I climbed down and pulled on the wire until it quivered with tension. With one swift yank, the wire dislodged from the vent and dropped to the floor. A strange sense of accomplishment came over me; I had perfected the art of ripping out surveillance wires.
With a smug smile, I looped the thin, mangled wire into a tight circle. “I’m not a zoo animal,” I whispered.
The door pulsed as someone banged on it from the other side. I twisted the knob, hoping for a scolding from Jared, but instead I found Claire standing in front of me with a murderous expression.
A lump lodged in my throat as she shouldered past me. In one lithe movement, she climbed onto Beth’s chair and reached up into the duct. It took her longer to get the new wire installed than it had taken me to rip the old one out, but she replaced the vent quicker than I had removed it.
She walked to the door and stopped to look at the wire in my hands. Her hand blurred as she snatched it from me.
“If you do it again,” she eyed the vent and then whispered in my ear, “I’ll rip out your tongue.”
My tongue curled up inside my mouth as I tried to swallow. Claire leaned back to offer a disturbing sweet smile, and then left. I shut my door behind her and locked it, wrapping my arms around my middle. She terrified me.
The thought of Jared hearing my every movement made tears trickle from my eyes and down my cheeks. “I can’t do this,” I whispered. The sudden need to distance myself from that microphone became urgent, and I grabbed my coat and keys. If I was going to have any type of normalcy again, I would have to convince Cynthia.
“Mom?” I called, walking into the dining room.
“In the kitchen, Dear,” Cynthia called.
I watched her expression change to concern when she saw my puffy, wet eyes.
“What happened to your hand, Nina?” she said, noticing the make-shift wrap around my palm.
“I want you to talk to Jared, Mother.”
Her concern vanished and she returned to preparing her lunch. “I’m sorry, Nina. I can’t do that.”
“Then let me have my privacy.”
Cynthia seemed a bit uncomfortable with the topic, but she was never one to be intimidated. “That is between Jared and your father.”
“Daddy’s not here.”
She ignored me. “Jared and I talked for a very long time. If it helps, he argued with me at first. He was quite determined. But when I reminded him how hard it is for his mother, and how hard it will be for you, he couldn’t deny doing what is best for you. This is the easy part. You can’t begin to imagine how hard your life will be if you continue this ridiculous—”
“You have to try. You owe it to me to try,” I begged.
She clicked her tongue. “He won’t listen to me now, Nina. There are some things that you just can’t take back. Once you’ve made your case, you can’t argue the other side.”
“Mother….” I pursed my lips, but it was no use. The tears fell from my eyes.
“I warned him that if he continued a relationship with you, I would be forced to fire him.”
“You what?”
“Carrying on a relationship with him could get in the way of—”
“You know he’s the only one that can keep me safe! You’re willing to risk my life to prove a point?”
“Of course not! Your father insisted that Jared stay away from you, Nina. You’re just going to have to forget him!”
“Mother, I love him!”
Cynthia’s eyes widened at my words. After a short pause, she shook her head dismissively. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
I could barely form a whisper. “Look at me.” I let my shoulders hang in defeat. “Does this look like just a crush to you? I’m in love with him.”
“Then stop. This is not what your father wanted for you. Did Jared tell you that? That he was forbidden to get involved with you? I won’t help you go against your father’s wishes.”
“That had nothing to do with me or with Jared, Mother! Daddy didn’t want me to know the truth about him!”
“Nina,” she breathed, “you don’t believe that.”
I could see my efforts were in vain; Cynthia wouldn’t help me. I escaped her apathetic eyes and fled to my Beemer. The rain poured relentlessly, and I was soaked by the time I entered the car. I sped down the street, the tires creating a wake behind them.
The farther I drove, the less I wanted to return to my dorm. Walking into Andrews would be admitting defeat. Worse, something deep inside of me knew that the second I stepped inside my room, I would begin a life without Jared.
When the street lights began to flicker, the rain tapped against my windshield in tiny crystals. Some of the roads had been blocked off by the flooding, and I was soon corralled onto a dead end road. Through the gush of windblown rain, a bridge came into view just ahead of my car, arching high into the night sky.
I turned off my car and sat, mulling over the last week. My feeble attempt to gain any control over the situation had ended dismally. I hadn’t truly considered giving up until that very moment.
I pulled my hat and gloves off and threw them on the seat beside me, deciding that the only option I truly had was to leave. But Jared would follow, he would have to, and I would take him away from his sister, his brother, and Lillian. I gripped the steering wheel as the realization sunk in; I was trapped.
One of my gloves fell to the floorboard, drawing my attention to my purse. Barely peeking out, the sharp end of Jack’s letter opener glinted under the light of a lone street lamp. Without another thought, I grabbed it from my purse and shoved my way out of the car. The rain immediately blasted against me, but I planted my feet on the ground, determined to get Jared’s attention this time. I grabbed the handle of the letter opener as tightly as my freezing hands could manage and held it above me.
“He’ll come,” I whispered.
With a loud cry, I shoved the golden spear into my back tire. It pierced the thick rubber, but not deep enough to do any damage. I used my foot to shove it in the rest of the way, and to my relief it made a loud hissing sound.
Icy rain soaked every inch of me, and my body began to tremble as the biting wind blew against my skin. After a few minutes, I shed my coat and threw it into the seat. My body shook uncontrollably as rain pelted against me.
I waited.
When my sweater was soaked through, I yanked it over my head and threw it on top of my coat. Down to a long-sleeved cotton shirt, the rain felt like ice splinters driving into my bones. My teeth were chattering with such force that I opened my mouth to keep them from breaking. A puff of air escaped my mouth as a wind gust sent stinging rain tearing into my skin.
Still, I waited.
Just when I thought I would collapse, a pair of headlights broke through the curtain of rain and came to an abrupt stop behind my car.
“Nina! What the hell are you doing?” Jared yelled over the rain. He took off his coat and stepped toward me, but I backed away. “Do you know what hypothermia is? You’re going to freeze to death!” he said, shoving his coat toward me.
“I l-l-love you,” I said as my entire body shuddered.
“I heard,” Jared said, pressing his eyebrows together. “Let me take you home.” He held out his coat again, but I took another step back.
“Y-you l-listened t-t-to her!”
“I didn’t listen to her! If she fired me it would make it harder for me to protect you. Keeping you safe is my first priority. Now, please get in the car!”
“H-How would it make it h-h-harder if you’re with me?”
“We can talk about this when you’re out of the rain!”
