“Please don’t make me start crying,” she whispered. “I already put mascara on today.”
“I don’t know what my excuse will be if I start crying,” I whispered back.
“Please let me do something to help you. I’m going to be sitting here all day worrying about you.”
“Knowing you care what happens to me will be all the help I need. We’re almost to the end of this.” I squeezed her hand. “I wish I could stay and explain everything to you, but I need to go get my van from my house, then hurry over to Sullivan’s. I have to make sure those security cameras are in place for the auction this weekend.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Promise me you will not say a word to anyone. Anyone. Not even your mom.”
She frowned. “Cross my heart. I know how serious this is.”
“How would you feel about driving me over to the duplex?”
It was the only tangible thing I could ask her to do. She deserved to be protected. But she was constantly taking care of me. “Saidy, I might not be around much over the next couple of weeks. I need to keep my distance from you to keep you safe. Sullivan is on to me. I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you. If you don’t hear from me, or see me for a couple weeks, I want you to know I still love you.”
She nodded and stood up. “I understand, Fletcher. But I can at least drive you home.”
“I’ll sneak out the backyard and down the alleyway. You can meet me on the other street, just in case someone is still watching the house.”
Saidy grinned. “Do I get to wear big sunglasses and a trench coat?”
I grinned. “It depends on what’s underneath that trench coat.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Saidy
It didn’t settle well with me that Sullivan didn’t believe me. I needed to know that Fletcher would be safe from any retaliation from him.
But Sullivan had acted like he knew I was lying about the dog.
And I was. But he should have been a gentleman and at least pretended like he believed me.
On the other hand, he hadn’t barged into my house. So he didn’t know for sure that Fletcher was there.
And now Fletcher was putting himself in harm’s way for his job.
I sat at my kitchen counter, scrubbing at my phone with disinfectant wipes. The remnants of dried blood inside the speaker was going to drive me crazy until it was gone.
I’d had to throw away my bathroom rug.
Along with his ripped and bloodied clothes.
I had a consultation to go to this morning too, and really wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t think the people would actually hire me. They sounded more like the type of people who were going to ask me for all sorts of free advice. It was fairly easy to spot those ones from a mile away. They kept wanting to triple-check that this was a free consultation.
But at least I’d have a distraction because otherwise all I would do today was wonder if Fletcher was alive or not. Just sit here and wonder if I’ll find him in a ditch somewhere because Sullivan found out the truth.
Unless Sullivan didn’t find out the truth…
There was still enough doubt in his mind that he hadn’t barged into my house last night.
I set the phone down with a click. I could salvage this. I could make my story believable and help cover for Fletcher. If I could distract Sullivan from Fletcher for the day, maybe it would give Fletcher enough time to gather all the evidence he’d been talking about.
My mind raced as I came up with a plan to pull Sullivan’s attention away from Fletcher—and toward me.
It was daring, brilliant, scary, and would require my Grandma’s dog.
The hope and excitement deflated at the thought of my Grandma. She’d never agree to me taking her precious fur baby.
But then again, she usually ate her lunch early and watched TV while she let the dog run around in the yard. She said the middle of the day was the only time she didn’t worry about predators coming to steal her dog.
She lived dead center in town. The only predators she needed to worry about were the two-legged kind.
I could borrow the dog and bring it back before she ever even missed it.
I’d never done anything like this before. I’d told Fletcher I wanted to break out of my rut. I guess this was it.
This was my chance to do something out of the ordinary. I stood up, pulled my shoulders back, and was determined to be the one who protected Fletcher this time. He’d been sheltering me all these months from his harsh reality, now it was my turn to take care of him.
But first I had to go to a meeting with someone I knew wouldn’t hire me.
The meeting went exactly how I’d imagined it would. I’d even worn casual attire—including one SF hat that Fletcher had re-hidden at my house. Sometimes you just know which ones are the time wasters. If they ask way too many questions, they’re not looking to hire you, they’re looking to be you.
On the plus side, they told me how much they enjoyed our time even if they didn’t hire me.
Which was exactly why I went to meetings like that. Those people would spread the word that I had treated them well and hadn’t price gouged them on anything.
And hopefully they’d still leave me a nice review online.
I stopped my car a little ways down the street from my grandma’s driveway. It would be easy to walk down the back side of the garage and slip into the back yard without her seeing me.
Plus, Mom told me she was getting hard of hearing. One of the many reasons Mom was wanting to move her closer so that she could keep an eye on her.
I hurried down the short driveway to the back yard and opened the side gate. The devil dog was sitting by the bird bath, staring at a young robin like it was lunch. That was the type of dog it was. A murderer. If it were a hundred pounds bigger, I was convinced it would try to eat people.
I lifted the latch and stepped into the back yard. I lifted the dog leash from the hook on the outside of the house. My grandma always kept spares around since the Basenji had a tendency to run off.
“Come here, Ambrosia,” I called softly, the name catching on my tongue. It was a horrible name for a boy dog. The dog turned to glare at me. It hated me the way it hated everyone else in this world: with passion.
I stepped forward, keeping the leash hidden behind my back as I approached the little pest. It was distracted when the robin took flight, and I used the distraction as my opportunity to clip the leash onto the collar.
“What do you think you’re doing in my back yard?”
The sharp voice made me stand up ramrod straight, smacking my shoulder against the bird bath along the way.
“Are you stealing my dog?”
I rubbed my bruised shoulder and turned to stare at my Grandma who stood on her porch, an iced lemonade in her hand.
She was not inside watching her TV shows like she should be.
She pointed a heavily ringed finger at me. “If you think I would choose you over my dog in a life-or-death situation, you would be sorely disappointed.”
“I need him.” I straightened my shoulders. I knew I was her second greatest disappointment. (My mother being her first.) But I hoped the fact that I was her grandchild would hold some sort of sway with her.
“You’re always needing something.” She huffed. “All you do is take, take, take, take—”
“I’m sorry about the ballet lessons, okay? I wish I’d kept going. Happy?”
She gave a quick jerk of her head, then asked. “What are you doing in my yard?”
“I need your dog.”
“You can’t have my precious.”
“I need it for Fletcher.”
She scowled at me.
“Why?”
“I think he needs me to save his life.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing, Grandmother,” I replied, exasperated.
I let go of the leash, letting the ugly little runt waddle off to growl at a butter
fly.
“Are you back together with him?”
“No. But he needs my help.”
“Well, all right. Why do you need my dog?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Bridge was canceled this afternoon. I have time for a story.” She pointed at the house. I trudged inside. I didn’t have time to fill Grandmother in on everything that had gone on between Fletcher and me. In fact, I didn’t want to. I was afraid if I did, she’d burn me at the stake.
“Fletcher’s in trouble, and I need your dog to help me get him out of trouble.” There. That was a perfectly acceptable explanation. She couldn’t possibly find faults—
“Gambling trouble?”
I jerked my head back at the scarily excited look on her face. “Before you go getting any ideas of being his sugar momma, just know that he’s a good guy. It has nothing to do with him gambling. He’s on the right side of the law. He’s dealing with some bad people right now.”
Grandmother traced the pearls around her neck with her index finger. “You mean he works for the government?”
“Er, yes. Something like that.”
“FBI?”
“I promised I’d keep it a secret.”
She opened her mouth, but I cut her off. “I crossed my heart, there’s no going back.”
“Oh, I see.” She nodded as though she’d figured it out. She glanced over her shoulder as though that grumpy little dog was trying to hear our conversation. Then she whispered, “CIA. That makes sense.”
I opened my purse and pulled out a mint. I couldn’t do this right now. I felt an urgency deep in my soul at the moment, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I was with my grandma, or if I was worried about Fletcher.
“Take the dog. But tell me all about it when you get back.” She whistled loud enough to split my ear drums, and the little wretch came running. “There you are.”
She attached the leash and passed it to me.
I cleared my throat. “There’s just one more thing…”
Zoe answered the call.
“Hey! Are we ready to party tonight? Meet some guys? Some of the girls are taking a sick day tomorrow so we can have an extra-long weekend. Are you up for it?”
I glanced at the dog in my back seat. “I’m afraid not. I’m booked out.”
“Boring.” She sing-songed into the phone.
Her bubbly voice grated on me wrong today. “Actually, Zoe, I wanted to ask you something.”
“What’s up?”
My voice stuck in my throat. My palms began sweating. Why did I hate confrontation so much? Well, I’d just survived my Grandmother, and I had the dog in the back seat to prove it. So it must be National Confrontation Day.
“What did Fletcher say when you asked him out?”
The phone was completely silent for a second too long before her nervous laugh filtered into my ear. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Zoe, I know you think I’m an idiot, and that I don’t know you always go after my guys. But I see a lot more than you think I do.” I didn’t know for sure that she had asked him out. I was going on a hunch.
She spluttered for a few seconds, “Well, he wasn’t worth it. That’s what I was trying to prove to you when I asked him out. I mean, he would have gone out with me over you if he’d met me first, so I wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to dump you.”
“So you tested this out by doing what?” My voice deceptively calm.
“By asking him to dump you, of course, silly. It was all for you.”
So I was right.
“You’re an amazing friend, Zoe. There is literally only one of you,” I replied sarcastically.
“Yes! I can’t believe you thought it was for real,” she laughed a little too loudly. “You take things way too seriously. You really need to lighten up.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I forgot that my friend asked my boyfriend to go out with her, and then proceeded to trash talk that boyfriend the rest of the relationship. If you’d been serious about testing him, you would have supported him after you found out he wasn’t a douchebag. But I do have to thank you. This finally opened my eyes to the way you view me. And I’ve realized something. I broke up with the wrong person recently and now I need to correct that mistake. Goodbye, Zoe.”
I hung the phone up and let out the huge breath I’d been holding. It felt great. A load lifted off. I’d been friends with Zoe since high school. It was always a shame when friendships had to end, but this one was far overdue. She’d been poaching before and I’d allowed it. I shouldn’t have been shocked that she’d made a play on Fletcher, but I had been. I’m surprised it took me this long to realize what had happened. I’d been perfectly clear how serious I was about Fletcher from the get go. But some people couldn’t handle letting others have things. I don’t think Zoe would ever be happy. She was too busy chasing happiness—even if it meant sacrificing friendships—to have any herself.
I set my phone into the cupholder and pulled out of my grandma’s driveway. I’d confronted my grandmother. I’d called out my friend. And now I had a boyfriend to protect.
It was a day of wonders…and it wasn’t even noon yet.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Fletcher
“I find it interesting that you weren’t answering your phone last night, Fletcher.”
I frowned. “Did you try to call? I didn’t see a missed call from you.”
Which was accurate since Sullivan had called me from a blocked number. Two could play this game. But four, not so much.
I glanced behind him at Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
“I didn’t know you had any other jobs lined up this week.”
“I hadn’t realized you had time to keep track of my schedule.” I turned around and continued setting up the beginning of the transfer. There were ways to check secure routes, and I wanted Sullivan witnessing me doing those things.
“Have you reviewed any security feeds from last night?”
“I didn’t realize that was something you wanted me to do.”
He nodded slowly. “It’s not. It’s just strange to me that we had an intruder last night. Someone who wore a baseball cap and a sweatshirt.”
I bit the side of my tongue and blinked slowly. I always wore a baseball cap. He knew that. And sweatshirts weren’t out of the question on cold nights.
“Do you want me to review the tapes and see if I can pull a picture off of it?” I glanced at him over my shoulder and raised my eyebrows. Let the bluffing games continue.
He smirked, letting my bluff slide, for the moment.
Probably right before he shot me in the back of the head.
“Here’s the thing. We think we shot the guy. Is there a way to find last night’s hospital records without drawing attention?”
“I mean, besides it being a HIPAA violation, it shouldn’t be an issue.”
Sullivan snorted. “All right. Find me the guy who was trespassing, and you keep your job. By the way, your ex-girlfriend had a sick dog at her house last night. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
I didn’t dare pull out my phone and send an SOS to West. I shook my head. “Nope.”
Sullivan knew, or at least strongly suspected, that I was double-crossing him. He’d been following Saidy for a few weeks, hoping to trip me up. I’d hoped her lack of knowledge about my activities would protect her. Instead it had painted a big target on her back.
I hoped that whenever Sullivan made his move on me, that I would be able to protect Saidy. Or maybe West could. She was all that mattered.
“Oh, and Fletcher? I heard you were at The Bar the other night.”
I tipped my hat up an inch. He knew. Sullivan was looking at me with raised eyebrows. “Yes?”
“I mean, if you’re still with your girlfriend, I’ll stop asking her out.” The smirk on his face told me that was a lie. He would NOT stop asking her out. But I gave him the only answer I could.
“We’re n
ot together anymore.”
Sullivan smiled. “Good.”
With that, he finally left the room. It was going to be a long, painfully long day.
What I wanted to do was text Saidy a warning, but I didn’t dare. I couldn’t. Any move on my part to warn anyone would end up with dire consequences. All I could do was continue to update all of Sullivan’s security feeds. With a small, teensy, teensy glitch, of course.
A glitch that would allow SWAT to be in place. A glitch that would allow me to transfer the money safely to a federal holding account.
Sullivan had been happy to hand me all the control of security. Both the camera system and all web related security. I’d managed to wow him with my extensive knowledge. Which was really the knowledge of multiple experts on the police force, but I’d been able to parrot their instructions well enough to earn my place on Sullivan’s payroll.
Basically I was faking it.
Yeah. What could go wrong?
“Why aren’t you sitting down?” Tweedledee asked. He studied me as though he had more intelligence than I gave him credit for.
Thinking quickly, I answered. “I was working on another small job last night and ended up staying up sitting in the world’s most uncomfortable chair. My back is still killing me.”
The man shook his head in disgust and muttered something beneath his breath that sounded like, “Weak.”
I worked standing up for another hour before Sullivan asked me to check his office cameras to make sure they were in top shape.
Then, at lunch time, the security feed displayed an image that made my heart stop beating.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Saidy
I glanced at the card in my hand. It had Sullivan’s address on it. Not that I needed it. I knew where he lived thanks to my confusing the east-with-west thing.
World's Worst Boyfriend: A Romantic Comedy Adventure (Fake It Book 3) Page 18
