Chapter 40
Jayna rushed out the door, and Derek almost followed. Almost. But he hesitated.
The moment he sat down, he’d noticed how pale she was. Her usually vivid blue eyes were almost vacant. This wasn’t the larger-than-life Jayna who breezed through life without a care. This Jayna was different. This Jayna had a heart. And it was broken.
A lone tear had slid down her cheek, followed by a second, and then a third. A sob, so quiet he barely heard it, escaped her lips. It was the cry of a little girl who had never been comforted. The brokenness that Jayna hid from the world finally seeped out. It pierced his closed-off heart.
Yet he remained seated. He didn’t follow her. If he had, it would change everything. He’d change, and he wasn’t ready for that.
Over a week had passed since that night, and he couldn’t help but wonder how she was.
She said she’d broken up with the paramedic and knowing that brought him relief. The thought of Lance hurting Jayna had been unbearable. Even the thought of the other man touching her, kissing her, had him seething.
What was that? Did he feel possessive of her? Responsible?
Witnessing her heartbreak over losing her friend had caused his heart to break as well.
He was completely out of his depth here.
He’d only agreed to fake date Jayna, to pretend to have feelings for her. Easy. Simple. Oh, no! The joke was on him.
He’d gone and fallen for her.
This realization called for whiskey. The stronger, the better. A tall glass of ‘get over himself’, as Jayna had called it.
A tall glass of ‘get over her’ would be more accurate. It was exactly what this night called for.
His eyes adjusted to the brightly lit bar as he closed the door behind him. Jamie sat at a table in the center of the room. Was Jayna joining her? He felt a surge of excitement, along with regret that this was the only bar in town. How was he going to get over her if they kept running into each other?
Make that two glasses of “get over her.” He should turn and leave. Instead, he walked straight toward Jamie.
“Are you all alone?”
He wasn’t asking because he was wondering where Jayna was. He forced a neutral, bored expression to prove that he didn’t care or wonder about Jayna. Jamie’s lifted eyebrow said she knew differently.
Damn, that woman was intuitive. However, he didn’t believe in fortune-telling or whatever the hell it was that she did.
“I’m just waiting on Jayna. She’s running late, as usual.”
He had no idea why he did, but he pulled out a chair and sat down. “I noticed that about her. She’ll be late for her own funeral.”
“Speaking of Miss Tardy herself,” Jamie laughed when her cell phone rang, and she swiped to answer it. “Yeah, yeah. You’re running late.”
Jamie paused, listening. “Really? Come on, Jayna, no way that happened.”
“Only you,” Jamie chuckled and met his eyes across the table. “Jayna claims that she was blow-drying her hair and got it stuck in the air inlet of the hairdryer.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to ask what shampoo scent she had used today.
“Derek is keeping me company, so I don’t look like a complete loser sitting by myself.”
Jamie giggled. “I will not tell him that!”
She set the phone in the center of the table and hit the speaker icon. “Behave, you’re on speaker. ”
“Hey, Derek,” Jayna’s voice vibrated through the speaker and up his spine. “I think I owe you an apology. I was wrong to get so angry with you the other day when you stopped by.”
“Whoa, slow down. I need to savor this. Jayna Sutton is apologizing.” He sat forward, leaning his elbows on the table. “Did you hear that, Jamie? I need to confirm I’m not hearing things.”
Jayna huffed out an annoyed sigh. “I wasn’t wrong about you being an ass! However, I was wrong to be so nasty with you. You just stopped by out of concern, and that was sweet.”
The smug smile left his lips. “Take that back. I am not sweet!”
Jayna chuckled, and the sound of a doorbell ringing came through the speakers.
Jamie let out a loud breath and picked up her phone. Her pale blue eyes sparked. It must have been a trick of the light from the cell phone. Eyes did not spark.
“Jayna don’t answer the door,” Jamie’s voice was panicked.
“It’s okay, Mom. I know him,” Jayna said. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
A crash came through the phone, followed by a scream. The call ended.
What the hell?
“Derek,” Jamie’s voice trembled. “She is in trouble.”
His chair fell backward as he stood. “Call 911,” he yelled over his shoulder as he raced for the door.
He knew it. Just knew it! Jayna was in danger. Why hadn’t she listened to him?
Derek broke speed limits getting to Jayna’s house. Why the hell had she bought so far out? Not only was her house 15 minutes outside of town, but it was the last house on the street. Secluded and not well-lit. It was a dangerous location for a single woman living alone.
Jayna had boatloads of money. She could afford to have better lighting installed, and a state-of-the-art security system. There was a brand-new subdivision beside the hospital. Why hadn’t she purchased a house there?
He pulled into her driveway. Both her vehicles were still in there. He’d barely shifted into park before he was jumping out. Burke’s cruiser pulled in behind him. The cop yelled for him to stop.
Burke walked toward him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Derek, let us do our job.”
He stood there, heart thumping, fear racing up his spine. This wasn’t right. He should be doing something. Where was Jayna? Who had been at her door?
The front door was propped wide open. He inched closer once Burke and two other officers disappeared inside. The console table in the foyer was knocked over. That was the crash he’d heard over Jamie’s phone.
Burke reappeared, stepping onto the front stoop holding a damaged cell phone. “She’s not here.”
“What do you mean? Both her vehicles are. She was supposed to meet Jamie at the pub.”
Burke shrugged. “Looks like there was a struggle. What exactly happened? Jamie told the dispatcher that you were talking on the phone with her?”
Derek inhaled deeply before letting the anxious breath hiss out between his teeth. “She said someone was at the door. Then we heard a crash followed by Jayna screaming.”
“Do you know who came to the door?”
“No, she just said she knew him, never said a name.”
Jamie. Jamie would know. She knew impossible things.
“Sergeant Burke, there are footprints around her bedroom window.” A young officer appeared from the side of the house. “Looks like someone has been watching her for quite some time.”
The fear racing up Derek’s spine turned into full-out terror.
“It’s Lance,” Derek spit out. “He dated Greta. She breaks up with him and turns up dead! Then Jayna. She broke up with him, and now she’s missing.”
“Derek, we cleared him in the Greta Cochrane case. He had a strong alibi.”
“Duncan! The busboy at Patty’s. He was making Jayna nervous.” Derek raised his hands to his hair, grabbing handfuls. But would she have opened the door to him? It had to be the paramedic.
Jamie. He pulled out his cell phone and searched through his contacts. “Who was at Jayna’s door?” he demanded when she answered.
“Is Jayna okay?” Jamie’s voice was breathless through the speaker of his phone.
“She’s not here, Jamie.” His jaw clenched. “Who was at her door? You told her not to answer it.”
“I don’t know.”
“Can’t you just see who it was? Do some magic or whatever it is you do?”
“It doesn’t work that way, Derek. I just had a feeling that something was off.”
“Jamie, it’s more than just something being off. Something bad has happened to her.”
“I know, Derek.”
He wanted reassurance from her that he was wrong. He didn’t want to hear that he was right.
He didn’t want to be right.
“Can you check if Duncan is working?” He met Burke’s concerned stare as he waited for Jamie to check on the busboy’s status.
“Derek, he never showed up for work tonight. He’s not answering his cell phone.”
“Damn it.” He swiped to end the call and stared directly at Burke. “Why are you just standing there? You have two suspects to be checking out.”
“It’s not a crime to miss a shift, Derek. And other than the fact that you said he made Jayna feel nervous, I have no reason to believe he is involved.”
“You have my gut instinct and Jamie’s. She’s psychic. She knows things. Go talk to her. ”
Burke shook his head. “I don’t believe in psychics.”
Derek turned in a slow circle and screamed Jayna’s name. He knew that she was in danger. Why hadn’t she listened to him?
Jayna was missing.