Free Nowhere Safe by Nancy Bush Page B

Harmak is your stepbrother, she’ll be after another interview,” Jake said.
    â€œ Was my stepbrother. She’ll learn it eventually, but it’s not the first thing that’ll crop up.”
    â€œYou hope.”
    â€œYeah, I hope. So, enough about me. Tell me about your work. How’s the office move going?”
    â€œUh . . . slow.”
    â€œSlow, because . . . ?”
    â€œI don’t know. I don’t know if I’m making the right choice.”
    She lifted her head to look at him. “Maybe you don’t want to quit.”
    â€œMaybe I don’t,” he agreed, shaking his head.
    â€œWhat changed your mind?” she asked.
    His gray eyes glanced down at her. “You. Maybe. This.” His gaze went to the gauze bandage on her shoulder, so close to her throat. “I thought it was the job that was the problem, but now I’m not so sure.”
    â€œYou said you wanted to change your life. Maybe you mean . . . Loni,” September suggested.
    â€œNo. That’s been over for almost a year.” He was frowning at the television, which had switched to a commercial.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” September asked.
    â€œNothing’s wrong. I’m just . . . figuring it out.”
    â€œYou sure it doesn’t have to do with Loni?” she asked carefully.
    â€œWhat do you mean? No. That’s over. You know that.”
    â€œWhy are you so defensive?”
    â€œI’m not defensive.”
    â€œNo?”
    â€œNo.” He heard himself and switched off the television with a snap of his thumb on the remote. “She’s . . . not a part of my life. I don’t want to see her anymore. It’s over. And I just don’t want to think about her.”
    â€œOkay.”
    He expelled a long breath. “She called me today,” he admitted. “I was cleaning out my desk and she called and I just started feeling . . . bad . . . guilty, I guess. It’s not about the job. You were right on that. It’s about Loni and how I don’t want to deal with her anymore, and that makes me feel like a shit.”
    â€œI know it’s a cliché, but her problems are her problems, not your problems.”
    â€œI know. It’s just that I’m happy, she’s not, and I don’t know that she will be, ever. So . . . yeah. Not good.”
    â€œSounds like survivor’s guilt,” September said.
    â€œWell, she’s not dead.”
    â€œYou know what I mean. So, you’re staying with the job?”
    â€œIs that a problem?”
    â€œNot at all.”
    September snuggled back down against him, aware that her pulse had jumped raggedly but was now settling into a normal rhythm. She could talk big about Jake with Loni, like she understood everything about their years and years of a long relationship, but secretly it worried her a little. “Maybe I can rustle up Auggie to help with the move this weekend,” she murmured, her voice muffled against the skin of his chest.
    He leaned down and looked at her. She glanced up. “What?”
    For an answer he kissed her on the lips. The kiss lingered and when he finally pulled back, he asked, “You won’t back out?”
    â€œ No.”
    â€œCross your heart, hope to die?”
    A shiver slid down her bare back and Jake pulled her in closer. “Just cross my heart,” she said.
    â€œAny more interest in the Johnson file?”
    â€œTomorrow, bucko.”
    â€œShucks.”

Chapter Five
    Stefan was hanging up his coat in the back of Mrs. Runderfeld’s—Mrs. Run, to the kids—classroom where he was in the middle of a six-week training cycle when there was a knock on the open doorway. That bitch from the office, Lazenby’s suck-up gopher, stuck her head inside.
    â€œMr. Harmak, could you come to the office, please?” she asked.
    The second-graders were still coming in off the playground from the first bell, rushing to their