Jenny’s eyes light up and a stunning smile takes over her entire face. She claps her hands excitedly. “Really? That makes me so happy!” she gushes. “Tell her I’m coming by tomorrow.”
He quirts a brow. “She already knows.”
Jenny giggles, and it reminds me of a school girl bubbly giggle. The sound is sickenly endearing, and I can’t help the small smile that plays on my lips.
“Walk me out,” Trouble tells JW in more of a demand than a request.
JW walks over to me and holds out his hand. “Phone.” I give it to him and a second later, his phone chimes. I toss mine in my purse when he hands it back to me.
“I’ll be by tomorrow,” he says before walking out of the room.
Jenny gets to her feet. “Come on. I’ll show you to the room you’ll be using.”
“I really appreciate you doing this,” I say, following her out of the room. “I mean, you don’t even know me. Why would you let a stranger in your home like this?”
She looks at me over her shoulder as she ascends a set of stairs. “Because violence against women and children is a sore topic for me as well.”
I frown. I get the feeling she’s intimate with the subject. Has she been in an abusive relationship? I push away that thought for now and continue to trail behind her.
At the top of the landing is a huge sitting area with a banister looking out over the foyer below. There are several closed doors on both sides of the hallway we walk into next. She stops at the second door and pushes it open. The room isn’t big, but it’s not small by any standards. I take in the queen bed, night stands on either side, the dresser with a huge mirror, and a comfortable looking chair in the corner.
I turn back to Jenny. “This place is huge. Are you and… Judge the only ones who live here?”
She wa
lks over to the window and pulls the curtains open, letting in the natural light.
“Judge isn’t here all the time, and when he’s not, it’s just me. I like the big space though.”
I toss my purse on the bed and take a seat on the edge. “Well, thank you for letting me stay.”
She smiles brightly. “It’s no worry. I’m glad to have you.” She walks toward the door. “I had plans to heat up some leftover lasagna. I can heat up a plate for you as well if you’d like?”
“That would be great. Thank you. I need to call my parents to let them know I’m okay before they send out a search party. I’ll be down once I’m finished.”
“Take your time,” she says and closes the door behind her, leaving me alone.
I blow out a breath and fall back on the bed. I stare at the ceiling, but I don’t really see it. My mind keeps going back over the last hour. Everything happened so fast. I was driving with one eye on the road and one on the rearview mirror. I couldn’t be sure, but I could have sworn there was a car following me.
Today was the deadline Diego gave me to hand over this mysterious chip. I left yesterday because I had no other idea of what to do. Like I told JW, I couldn’t go to the police. There’s no telling how many people there are in the Tomas’s pockets. If the wrong person heard I went to the police, they’d hand me over to him.
I shudder when I think about the woman in chains. Who was she? Did she have family looking for her? Shame drops like lead in my stomach, because maybe she has a mother and father who’re looking for her. What if she was a wife and mother? Are her kids crying for her?
Guilt for not reporting her murder brings tears to my eyes. I haven’t given myself time to really think about the ramifications of me not going to the authorities. Unless her body is found, no one will know what happened to her. I can’t imagine what her family must be going through, wondering what happened to her.
I angrily swipe my tears away and sit up. As much as it makes me feel like a selfish bitch, I just can’t report her murder. Not yet anyway. Once this is all over—if it ever is—then I can tell the police what I witnessed. I just hope they can find her body and give peace to her family.
I blindly reach out for my purse and dig out my phone. Bringing the screen to life, it opens up to my recent calls and my eyes land on JW’s name. I back out of my recent calls to my phonebook. My guilt grows when I find Mom’s number and press the little green phone icon. I push the thought away and close my eyes as I hear one, two, three rings.
“Oh, dear Lord, Eden, is that you?” mom says in a rush.
I open my eyes and smile faintly. “Hey, Mom.”
Her breath fans across the line. “Thank goodness. You had your Dad and me so worried with the message you left us yesterday. Where in the world are you?”
I fold my hand in the material of my skirt. “I’m just… away. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“You listen here, Eden Marie,” she says, her voice stern. “You tell your Mama what’s going on right this minute.”