JAMESON
“Emergency Contact” by Pierce the Veil
Ihate to say that I’ve been checking my phone frequently on the off chance that Eve has sent me a time when we will meet up. It was unexpected to hear from her after I had already told myself that I probably would never see her again after that one amazing evening together. I reluctantly watched her leave and immediately regretted letting her turn that corner and walk away. Still, it’s been weeks, and I haven’t heard from her after that last text message via the dating app, so maybe she had a change of heart.
My phone rings, and I look down at the name flashing across the screen.Eduardo.I quickly think of all the reasons he may want to talk to me, and all the reasons involve Emma. With her on my mind, I hit the answer button without a second thought.
The traffic was brutal, so finally an hour later, I am pulling into the rear parking lot outside of Eduardo’s nightclub, The Viceroy, as I was instructed to do. He’d said he needed to talk to me about Emma’s safety, so I’d left before we even hung up to see what he needed from me.
I’m escorted through Eduardo’s office door and notice two security guards present. I know one is Philip, who is responsible for following Emma and driving her places. The other is staring at him with disconcertment.
“Jameson, good to see you, brother. I am glad you were able to get here so soon. Like I said earlier, it’s important.” He sits forward in his chair. “Eli, I’ll call you when we are done with Philip.”
The door to his office closes, and I hear footsteps retreating from the entryway. I eye him skeptically, wondering where he is going with this. “You mentioned safety and Emma’s name in the same sentence, which is why I am here so fast,” I clarify. It makes him furious as fuck, and I wonder why I even said that. It’s not as if I am in love with his girlfriend, but I feel a strong connection to her—one that I can’t explain.
“Right,” he says with as much indifference as the guy can muster, but I notice the tic of his jaw and the clenching of his teeth holding him back from saying what he wants to.
He gets up from his desk and moves to the front, bracing his hands against the front of the desk and kicking his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles, appearing aloof and unaffected. I know that move is one of power and intimidation, but he is my frat brother—I’ve also cleaned his puke out of the backseat of my car.
I cock one eyebrow upward, urging him to get on with it. He nods in understanding.
“Jameson, I called you here because you care about Emma, and we need your help. What I am about to disclose to you is to stay between us in this room and no one else. It is about her safety, and I can’t jeopardize that.”
I sit up immediately, interest piqued as I look between the security guards and Eduardo. He waits to hear me verbalize my understanding.
“I understand,” I inform him as I sit in my chair, waiting for more details. “What can I do to help? Is she in trouble?”
He hesitates, biting his bottom lip before he responds. “I don’t know the history between you two…” He pauses, and I wait for him to elaborate, but he doesn’t. He wants me to tell him without drawing inaccurate conclusions. That fucker.
“Yeah,” he continues, “I have known Emma for most of my life.”
I must look confused because he tells me that their families were business associates and they recently reconnected. He tells me about her abusive relationship with a man named Julian and then about her parents’ death and twin sister.
My head shoots up. “Twin sister?”
He nods. “She had a twin sister named Evie, her best friend. She misses her terribly and blames herself for their deaths.”
I take this in and slump a little in my chair, letting my hand rub up and down on my pant legs. The rage inside is palpable.
I stand up. “He is still after her? He was here tonight?”
He nods in confirmation. That’s all I need to know. I already know that I will help him however he needs me to.
“I need your help looking at the security feed to see if I missed anything, and I also need you to wipe it a little bit or just a certain section of it.”
My confusion is evident as he continues to explain the reasoning. “Well, since you installed it, you know more about the system than anyone else would, right?”
I nod, confirming that he isn’t wrong. “Um… why do you need it wiped?”
His smile is one of a criminal thug at his finest. He looks over to Philip then to me, and he says, “Philip here has to die, and I don’t want there to be any evidence.”
Okay, that is not what I imagined he was going to say, and I can’t be an accomplice to murder. Can I? I am justcontemplating Philip’s murder, and he must notice because he snorts, breaking my concentration.
“You’re fucking joking, right?” Because now I think they are fucking with me.
“Mostly,” Eduardo counters. Seeing my ethos winning the internal war that wages on my morals, he rolls his eyes, putting me out of my misery. “I need it tolooklike I killed Philip, but he will stay hidden and keep an eye on Emma—from the shadows,” he clarifies, rolling his eyes.
“With everyone thinking that he is dead, that will give him the upper hand so he can go unnoticed. People won’t suspect he is secretly watching out for the person giving Julian information if he is considered dead. We need to find out who that is before they lead him to her and he gets to Emma.”
