Sunday and I asked for buttermilk pancakes this morning because the price of five kisses was more affordable timewise than the price of the other pancakes. But then we ended up doing it this afternoon so I didn’t really save any time.

Now it’s 7:30 and we just finished dinner and I know I should study some more but I can’t. I’m too tired. I can’t believe how much work my professors assigned the first week of the semester.

“Why do I have so much homework and you don’t have any?” I ask Garret as I wash the last pan in the sink. Garret made spaghetti and since he made the meal, I’m on clean-up duty. That’s the deal we have, but he always ends up helping me.

“I have homework. I just don’t have as much as you.” He takes the pan from me and dries it. “Speaking of that, I need to do some reading before class tomorrow.”

“Then while you’re doing that, I’m going to call Frank and Ryan before it gets too late there.”

“Tell them I said hi.”

I take the phone out to the deck and call Frank. Ryan answers. “Hey, Jade. Sorry I missed your call the other day.”

“It’s my fault. I called at the wrong time. I keep forgetting the time difference.”

“Dad told me about your classes. Sounds like a tough schedule.”

“Your schedule is just as bad.”

“I know, but I had to cram in all those classes so I can graduate this year. At least I don’t have to work. That’s a huge relief.”

It’s a relief for me, too. Last year, I was starting to think Ryan would never go back to school. Even with his job, the bills were piling up. But after I gave Frank that money, everything changed. Ryan quit his job, took summer classes, and now he’s back on track to graduate in May and start med school next fall. He’s already been accepted to the same school Chloe goes to. Taking last year off means Ryan will be starting med school a year later than he planned, but at least he’s going. Without that money, I don’t know if he would’ve been able to.

“Go tell Frank to get on the phone so I can talk to both of you.”

“He’s um, busy.” Ryan sounds weird, almost like he’s half-serious, half-laughing.

“Busy doing what? Is he in the bathroom or something?”

“No, he went out.”

“What do you mean he went out? It’s Sunday night. And it’s 9:30 there. He never goes out that late.”

“Well, he did tonight.” There’s hidden meaning in Ryan’s tone but I’m not getting the message.

“Just tell me, Ryan. What’s going on there?”

“Dad is, um, out having dinner with a friend.”

“A friend? What friend? Like a friend he used to work with?”

“No, like a lady friend.” He laughs as he says it.

“Yeah, that’s funny, Ryan. Where’s he really at?”

“I’m not joking. Dad’s on a date.”

I jump up from my chair. “No freaking way!”

Ryan’s full-out laughing. “I know, right? I reacted the same way when he told me he was going out with her.”

“Wait—where did he meet this woman? He never leaves the house except to go to his doctor’s appointments.”

“That’s how he met her. He’s been going to his appointments without me since he can drive now. And if he gets there too early or has to wait for test results, he goes over to the hospital next to the clinic and has coffee in the cafeteria. This woman he’s out with tonight is a nurse, and one day last summer they got to talking in the cafeteria and that led to getting coffee at a restaurant and now dinner.”

“What’s she like? Have you met her?”

“I’ve met her a couple times. She’s nice. I think you’d like her. She’s around 50. She doesn’t have kids. Her husband died 10 years ago in a car accident.”

“What does she look like?”

“Tall, like 5’9, with short, blond hair. She’s thin. She runs half marathons.”

“So Frank has a tall, blond, athletic girlfriend?”

“When you put it that way, damn, I guess he did pretty good, didn’t he? And he didn’t even ask her out. She asked him out.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. I think she got tired of waiting for Dad to ask her out so she asked him out instead. He hasn’t dated for a while. He’s out of practice.”

“She doesn’t know about his money, does she?”

“No. She has no idea. Even if she knew, I don’t think she’d go after his money. She’s got her own money. Her parents sold their farmland and made a boatload of cash and gave her and her sister a big chunk of it. And I’m sure she got an insurance settlement when her husband died.”

“Where did they go on their date?”

“Some Italian place downtown. She picked him up in her Lexus. He was all dressed up. I felt like I was sending my kid off to prom.”

Ryan and I shouldn’t laugh but we do anyway.

“Do you think they’ll go on another date?”

“Probably. They should’ve been home an hour ago, so if the date’s still going on, then I’m guessing it’s going well.”

“This is so strange. I don’t know if I can handle Frank dating.”

“You? You’re not the one living with him. What if he brings her back here and they go in his room? You know how thin the walls are in this house. I can’t listen to that. They’ll have to go to her place if they want to do stuff.”

“Ryan, don’t talk about it! I can’t think about Frank that way. We need to get off this topic. How’s Chloe?”

“Good. Did I tell you I bought a ring?”

“No! What the hell is going on there? Frank’s dating? You’re buying engagement rings?”

“Just one ring. Not plural,” he kids.

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m not proposing to her anytime soon. I just saw this ring that I knew she’d like and I didn’t want the store to not have it when I’m ready to propose. So I bought it. It was expensive but it didn’t cost six figures like the rings some people have.” He says it jokingly.

“How do you know what my ring cost?”

“I asked Garret when I was out there in July. It’s a nice ring and I wanted to know how much something like that cost.”

“I didn’t want you to know.”

“Why? Garret’s loaded. It’s not like that was a lot of money to him.”

Ryan doesn’t know that Garret lost his trust fund and I can’t tell him because telling him would mean explaining why he lost it, which is a huge secret.

“You should marry Chloe next summer. You could have the wedding here in California on the beach like I did.”

“Chloe’s family is in Iowa so I’m sure we’ll be having it in Des Moines. But maybe a honeymoon in California.”

“So what do you think? A summer wedding?”

“Stop rushing me into marriage. Let me enjoy my bachelor years a little longer.”

“Fine. But Chloe may get tired of waiting and go find someone else. Then you’ll be stuck trolling the hospital cafeteria for women.”

“Worked for Dad. It could work for me, too.”

“I better let you go. You need to check on Frank and his date. You know how kids are on prom night.”

“I know. And I forgot to give him condoms. We might be getting a sibling out of this date.”

I laugh. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Yeah, and hey, don’t say anything to Dad about this. I don’t want him knowing I told you. He’ll tell you himself when he’s ready to.”

“I won’t say anything. Bye, Ryan.”

As I’m getting up to go inside, I hear a noise out front. It sounds like the garbage can fell over. It’s a windy night and it tends to tip over since we never have much in it. I walk around to the driveway and see it lying on its side, empty. I turn it upright and wheel it closer to the garage.

“What was that noise?” Garret asks as I’m walking into the house.

“The wind blew the trash can over. We should put something in it to weigh it down. Otherwise it’ll just tip over again.”

“I took the trash out twice this week. There are at least two bags in there.”

“No, there’s nothing in there. I just checked.”

“That can’t be right. I know there were two bags in there.”

“Maybe the garbage guy came early.”

“They don’t pick up garbage on Sundays.” Garret gets his phone out. “Did you see anyone out there?”

“No. Nobody.”

He swipes through his phone. “These are all fuzzy. The wind must be shaking the cameras.”

“What are you looking at?”

“The video from the security cameras.”

“Why? You think someone stole our garbage?”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Why would someone want our garbage?”

“To get our bills, our receipts, anything else that has personal information on it. Like that cop said, that robber might have friends. They could be searching our garbage trying to find out who we are to see if we’re worth stealing from. Or they could be looking for stuff that would let them steal our identity.” He sets his phone down. “You’re sure there was nothing in the trash can? Not anything?”

“You can look for yourself but I know it was empty.”

He goes outside to check. I follow him and watch as he opens the lid. He pulls out a black garbage bag. And then another. “Jade, there are two bags in here. Just like I said.”

“I see that, but I don’t understand. I was just out here and it was empty.”

“It’s a deep garbage can and these were way at the bottom. You just didn’t see them.”

“Okay, well, anyway, let’s go inside. I’ve gotta tell you what Ryan said.”

When we’re back in the house, Garret asks, “So what’s new with Ryan?”

“You gotta sit down for this.” I push him down on the couch. “Frank, as in the-man-I-consider-my-father-Frank, went out on a date tonight!”

I wait for Garret’s reaction.

“Good for him.” He says it casually, like this happens every day.

“Garret!” I climb on his lap, straddling him. “You’re supposed to have more of a reaction. This is Frank we’re talking about. The man who hasn’t been on a date the entire time I’ve known him. And get this—she asked HIM out!”

“Did Ryan tell you anything about her?”

“Yeah, she’s a tall blonde who runs half marathons. She’s a nurse, widow, no kids. He met her at the hospital. She picked him up for their date tonight.” I’m talking fast so I stop to take a breath. “This is so crazy.”

“Why is it crazy? Frank’s a good guy. I’m sure a lot of women would want to go out with him.”

“It’s crazy because he never acted like he was interested in dating.”

“Because he didn’t have anyone he wanted to date. Now he does.”

“Do you think they kissed? They had to have, right? I bet they’re home now and kissing on the front porch like a couple of teenagers.”

Garret laughs. “Now who sounds like an old person? What do you care if they kiss? You’re not their parent.”

“Well, they better not take it beyond kissing. They have to wait until they’re married, or at least engaged.”

“Yeah, because that’s what we did, right?” He brings my face to his for a kiss.

“We’re young. We lack self-control. I still lack control when it comes to you.”

“Maybe Frank loses control when he’s around the hot blond nurse.”

“I didn’t say she was hot. I just said she’s blond.”

“I bet Frank thinks she’s hot,” Garret says, smiling.

“Okay, enough about Frank. Here’s the other news. Ryan bought an engagement ring.”

“Oh, yeah? When is he proposing?”

“At his slow pace, probably not for 10 years. He found the ring he wanted so he bought it. I told him he should marry her next summer and he yelled at me for trying to take away his bachelor years.” I sit back and look at Garret. “Do you ever regret not having more time as a bachelor?”

“No. What’s so great about being a bachelor? You go out and get drunk and hit on girls every night. I already did all that in high school. I’m over it.”

Garret says that, but sometimes I wonder if he thinks he’s missing out on stuff being married at this age. I don’t mean getting drunk and hitting on girls, but just going out. He likes being social way more than I do.

I wouldn’t mind if Garret went and hung out with some of the guys from school. But I think he stays home because he feels bad leaving me here alone. He did the same thing last year when we were at Moorhurst. He went out with me instead of his guy friends. But at least back then he had his swim team. Now he has nothing but me, and I think he needs more than that. I know he does.

The rest of the night Garret watches TV while I force myself to study some more. I wasn’t going to, but I have two quizzes next week and I’m not ready for either one of them. It’s only the first week of the semester and I feel like I’m already way behind.

* * *

Monday morning after class, I go to the library to study. Then I meet Garret for lunch, go to my afternoon classes and then the library again. To keep up with my homework and get decent grades, I’m going to have to study a lot. The classes here are definitely harder than the ones at Moorhurst.

I’ve been at the library for hours now and I can’t be in here anymore. I pack up my backpack and go outside. I’m meeting Garret in 15 minutes. I could just wait on one of the benches but that would mean more sitting and I can’t sit any longer. I’ll just take a short walk to stretch my legs. I have time to make a quick loop around campus.

It’s a really beautiful campus. I should study out here under a tree instead of in the library. The campus is full of big shade trees along with some smaller trees that have brightly colored flowers on them. There are also flowery bushes along the outside perimeter, concealing the fence.

The campus is surrounded by a tall, black iron fence that looks nice but also provides security. Camsburg is known for having good security, which is one of the main reasons Garret and I picked it. They don’t let just anyone walk on campus. You have to enter and leave through the front entrance gate, which is monitored by a guard station. I always thought the only way off campus was that front entrance but I just saw a guy going out a side gate. I never noticed it before because of all the bushes that hide the fence. Nobody else seems to notice it either because there aren’t any students anywhere near it, other than the guy I just saw.

If I’d known that gate was there, I could’ve saved myself a lot of time getting to my car. I always park on the side street and to get there I have to go out the front entrance of campus, down the main street, then back up the side street. This would be a huge shortcut.

I walk over to the gate to find out exactly where it leads, but I can’t see anything other than a small green building with a sign on it that says ‘maintenance.’

I’m guessing the street is just beyond that maintenance building. I go through the gate and notice a faculty parking lot to my left. I walk around the maintenance building and straight ahead I see the street where my car is parked.

This is way shorter than my usual route. I’m glad I found this. Garret will be happy about it, too. He’s always saying how the campus should have more than one exit.

I hear some commotion in the faculty parking lot and look back and see the guy I spotted earlier, the one I saw going through the gate. He looks a few years older than me, like a grad student. I bet he’s a teaching assistant and that’s why he gets to park in the faculty lot.

There’s another guy with him and they seem to be arguing. The grad student has a small bag in his hand and is passing something to the other guy. It’s money. Wait—is this a drug deal? I don’t want to be around this!

I start walking back toward the gate. The two guys are getting louder and I glance over and get a look at the drug dealer. I do a double take when I see his face.

It’s the burglar. The guy who robbed the house just down from ours. He’s supposed to be in jail. That cop said they caught the guy and arrested him. They must’ve let him out of jail.

This is bad. I need to get out of here.

I walk faster toward the gate. I don’t want to draw attention to myself by running. I keep my head down, not looking at them. I can still hear them arguing and they’re getting louder. It’s making me nervous.

The maintenance building is just a few feet away so I speed up and duck behind it. I’m thinking I should wait here until they go away. I don’t want them seeing me.

I hear one of the guys yell, “What the fuck?”

I peek out the side of the building and see the burglar/drug dealer’s body on the ground. Did he pass out? I see a line of blood coming from his head, pooling on the ground. Oh my God. I think he’s been shot.

Shit! This is bad. Really, really bad.

What is going on here? Did the grad student shoot him? I didn’t even hear a gun go off. Maybe he has a silencer on it.

My heart’s racing, my breathing shallow. I remain hidden behind the maintenance building.

“Somebody help!” I hear the grad student yell.

I peek out again and see him holding his phone in the air, like he’s trying to find a signal. Why is he calling for help if he shot the guy?

As I’m watching him, I see the phone drop from his hand and he staggers back. He falls to the ground, blood streaming down his face.

Holy crap! He just got shot, too!

Who shot him? Is someone hiding in the bushes? Or maybe behind a car?

I get my phone out. I need to call the police and get someone out here as fast as possible.

My phone is on, but when I dial 9-1-1 nothing happens. I check my phone. The battery’s charged but there’s no signal. How could there be no signal? I always have a signal on campus.

I have to get out of here. But what if the shooter’s close to me? What if the person is on the other side of the maintenance building?

The gate that leads back to campus isn’t that far away. If I ran really fast, I might be able to make it before this person sees me. But if the shooter does see me, he’ll shoot me. And I’ll be dead like the two guys in the parking lot.

I can’t believe this is happening! I just wanted to take a quick walk before meeting up with Garret. And now I might end up getting killed! Shit!

My eyes are still on the gate. I have to do it. I have to make a run for it. I’m a runner. I can sprint to the gate.

I take off and in four long strides I’m there. But the gate won’t open! I try the handle over and over again, checking behind me to see if someone’s there. I don’t see anyone, but I didn’t see the shooter when he took down those guys either.

The gate is at least eight feet high. I don’t think I can climb it. And even if I could, I’d be making myself an even more obvious target and get shot for sure. I wiggle the handle on the gate, then yank on it repeatedly. It still won’t open. And then it hits me. The gate is locked. It’s another security measure to keep unauthorized people from getting on campus. The faculty who use this parking lot must have a key or some other way to open it.

Now my only option is to turn around and walk back to the street, so that’s what I do, hoping the shooter doesn’t notice me. I walk at a normal pace and reach in my backpack and pull out my headphones, pretending I’m just a college student headed to class, having no idea what just happened.

I make it all the way down the side street, then turn onto the main street and keep walking. There are people all around me and I’m finally able to breathe. I pick up my pace and when I reach the front entrance of the campus, I stop at the security guard station.

“I heard some guy’s fighting up by the library,” I say to the campus cop. “You should go check it out. They sounded really angry.”

“Can you show me where?”

I didn’t want to get involved in this, but I have to get help. Maybe one of those guys is still alive.

“Yeah, it was up the hill, behind the fence,” I say as the campus cop follows me.

As we’re walking, I get my phone out and check the signal. It’s back. What the hell? I see Garret up ahead, waiting for me in front of the library. I text him because I don’t want to tell him about this with the campus cop next to me.

My text reads, Something happened. Can’t explain. I’m walking toward you with a campus cop. Meet up with me. Go along with what I say.

“So you said you heard a fight?” the cop asks.

“Yeah. It was really loud.” I shrug. “But maybe it was nothing.”

Garret walks over to us, a worried look on his face.

I smile at him, but my body is shaking. “Hey. Sorry I’m late.”

I give him a look, reminding him to pretend everything’s normal.

“Hey.” He gets my message but he still looks worried because he can feel that I’m shaking. He puts his arm around me as we walk.

“Are you her boyfriend?” the cop asks.

“He’s my husband,” I say.

“Oh.” The cop looks at us, like he’s trying to guess our ages.

I point to the gate. “So I saw a guy go out this gate and then I heard the fighting. I didn’t even know there was a gate here until today. Where does it go to? The street?” I try to play dumb so he won’t think I was anywhere near the crime scene.

“It’s not meant for students,” the cop says. “It goes to the faculty parking lot. And there’s a maintenance building back there.” He opens the gate.

“Okay, well anyway, that’s where I heard it.” I turn to leave, taking Garret with me.

“Wait.” The cop stops us. “Come here. I might need you to identity the guy you saw going through the gate. The one you think was involved in the fight.”

Garret squeezes my hand. He’s giving me a look like he wants an explanation but I can’t give him one. Not right now.

I’m realizing this was a really bad idea. I never should’ve said anything to the campus cop because now I’m going to be involved in whatever this is. I’ll be interviewed by the real cops and then there’ll be an investigation. And whatever comes after that.

“We really have to be going,” I tell the cop.

“It’ll just take a minute. You made me come all the way over here. You need to at least show me where to look.” The guy sounds annoyed. Seriously? Like he really has anything better to do? He just sits in the security guard station all day.

I hesitate because the killer might still be out there, although I’m sure he’s left by now. Why would he stick around?

“Are you coming?” He holds the gate open.

“Yeah. Okay.” I follow him through the gate with Garret right behind me.

“It sounded like they were over there.” I motion to the parking lot as we walk past the maintenance building.

“Nobody’s out here,” the cop says, walking ahead of us and scanning the lot.

“Maybe they’re in their cars.”

The cop checks some of the cars and as he does, Garret leans down and whispers, “What the hell’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you later,” I whisper back.

“They must’ve left.” The cop turns and walks back toward me.

I take a few steps to the right so I can see the area where the two bodies are lying. But they’re not there. I know they were between two cars but I wasn’t really paying attention to what the cars looked like. Maybe I have the wrong spot.

I walk around a little, checking between the other cars.

“What are you doing?” I hear the cop ask.

“Nothing.” I turn and smile. “I saw a cat running under the cars but she ran off. I really like cats.”

Garret’s looking at me like I’m crazy.

“Whatever fight you think you heard, it’s over now.” The cop motions us back to the gate. “Let’s go.”

He uses a key card to unlock the gate and when we’re back on campus, he just walks off.

“What the hell was that about?” Garret asks when the cop is gone.

“I’ll tell you when we get home.” I’m shaking even more now. Even my voice is shaky.

Garret notices and leads me to a bench to sit down. “What’s wrong?”

I lean over and talk in his ear. “Two guys were shot in the parking lot. I was there, hiding behind the maintenance building. I saw them drop to the ground. I saw the blood. They were shot in the head. They weren’t moving. I’m almost positive they were dead. And now the bodies are gone.”

Garret squeezes his eyes shut, then opens them again. “Fuck.”

“What does that mean? Are you just upset or does that mean something?”

He takes my hand and gets up from the bench. “Let’s go.”

When we’re back home I tell him what happened, including how my cell phone signal was gone but then appeared again a few minutes later.

We’re sitting on the couch and Garret’s quiet, his eyes on the coffee table.

“What is it, Garret? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“I’m just trying to figure this out. It could’ve been a drug deal that got messed up. Like maybe a rival drug dealer got pissed off this other guy was taking his customer. Or—”

“Or what?”

He sighs. “Or it could’ve been they wanted it to look that way, in case someone walked by and saw what happened and reported it.”

“What are you talking about? Who’s ‘they’?”

He gives me that look. The one that tells me the organization is involved.

I shake my head. “No. You’re wrong. Why would they be here in this town? And why would they care about a drug deal?”

“It’s not about the drug deal. It’s about those two guys. They wanted one of them dead so they waited for the right time. Maybe they knew that guy was a drug dealer so they followed him and took him down during a deal, so if anyone saw what happened it’d just look like a drug deal gone bad.”

“But what about the other guy? You’re saying they’d kill an innocent guy just to kill the drug dealer?”

Garret nods, his gaze back on the table. “Or maybe they wanted both of them dead.”

“I don’t understand. Why would they care about either one of those guys?”

Garret shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“Why do you think it was them? Maybe some other drug dealer killed those guys because they owed him money or something.”

“It’s possible. But getting rid of the bodies like that? It sounds like them. They clean up their messes.”

My stomach feels sick and my head’s starting to throb. I can’t handle the idea of the organization being here. They’re supposed to be gone. Out of our lives. Far away, on the East Coast.

“Maybe drug dealers clean up their messes, too.”

“Yeah. They might. Maybe it’s not them.” Garret’s tone is not at all convincing.

“The phone.” I take my phone out and hold it up to him. “The way my phone had no signal. Did they do that? I mean, is that something they do?”

“Anyone could do that if they had the right equipment.”

“My phone had no signal that first day I met Arlin. After he took me to that office, he sent me home and had the signal disabled in the car so I couldn’t call you. Or anyone.”

“Yeah. I remember.”

Garret doesn’t elaborate but I’m sure we’re thinking the same thing. The pieces all seem to point to the organization.

“It can’t be them, Garret. I can’t handle dealing with them again.”

“Whatever happened today, it doesn’t have anything to do with us. We have no connection to either one of those guys.” He holds my shoulders. “You sure nobody saw you there? Like absolutely sure?”

“I don’t know. But if they saw me, they would’ve done something, right?”

He brings me into his chest, holding me tightly in his arms.

He doesn’t answer my question, but he doesn’t need to. I know the answer. They would’ve killed me.