Page 53 of Whispers of the Lake

“What is it?” he asked, one brow inclining.

“I need gas,” I muttered.

“Okay. No big deal. I’ll follow you to the nearest gas station.”

I drove away from the hotel to the station across the street. Once again, Jayson swooped in, this time with a credit card and a hand on the gas pump next to my car. “I got you, baby.”

I blushed. At this point, I think he reallywastrying to win me over. To busy myself, I removed some trash and gum wrappers from my car to toss them in the nearest trash bin. Jayson was still pumping when I climbed back into the driver’s seat and closed the door behind me.

I looked to my right at two men chatting in front of the station. Then my heart dropped. It was James and Alex Reed. Alex was frowning as James spoke. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but it was clearly a serious conversation happening. When James pointed past Alex, he nodded and turned around to march to his vehicle. I watched him drive away, then turned my gaze to James again, who now had his phone pressed to his ear.

My door swung open, and I gasped as Jayson said, “Full tank. Let’s roll.” He frowned when he saw how startled I was. “You okay?”

“No—that’s the sheriff I was telling you about,” I told him, pointing ahead.

Jayson pulled his head back out to look where I was pointing. When he spotted the sheriff in his cowboy hat and uniform, he ducked to put his head in the car again.

“Let’s just leave it, Rose,” he insisted.

“I can’t justleave it,” I told him, watching as James made his way to his marked truck. “Why are they meetingoutsideof town? A person only does that if they’re hiding something.”

“Yes, youcanleave it,” Jayson countered. “Let’s just get back to Charlotte like you said. Whatever is going on here is out of our control.”

I looked at Jayson as James’s truck rumbled to life. There was desperation in Jayson’s eyes. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible and he wanted me to make this easy.

I gripped the steering wheel. “I think I should follow him.”

“Follow him?Rose, you’re trippin’. You can’t follow a fucking cop.”

“Why not? They follow people all the time.”

“Rose, come on. You can’t be serious.”

I gave him my most serious face yet and he shook his head. His brown eyes flicked to the left, at James’s truck that was now reversing.

“If you don’t want to come, that’s fine. I can meet you back here in an hour or so.”

“Fuck, Rose. Fine, but we aren’t taking your car. They’ve probably seen it too many times. Come on.” He slammed my door, and I hopped out to follow him to his Lexus.

He started the ignition and put the car in gear, trailing behind the sheriff’s truck. “Can’t believe you got me doing this shit,” Jayson grumbled.

“He’s hiding something,” I said as Jayson pulled onto the main road. “Stay about three cars behind him.”

There was a brief silence.

“You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” Jayson asked.

I watched as he gripped the steering wheel. “What?” I asked. “Tailed someone?”

He eyed me before nodding.

“Yeah. A time or two. Comes with the job.”

“Figures.” Jayson dragged a hand over his face just as James took the ramp that led to Sage Hill.

It was trickier trailing the sheriff now. We were on a single lane road and no cars were between us. Jayson stayed back a good distance. It was smart using his car. James wouldn’t recognize it. James’s left signal flickered and he turned into a neighborhood.

“Keep driving ahead,” I told Jayson. “You can circle around.”

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