Page 4 of Undone
“I don’t know. I—”
“It’s a yes or no question, Cari. Do you trust me to keep you safe?”
The question hung in the cab of the truck for a moment. “Yes,” I said. “Yes, I trust you.”
“Good,” Jasper said. “Because I will. No matter what it takes. If they’re stronger than me, I’ll get stronger. If they’re smarter than me, I’ll get smarter. Whatever it takes, we’re going to figure out who’s doing this and put an end to it.”
I opened my mouth to speak but silenced the thought before it emerged. Jasper was right. I was feeling a hundred different things all at the same time. Fear, love, passion—they were all intertwined right now, and the knot was only getting tighter as time progressed. There would come a time when this was all over, hopefully with me alive and well, when something was going to have to give. I was going to have to stop being in love, or in lust, and stop being afraid. But right now, my insides were a rat’s nest, and removing one emotion was probably going to damage the others wound up with it.
“We’re not returning to the shoot today,” Jasper said, after a lengthy pause.
“What do you mean?” I frowned. “Of course we are.”
“I mean it’s dangerous there. You’re going back to the room. Sands was right. You need to get organized, and relax.”
“No.”
“No?”
I shook my head. “No. We’re going to the shoot. I’m tired of being told what to do.”
“Cari, listen—”
“No, you listen,” I said. “I’m tired of hiding and living my life like there’s a great, big storm cloud over my head, waiting to strike me with a bolt of lightning if I walk outside. We’re going to take the upper hand. I have an idea.”
Leaving his right hand on the wheel, Jasper leaned back in the seat and rubbed his forehead with his left. “What’s your idea?”
“I’m going to go back to the shoot, just like we planned. Maybe the person doing this will be there. Maybe, by putting myself in the open, he’ll expose himself. Then you can move in for the kill.”
“Or,” Jasper said. “You’ll be killed, and whoever does it will get away. Or, hell, maybe they won’t. It won’t matter, though, will it? Because you’ll already be dead.”
“You said you could protect me,” I said.
“I meant—”
“That you’d get stronger if you had to, and smarter if you had to.”
“That’s the key word here,” Jasper said tersely. “Smarter. Going out in the open? Parading around with a great, big bull’s-eye on your forehead saying ‘hey, take a shot at me’? That’s stupidity. That’s unnecessary risk. If we’re smart about it, I can keep you safe. I can’t exactly protect you from being hit by a car if you’re dancing in the middle of a four-lane highway.”
“Well, that’s what I’ll do,” I said, letting my hand rest on the door handle. “I won’t be dancing in a four-lane highway, but I swear I’m going back to the shoot today, even if it means walking. Pull over up here, and let me out.”
“Cari, I’m not letting you out.”
“I said let me out!”
“Enough!” The veins on Jasper’s head looked like they were fit to burst. “Take your hand off the damn handle. I’ll take you back to the shoot. Try not to fall out of the car on the way.”
“Good,” I said, crossing my arms. “You’re going to find that this was a fantastic idea. We’re going to draw out whoever is after me, and they’re going to do something stupid, and you’re going to be right there waiting for them to screw up. That’s the plan, and it’s going to work. In fact, maybe we should think about some details.” I turned to Jasper again to see him playing with his phone, his gaze darting back and forth from the road ahead to the texts on his screen. “Who are you texting?”
“Nobody,” Jasper grunted.
“I mean it, who are you texting?”
Jasper tapped the screen of his phone one final time and shoved it into his pocket. “Nobody, all right? See, no texts.”
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just focus on what we’re doing,” I said. “And let’s get to the dig. I’ll be damned if I’ll let whoever is behind this put us even further behind schedule.”
