Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Roma had worked until two o’clock in the morning, setting up her new home security system just the way she wanted it. Part of the delay was Asha’s fault for keeping her on the phone about three hours longer than planned, but it was also because the instructions were in Dutch.
Staying up so late meant she had missed out on the last raspberry-and-chocolate muffin that morning at Deja Brew. She even arrived at work twenty minutes late and narrowly avoided missing an important client who had shown up half an hour early.
None of that mattered, though, because in an hour and twenty minutes, Nate would be walking through that door.
They were going out for dinner. Roma hoped they might get dessert as well, preferably ice cream from her freezer, eaten on the couch in front of something funny on TV, but she’d settle for a piece of cake at a late-night dessert bar.
That little voice in the back of her head, telling her it was wrong to be so invested in a new relationship, had been provoking and prodding her all day.
The difference between current-day Roma and the person she was five years ago was that she would’ve listened to that little voice back then, and she probably would’ve texted Nate four or five times, trying to figure out if she’d done something wrong when he didn’t reply.
The whole night would’ve turned into a huge fight, and it definitely wouldn’t have ended with them sharing the couch.
Or anything else for that matter.
The archives would have to wait today. Cynthia had sent her on what she thought was a wild-goose chase; there was something particularly absurd about being asked to buy a pair of pants for a man she knew was worth over five hundred million.
How could someone with that much wealth not invest a single dollar in hiring someone to teach them what pants to wear with what suit?
Certainly, his showing up at the office in deep red slacks, a white silk shirt, a brown jacket, and an off-white cowboy hat, complete with a braided leather band, hadn’t immediately inspired anyone involved. Luckily, though, he was open to input.
Less lucky for Roma, he was very taken with her suggestions for improvement before his date. That was how she ended up traipsing around town, sweating buckets, trying to find the right-sized items. For someone as tall as he was, the cowboy hat was way overkill.
Now it was just a countdown; soon she would be able to tell Nate all the terrifying yet productive things they had learned since their last conversation.
Maybe she wasn’t looking forward to that part as much as she liked to think—he seemed to have a bit of an issue with her putting herself in danger.
That sent a tingling warmth through her that she didn’t fully want to admit, but it was nice to have someone worry about you just a little bit, especially when they looked as good as Nate did.
Roma rounded the corner and saw Nate standing across the street, looking stunning in pale gray linen trousers and a crisp white shirt, his jacket draped over his arm and sunglasses making him look more like a model than a researcher.
“Hey,” she said as she approached, smiling up at him.
“Oh. Hi,” he replied, sounding confused. “I thought you were at work today?”
She tilted her head to the side and took in his discomfort. She felt like she had busted him doing something, but she didn’t know what it could be. “I am…”
“But you’re here.”
“Yes, I am, but I’m also at work. Just because I’m overqualified for the role doesn’t mean I’m not actually Cynthia’s assistant.
” She lifted the shopping bags so he could see them better, but he barely looked at them.
Whatever was happening here, she didn’t have the energy to dance around it; she was too exhausted. “So, do you still want to do dinner?”
Nate looked up and down the street and smiled, but it wasn’t his real smile; it was more like a sneer. “Yeah, of course,” he said, barely looking at her. “But can we talk about this later, please? I’m also at work.”
What? He didn’t have an assignment today, did he? She racked her brain but couldn’t remember one way or the other.
Regardless of whether he did or not, his dismissive tone and apparent annoyance at her for simply talking to him felt like a slap in the face.
Sure, they hadn’t talked for a day or so, and she didn’t have any recent texts to gauge his current mood, but she couldn’t think of anything she’d done that would justify such a drastic shift.
He hadn’t been this unpleasant to her since?—
Actually, he had never been this openly unpleasant, even when he was being a standoffish, know-it-all jerk when they first met.
The hurt and confusion clouding her mind turned into anger as the voice in the back of her mind whispered, “Unless he’s meeting someone he doesn’t want you to see.
Maybe he’s married, or just ashamed of you. ”
“Sure, of course,” she said, turning on her heel and marching straight toward a cab without even checking if it was Frank’s before getting in.
That little voice was shouting now as she seethed over the way Nate looked and spoke to her.
How dare he? What was his problem? She replayed the interaction in her mind and decided that her choice of words before leaving was too open to interpretation.
There were a few she could think of that would definitely get the message across but might also make her sound a little crazier than she’d prefer.
Determined to send a text message, even if it wasn’t the two words she really wanted to use, she pulled out her phone and tapped angrily at the keyboard.
From Roma: It seems like us catching up tonight is kind of an inconvenience for you, so let’s not bother, okay?
Hating herself for it even as she hit send, she exclaimed in frustration and dropped her phone onto the seat next to her.
As soon as she closed the door, she realized it wasn’t Frank’s taxi, and she was immediately hit with a strange feeling of guilt.
It wasn’t that she had never taken a taxi other than Frank’s on the island, but she’d tried her best to stay loyal to him.
He’d been kind to her the first day when he picked her up from the boat.
Now that tourist season was here, there were more taxis around, and he was busier than ever, so it wasn’t like he’d be upset if he found out she took someone else’s taxi.
Maybe she should get out.
That would mean Nate seeing her, though, and that was probably worse than Frank being a little tiny bit annoyed with her for missing one fare with him, right?
Then again, she needed Frank on her side. She knew he was giving her a really good deal on the fares to and from work on the days she didn’t catch a ride with Daisy. With her finances in the shape they were in, she really couldn’t afford to upset him.
“Sorry,” she said, reaching for the door handle. “I actually need to get out.”
Roma had put on her customer service smile, not wanting to annoy this driver.
When the driver didn’t respond, she glanced at the rearview mirror, surprised to see a pair of eyes already looking at her.
A chill rolled across her skin, and she saw the anger in this stranger’s eyes. Pulling hard on the door handle, she realized the door was locked.
“I said I’m sorry, but you need to let me out. I’ll give you twenty bucks for wasting your time.”
The driver still didn’t respond, and she kept pulling hard on the handle, flicking the lock back and forth, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. The door didn’t budge.
“This isn’t funny,” she snapped. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“No, no,” the driver said. “I think the real question, Roma Townsend, is what do you think you’re doing?”
If Roma had thought her blood had turned to ice water before, that was nothing compared to how she felt now as the driver turned around to face her, revealing a shock of platinum blond hair.
“Harper Callahan,” Roma said, pretty sure it wasn’t a good idea but doing it anyway. “I thought I’d have to put in at least a minimum effort to talk to you, but here you are.”
“So you admit it; you’ve been looking for me?”
“I only want to find out what happened to Matthias,” she said. “Honestly, I don’t even care beyond that. I just don’t want to go to jail for something I didn’t do.”
It was a bit of a long shot, but maybe trying to connect with this potentially insane, notoriously unstable, and definitely violent criminal over their shared experience of being falsely accused of crimes could somehow humanize Roma to her.
Harper snorted. “Sure, that makes sense, I guess. I don’t even want to go to jail for things I did do.”
Roma tried to hold back tears as her stomach twisted in fear. Swallowing hard, she glanced at her phone and tried to inch her fingers toward it, but Harper laughed and held up a small black device.
“Cell jammer. We’re going somewhere to have a nice talk, all right?”
No! It wasn’t even close to all right! She had seen enough crime dramas and read enough true crime to know that you never voluntarily went to a second location!
“Before you do anything, just think about how much damage a car like this can cause to someone—or a group of people,” Harper said, gesturing out of the window at a family of tourists choosing ice cream from the vendor.
Roma thought she might be sick, but that was just the taxi lurching away from the docks.