I was really, truly alone.
The notion I’d had at the beginning of the summer was true. If I disappeared, no one would care. The earth would keep spinning, and life would go on.
Was it so wrong to want to mean so much to someone that their world stopped on a dime for me?
For Jude, it had. He’d made the split-second decision to give up his safety and good standing with the underworld and the Feds for me.But I hadn’t said that part to Dr. Chen.
And then I dropped the bombshell that I had been stewing on since the moment my first class ended: I didn’t know if I’d be able to stay at Alcott.
It wasn’t that I felt unsafe or that I didn’t like working there. It was because the story that had been told about me by the newswould always precede my professional accomplishments. The whispers of what had happened would always bring my ability to do my job into question.
I wasn’t Dr. Hawthorne anymore.
I wasthat girl.
And it was all because ofhim.
Even though Jude had given up his world for me, he had wrecked mine.
“Stay where you are. I’m calling the police,” Jake said.
“No. I’ll deal with him,” I muttered as I pulled back onto the street. “The police will be too nice.” Instead of driving straight to the nearest police station, I floored it all the way home.
Maybe Jude thought we had made some kind of amends, but we hadn’t.
I was stillverypissed at him.
The rest of the drive back to my apartment took half the time it usually did, thanks to my fury.
No matter how much I craved him, I just wanted to be left alone.
I’d detox from the love sickness eventually.
Jake was waiting for me in the parking lot, pacing the empty space around his car. “Amelia, I don’t think you should?—”
“I’m fine,” I said as I hopped out. “He’snot going to be fine by the time I’m done with him.”
Jake glanced around. “I think he left.”
No. Jude would’ve known that Jake made him before Jake even pulled his phone out to call me.
Jude would be watching from somewhere close by.
“I’ll be fine. I just need to talk to him.”
Jake let out a laugh of disbelief. “He should be injail.”
I swallowed and debated how much to tell him. “You don’t know the whole story. There are details that were kept out of the news.”
“Details likewhat?” he practically shouted. “He kidnapped you. He’s a criminal. He’s–”
“He’s with the FBI,” I said quietly. “When he . . . took me . . . he was working undercover.”
Jake froze.
“Yeah. It surprised me too. But they have good reasons for not making that public knowledge. It could mess up what he was investigating when it all happened.”
I was talking out of my ass, but Jake didn’t know that. It was the picture I had put together with the puzzle pieces Jude had given me. It made sense to me and, from the looks of it, Jake bought the story.
