Chapter Forty-Five
Lilac
I stand outside the steps of Perkins Hall, where I know Jameson will be.
I walk around the elegant water fountain three times.
Irvin says he didn’t kill anyone on campus, and I don’t know if I believe him.
I don’t know what to believe. I know what I saw, but I need to speak to Jameson since he knows about technology.
Maybe he can confirm whether I was hallucinating.
I read online that you can check the digital print of any device.
If the messages I saw were real or if I hallucinated, I will find out.
The sun shines brightly in the clear sky, and students rush in and out of the building.
He steps out with his book bag strapped to his back, wearing a dark shirt and jeans in this sixty-degree weather. I approach him as he heads in the opposite direction. I tap his shoulder, and he turns around, smiling.
“You told me you weren’t going to tell Irvin about our meetup last time,” I snap.
He grins. “He already knew I was meeting up with you. He figured the rest out on his own. He wanted to know why we were meeting, and I told him the truth. No reason to lie.” He runs his fingers through his hair. “I’m not about to fight Irvin over meeting with you.”
I cock my eyebrow. “He would fight you?”
He leans in closer as we walk along the cobblestone path. “Yeah. In case you didn’t get the memo, Irvin doesn’t like it when men have your attention.”
Honestly, it doesn’t surprise me. He can be overly possessive of me.
I shrug. “Yeah, I know.”
I bite my lip. How loyal is Jameson to Irvin? Jameson grew up with Irvin, and from what I heard, they had no choice because of the American Billionaire Club. How well does he know Irvin? Maybe I can get some clarity about my husband.
“Do you think Irvin is capable of killing innocent people?”
He stops, and his eyes narrow. “Why are you asking?”
I shrug. “Someone sent me a video of Irvin killing one of the campus victims.”
He strokes a thick eyebrow. “Did you tell Irvin this?”
I exhale loudly. “He denied it, but I don’t know. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“Irvin isn’t doing the killings on campus. That’s an absurd statement. He doesn’t usually bother someone unless they’re a th—”
“Threat,” I finish, shaking my head. “But I know what I saw.” I twirl the ends of my hair.
“Can you check my phone to see where the deleted messages I got came from? Someone sent me text messages—a threatening one—and told me to meet them at the auditorium. That’s where I saw the video. They put it on the projection screen.”
“I’ll check. Let’s go back to the mansion.”
Jameson uses a cord to hook my phone to his laptop in his room.
I flop on his bed, looking around. It’s clean.
Neat. His dresser is black, along with his headboard and footboard.
He has a spacious en suite bathroom. My eyes land on him, and my cheeks flush for looking around.
He stares at me for a while, not in a creepy way, then types on the computer.
The silence between us is eerie, and it makes me nervous.
He clicks away.
I fiddle with the hem of my sweater. “What’s your major?”
Without taking his eyes off the laptop screen, he answers, “Digital forensics.”
“What is that, exactly?”
“Investigating computers and phones to recover evidence of cybercrime.”
I sit farther back on the comfy bed. His faint, expensive cologne lingers in the air. “How does that fit into being part of the American Billionaire Club?”
“I’m going to be the CIO of the club.”
“What’s a CIO?”
“You ask a lot of questions.”
“Well, I don’t like the silence between us. It makes me nervous.”
His gaze meets mine, and he lifts a brow. “Do you mean the sexual tension between us?”
There is sexual tension, but not in any way where I’m going to cheat on Irvin.
My cheeks flush. “I wasn’t thin—”
“I’m not going to try to fuck you, beauty. I know you’re off-limits. Plus, I value my life.” He continues clicking on the computer. “CIO means chief information officer. It’s up there with COO, like Irvin’s soon-to-be role in the club.”
“Oh. Do you like being a techie guy?”
He nods. “Yes. Actually, I love it. If I were a regular guy living a regular life and had normal parents, I would still have chosen it as a career.” He gets up, pulls out a chair from another room, sets it beside him, and pats the seat. “Come here. I want to show you something.”
I walk over to his desk and perch close to him. I can smell his expensive cologne and feel his body heat.
“I scanned your phone, and there isn’t any digital footprint of a video being sent to you from an unknown number. Usually, I can trace any number, even if it deletes itself.”
My ears ring. My mouth is dry. “But, Jameson, it was there. I saw it with my own eyes. I saw the text messages.”
I can’t believe this shit. I’m not going crazy.
“I’ll let you see for yourself. I can’t find any traces of an unknown number on your phone. Are you sure you didn’t imagine it?”
Tears wet my eyes.
I think I’m losing my mind.
Jameson pats my back and gives me an awkward hug. He hands me my phone back.
“What do I owe you for your time?” I ask.
“Venmo me twenty dollars for a burger.”
I cock my eyebrow.
He shrugs. “I love food.”
Goosebumps prickle my skin.
I don’t want to go home, so I walk the campus trail instead. The sky is clear, and the sun’s beaming.
Tears trickle down my face. Did I imagine it all? Am I going mad? This doesn’t make any sense to me. How did I imagine whole fucking text messages and a video? I know I might hallucinate sometimes, but to conjure some shit—not at this extreme.
Irvin’s number pops up on my phone, and I hit Decline. I’m not in the headspace to talk right now.
Irvin does have a nasty habit of knowing where I am at all times. I’m pretty sure his phone call wasn’t a coincidence—the minute I left the mansion, he called me.
The way he looked in the video. Broad shoulders. Even the guy’s hair was the same. And I’ve never watched Irvin kill anyone, but the side of his face was only shown in the video. I’m completely losing it. I don’t know what is real anymore. I don’t know what I can trust.
Could Jameson be in on it too? Lying for Irvin? No. Jameson doesn’t strike me as a liar.
No one will believe the things I saw. Not Irvin. Not Jameson. I’m truly alone in this. My muscles lock, and my head hurts. I’m trying to keep it together, but I don’t know what to do. I need to figure out what’s really going on. Irvin denied it, but I know what I saw.
I stop and lean against a tree, then take a moment to cry.