Page 41 of Finding Carly
“Come on, table thirteen’s food is ready. And we’ve only got thirty minutes left before our guys’ll be here to get us.”
Carly hooked her arm with Kenna’s and let herself be led back into the restaurant. If someone had told her she’d see Jeremiah at work today, Carly would’ve stayed home, too freaked out to confront any of Shawn’s friends. But now that she had, she felt stronger. She didn’t dread seeing other people he knew quite so much now. It wouldn’t be comfortable, but she suspected she could handle it.
A spark of the old Carly lit up within her, and she smiled. She was still nervous, still cautious, but making it through the first face-to-face contact with someone from Shawn’s life made her feel so much better. It didn’t hurt that she didn’t have to walk out to her car by herself and drive home. Knowing Jag was on his way to pick her up gave her the confidence to put the uncomfortable confrontation behind her. She’d get to see Jag…soon.
* * *
“How was work?” Jag asked once they were settled inside his Jetta and on their way to his apartment.
Carly had purposely not said anything about seeing Jeremiah until now. She didn’t want Jag to lose his mind and storm back into the restaurant. There was nothing he could do now, and going all SEAL on her friends and coworkers wouldn’t help anything.
“I saw Jeremiah,” Carly blurted.
Every muscle in Jag’s body tensed. “What?”
“He showed up with a group of men to eat. I was scared at first,” Carly admitted, talking fast, wanting to get the entire story out before Jag decided to turn the car around and go hunt the man down. “But eventually I got mad. Why was I hiding in the kitchen? I had just as much right to be there as he did. I didn’t wait on his table, but I did walk by it a few times. He didn’t say anything, but when he was leaving, he asked if he could talk to me. I stayed near the hostess stand out front and let him talk. He admitted that Shawn had told him about his plan, but he claimed he thought he was kidding. Just talking out his ass. He even apologized. Then he left. That’s it. Oh—wait, he did ask me to call off my watchdog, and I’m assuming he meant Baker…Speaking of, you met with him today, right? What’d he say?”
Carly held her breath as she waited for Jag to respond.
“I’m trying not to freak out here,” he said after a long moment.
“I know. I felt the same way. And I didn’t mean to spring that on you. I mean, I was completely wigged out for at least half an hour after I saw him. But nothing happened, Jag. He barely even looked at me. I admit that the man creeps me out, but he didn’t do anything.”
Jag’s knuckles were white around the steering wheel.
“And after thinking about it, I’m glad he was there today. I’m going to run into other friends of Shawn’s, and I need to figure out how to deal with that. I never want to feel again the way I did for the months I hid out in my apartment. I was paralyzed with fear, and I don’t even know what, or who, I was scared of. I mean, I thought it was Luke, but now I think it was just the fear of whatcouldhappen. I can’t live that way. Icouldget run over tomorrow. Icouldhave a heart attack. Icouldbe minding my own business in the grocery store and be killed by someone holding up the pharmacy or something. But I want tolive, Jag. Experience life. I’m rambling. Sorry.”
“No, you’re making complete sense. That doesn’t change the fact that I hate that any of Shawn’s friends got anywhere close to you.”
“I know.”
“I did talk to Baker today. He met with the team.”
“And?” Carly asked when Jag didn’t continue.
“He doesn’t have anything concrete yet.”
“Damn.”
“But apparently, the talk he had with Barrowman had some effect.”
“Yeah,” Carly agreed. “Maybe stirring all this up, forcing people to talk with him, making them worry about their jobs, will make something happen. Not that I want anyone to try to kidnap me or anything, but if someone reacts enough to make a mistake, or feels guilty enough to admit they were in the ocean waiting to pick up Shawn, I can move on with my life.”
“You’re moving on no matter what happens,” Jag countered. He peeled his hand from the steering wheel and held it out. Carly gladly latched on to him, intertwining her fingers with his.
“You want to hear more details about what Baker found out?”
Carly thought about that for a moment, then asked, “Is there anyone I should be more watchful for than others? Like, does he think Luke is more a danger than someone else?”
“No. Baker hasn’t found out any concrete evidence about anyone. He’s still looking into alibis and watching surveillance videos.”
“Okay, then no, I don’t need details. I know you’ll let me know if he finds something out for sure.”
“Whenhe finds out, and yes, I will. And I won’t wait until the end of the day either. I’ll drive my ass to wherever you are and tell you in person,” Jag said.
“Thanks.”
“No need to thank me, angel. You’re important to me. More important than just about anyone in my life at this point. I’ll never do something to put you in danger. And if that means giving you intel that might scare you, that’s what I’ll do.”
