Page 9 of Been There Dragon That
“They’re calling for anyone with information to call in to a hotline. There were no plates on the vehicle in the footage.”
“I can’t say anything. It wasn’t Jeff in the car. The description isn’t even close. And if he is involved, he might come after my family.”
Ayla nodded. “And what are people going to call in and say? My neighbor drives a black charger like the one in the video, and he has dark hair and a beard. Am I going to report him? Pretty much they have nothing.”
“What I don’t get is why he would target her? It’s not like she knew anything. She was just his–you know.” Rylee sipped her latte, finding a moment of solace in the perfect mixture of sweet milk and bitter coffee, and then finally looked up at her friend.
“Umm, she knew she was fucking your ex-fiance, and you know he’s pissed about it. If we’re tallying points in the I’m-not-sure-what-Jeff-is-capable-of column–”
“Assassination is still a leap. And there’s no proof.” Another sip of the latte.
“Only what you heard.”
“It could’ve been taken out of context. And that conversation was about a guy, not a woman.” Rylee’s pulse raced, churned, and then tripped and tumbled like white water crashing through rocks in a raging river. And she couldn’t blame it on the latte. She drank them every day.
She was lying to herself, and Ayla knew it. “Coincidence proves nothing.” Even as she said the words, she didn’t believe them. And Ayla would never let her weak argument stand either.
Her friend shook her head slowly and put her phone down on the table. “Coincidence is enough to make me nervous, Rylee.”
Rylee sighed. She leaned back in her chair and did her best impression of an aggravated man-growl.
“That was cute. Not sure it’s going to scare off a hit-and-run assassin.”
“Ayla, why do I have to attract the insane men? First, there was Luthor who secretly thought he was King Arthur reincarnated.”
“He was amusing, but don’t forget Toby, with the secret bungee jumping habit. If you’d said yes to that trip to South America, you’d probably have spent weeks in the hospital with him in suspension while your bones mended.”
Rylee shuddered. She’d only been with Toby a few weeks before the accident that put him in the hospital with twenty broken bones. And shehadconsidered going on the trip. It sounded fun for a few minutes. But after watching a few YouTube videos, she’d told him to go have a good time all by himself.
She lifted her mug. “To Toby. You know he started jumping again not too long ago.”
Ayla’s eyes widened. “He still texts you?”
Rylee shook her head. “I follow his YouTube channel.”
“I can’t, Rylee. You have to stop.” Ayla said, clinking her mug gently to Rylee’s. “Now you’ve attracted a dirty politician. The next guy you date, I get to pick.”
“Says the woman who won’t date anyone.”
Ayla tilted her head back and let out a snort of laughter. “Whatever it takes to keep the crazy at bay, girl. Whatever it takes.”
“Fair enough.” She pulled her phone out and put it on the table. The screen showed Jeff’s name.
“Does he leave messages?”
Rylee pressed the “ignore” button on the phone and looked at Ayla. The edges of her mouth tightened, and she wished she was back at home, curled in her bed with a soft blanket and soothing violin music lulling her into a fantasy of safety.
She wasn’t though. She was in a public coffee shop with her best friend contemplating whether or not her ex-fiancé was capable of sending someone to murder the senator’s secretary.
“Would you come back to the house with me? Hang out for a while.”
Ayla nodded. “Have you listened to any of the messages?”
“No.”
Ayla stood up first. “Have you deleted them?”
“No. I have this weird guilt about wanting to listen and cry about what he did. Then I get angry and think about how he would’ve ruined my life if I hadn’t found out about Michelle. A part of me really wants him to be sorry. And then there’s this other part of me that knows he’ll never be genuinely sorry.”
