Eden (20 page)

I took a deep breath. “I don’t know
why I’m worried. It’s only a mile awa—” I began, but the words were
cut off by a loud boom. In the same moment, the space where my car
once sat turned into a billowing fireball. The glass vibrated, but
it didn’t break. The windows of the Escalade didn’t fare so well. I
could see Jared’s shocked expression as he sat in the driver’s
seat. Flaming debris shot into the sky and fell into the
street.

“
Oh my God! Help her,
Jared! Help her!” I screamed.

“
Stay inside!” Jared
yelled over the noise. He jumped from the Escalade and ran to the
roaring flames. He covered his face with his arm, testing different
sides of the car. I could see from three stories up that he
couldn’t breach the flames. Even if he had, Sasha was
gone.

Jared watched the fire in horror,
grabbing each side of his blonde hair with his fists. He shook his
head, and then grabbed his knees, leaning over. After a few
moments, he ran back to his Escalade and took off at full speed.
The wheels squealed against the pavement.

I ran to my desk and grabbed at the
phone with trembling hands. I tried to dial 911, but my fingers
shook so much that I kept hitting the wrong keys. After the third
try, Jared was beside me.

I collapsed into him, tears finally
welling up in my eyes. “What happened?” I cried. “Where did you
go?”

“
I wanted them to think I
panicked and drove off. It was a bomb, Nina. They wired your car
with a bomb.”

I paused, my eyes widening. “I killed
her. I gave her the keys to my car and sent her to her death! Oh my
God, Jared, she’s dead! She’s only twenty-two years old! She just
got off the phone with her mother not half an hour ago!” My voice
grew shriller with every fact.

Jared hugged me to him, unable to find
words of comfort. “I should have sensed it. I should have smelled
it—something.”

“
Nothing?” I said, looking
up at him with wet eyes.

He shook his head. “Not a damn thing.
The baby and how it affects your body saturates my senses. They
must have wired it after you arrived at work. I don’t understand. I
wasn’t half a block away. I should have seen it.”

“
We have to call the
police,” I whimpered.

“
Let someone else do it.
If whoever placed the bomb somehow mistook her for you, it may buy
us some time. That’s why I made such a show in the street. They’re
probably watching.”

“
Who?”

“
I don’t know. Must have
been a shell. There’s no way to tell how many are
around.”

I nodded, and Jared pulled my hand,
leading me to the stairwell. He held his finger to his mouth, and
then opened the door. We descended four flights of stairs into the
basement level, and then sneaked out an access door to the
alley.

My shoes tapped against the wet
pavement and sloshed through puddles. The moonlight glistened on
the wet pavement we walked upon. Jared led us through labyrinthine
alleyways cluttered with green trash bins and litter until we
finally reached the Escalade.

“
This wasn’t your fault,”
he whispered.

“
Then whose fault is it?”
I sobbed, hitting the door with my fist. “I want to know! I want
them to be held accountable for taking an innocent person’s life!
She was mean and spiteful, but she had her whole life ahead of her!
It’s not fair!”

“
No, it’s not. It’s
sloppy. They’ve never made a mistake like this.”

“
You think it was a
mistake?” I sniffed.

“
One way or
another.”

My face fell again. “She was in love.
With Grant, and she never told him.”

Jared frowned. “I’m sorry for Sasha.
I’m sorry for her family when they learn of her death, but we have
a bigger problem here. We’re leaving in one week, and you won’t be
allowed to leave the country if you’re involved in an
investigation. We have to explain why she was in your car, and why
your car was there and you weren’t. That’s after they declare it
wasn’t you in the car. That could be a while.”

“
Stop.”

He thought for a moment. “We’ll have
to go away. Write a note to Beth explaining that we went on a short
getaway and that you left your car keys on the desk in case she
needs it, and I’ll have Bex put it on the floor under your desk in
your office so that it looks like it fell.”

“
Stop, Jared.”

“
We’ll go away for a few
days. Figure out our next move.”

I squeezed my eyes tight. “Just stop
it!”

“
What?”

“
It won’t
matter.”

Jared grabbed each side of my face and
looked into my eyes. “Don’t do that. You’re not going to give up.”
One hand left my cheek and touched my stomach. “We have a reason to
fight more now than ever.”

His cell phone buzzed in his jacket
pocket. “Ryel. She’s fine, but it was her car. No, her car
exploded. They wired explosives to it. I’m not sure, yet. She let
Sasha take it for coffee. No,” Jared said, his voice low. “We’re
going to leave town for a few days; buy us some time. Send Bex. I
need him to run a note to Nina’s office. Bye.”

Sirens sounded in the distance. Jared
put his phone away and cupped his hands over my shoulders. “You
with me?”

I nodded. “I need paper and a
pen.”

Jared patted his jacket and pulled out
a pen, and then he blurred out of sight. A few moments later he
returned with a pink memo pad. I scribbled a few lines to Beth
explaining my impromptu vacation and the location of my keys in
case she needed to move my car, and then signed it. Five minutes
later, a motorcycle pulled into the alley.

Bex planted his feet on the ground and
pushed the visor of his helmet up. “Whatcha got?”

“
Put this in Nina’s
office, under her desk as if it fell. We need to explain this
away.”

Bex pulled off his helmet and grabbed
the paper. “You guys staying here or…?”

“
No. We’re leaving town
for a few days. I’ll call you when we get there.”

“
Where?”

“
I don’t know, yet,” Jared
said. “Stay out of sight, and go straight home to Mom.”

Bex nodded once, and then sprinted
down the alley toward Titan. The sirens grew closer. Jared squeezed
my hand and kissed my cheek. He opened the passenger door, and
brushed the broken glass from the seat, and then repeated the
process on his side. We drove south, stopping just outside of town.
Claire and Ryan were waiting in Ryan’s Tundra truck.

“
I figured you would need
a vehicle with windows for your road trip,” Ryan smiled, tossing
Jared the keys.

“
Thanks,” Jared
said.

Claire pointed to the bed of the
truck. “We brought your luggage. Good thing you were going on a
trip, anyway.” I nodded, feeling a little lost. Claire offered a
sympathetic expression and a hug. “Sorry about Sasha. You’ll be
soaking up the sun on vacation, and I’ll be here finding out who
tried to kill you. Whether they’re human or not, they won’t bother
you again.”

I frowned, and then tears pushed over
my eyes and fell down my cheeks. I squeezed her tight.

“
Don’t worry,” she said,
making a point to look into my eyes. “This will all be over
soon.”

Chapter Twelve

Road Trip

South on Interstate 95. With my head
rested against the passenger side window, I kept the beat in my
head with the white lines as they zoomed past and out of sight. My
body felt empty and numb; I didn’t know if I was awake or asleep.
Traumatic events should have been second nature to me. Maybe that
was why I wasn’t a crying, shaking mess. I wasn’t coping—or maybe I
was. Maybe I was simply feeling acceptance, but it was hard to know
without feeling anything.

Jared moved a piece of hair from my
face. “Why don’t you try to sleep?”

“
I don’t know if I
can.”

“
Try,” Jared said, rubbing
my arm. It was just a comforting gesture; we both knew I wasn’t
cold. Bean coming sooner rather than later suddenly seemed a
relief. Summer was unbearable for any pregnant woman, but
considering my heightened temperature, it could mean trouble.
Jared’s hand left my arm and rested on my stomach.

My eyes finally shut sometime soon
after entering the Bronx, and didn’t open again until we were just
south of Philadelphia’s City limits. It was still dark when I
awoke, my hair plastered against my cheek, warm and moist between
my face and the console. Jared had made the distance in half the
time it should have taken.

It wasn’t long before I processed
where we were and why, and then the tears came. “Oh,” I said,
wiping my cheek. Being unsettled and upset was a strange relief. I
was normal, after all.

“
It’s going to be okay,
sweetheart,” Jared said, leaning over to kiss my hair.

“
Have you heard from
anyone?”

He nodded. “Claire shot me a text.
They put out the fire and found the body. They think it’s you.
Everyone will probably find out in the morning.”

“
My mother….”

“
Claire already informed
her. She will play dumb and devastated to the police. She knows the
routine.”

I let a puff of air escape my lips.
“At least she won’t think I’m dead.”

“
It could be Monday
morning before anyone notices Sasha is missing.”

“
I don’t know,” I said,
picking at my fingernails. “She was on the phone in my office
talking to her mother. They seemed close. Her family could file a
missing persons report today or tomorrow.”

Jared nodded, deep in
thought.

It didn’t feel right letting Sasha’s
death go unannounced. If she typically spoke with her mother daily,
she could be waiting for her call, her worry turning into panic. My
hand drifted to my midsection, resting over the bump that protected
our child. Sasha was someone’s daughter. Her mother had brought her
home from the hospital, taught her to crawl, walk, and raised her
to the young woman she is; was. That woman, who loved Sasha more
than anything else in the world, was sleeping peacefully for the
last time. The moment Sasha crossed her mind—the moment it occurred
to this woman to call her daughter—would be the first moment of
thousands that she would feel a horrible sick feeling in the pit of
her stomach. More guilt washed over me.

“
Stop, Nina. It’s not your
fault,” Jared said.

“
I don’t suppose we can
tell Beth?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

Jared only offered an apologetic
expression.

We pulled into a gas station for the
second time. Anyone else would have thought twice about stopping at
such a nefarious-looking place in the wee hours of the morning.
Bars guarded the windows, and several unscrupulous characters
loitered next to the front door. Jared, however, stepped out and
walked past them as if he were at the mall.

I waited in the truck hoping none of
the people staring back at me would become curious enough to wander
over. Jared was only inside for a moment, and then he emerged,
holding a bottle of water and something deep-fried and stuffed with
cheese and chicken.

He frowned as he handed them over.
“It’s not the healthiest thing, but I thought it would tide you
over until we could find a decent restaurant.”

I took a bite. It was disgustingly
wonderful.

Just as Jared pulled back onto the
highway, my cell phone buzzed. The display lit up, and I instantly
tensed. “It’s Beth,” I said.

Jared sighed. “You have to let it
ring.”

“
She is probably sick with
worry. I can’t just let her think I’m dead.”

Jared took the phone from my hand. “I
sympathize, I really do. Beth doesn’t deserve that, but we don’t
have a choice.”

I shook my head and looked out the
window. Jared was right: Beth didn’t deserve a friend like me. She
had only been patient, honest, kind, loyal, and protective. I
couldn’t imagine the despair I would feel if I answered a call that
Beth’s car had exploded with a charred body inside. My heart ached
for her, and if I wasn’t riddled with guilt before, now I was so
ashamed I could barely stand to be in my skin. Tears welled up in
my eyes and fell down my cheeks. If Beth ever found out that I
knowingly allowed her to suffer over my death, she would never
forgive me—and I would never expect it from her.

The phone stopped ringing, and the
voicemail chimed, letting me know she’d left a message. I held out
my hand to Jared, but he shook his head.

“
Do you really want to
hear the worry in her voice? You feel bad enough.”

I covered my face with my hand and
shook my head. “This is awful, Jared. This is so wrong.”

Jared leaned over and kissed my
temple. “I’m so sorry, Nina. I’m so, so sorry.”

I looked over at him and could see he
was just as upset as I. If he could find another way he would, but
once someone knew about our life there was no going back. I didn’t
want that for Beth, either.