A month after I had official y moved in, Jared wanted to celebrate with an evening out. I put on a strapless black dress with red pumps and Jared made the effort of putting on a tie. We walked out to the curb and Jared straddled his Vulcan. I raised an eyebrow, pointedly looked down at my short skirt and then back at him.
Jared laughed out loud and dismounted. “Just kidding.”
He walked over to the Escalade and opened the door.
“So, where are we going?” I asked.
“Somewhere new. You’l like it,” he said before closing my door.
We pul ed up to a dark, brick building. He helped me to the curb and held open a glass door, kissing my cheek as I passed. A smal Asian woman greeted us, and Jared grabbed my hand, leading me to a table bearing a beautiful arrangement of pink and white tulips. We were the only patrons in the smal eatery and I smiled at Jared as he sat in front of me. The woman walked half-way across the room to a waiter’s station to fil our water glasses, and I leaned against the table.
“Are they getting ready to close?” I whispered.
Jared chuckled. “No…I arranged for us to have the place to ourselves.”
“Oh,” I said, watching the woman bring our water and menus.
Jared uttered something in Japanese to the woman and she nodded, leaving us alone.
“Have I told you how exceptional y beautiful you look tonight?” Jared asked.
“Only four or five times,” I smiled. “Thank you.”
The woman returned, chattering something I didn’t understand. Jared looked to me and then back at her. “No, I think we’l need a few more minutes.”
“Are we meeting your mother here or something?” I asked.
“No. Why?”
“I was just wondering…why al the effort? The tie, the flowers, the empty restaurant…the secrecy.”
Jared raised an eyebrow. “What secrecy?”
“You were sneaking around the loft earlier. I may be human, but I’m not blind.”
Jared’s laughter fil ed the room. “I can sneak past trained assassins, but I can’t get anything by you.”
“That’s because they’re not around you every second of the day,” I qualified.
Jared smiled, pressing his lips together. “We’re celebrating.”
“A month of cohabitation. You mentioned that.”
“Exactly,” he smiled, an edge of nervousness to his voice.
I narrowed my eyes and pursed my lips at his evasive answer, but I let it go. He was obviously having fun keeping it from me.
I chose a dish from the menu that seemed close to my usual. When the waitress returned, Jared ordered in perfect Japanese.
I tapped my finger on the table.
Jared watched me fidget with an amused expression. “Do you have somewhere to be?”
“No, I’m just waiting for the explanation.”
He leaned forward. “You’re very impatient this evening.”
I sighed and leaned back against my chair. “I’m sorry. I just feel a surprise coming on.”
“Do you, now?” he teased. “And why is that?”
“C’mon, Jared. I know something’s up.”
He smiled at the waitress as she brought our plates of food, and I sighed.
Jared led us into conversation about other things as we ate. He had made plans for us to have dinner at Lil ian’s that weekend. Ryan had returned to spend a few days with Josh, so Claire was in town. I discussed my fal schedule, and we talked about the changes living off-campus would pose.
We also decided to cal Beth and Chad and invite them to our place for dinner as soon as possible.
“I’ve always liked Beth,” Jared mused.
“Me, too!” I teased, feigning surprise.
“She’s always been a good friend to you, but I particularly appreciate the talks she gave you in my favor. She’s a smart girl, that Beth,” he said, nodding with a smug smile.
I spun the noodles around my fork as I spoke. “There were moments I thought you had her on the payrol . She was very persistent.”
“That’s why I like her,” he smiled. “She knows what’s good for you.”
“She knew better than I did that we would end up together.”
“You didn’t think we’d end up together?” Jared asked, looking a bit surprised.
“Wel …I wanted to. But at the time I didn’t think we should,” I explained, stabbing my fork into some type of meat.
“I’m glad you got over that,” he said, deep in thought. “I don’t know what I’d do if…,” he looked at me with deep affection. “You make me so happy, Nina.”
“You make me happy, honey,” I cooed.
Jared raised his brow at my uncharacteristic use of an endearing term and smiled, but his expression changed as his thoughts did. “I know things have happened pretty fast between us,” he grimaced. “Most people would say too fast, but we’re not most people.”
“Definitely not,” I said. I rol ed the broccoli to one side of my plate and noticed Jared’s expression twisting to chagrin.
“I should have ordered that without broccoli, I’m sorry.”
I giggled. “It’s fine, Jared. I can separate the broccoli from my food.”
“I just want tonight to be perfect…I’m forgetting things,” he said, glowering at the broccoli on the rim of my plate as if it had insulted him.
That one phrase caught my attention. “Why does it have to be perfect?”
Jared shifted uncomfortably in his chair and sighed with relief when the waitress came to refil our water glasses.
“Where was I?” he asked after the waitress left.
I blotted my lips with a napkin. “We’re moving too fast?”
“No…I mean yes, that’s where I was at, but no, I don’t think we’re moving too fast,” he paused for a moment and then looked warily at me. “You don’t think we are, do you?”
I giggled and shook my head. “No.” My eyebrows moved in as I watched him get increasingly nervous. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good. I’m perfect. You okay?”
“Yeah…you’re kinda freaking me out, though,” I turned my head to the side slightly as I eyed him with suspicion.
Jared closed his eyes and then took a deep, relaxing breath. “I’m sorry. I’m just a little keyed up.”
“Relax. It’s just dinner,” I said, reaching across the table to his hand.
“Huh…yeah,” Jared said, laughing once at my suggestion, and then looking down at his plate.
“I was thinking St. Lucia for our vacation. They have air conditioners, there,” I smiled.
“I’l make the cal s tomorrow,” he said, distracted.
I pondered that for a moment and then narrowed my eyes. “My mother must pay you wel .”
“Very wel ,” he nodded.
I rol ed another piece of broccoli to the side of my plate. “Wel , technical y, I pay you wel .”
“What?” Jared said, freezing in the middle of a bite.
I shrugged. “Wel , when Jack died—his estate, his assets, everything…it’s mine.”
“What? I thought your mother….” Jared shook his head, taken off-guard.
“Oh, she can live there, she can deal with the bil s and the taxes and the rest of it until I graduate. I can’t deal with it al right now.”
“So…you pay me?” Jared asked, grimacing. He didn’t seem happy at the idea.
“Why? Do you want a raise?” I smiled.
Jared laughed. “As much as I love my job, maybe I should be paying you.” I smiled at his words, and he worked to relax his expression. “So, it’s been a month since you moved in. Are you comfortable? Does it feel like home, yet?”
I sighed, looking into his breathtaking blue-grey eyes. “It felt like home before I moved in. You’re my home, Jared.”
He beamed at my words and reached down into the inside pocket of his jacket. “Nina, there’s something I….”
The waitress approached the table and Jared slumped against his chair, looking slightly disappointed. She took our plates and left us alone with the dessert menu.
“Angel Food cake is on the menu,” he smiled.
“I’m definitely going to have a slice of that.”
I watched Jared scrol over the list of pies, cakes and ice cream. While he searched, I noticed a smal , glowing red dot appear over his shoulder and then slowly make its way across the table. I lowered my menu as I watched it hit the edge of the table, and then travel up the bodice of my dress, settling over my heart.
“Huh,” I said in a higher, bewildered pitch.
“What, sweetheart?” Jared asked, stil looking over the menu.
“There must be someone else in here. They’re playing with one of those laser-pointer thingies,” I said, stil watching it quiver on my chest.
My body jerked, and I felt the world spin in slow motion. The sounds of war impeded the air around me and I struggled to gain my bearings. Glass crashed to the floor, and high-pitched buzzing noises accompanied the staccato of gunfire. My arms and legs felt constricted and heavy, but at the same time weightless; flying through the air, higher and higher. I closed my eyes and tried to sift through the confusion.
Jared’s voice cal ed to me from far away, and as his voice grew closer, so did the buzzing and tapping noises.
“Nina!” Jared yel ed.
Sitting on the ground with my back to the inside of the waiter’s station, time sped up and the noises blurred together. Jared reached above me, and I heard a ripping noise. With one hand he placed a large board behind my back, leaning me against it. He ducked once and cal ed my name again.
“Nina!”
My mind abruptly caught up with the present. Jared had reached across the table the second he’d noticed the red dot, and we flew together under a slew of gunfire to the middle of the room. He quickly righted me and ripped the marble countertop off above us, placing it behind me as a shield.
A hail of bul ets soared around us again, and I could hear the waitress screaming from the back in Japanese. Jared yel ed something back to her and then turned to me.
The red table cloth had made the journey with us, and I was tangled in it. I covered my head as the next barrage of bul ets surged through the restaurant. When I looked up, I noticed a red stain on Jared’s shirt that grew larger with every passing second.
“Jared!”
He looked at me with confusion and then fol owed my line of sight to his shoulder.
“It’s fine,” he said, shaking his head dismissively. “Are you okay?” he yel ed over the breaking glass and gunfire, ducking as he spoke.
I nodded, watching Jared’s confused expression turn to concern. He looked down at his thigh and touched his pants.
“Did you get hit in the leg, too?” I asked, ducking with another onslaught of gunfire.
“No…I….” he said, looking back at me. Suddenly his eyes widened and he looked down to my lap, pul ing at the tablecloth twisted around me.
Final y freeing me from the fabric, he yanked up the skirt of my dress, seeing a bloody mess on my thigh.
“Oh my God, Nina, you’re hit.”
We exchanged fearful expressions just as the next barrage of bul ets ricocheted through the room. My brain registered the pain the moment I saw the wound, and a searing sensation immediately radiated from the bul et hole in al directions.
“You’re going to be okay!” Jared yel ed over the breaking glass, his face tightening.
The restaurant was being torn apart by bul ets. The wal s and tables were splintered, the floor covered in glass shards. He pul ed the tie from his neck and looped it around my upper thigh, yanking it tight, and then he wadded up the table cloth and pressed it against my leg. The sting intensified as it shot throughout my body, and I cried out in pain.
Jared’s face tensed and he lifted his hand from the table cloth, both dark red with my blood. He put more pressure on it and I cried out again.
He shook his head. “I’ve got to get you out of here.”
He kept his hand on my leg as he backed up to the station beside me, and then slowly leaned his head out. He immediately jerked back, narrowly dodging dozens of shots aimed directly at him. Whoever was outside only had to keep us pinned down until I bled to death, and they would succeed in kil ing us both.
Jared’s eyes searched the room in desperation. He scanned the ceiling and wal s, and attempted to see what was in the back, ducking at another set of bul ets. When more firing resounded, I noticed that those shots sounded different, closer.
I pul ed his hand from my leg and pressed my hand on the tablecloth, wincing. “Go, Jared. Find a way out.”
“I won’t leave you,” he said, desperate.
I took in a deep breath, trying to focus beyond the pain. “If you don’t, we’re both going to die.”
Jared clinched his eyes shut and pressed his lips together, the clash of priorities sending him into anguish. He turned to me, his eyes midnight blue.
“I’m going to go straight down the hal to see if there’s another way out, and then I’m coming back, okay? I’m going to get us out of here,” he promised.
I smiled and nodded, my eyes glossing over. “I know.”
He grabbed each side of my face and kissed me on the lips first, and then on the forehead.
More bul ets cascaded through the building, and the different pitch of gunfire was just behind us. Jared pul ed me close and I flinched at our impending end.
Jared laughed and I looked up, seeing Claire ten feet away, her back against a concrete pil ar.
“Thought I’d come join the party!” Claire cal ed to us, throwing a gun to Jared and then situating herself with her rifle.
“I love you, baby sister!” Jared cried.
Claire winked at him. “I told you that you’d figure that out one of these days!” She cocked her gun and then looked up, took a deep breath, and then twisted her body, taking several shots before turning back around to escape the return fire.
