Dead Pretty - Samantha Towle Page 0,75
wanted to drive us apart. Why? I’d say it was so you’d be alone.”
“I was alone for months before I even met you. Nothing happened.”
“Not true. Murders have happened. The guy at your work and his girlfriend. Those women who were killed before I even got here.”
I’m staring at him, unsure of what to say.
“The dead rat in your apartment.”
A cold feeling washes over me. “That was nothing.”
“You know it wasn’t. I don’t know what’s happening here. What the end game is. But I know it includes you. It always circles back to you.”
“It always circles back to you.”
“You’re not safe here, Audrey.”
“Maybe I’m not safe because of you. Or with you.” I’m so tired. I’m surprised I’m even still able to stand.
“I won’t ever hurt you, Audrey. I never would.”
“But you already have,” I say quietly.
The silence hanging between us is fraught and heavy. And what he said is penetrating.
I might not believe that Tobias is innocent like Jack does. But that doesn’t mean he’s wrong about there being someone else involved. Or even a copycat. Like I’ve feared all along. Someone watching and waiting. To finish off what was started.
“So … if I’m not safe here, then what do I do?”
“Leave here. With me. I can take you someplace safe until we can figure this out.”
“Or I could go to the police.”
“And tell them what? That someone put a picture in my wallet?”
Okay. So, he has a point. But even still …
“I’m not going anywhere with you, Jack. I don’t trust you.”
He sighs. “I know I’m the last person you want to be around at the moment—and with good reason. But being alone is not a good idea for you right now either. I have a safe place I can take you. It’s a cabin up in the mountains—”
“I can keep myself safe, thanks. No way in hell am I staying in a cabin in the mountains with you.”
Truth is, I don’t know if I can keep myself safe. I couldn’t the last time. I have nowhere to go. It’s not like I can go back to Chicago. I would only be putting Cole at risk if I did. But a cabin up in the mountains with Jack isn’t an option either.
“Do you own a gun?” Jack asks me out of nowhere.
I frown. “No.”
I hate guns. I hate any kind of weapons. Hence why I have never carried one. Only ever my can of mace and my rape alarm.
“Then, you can’t keep yourself safe.”
My arms fold across my chest. “I don’t need a gun to do that.”
“Self-defense will only get you so far.”
He does have a point. But still …
“Do you have a … gun?” I ask warily.
“Yes,” he says slowly, seemingly gauging my reaction. “And it can keep us both safe.”
Sighing, I walk over on wobbly legs and sit down heavily on the sofa. I shake my head. “I can’t leave with you. Firstly, I don’t trust you—kind of a big one. And secondly, the only thing triggering this is a photo in your wallet, which you say was planted.”
“It was.” He takes a seat on the coffee table, putting him in front of me.
I can smell the mint from the soap he used in the shower that he took not so long ago. Even though it feels like a lifetime ago.
He’s become a different person to me in such a short period of time.
Yet I still feel exactly the same about him.
It’s confusing.
If, an hour ago, he had sat here, asking me to go on a trip with him, I would have said yes without hesitation.
But he is also not the Jack I knew from an hour ago.
And he is most definitely not asking me to go away for the weekend with him.
He’s asking me to go into hiding with him from a mystery person who might not even exist. Based solely on the fact that a picture was put in his wallet.
“I think you’re overreacting about this, Jack. I really do.”
“And I get why you think that. Because you think the real killer is behind bars. I know he’s not. I was worried about your safety, Audrey, but nothing has happened to you since you moved here, aside from finding that dead rat in your apartment, so I figured you were safe for now. This photo in my wallet changes everything. Someone wants you away from me. That might not put you in immediate danger, but it means something is happening, and I’m not willing