Page 147 of The Five Year Lie

Noted. But I’m not coming home until I figure out if you’re one of them.

“You are so hot to me right now,” he whispers.

She laughs, but he can tell she’s nervous.

“Hey.” The pump clicks off, but he wraps his arm around her instead of dealing with it. “I will keep you safe, or I will die trying.”

“It better not come to that,” she whispers.

He gives her a quick kiss on the jaw, because he doesn’t like to make promises he can’t keep.

52

ARIEL

I take a nap after our trip to Target, because I still haven’t caught up on my sleep.

And when I come downstairs in the late afternoon, Jay and Woody have formed a plan. It involves swapping Jay’s Jeep for Woody’s SUV, and a fishing cabin owned by a friend of a friend.

“What’s our other plan?” I press. “I want to call the policewoman I spoke to after Zain’s”—I stop myself before sayingdeath, in case Buzz looks up from his new toys—“and ask her to look into Zarkey’s sister.”

“That could work,” Jay says. He’s poking potatoes with a fork and placing them into the oven. “But I’m worried that the Portland PD is in your uncle’s pocket.”

“How far in his pocket, though? I’m sure they like free cameras and charitable support as much as the next guys, but unless the ring of fraudulent judges is a whole lot bigger than we thought, I don’t know why they wouldn’t care about a—” I stop myself again before sayingmurder.

“You can take their temperature on it,” Woody says. “Meanwhile, you guys can send Ariel’s, uh, CEO some of the evidence you guys have. If he thinks coming clean is inevitable, he’ll work harder to end up on the right side of the story.”

“Or he’ll run for the hilltops,” Jay murmurs.

“Maybe,” I concede. “But I like this idea. He’s probably scared. If we give him a last chance to throw the Zarkeys under the bus, he might take it.”

Jay nods, but the expression on his face says he doesn’t quite buy it.

I’m not sure I blame him.

“We’ll leave tomorrow,” he says. “First thing.”

I don’t argue.

Jay defrosts some steaks for dinner. I wash lettuce for a salad. Buzz covers the living room floor with die-cast cars and pieces of plastic track.

As I do laundry, I can smell the charcoal heating on the grill, and I let myself pretend that this is an ordinary summer day with the family. The only one I’ve ever had.

Sure, we’re packing to run from killers. And Jay is monitoring the perimeter. But a girl can fantasize. As I pass his command center on the sofa, I run my knuckles gently across the back of his neck. He turns to me with a glance that’s loaded with appreciation. I hold his gaze, and he gives me a secretive smile that suggests the bathroom counter might see some more action later.

When it’s almost time for dinner, Woody drives over and leaves the keys in his SUV so we can drive it away in the morning.

Jay opens three beers and passes them around. Woody sits down in front of the monitors, and Jay waves me out into the yard with him.

It’s a beautiful night, and the shadows are growing longer at the tree line as I follow him outside. “When are we going to tell him?” he asks as he checks the coals on the grill. “Can it be soon? I want him to know me.”

The rush of love I feel is swift and fierce. “Yes. Tomorrow. When we’re alone, just the three of us.”

Those blue eyes flash to mine. “Waiting any longer might not work anyway. I don’t know what you told him about me, but when you were in the laundry room, he asked me if I used to be a soldier, and how did I get that scar under my eye?”

“Oh God.” I laugh nervously. “Tomorrow, then.”

His expression turns solemn. “I’ll say anything you need me to. I’ll tell him I was an idiot to leave you both.”