*
The restaurant bathroom did not have a locking door. Just as well. Luke wasn’t entirely certain how he and Jessica’s first time would play out. The close call in the shower at his parents’ was the weakest moment he’d experienced in years, a real diving-into-the-shark-tank move. He had been ready to bleed again if it meant being with her, until she cried and his selfishness hit him in the chest like a wrecking ball. How could he have lost sight of the regret she would feel?
Gabe let Kelly and Jessica off at the hotel entrance while he and Luke looked for a parking spot.
“So who’s the girl?” Gabe asked.
Luke glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “What girl?”
“Our parents had dinner the other night. I heard you took a girl home for the weekend.”
Luke nodded. “I did.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It wasn’t a big deal.”
Gabe laughed. “That’s not how your parents described it.”
“What did they say?”
“They said she’s the one.”
Of course they thought that, whether it was true or not. She was the girl you hate to love and love to hate; either way she was nothing short of an addiction. He was out of control with her and desperate without her.
“So who is she?”
Such a simple question.
“A friend of a friend.”
“Really? I know most of your friends. Maybe I know her.” Gabe pulled into a parking spot.
That seemed one hundred percent probable.
Luke got out and slipped on his sunglasses. Gabe shut the door and rested his hand on Luke’s shoulder. A shit-eating smirk not-so-elegantly graced his lips.
“I’m giving ya shit, man. God, it’s exhilarating for once to watch the great Dr. Jones squirm a bit. I know you took Jessica home and you have some serious explaining to do.”
“Does Kelly know?”
“Nope. She’d be pissed that Jessica hasn’t said anything.”
“How long have you known?”
“About a week.”
“Why didn’t you say something before now?”
“I assumed you’d tell me. You were going to tell me, right?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I don’t get it. We fixed you two up. Why the secrecy?”
Luke turned and started unloading their gear. “As I said, it’s complicated.”
“Listen, dumb ass, I have a PhD in physics. I can handle ‘complicated.’ You won’t even have to talk slow or use elementary vocabulary.”
Luke sighed. “It’s … it’s not that you won’t get it or understand. It’s that I can’t tell you everything.”
They weighted themselves down with bags and bikes. The car beeping when Gabe locked it was like a lightbulb going on in his head.
“Oh fuck! She’s your patient, isn’t she?”
The guy really was too smart for his own good.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Knight
Day two on their journey back to Omaha went much better than the previous one. AJ ate the salty peanuts and diabetic Twizzlers then washed them down with bottled tap water.
“There’s a rest stop coming up. Want me to pull off?” AJ asked.
“Sure.”
There was only one other vehicle as they pulled to a stop. They stretched and hobbled a bit toward the bathrooms, legs stiff from so many hours on the road. AJ was already in the truck by the time Jillian came out.
She froze.
Two of the lights along the walk were burnt out, leaving her nearly blind to anything on either side. Someone was lurking in the distance. She closed her eyes so she could focus on the faint rustling of footsteps in the brush.
“I know you.”
The initial fear that clenched her heart was replaced with a killer’s rage the second she processed the voice.
“Your hair is different, but I’d recognize that body anywhere.”
The truck was twenty yards away. She could see the outline of AJ from the light of his phone screen. His chin was tilted toward his chest. Jillian needed to keep walking, but Jessica could not.
“You killed my friend. I know it was you. He wouldn’t have committed suicide.”
It was Jessica Day’s opportunity for closure. She could walk away and let him decide his fate, but the license plates on the truck would lead him to AJ’s family. Her identity could lead him to Omaha. Nobody wakes up and decides to be a killer, certainly not Jillian Knight, but Jessica Day was trained to defend herself and that training had made her a killer.
He laughed. It was the same sadistic laugh that filled Jessica’s ears as Four cut her friend, Claire.
“I think this is fate. Of all the rest stops in this goddamn big ass country, what are the chances of us reuniting here, tonight? What are the chances of your boyfriend over there saving you before I put a bullet in your head?”
He moved closer and she closed her eyes again, hoping AJ couldn’t see her in the shadows.
“I’d fuck your tight little ass first, but I don’t trust you. I saw the news. You died and I don’t trust ghosts.” He inched closer.
Knox had blindfolded her over and over, sharpening all her other senses and removing the humanly guilt that came from taking the last blink of life from a victim’s eyes.