Read Online Jaq With a Q (Kismet) by Jettie Woodruff - Free Book Online Page B

here. I’ll still watch a movie with you. I’ll still eat with you. I’ll still talk to you a few times throughout the day.”
    “But you won’t be here if something bad happens. What if Wallace hurts me because he knows you’re not here? He might, Ollie. For real.”
    “Jaq, that’s not going to happen. You don’t need Wallace to even come there. You have plenty of food.”
    “I don’t want you to leave. Why didn’t you just go? Why did you have to go and tell me?”
    That wasn’t expected. Within a few short weeks, Jaq had become dependent on me for her survival, and in a scientist’s sick kind of way, it made me want her even more. I thirsted for her blood without knowing what it even meant. Not like Silas. It wasn't her short skirt, long lashes, or sultry red lips as usually seen through his eyes. This burned deeper than that. Every time I looked at her, I couldn't stop looking at her, she had completely taken over my mind, my heart, and my soul. I felt her in a way I knew was special, like we were so close to something big, but had no clue what. That realization was hard for someone with my problem solving mind. I didn’t get it.
    “Ollie? Oh, my God. I’m hanging up. You’re not even listening to me. You don’t even care about me.”
    Jesus, God. It wasn’t that at all. Jaq stood, letting her towel fall to the floor, and I choked. Literally. I cleared the lump in my throat, trying to regain the lost composure. “Sorry, I was just taking some notes.”
    “About me?”
    “Sort of. You could come with me, Jaq. You trust me, don’t you? Come with me.”
    I watched her sit again, a defeated, a sad look taking over her expression. “I can’t, but I do trust you.”
    “Then let’s do this. You don’t have to live in that dingy apartment where you’re afraid all the time. We could even keep doing this. You could have the master bedroom with the in suite bath, your own patio doors leading to your own private sitting area. You wouldn’t even have to come out until you’re ready. Please, Jaq,” I begged, pulling out every trump card I had to entice her.
    Jaq covered her naked body with a child’s Barney blanket and sighed, the purple dinosaur covering her perfect body. “I don’t want to, and I don’t want you to go there either. I can’t.”
    “Why, Jaq? Tell me why.”
    “Just leave me alone.”
    “Come on, really?” I chastised, unbelieving of her behavior, being back to that again. However, it was one second too late.
    Jaq hit the end button on her phone, but rather than closing the laptop in my face the way I expected, the way she’d done so many times before, she played her game. I watched her for hours, sometimes dropping the blanket when she stood to check her wet clothes, and sometimes holding it tight around her body. The computer went to sleep, but she didn’t. She mostly sat there staring off into space, every now and then jerking her head to a noise she’d heard, eyes wide with a fear I didn’t understand. She brushed her teeth four times, sitting between each brush and then anxiously jumping up to do it again. I wondered if it was an OCD symptom or if she’d forgotten that she’d already done it. That was the exact moment when I owned up to the feelings stirring behind my shorts, a useless emotion I didn’t really get. Something was looming, and I didn’t like the way it felt, something catastrophic, an imminent dark cloud. 
    In the eye of the beholder.

Chapter Five
     
     
     
    I set out on my seven-hour drive just after five in the morning, right after I checked in on Jaq. She did sleep. Some anyway. She was leaned against the tub, her head resting on the side, all curled up in her kid’s blanket, cute as could be. Her jeans were still hanging, but the panties and hoodie were gone. A feeling of content aligned with my mood, seeing her at peace, an inner smile that warmed my heart.
    My plan was to make it to Biloxi before Silas landed. If all went well, I’d