Jade

---

“I really don’t think this is necessary,” I said.

But, as he had done when I’d said the same thing the first three times, Fisher ignored me.

I glared at him hard and then shifted in the passenger seat and looked out of the window. I had no idea where we were going, and didn’t bother to ask.

In truth, it didn’t really matter.

I had done some stupid shit in my life. I had made some really poor choices. But none, nothing that I had done in my decades on this planet could compare to this.

Even now, it felt surreal.

Back when I had been at home, so sure of myself, thinking I had the situation in hand, making this choice felt like the right thing to do.

Now, I wasn’t so sure.

First, I didn’t know what exactly this even was.

Fisher had given me some information, though I wasn’t exactly sure that I could call his vague allusions and semi-veiled threats information.

However, what I knew, what little I knew, had tipped me to go through with this plan. My logic had seemed sound. I wasn’t sure about Patrick, didn’t entirely trust him. Before, there had been nothing I could do about that, but with Fisher, maybe I had a chance. And besides, if I was with him, I’d be close, have an opportunity to stop him from doing something that might cause them harm.

Perfectly logical, like I had said. And now, I was regretting it.

I should have told Patrick that he was in my kitchen, given him some sign. That might have been trouble, but that risk might have been worth it.

Because I had betrayed my best friend, was in the process of aiding a person who wished her husband, and thus her, harm.

There would be no coming back from that.

My heart squeezed tight, clenched at the thought of what a life might look like without Nya in it.

Things had changed. She had more demands on her time and attention, which was something I didn’t begrudge her. It sucked, and somewhat hurt me, but I recognized it was just a natural phase, something that couldn’t be avoided, and something that I shouldn’t even try to.

But to be out of her good graces, for her to have no affection for me at all anymore.

For her to hate me…

That was something that made my breath freeze in my lungs.

And for what reason?

I glanced over at Fisher, studying his profile as he drove.

The reason was because I was a moron, and he was either a very bad person, or very good at pretending to be one.

I tried to tell myself that what I was doing was for her own good. But even as I presented that very weak defense, I knew I was wrong.

The truth was, I had fucked up, and badly, and I needed to find a way out of it.

“There’s no going back, Jade,” he whispered.

I froze for a moment, wondering how he had known what I was thinking. I didn’t say that though, and instead glanced over at him.

“What makes you think I’m wanting to go back?” I asked.

“Intuition. I’m very good at reading people,” he said.

“And so modest, too,” I said.

“It serves no purpose. False modesty. What’s important is truth, and your word.”

“Your word?” I said.

“Yes. It’s the only thing that people have, and when they ruin it, they are left with nothing.”

I stared at him a moment and then began to laugh. Perhaps it was crazy. In fact, it was definitely crazy, but I couldn’t control the giggles that kept emerging from my throat.

“You find that amusing?” he asked.

“Not exactly, but it’s a little ironic, you have to admit,” I said.

He looked over at me, his face questioning. I looked back at him, and then said, “Seriously. You just broke into my house. You kidnapped me! You’re planning to do God knows what to people that I know, and you’re talking to me about the importance of one’s word?”

“I didn’t kidnap you,” he said.

“Close enough,” I responded.

“No. It might make you happy to think that, but it’s a lie. You’re here because you chose to be. Don’t forget that,” he said.

I wanted to argue, but the truth was I didn’t have a leg to stand on. What he’d said was true, and I would have to deal with that.

I’d also have to find a way to make it right.

“You still haven’t explained to me why I had to come with you. I mean, this isn’t a kidnapping after all,” I said sarcastically.

“I did explain this to you, but I’ll do it again,” he said. “You have to come with me because you’re going to change your mind, and that can’t happen. Or, as soon as the fun starts, Patrick is going to come looking for you. And you don’t want that.”

“What makes you think he wouldn’t come looking for me to help me?” I asked.

Fisher kept his eyes on the road but lifted one corner of his mouth. The expression was quite attractive, something I shouldn’t have been thinking of right now, but something I couldn’t deny.

“You don’t believe that. You don’t even have the ability to pretend you believe that. I’ll indulge you since you seem to be confused about the state of affairs. When I get started with Patrick Murphy, everything in his life is going to start to fall apart. You know he’s a smart man. Who’s going to be the person he blames for that?”

I wrinkled my brow, looked at him skeptically. “Me?” I said.

“You. I’ve learned enough to know that nobody else gets close to them. You’re going to be the obvious suspect, and I don’t know if you have the wherewithal to withstand Patrick’s particular brand of questioning. So, I can’t allow that situation to come to pass,” he said.

“That’s bullshit. Patrick wouldn’t hurt me,” I said.

I wanted to believe that, thought I did, but Fisher’s low chuckle put a question in my mind.

“You sound so certain, but I can see through you. I’m good at reading people, remember? You don’t believe that. Not deep down. The truth is, you don’t know what he’s capable of. You don’t know what any of them are capable of. And that’s why you’d rather help me, a stranger.”

“Fuck you,” I said, and then turned to look out the window.

He didn’t respond but instead just laughed.

“Sounds like I hit the mark,” he said.

“Be quiet. I’m tired,” I said.

“Gladly.”

After that we sat in silence, driving through city streets that were so familiar but now so completely foreign.

Had it really been twelve hours ago that I had been watching Siobhan unwrap her gifts and then try to eat the wrapping paper?

It had been, and in that brief period of time absolutely everything that I had understood about the world had changed.

Tears began to well in my eyes, but I didn’t let them fall. A few seconds later, they had dried up. If nothing else, that was one constant. I had cried all the tears I ever would in my life. I decided that long ago, and this wouldn’t change that.

But what it would do was test me. I found myself in this situation because of my own folly, and I would find my way out of it.

I was wired up, afraid, and though I tried to ignore it, more than a little excited. That excitement shamed me, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t real. Because it was.

My life was predictable, routine, small. I had made it that way and liked it that way. At least usually. Sometimes there was a longing, a silent wish for something out of the ordinary. I hadn’t thought it would come in the form of Fisher, but it appeared that it had.

So I was terrified, guilty at the thought of screwing over my best friend. More than a little intrigued and excited at the prospect of all this. The mix of conflicting emotions left me feeling sick, weak.

Helpless.

I shook that last feeling off, refusing to even accept the idea. No matter how things looked, I wasn’t helpless. I reminded myself that I wasn’t completely without resources, chief among them my brain.

Fisher, ever modest, had told me he was good at reading people, and that was something we had in common.

And I had read him. Not completely, but enough to draw a few conclusions.

He was smart. That much was obvious.

He drove a nondescript sedan, the most popular on the market. It wasn’t a rental, either. Didn’t have any of the telltale hallmarks of a rental car, or one that was rented and then sold.

No, he had bought this, used it regularly, gave it the appearance of a regular vehicle, something that wouldn’t catch anyone’s eye.

Looking at his car also told me that he was meticulous. Not only in his selection of the vehicle but in the way he presented it.

It was clean, but not glaringly so. The interior was equally clean, but still decorated with the features of everyday use.

The umbrella on the backseat. The water bottle stuck in the cup holder. All signs that there was nothing unusual about this particular vehicle.

And then there was the man himself.

He was still handsome, distractingly so, at least to me, but he presented himself in a way that was completely nonthreatening, at least in public.

From the moment we had emerged from my house, his entire demeanor had changed.

He was huge, tall, muscular, but he had a way of holding his body that was soft, not intimidating.

That change extended to his expression.

He didn’t look serene, but didn’t look bothered either. Yes he was handsome, but he also looked so normal.

Add in the accent, which was really nice, I had to confess, and he could easily be a businessman with a fondness for the gym.

And I suspected—knew—that was exactly his intention. He was playing his role to perfection.

And that made me promise that I wouldn’t underestimate him.

Because I had given him a hard time about his lack of modesty, but the way he carried himself was a thing of marvel.

Of all the Murphy brothers, he reminded me most of Patrick. But even Patrick, who presented well, and could sometimes affect the appearance of just a regular businessman, had an air of edge, not quite malice, but something edging dangerously close to it, that never quite went away.

I was never afraid in his presence, but there was an unease. And I was certain that if I ever saw Patrick in a crowd I would remember him.

The same was true of the others.

Michael’s intensity was a tangible thing, something he couldn’t turn off and something that no person who encountered him could ever disregard.

Sean was easygoing, pleasant, charming, but definitely not a person who could blend in.

And Declan. I shook my head, but then stopped quickly, not wanting to get Fisher’s attention, though I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was paying attention to my every move. What could I say about Declan? He wasn’t as intense as Michael, not as boisterous as Sean, not nearly as refined as Patrick, but at any given moment he looked like he would be more than willing to fuck up anybody and everybody in the room.

And that I had gotten that feel of him from a couple of family dinners, birthday parties, and a few nights at the family’s pub told me that look didn’t go away.

But Fisher had none of those things. At least not on the surface. But they were there, and he could hide them, and that was a skill that would play to his benefit.

It was also something that I took note of, tucked away for later use, hoping that maybe it could play to my advantage.

What else did I know?

I knew that he had a grudge, and an extreme one if he was willing to go to this extent.

I also knew that grudge was personal.

In most of my investigations, the issue was almost always money. I knew money could drive people to do some crazy things, but there was always something different when there was a personal beef. It was an intangible quality, but something that was as real as my breath.

And Fisher’s thing with the Murphys, it was real and personal.

My mind practically raced as I struggled to think about how this had happened and why. Whatever it was, it had to involve family. Fisher was related to them, the question was how.

I didn’t know that, didn’t know much of anything, but I would figure it out.

Because the bottom line was Fisher was on a mission, and like it or not I was a part of it. But that didn’t mean I would sit idly by and do nothing. Doing nothing wasn’t in my DNA.

I’d gotten myself into this, and I was going to get myself out.

---

Fisher

---

“We’re here,” I said about forty-five minutes after Jade and I had gotten into the car.

“This is less than fifteen minutes from my house,” she said.

“So it is,” I responded as I got out of the car.

“So why were we in the car for forty-five minutes?” she said.

“This isn’t Twenty Questions, Jade. Let’s go inside.”

I walked toward the front door of the small ranch house that I had chosen as my base of operations and unlocked it. Jade was glaring daggers in my back, but rather than being annoyed I found myself wanting to smile.

We entered the house, and Jade quickly took a look around but just as quickly turned her attention back to me.

“You thought someone might be following you?” she said.

“Given who I’m dealing with, it seems like a reasonable concern, doesn’t it?” I asked.

“Not really. I don’t know about their business, or yours, but the Murphys strike me as a pretty direct bunch. They wouldn’t follow you around. They’d just grab you and you know, do whatever,” she said.

“Fortunately they don’t know where I am,” I said, something that made me immensely proud. They thought so highly of themselves but the fuckers didn’t see me coming.

“Do they even know that you exist?” she asked.

It hadn’t been her intention, but Jade’s words pierced me like an arrow, deflating my momentary pride.

“They will soon,” I said, managing to speak with a relative calm I certainly didn’t feel.

Jade must have sensed the change in me, for her expression dropped and she widened her eyes slightly.

“Take a look around, make yourself comfortable,” I said.

“You’re giving me free run of the place?” she asked, appearing incredulous.

“Yes,” I said.

“So what if I try to leave?” she said.

I shrugged, panicking at the idea but unwilling to show that. “You don’t have to try. You can just open the door. The code is 468178,” I said.

“Hey, there’s no way in hell I’m going to remember that, but why did you give me the code?” she said.

I stopped where I stood in the nicely furnished living room and then turned to look at her after I snapped on the lamp.

“It’s like I told you in the car. This isn’t a kidnapping, Jade. You can go. There will be consequences for that. Consequences strong enough to make you stay, or at least that’s my gamble. Perhaps I’m wrong,” I said nonchalantly, still striving for calm, though I hated the thought of her thinking so poorly of me and was even more worried about what might happen to her if Patrick suspected her.

“Whatever,” she said, glaring at me.

I suppressed my smile, knowing that doing so would send her over the edge. But also knowing that I had been right.

Jade wasn’t going anywhere.

A part of me wondered if I was wrong about the rationale for why. But then I decided it didn’t matter.

I had no doubt that Jade would try to influence me, change the course that I took, but as stubborn as she was, that wasn’t possible. So I didn’t even count that among my concerns.

What mattered was that I had her here, and she would give me the information I needed.

“Where are the facilities?” she asked.

“The house is laid out in wings. A suite with a bedroom and bathroom on each side. Take your pick,” I said.

“I see a guest bathroom there,” she said, looking down the hall.

“Yes,” I replied.

“That will be sufficient for what I need,” she said.

She walked past me, her body brushing mine. The touch was electric, instantly sent my mind back to her kitchen when she had been so foolhardy and reckless. I’d liked that kiss, liked it far too much, something I needed to forget.

Jade froze, clearly reacting to having touched me. I could only see the side of her face, which meant I couldn’t really make out her expression. I desperately wanted to know how she was reacting, but I wouldn’t pursue it. Jade didn’t either. She paused for a long moment and then she marched away down the hall toward the bathroom as I stood in the living room waiting.

This was turning out better than I had hoped, but I still felt uneasy. Mostly because I had introduced an unknown quantity into this meticulously planned assault.

Why had I done that?

Yes, Jade had information that I would need, and getting it out of her wouldn’t be as simple as I had hoped. But the line between that and what I was doing now was quite huge. There had to be another way, an easier way to do this.

So why had I not taken it?

It was a question I had pondered as I had driven from Jade’s house, one I was no closer to answering.

Because there was no answer, at least not one I wanted to acknowledge.

One thing I had always promised myself was that I would be honest, and in this I would be as well.

The truth was, Jade was irritating, stubborn, but also entertaining. Not exactly pleasant, but pleasant could be overrated. Jade had layers, and she was so much more than she seemed. She called out to me, her beauty, her stubbornness, the vulnerability she tried so hard to hide, and to my surprise, I found it hard to ignore that call.

I began to pace as I pondered these thoughts, the revelation coming to me something that I couldn’t avoid.

I didn’t like to admit this to myself, didn’t even like to think it, but I was lonely. It seemed a silly thing to think, let alone one to acknowledge, but it was the truth.

And I had been lonely for as long as I could remember, for my whole life really.

When I had been a child, there had been no room for relationships, affection, not in the orphanage that was as dog eat dog as any prison I had ever been in.

When I had come of age, there had been no time to foster relationships, and I didn’t know how to do that. It wasn’t something I had ever been taught, something that contributed to the day-by-day struggle to survive.

And as I had gotten older, the effort had been worth it. First, because I had devoted so much of myself to finding the Murphys, seeing that they were repaid for what they had taken from me. Second, because even if I had found someone to talk to, a friend, I would never be able to be myself, my true self, around them.

I hadn’t anticipated it, but with Jade I could.

And that, the unique circumstances of our coming together was a benefit to me. She knew who I was, and at least had some inkling of my intentions. And to my surprise, she wasn’t terrified by me. She just treated me the way I imagined one normal person would treat another. Although, I guess I couldn’t say for sure that either Jade or I could qualify as normal. There was definitely something off about her reaction, her calm was far too consistent to be anywhere in the realm of normal.

But I didn’t care.

What mattered was that she could help me, and that she was another person, one I could be something resembling myself around. That had a value to me that I wouldn’t dare understate.

“Nice bathroom,” Jade said as she emerged.

“You should thank the owner,” I said.

“Are they still alive for me to thank?” she asked.

I couldn’t tell whether she was being flippant or serious, probably a little bit of both.

“Very. And they are on a five-week Mediterranean cruise,” I said.

“Man, people really need to be more careful about who they rent their house to,” she said as she plopped down on the couch.

“I might agree. Are you going to stay out here?” I said.

“Is me staying here problematic?” she asked.

She wasn’t really asking permission though; instead she was doing something almost like pouting.

I shrugged. “Suit yourself,” I said.

Then, using sheer willpower, I turned on my heel and went to one of the master suites.

Truth was, when I stopped, I usually slept on the couch where Jade was currently.

I didn’t like that I did that, but it still felt weird to be in a house, and I hadn’t quite gotten the hang of pretending to be normal.

Jade would help me do that, apparently.

I pulled off my boots and plopped on the bed, mind whirling as I went through the events of the day.

I had made some serious progress, but that wasn’t at the forefront of my mind.

Instead, I was excited, my mind filled with thoughts of Jade.

And that was really messed up, and definitely not what I needed to be thinking about. But she was the only thing on my mind.

I had never met anyone like her. And that was saying a lot, because I knew many different people, all kinds, but none with quite her mix of bravery and foolhardiness and intelligence.

That it was all wrapped in a quite attractive package didn’t hurt.

But I wouldn’t allow my mind to go there.

Jade was amusing, and I hoped she would be good company at least for a little while, but it wouldn’t go further than that, couldn’t.

She hated me, she was well within her rights to, and I didn’t have time for entanglements. Not that I would ever have one with her. In fact, I was anticipating her late-night attempt to stab me as I slept.

So no, I wouldn’t get to kiss her lips again, trace the shape of her body with my hands, peel away all those layers of fabric to see what lay underneath.

But at the very least, I’d have someone to talk to, and that was more than a person like me deserved.