Page 100 of Watch Me

He smiled. “Reagan.”

“Jack?” I greeted back, but it came out as a question because I was confused. And scared. But, if he was involved, wouldn’t he have been arrestedtoo?

“Is everything okay? Sergeant Valor—”

“You helped my daughter?”

“Let’s talk in my office?” He motioned behind him where he had comefrom.

“Sure.” I followed him down the hall and then around the corner. His office was the first door on the left. We entered, and I took a seat in a chair in front of his desk. “Ethan told me what happened. I wanted to thank you.”

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I have to admit, I never thought I’d have to save a hostage from being raped and murdered.”

“How were you even there?” What I understood was that the killer was his employee. Everything happened late at night, so,whyandhowwas hethere?

“My staff doesn’t know yet—and I’m not going to divulge it until I have to—but Katrina and I were sleeping together.”

“Okay?” That still didn’t necessarily tell me how he wasinvolved.

“Just like I told your boyfriend and his partner, I went over to Katrina’s for our nightly …” he paused. “For our nightly rendezvous.”

“And my daughter was there to …”

“No.” He shook his head. “Katrina and I did our thing, and then she took me down to the basement. That was when I saw your daughter tied up.”

My stomach dropped. Even though I knew what had happened, it still got to me. That was my baby, and I’d put her in danger. “Why us?” Iwhispered.

Jack took a deep breath. “I wasn’t able to ask Katrina much, but from what I gathered she didn’t like that you were my bartender. She almost slipped and told me that she loved me. I didn’t entertain it because I didn’t love her, and that would have turned awkward, though walking down and seeing a woman tied up was fucking crazy.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “So you think she did it because she loved you? That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“I think she fucked up because she loved me. She thought I would go along with her plan.”

“And you obviously didn’t,” Istated.

He leaned forward. “You have to know I would have never let anything happen to Maddison. Once I saw a woman tied up, and Katrina told me that she took her because she looked like you, I knew Katrina was sick. I was going to do whatever it took to protect Maddison.”

“Thank you,” I finallysaid.

“You really don’t need to thank me.”

“Yes, I do.” That was the reason I hadcome.

“I would have done it even if it wasn’t your daughter.”

“I know.” I didn’t technically know, but that seemed like the right response. Jack appeared to be a decent man, even if he had once told me that he wanted to tiemeup. “Do you remember you told me that you wouldn’t mind tying me up that time we ran into each other at the campus coffee shop?”

“I do, and now I regret it. I won’t be tying anyone up in the future—even for pleasure.”

I flushed. “Well, I better go. Thank you again. I truly appreciate it.” Istood.

“You’re welcome.” He stood. “I’ll walk you out.”

“Thank you.”

Jack and I rode the elevator to the ground floor, and then he walked me all the way to the doors of the admin building. “I’ll probably see you at Judy’s Friday night.”

“Sounds good.”