“You okay?” I asked her after we got in bed.

She rolled around in my arms until she was facing me, and got comfortable before answering. “Yeah. I’m glad we know who it is now. I want to say I’m surprised, but at the same time . . . I’m not. I thought it was her not long ago, but stopped thinking that as soon as I remembered seeing her out with different guys.”

“Yeah, same here. I still don’t know how she hacked into Ben’s account. She wasn’t smart enough to pass most of her classes, she definitely isn’t smart enough for that.”

Grey laughed softly, then sighed. “Maybe one of the guys she dates is a computer nerd or something.”

Her eyes slowly closed, and I watched her for a second before asking, “Do you want to move?”

“What’s the point?” she asked without opening her eyes. “It’s Thatch, no matter where we move, everyone will know where we end up.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“But I would like to get out of here at least until the police arrest her.”

I looked down to find her staring at me again. “Like where?”

“Anywhere, as long as we can hide. I’ll call in to work for tomorrow and Friday, I’ll just tell my boss what happened. Then we can find a hotel in a city close to here, we can just drive until we feel like stopping and stay there. We can even go back to Seattle. You can give some of your work to that guy who sells it for you, I can see Janie, and then we can spend the rest of the time alone.”

I smiled down at her and then kissed her softly. “Okay, then that’s what we’ll do. As soon as the police come for the video, we’ll leave for wherever you want to go.”

“Good. What did the officer say when he pulled you to the side?”

“Basically wanted to know why LeAnn might do this, if I still had a relationship with her, and if Ben was working with her since there were pictures of you two in there.”

“Even if he was alive, Ben wouldn’t do this,” she mumbled.

“What?”

Grey was silent for a few minutes, and I’d thought she’d fallen asleep until she said, “It’s something I’ve been thinking about since our cars had all that stuff pasted and painted on them. Did I ever tell you what Janie told me about Ben when I ran to hide out at her apartment?”

“What she told you about Ben? No.”

“Ben knew how you felt about me.” Grey scooted up on the bed so she could look over at me, and one shoulder moved up in a shrug. “At first I wondered if you’d known that he knew, or if the two of you ever talked about it. But I knew that night in the gallery that there was no way you would’ve ever talked to Ben about me.”

“He knew?” I asked softly. “What do you mean, and how did Janie even know this?”

“One of the nights when we went cosmic bowling, Janie asked him why he never really touched me or kissed me when we were at parties or whatever. And Ben said something about having the rest of his life to hold me, but not being able to do that to you.”

I didn’t say anything as I thought about Grey’s words. Ben had never given any indication that he’d known about my feelings, and I didn’t know how to feel about finding out that he did, or that he tried to tame down their PDA in front of me for me.

“Anyway,” Grey began through a yawn as she slid back down to get comfortable, “I was just telling you that Ben wouldn’t try to keep us apart.”

“And how do you feel knowing that?”

There was another long pause, but I waited, knowing she was still awake. “Comforted,” she finally said. “As should you. I think Ben would want this for us.” Kissing my chest, Grey sighed softly. “Good night, Jagger.”

“Sleep well,” I murmured, but I knew sleep wouldn’t be coming for me anytime soon. Not after what I now knew. Not after my girl had just told me how she felt about the situation. There were too many thoughts and emotions coursing through me to sleep now.

Grey

September 14, 2014

“WAKE UP, BEAUTIFUL.”

I mumbled something even I couldn’t understand, and tilted my head when his lips touched my ear. As I slowly opened my eyes, I felt the pillow dip down in front of me. A pair of green eyes met mine, and I smiled when he wrapped an arm around me to pull me closer.

“Time is it?” I asked groggily.

“Early.”

“Hmm? Why?”

Jagger’s low laugh rumbled through his chest, and he started trailing a path of kisses across my jaw and down my neck. “Because we have to leave today, and I wanted a few hours with you before we had to start packing.”

“Just a few?” My body broke out in goose bumps when he lightly bit down on the sensitive part of my neck; and when he kissed me in the same spot, I felt his lips pull into a smile.

“Yeah, just a few.” He sat back so he could look at me again, his face serious. “You gonna be okay when we go back?”

“I think so. If LeAnn starts acting up again, we’ll call the police. I doubt she will now, though. Not with the possibility of going to jail for an extended period of time.”

Jagger nodded, his eyes drifting away as he thought over either my answer, or the possibility of LeAnn’s revenge. They’d arrested her Thursday night on charges of burglary, stalking, criminal mischief, and harassment. But with bail set at only five thousand, it wasn’t hard to figure that someone would pay the five hundred to get her out, and on Saturday, someone had done exactly that. Now she was out of jail, and the officer was telling us to get a protective order against her as soon as we were back in town.