“He did the same for me. He tried to help us, Brandon. This case is wearing on him badly. I want to help him. I was hoping you’d come with me since you know what he looks like.”
“Salem,” he murmured before he swore. “We don’t even know if he’s there.”
“I know. But it’s worth a shot, and like you said, you’re not doing anything else today.”
After a long silence, he sighed and said he’d be over to pick me up within the half hour. I stood by the window that allowed me to see the driveway and the street. As soon as I saw Brandon pull into the driveway, I hurried to lock the door and then got into his sporty coupe.
“Do you remember how to get there?” I asked him while I opened up the website for the aquatic complex on my phone. “I have the directions,” I told him.
“No need. I remember.”
As we pulled into the south parking lot of the complex, I could see the bus stop in the front. I looked at the walkway leading from the complex to the lake. I suddenly felt like I had pressure on my chest. I took a deep breath as Brandon shut the car off, but neither of us moved.
“What did you tell James you were doing?”
“I told him that you and I were going to get coffee.”
I raised an eyebrow at him only because it struck me funny. Garrett knew that I’d gone to get coffee with Ali earlier. Why not? Coffee in the morning with Ali, and coffee in the afternoon with Brandon.
“Let’s go,” Brandon said as he got out of the car.
Right. Let’s go. Why was I having second thoughts about this now?
Brandon and I walked up the grassy hill and then he stopped when the lake came into view. There were several rowers out on the water, and several more boats that were docked. Some boats had two people in them while others had one. It seemed like the coaches all wore red t-shirts that bore “coach” across the back and over the chest.
I glanced over to the walkway that led from the lake to the complex. I focused on the bench that I had sat on, waiting for Elijah to see me. I begged him for help on that bench. I walked away with him that afternoon, trusting him. Little did I know what he’d had in store for me.
“Let’s go check out the tent,” Brandon suggested.
He led the way down the grassy hill toward the white covered tent with a registration banner tied to the two front posts. The people behind the desk were talking to people signing up or checking in. Brandon took off his sunglasses and stepped forward to read the chart showing all of the rowing lanes. With the earpiece of his sunglasses in his mouth, he turned to look at me. Brandon’s finger pointed to lane four that read “E. Hamilton.”
Oh my fucking God … Elijah was here.
I pulled my phone out to notify Garrett. But while I was trying to decide if I should call or text him, Brandon briskly walked away and toward the boats.
Oh, hell no. We hadn’t talked about this.
I put my phone away and caught up to him and grabbed his arm. When he turned to look at me, I saw anger in his blue eyes.
“Brandon, what are you doing?” I said under my breath so we wouldn’t draw any attention.
“I’m going to go say hi.”
“Brandon, let me call Garrett. I didn’t want us to go up to Elijah. He’s fucking insane. I just wanted to spot him and then call Garrett.”
“Well, I didn’t come up here to keep an eye on him for Garrett. That fucking asshole took everything from me. He fucked me up so badly that I didn’t even know how old I was when they were done with me. They waterboarded me. I still don’t go outside when it rains because of them. Ihatethe ocean, pools, or anything like that,” Brandon said through gritted teeth and then pointed to the lake. “I hate that, but I’m going outside my comfort zone to steal a moment of comfort from him. I want him to look me in the eye and realize that he didn’t fucking win.”
“Brandon—”
“You can stay here and call Garrett, but I’m going to go say hi.”
Frozen to the spot, I watched Brandon walk toward lane four. Wearing one of the red “coach” shirts, the boat was occupied by Elijah. I pulled out my cell phone to see that I had two missed phone calls and five texts and all of them had come in since leaving Brandon’s car. The calls were from Garrett and the texts were mixed, but they all spelled trouble.
Garrett: Where are you? I called Sam, and he said Ali and Josh were with him.
Ali: Girl, heads-up … I don’t know where you are or what you’re doing, but you have a cranky FBI agent looking for you.
Garrett: Where are you and Brandon?
