“What if she prepaid for their services?”
“Again, we have her communications with DC9. She only gave them one name at a time. She paid them a lump sum up front. Then her estate paid them a bump fee every time she added a name. The estate had no idea what they were paying for. The bottom line: they’re gone. You’re safe.”
“I’ll be safe when they’re in custody. Please tell me that’s happening.”
His expression is grim. “They’re slippery, Mia—we don’t even know why they call themselves DC9—but they’ve moved on. And I promise you: this is now personal to me. I’m going to push for answers.”
“She had Akia and Big Davis killed. And Kevin.” My throat is dry and raw as I add, “She killed my ex-boyfriend, Kevin.”
“I know. You told me in your letter, remember?”
“Did she have anyone else killed?”
“She intended to have the two attorneys working on your father’s case killed. That didn’t happen.”
I laugh, a cackling, crazy sound I barely recognize as my own. I told Jess how that man, my father’s attorney, hired her look-alike. I know how Jess feels about certain types of men, how she places them in the same perverted category as her father. Add to that the way he let Big Davis, who had a reputation for being handsy himself, get over on my father, and it was a kiss of death. In her state of mind, she saw red. She saw blood.
I almost got them killed.
My mind darts to Jack’s coffee cup on the desk in the library last night. It was there, but he was not. “Jack?” I ask urgently. “Is he alive?”
“He’s outside with your parents. They’re all fine. Under the circumstances, I just asked to talk to you before they did.”
I press my fingers to the bridge of my nose, trying to fight the burn of tears that threaten a waterfall. “I can’t believe she did this. I can’t believe she could kill people or have them killed.” I drop my hand. “She tried to kill me.”
“Did you know Jess had been in therapy off and on her entire life?”
“No. I had no idea. I mean, her father molested her. She needed to be in therapy, but she rejected the idea when I brought it up.”
“Yes, well, based on our research, she was in therapy until a few years back and just stopped. We suspect that’s when she spiraled. But as difficult as this might be to hear, we think she hired DC9 once before.” His expression tightened. “To have her parents killed.”
I wait for that to feel wrong, but it doesn’t. “How did someone as young as she was back then, college age, hire DC9?”
“She had a sizable trust fund, a resourceful mind, and powerful people around her, some of whom also did not like her father. We’re looking into who might have helped her. Bottom line, Mia: she was not okay. She was never okay. And you were never going to be okay with her intimately involved in your life. You’re lucky to be alive.”
“Because of you.”
“Because of you. You fought back. And you won. I’ll be around, but you have some people who really want to see you right now. Do you want to see them?”
I nod. “Yes. Yes, please.”
He stands and walks toward the door, and panic rushes over me at the idea of him leaving. “You will be around, right?” I call out after him. It’s silly, but right now he’s like the rock that’s holding me up in a sea of confusion.
He gives me a smile over his shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere, Mia.”
And unlike Adam, when Mike says my name, it’s comforting, not unsettling.
He exits to the hallway, and the next thing I know my parents enter in their own version of a hurricane. Of course my father is in as much disbelief over Jess as I am, while Mother claims, “There was always something off about that girl.” I don’t argue. Jess was a tormented person, and I blame myself for where we are now. I lived with her for years. I knew her as no one else knew her. There were signs, symptoms of a troubled person I didn’t want to see. Her anger flared over certain men, and certain behaviors, in a volatile, unpredictable way that was not normal. She found out one of her college professors was sleeping with a student. She deemed him a disturbed man, stole his glasses, and burned them. He was out of line. I actually called her a hero. I didn’t look hard enough to see the truth. Maybe if I had, she’d still be alive, and so would Kevin, Akia, and Big Davis.
My parents linger in my room with me a good, long while, but they eventually decide Jack deserves some alone time with me before visiting hours end. They leave, and Jack enters with rocket speed and seems to say to hell with my stomach, drawing me into a painful hug. It hurts, but I don’t care, not one little bit. He’s alive. He’s here. He’s safe.
“I’m so sorry,” he murmurs, pulling back to look at me, sitting on the bed. “I know you came to the library looking for my help and me.”
“I’m glad you were gone. She might have killed you.”
“I have to be honest. I started dating this woman off a dating app, and it was confusing, Mia. I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t know how to keep our friendship alive and have this relationship with her. That’s why I suggested we date—well, that and my fear Jess was pushing me out of your life, at the same time I was as well. I was confused as hell. And look what happened: I left to meet her and you—you’re here like this. And Jess”—his lips thin—“Jess is dead.”
All of a sudden his phone calls and weird behavior make so much sense. “You should have told me about the woman. What’s her name?”
“Sara.”
“And you like her?”
He nods. “I think I do.”
“Well, as long as she doesn’t kill people for you and tell you it’s for your own good, then that’s a good thing. I’d love to meet her. When you’re ready.”
We sit there together and chat about everything that has happened. Despite Mike assuring me Adam is long gone, I ask Jack to look at a photo of Adam on my phone, wherever it is now, but he doesn’t have to. Mike already showed him one. Jack didn’t recognize him at all. Of course not. Jess knew Jack would be protective of me. Jack was dangerous to her agenda, which I still don’t fully understand. I shiver with the idea he most certainly must have been on her hit list, but I don’t want to know if he actually was. I just don’t want to know.
Eventually the nurse warns us I need to rest. “Mia” gives us five minutes. Jack hugs me again, and as he’s about to leave, I have a thought. “Hey,” I say. “How did you know I was wearing Chanel that day?”
“My sister is a Chanel whore. I’ll see you soon. Rest.”
He exits to the hallway and I shut my eyes. I’m tired, so very tired. More tired than I’ve ever been in my life. But I make a mental note to make Jack’s sister the new face of Chanel. Then I can love it the way he loves her, not in the way Jess thought she loved me.
Chapter Eighty-Eight
The next day I’m released from the hospital, and at my parents’ prodding, I agree to stay at their place. At this point, I’m simply not ready to go back to my loft or the library. So much so that I officially take a month of leave from work to get my head on straight and decide what comes next for me.
I mean, how do I ever return to the place where Jess died?
The place where I ended her life?
Over the next few days, Mike and numerous other FBI agents from the task force visit with me and ask me questions. Part of my own mental health is helping them, doing all I can do to give them anything I can to stop what happened to me from happening to someone else.