Eden

the break room. I’ll grab me an apple cider and you a coffee at that place on Spruce. It’s my favorite.”

Sasha snatched the bill from my fingers. “I’ll get it. I need a break, anyway. I just need a flashlight.”

“Why?”

“I had to park four blocks down in that parking garage because of the construction, and the lighting is nonexistent.”

“Why don’t you take my….” I had to stop myself and think. Jared was surely back by now, but he couldn’t take her in the Escalade, for many reasons. My car was parked at the curb just outside. The only people I had allowed to drive it were Jared and Bex, and that was only because they had supernatural powers of precision and lightning reflexes. It was too late, now. I’d opened my mouth, and a retraction would shake our already fragile cease-fire. I would have to let Sasha drive the car my father had given me.

“Why don’t you take the Beemer?” I said, nearly choking on my words.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I said, holding out the keys. “Just be careful, please.”

Sasha smiled. “What do you want?”

“I’ll have a large hot apple cider with caramel. Oh, and a slice of their Lemon Velvet cake.”

“I know it’s summer, but I can get you an iced coffee if you’d prefer.” I shook my head, and Sasha’s expression changed quickly from confusion to understanding. “Oh, right. The baby. Okay, I’ll be back in twenty.”

I smiled. “I’ll be here.”

My keys jingled in Sasha’s hand as she disappeared behind the elevator. I leaned against the wall, wondering if I had just made the biggest mistake of my life. How could I trust Sasha with my most precious possession? She hated me.

I bit on my thumbnail, and paced back and forth a few times. I thought about the different items in my car. Would she go through it? Was anything incriminating inside that might hint at the truth about Jared? My cell phone rang in my pocket. I quickly fished it out.

“I’m fine,” I said.

“Then why is your blood pressure going through the roof?” Jared said. His voice alone slowed my heart rate. “I can stop her if you don’t want her to take your car.”

I walked through my office to the large window, looking down to the street below. “Yes, because that won’t look suspicious at all.” The lights of Fleet Rink were bright enough to illuminate the entire block, and I watched as Sasha followed the sidewalk, her red hair bouncing against her silk olive blouse. The headlamps of the Beemer blinked, and a short blip sounded when the alarm was deactivated.

“Her car seems in good shape,” Jared said, trying to comfort me. He was in the Escalade across the street, pressing the cell phone against his ear as he smiled up at me.

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.”