Chapter Three
Jessica worked. She focused on the work—and making sure she was always a good distance away from Ellis. He was supposed to stay after closing to help with the holiday decorations, but she wasn’t going to be alone with him.
No way. She’d tell Faith if she had to. She’d feign illness if she had to. There was something…bad there.
Isn’t there something bad at your apartment?
She shook her head as if it would dislodge the paranoia. It had been a mistake. Something between Ellis and his wife. It didn’t involve her, and she would lock all the doors tonight and everything would be fine.
Fine.
But when Zach Simmons walked in, nothing felt fine. Zach ran Hope Town in a way. Lane Webb might be the mayor and head of the chamber of commerce, but Zach handled…the rest.
Jessica had never asked for details. Why a place like Hope Town existed, why she had been brought here, why Zach helped coordinate things like her job with Faith and who her doctor was.
She accepted something bad had happened to her that she didn’t remember, and she let Zach handle the details.
That felt particularly stupid in this moment as Zach crossed over to Ellis and the two began to talk in low, serious tones. It made her extra nervous. Even more than the fierce look Ellis had gotten on his face when he’d grabbed her arm.
He’d never touched her before. Not like that. Not at all, and she realized in the moment that it was kind of odd. Never a handshake or a shoulder pat or an accidental brushing of elbows.
She wasn’t proud of the fact her bodily reaction hadn’t been fear. Luckily, her brain was in charge and knew to back away, rather than follow a strange, bad instinct and lean in.
Jessica worked the cash register, keeping an eye on Ellis and Zach. Zach left for a little while, but Ellis didn’t. He didn’t approach her, didn’t crowd her, but in everything she did, she felt his eyes on her. So while her nerves strummed tight, she worried and wondered…
But not enough to do anything about it.
When Zach returned right about closing time, Jessica felt panic begin to beat at the base of her throat. Particularly when they both took Faith aside and spoke to her in voices Jessica couldn’t hear while Jessica closed out the register.
Faith looked over at her, and there were things Jessica didn’t usually see in her friend’s expression.
Pity. Worry.
Jessica wanted to run away. She wanted to pretend this wasn’t happening, but something was wrong and…if Zach was involved it likely dealt with her past. The past her doctor told her not to worry about.
A past that shouldn’t have anything to do with Ellis Sutton, but…this had all started when she’d handed him that letter. That had been left at her building’s door with no postage.
And for these past two years, with absolutely no explanation, Ellis Sutton had always been there at the edges. She’d questioned it at times in the privacy of her own mind but never pressed him or anyone else.
Another mistake.
She’d always promised herself if she came face-to-face with all that she couldn’t remember, she’d be brave. She’d accept whatever it was. She wouldn’t go looking for it—if her brain wanted to protect her from it, so be it.
But she’d promised herself she wouldn’t run if it reared its ugly head.
She’d spent the past two years not remembering, not trying to remember, but preparing herself for remembering all the same.
Because no matter what she’d hoped, some part of her had always known that escaping her past and whatever she didn’t remember was temporary.
Faith came over to her. Jessica was finalizing a few things for inventory on the computer and finished that up before turning her attention to Faith.
“Jessica…” There was a pause, like Faith didn’t quite know what to say. “Come over here and sit on the couch with me. Zach and Ellis have a few things to discuss with us.” She stepped behind the counter and linked arms with Jessica.
Jessica wanted to pull away, run away, but she didn’t.
She let Faith lead her to the couch in the kids’ section.
She was grateful that Faith kept their arms linked as they sat and Zach and Ellis came to stand before them.
Faith was offering support, and it meant something. Jessica needed it to mean something.
Zach pulled over some chairs, and then he and Ellis sat in those, directly across from Faith and Jessica.
“What’s going on?” Jessica asked, because she was afraid they’d let this silence stretch out and she’d start crying or screaming at the tension in her chest. She didn’t look at Ellis for answers though. She looked at Zach.
“We have reason to believe there’s been a threat against you.” Straight to the point. She was grateful for that, even if it didn’t make sense.
“A threat. But I haven’t received any threats.” Except that this all started when she handed that envelope to Ellis.
But that hadn’t been addressed to her, so she couldn’t have anything to do with it. She couldn’t. No matter what was inside that she hadn’t looked at.
Because it wasn’t for her. It was for him or his wife or whatever.
She glanced at him. He sat, his large frame so…tightly held. He clasped his hands together and looked down at them. Like he was holding something together.
She had the strangest sensation, like a flash of a memory. Reaching out and putting her palm at the edge of that sharp jaw.
You’re too hard on yourself sometimes. She could hear herself say it, and yet that self was some kind of stranger.
She wanted to cry, and she hated it because she just didn’t understand any of this.
“This envelope left for you is a concern,” Zach said very seriously. “Can you take me through how you found it?”
She didn’t want to, but Zach had always been a kind of anchor. The person who knew her past. Who was in charge. If he thought it was a threat, she had to do what he asked.
She explained finding it in the door. Not seeing anyone. Nothing going wrong with the security system.
Zach took notes on his phone. Ellis kept staring at his hands.
“I’ve looked at the security footage and no one shows up on it—though they should if they got close enough to stick something into the door.
Which is a concern that they can get around my security.
Until we have a better handle on where this threat is coming from and why, we think it’s best if you have protection.
We’ve agreed that it’s best if we…have you hide for a little while.
Just until we figure out who’s behind this letter. ”
“Hide,” Jessica echoed.
“I have a place you can go,” Zach said. “You’ll be safe. It’s isolated and I know not ideal for your life, but it’s temporary. While we get to the bottom of this. Just until we get to the bottom of this envelope.”
“You keep saying we. Who is we?”
Zach didn’t look up from his phone, but his fingers weren’t moving across the screen, taking more notes. No, he was biding his time as he tried to determine how to answer this question.
When he finally spoke, it was with a carefulness. And a directness. Like someone giving an order they expected to be rebelled against. “Ellis will go with you.”
Panic clawed further up her chest. “Why Ellis?”
Ellis didn’t speak right away, but when he did his tone was very grave. “I’m former FBI. I have the skills and training to keep you safe while Zach does the work here to find out who’s behind this.”
“Aren’t you former FBI too?” Jessica demanded of Zach.
“Yes,” he agreed. He didn’t say but. He didn’t need to. Jessica answered the but herself.
“You have a family.” So he couldn’t go with her for a lot of reasons. But Ellis… “You want me to go somewhere I don’t know with someone who is essentially a stranger, knowing absolutely nothing about why.”
“I can’t imagine how this must feel,” Ellis said very carefully. “But your doctor was very clear.”
“Yes, she’s always been very clear.” Jessica pushed to her feet, disgusted with this situation.
And why was this man talking about her doctor like he was involved.
“Let the past be what it is. Focus on the present. Except if there’s some kind of threat, it connects to whatever I don’t remember.
” She whirled back to face them, geared her anger and frustration toward Ellis. “Doesn’t it?”
His hazel eyes seemed particularly brown in this light.
His expression particularly grave. It made tears prick her eyes without fully understanding the emotional reaction.
Because she was angry and afraid, but she didn’t know how to describe this ache.
The only thing she knew for sure was it was his fault.
His fault, because that envelope had been addressed to Mrs. Sutton. His last name. And then…and then she’d signed the name Kirsten. And he’d…he’d almost called her that. She knew he did.
Her heart beat overtime. Was she not even Jessica? If she was this Kirsten, was she something to him?
She tried to talk herself down, convince herself she was overreacting, just like she’d done in those early days of trying to settle into a life where her entire past was a blank.
“We just want to keep you safe, Jessica. You can be pissed off about that, confused and angry and hurt,” Zach said. “Whatever you’re feeling is valid, but you have to let us protect you. It’s why you’re here in Hope Town in the first place.”
Jessica surveyed the three of them, tried not to view them all as some kind of traitors. No doubt Zach was telling her some kind of truth. Faith was here as a female friend. As support. And Ellis…
“You want me to leave Hope Town. With him,” Jessica said accusingly. Because it felt a bit like a betrayal, even if that wasn’t fair.
Before Zach or Ellis could respond to that, Faith stood and crossed to where Jessica paced.
“Can you guys give us a few minutes of privacy?” Faith asked.
The men got to their feet. Tall and broad and so infinitely powerful, and they knew everything she didn’t.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And yet…
She didn’t know how to protect herself. She didn’t know anything.