Page 8 of A Soldier's Temptation
“Whatever. Why not ask him? It couldn’t hurt and he might even say yes.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“You’re afraid he’ll say yes, aren’t you?”
“You know you’re a stubborn woman, right?”
“Yup. You tell me at least once a week.”
Ari grinned. It was true. But she’d rather be stubborn and stand up for herself than be a doormat like some of the women they used to try to help when they were in college.
“I’ve got to get going. Promise me you’ll think about coming with us?”
“I promise.” Ari hugged Shira as they got to the front door. “Thanks for bringing the yummy cookies.”
“Too bad they were contaminated by Mr. Stink Bomb.”
“You need to let that go,” Ari said as she laughed and rubbed Mr. Darcy’s head. Then she bent down so he could give her a kiss. She loved her stinky dog more than anything.
“Ugh, dog germs. I can’t believe you let him lick your face. And I’m not letting it go until he quits contaminating everything. You need to figure out what his problem is or put a bag on his ass to catch the stink.”
Ari burst out laughing. Thinking about her fuzzy baby walking around with a bag on his butt was too much. Soon they were both laughing like they used to, and all the other stuff was forgotten.
“I love you, girl. I promise to try to be better,” Ari said as she hugged Shira tightly. She was her oldest and best friend, and they’d always been there for each other. As much as she missed her, it was safer this way. There was just too much danger in Ari’s life right now.
“I love you too. Talk to you soon,” Shira said with a smile. “I’m going to call you and remind you about the club.”
“Okay,” Ari said as she closed the door behind her friend with a sigh. Shira filled the apartment with life and she always felt extra alone after she went home. Thank God for Mr. Darcy.
After gathering the dirty dishes and putting the cookies away, Ari went to her desk to do her journaling. Another thing she hadn’t shared with Shira yet. The FBI had asked her to write down everything she could remember about Paul in as much detail as possible. They wanted to make sure she’d be ready and not forgotten anything when she had to testify.
That’s how it started, but after she’d written everything she could remember, she kept going. It morphed into a brain dump, and soon it became a daily habit of writing down her thoughts, worries, hopes, and dreams.
A notification ding from her phone pulled her attention away from the journal. It was a new email. Recognizing the name, the blood rushed out of her head and the room spun. It was crazy that after a year just seeing his name made her break out in a cold sweat and want to burst into tears.
He wasn’t supposed to have internet access, so how had he sent her an email from prison? Unless it wasn’t him? If she hadn’t been sitting, she’d probably have fallen over. Seeing his name was bad enough, but when she opened the email blind panic set in.
There were no words, just a photo of her and Shira sitting on the balcony with a big red “X” over Shira’s face. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know what it implied. Shaking, she tried to take a deep breath, but it only made it worse. This was her worst nightmare and what she’d been trying to prevent. Was anyone in her life safe? With no clue what else to do, she called Colin, the FBI agent. Hopefully, he’d have some answers.
When she finally got ahold of Colin, he told her that he’d have the IT department remote into her computer and see what they could find.
“It’s just more scare tactics like I told you they’d try. They’re going to do everything they can to try to keep you from testifying.”
“You don’t think Shira is in danger?”
“No, I don’t. But if you’d go into WITSEC you wouldn’t have to worry about any of this.”
“And I’d lose everyone I love. No thank you.”
“Okay, but I did warn you. If you get scared, grab the agent downstairs and he can come to stay with you.”
“It’s okay. Just try to find out who’s behind this.”
“We will. I’ll check on you tomorrow.”
Chapter 3
Carrying “Miss Jade” into his apartment, John caught a glimpse of his face in the mirror. Damn, smiling like a jackass again. The woman was like a burst of sunshine whenever he saw her. Trying to stay neighborly and not take it further seemed to get harder each time he looked into her aquamarine eyes.
