Chapter 5 #2
“I never saw him coming,” the woman told Natalie as the paramedic cleaned another abrasion. “I was running and then—BAM! I flipped over the hood of a car. A blue car. And then it roared off, leaving me in the middle of the road. Luckily, the people across the street ran out and saw it all.”
Her brown hair, swept into a high ponytail, swayed with her movements as she talked. The color reminded him of Mia.
Two women resembling Mia involved in accidents in as many days? What were the odds?
Natalie glanced up at Jackson. “Hey. You’re not on call. But I’m glad you’re here.”
Jackson nodded. The police arrived on the scene. His friend, Officer Jason Beckley, left his vehicle and sauntered over to the victim.
“Ma’am, I’m Officer Beckley with the Southwold police. Tell me what happened.”
The victim repeated what she’d said.
An older woman ran over, and a teenager followed her. “I saw it from my window! The car, it was a blue Buick. An old car, like something you’d see from the eighties.”
“Go on.” Jason took notes. “Did the driver appear intoxicated?”
“No,” the teenage girl said, snapping her gum. “He turned the corner, and I think he deliberately swerved to hit her. Look. I thought it was an odd car, so I got it on my phone.”
She pulled up a video and showed it to Jason. He nodded without comment.
As soon as the hit-and-run victim was taken care of, Jackson climbed into his truck and headed to the hospital to see if he could check on the car accident victim. Maybe he was just keyed up after seeing Mia earlier, but the fact that both accident victims had reminded him of her nagged at him.
On his way, he called Cynthia.
She picked up on the second ring.
“Any news yet?” he asked her.
“Didn’t you get my text?” she responded.
“I never got a text from you.”
“I sent one—” She paused. “Oh. I typed it but never hit Send. I’m sorry. Dylan’s not back yet. He did send me a text saying he needed some time. I guess he’s still angry about the court judgment.”
Jackson’s gut churned. Not hearing from Dylan personally didn’t sit right with him. But what could he do? He had no authority over his brother. Not yet. “Let me know when he gets back.”
When she hung up, he sent a text to his brother, asking him to please let him know he was fine.
He had to be satisfied with that.
It was five o’clock by the time Mia left her classroom. Jane had sent her three separate texts asking when she’d be home. Mia had answered each one saying she didn’t know.
When Jane started adding curse words into her texts, Mia stopped responding. When had her cousin become so confrontational and entitled? Mia had warned her that she might be out past dinner time. She had meetings and a classroom to set up, and only a few days to do it.
Mia had just gotten into her car and closed the door when she heard Shannon’s ringtone. “Hi, Shannon. Hold on a second, all right? I just got in my car.”
She turned on the engine and opened the windows. “Okay. I’m sitting here. It’s so hot. I hope the cool air kicks in soon. So what’s up?”
“Did you get your classroom set up?”
“No. Not even close. It’s been a rough day.” That was putting it mildly.
“Oh no! Tell me about it.”
Mia unloaded everything onto her friend. By the time she got to Jackson, the cool air was blowing out of the vents. She closed the windows and relaxed against the leather seat.
“Wait. Jackson Stewart? I know him. He’s gorgeous. Why would you two have an argument?”
Mia froze. Shannon didn’t know her history.
No one here, except her parents, truly knew what had happened.
She wasn’t quite ready to share, even with Shannon.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her. She did…
with her life. But she felt so raw after seeing him again, reliving their past would be like reopening the wounds and rubbing salt in them.
But she couldn’t say nothing.
“We have a history. I can’t go into it now, or I’ll bawl like a baby. But our breakup was messy.”
Shannon took a moment to process that. “Ohhh-kay. Listen. You tell me when you’re ready. You know I’m here for you.”
“I know.”
“But.”
She tensed. “But?”
“You should apologize. The man is anxious about his kid brother. Even if he said something to anger you, whatever happened between y’all was long ago. You can’t hold it against him now. It took guts to come find you. Which tells me he’s kinda desperate. You feel me?”
And he had tried to apologize. To his credit, he didn’t have all the facts about what had happened back then. Because she’d never told him. His assumptions and his rejection had crushed her.
Mia swallowed, feeling selfish and mean. “I get that. I won’t apologize though. I will help him find his brother, but I’m really not convinced Dylan is missing. You know?”
“I understand that. But in a case like this, isn’t it best to assume he is? If he isn’t missing, you haven’t lost anything. But what if he is?”
Mia’s gut tightened at Shannon’s words. “You’re right, of course.”
A few minutes later, she hung up the phone, still considering Shannon’s words.
But she was no longer a sixteen-year-old dealing with an unexpected pregnancy. Now she was a woman with a student missing. She needed to reach out to Jackson and help. Before she could talk herself out of it, she dialed.
“Hello?”
That voice sent shivers down her spine.
“Jackson.” She swallowed again. But she wasn’t one to run from what needed to be done. “Look. I thought about what you said. I still don’t know that there’s anything to worry about, but I want to help if there is. You came to me about Dylan, and I went off on you.”
There was a moment or two of silence before he heaved a heavy sigh. “I was a jerk in high school. It’s no surprise that you weren’t welcoming.”
She wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but he kept talking. “His foster mom says she received a text from him, so I’ll give it another day. If he doesn’t show up, I will definitely take you up on your offer to help.”
“Okay,” she responded. “I was serious. If you need my help, just ask.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. But I wanted to ask another favor of you. One that doesn’t have anything to do with my brother.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Really? A favor, from me?”
“I know this is going to sound strange, but yesterday, there was a car accident, a bad one. Mia, she looks like you. Enough that when I saw her, I literally thought it was you.”
“Well, it obviously wasn’t.”
But he wasn’t done.
“Then about an hour ago, there was a hit-and-run on Locust—”
“My aunt!”