“Did you listen to a thing I’ve said?” he snapped. After a brief moment, Jared closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I know you need this to be over. You just don’t understand what we’re dealing with, here. I can’t let my emotions get in the way of my job, Nina. I’ve already let this go too far. God knows the last thing I want is for you to be angry with me, but you’ve got to let me handle this.”

“But—,”

“No, Nina. It’s too dangerous,” he said firmly.

My eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t asking permission.”

“This isn’t about me telling you what to do. This is about your safety.” He hugged me to him and I reached for the keys, pulling them from his grip. I knew that if he hadn’t allowed me to do it, I would never have gotten the keys from his hand. I hoped that meant a part of him wanted my help.

“I’m going to take another look at Jack’s office.”

I turned to open the door, but I was frozen. Jared held me by my waist. Before I could protest, he exhaled a long, resigned sigh.

“Give me a minute. I’ll go with you,” he said, obviously annoyed.

I waited at the door until Jared finished packing our lunch, and then he grabbed my hand on the way out.

Half-way to my parents’ home he still hadn’t spoken.

“I’m sorry,” I said, placing my hand on his. “I don’t want you to be mad, but this is something I need to do.”

Jared sighed. “I don’t want you to get hurt. I’m beginning to regret telling you anything.”

Those words stung me. “I don’t want to get hurt, either. We won’t have to keep looking over our shoulders if we end this. We can just live our lives normally. Together.”

Jared squeezed my hand as he pulled into the drive.

On a rug in Cynthia’s office I thumbed through papers, looking for anything with numbers. I highlighted anything with an eight, two, or five anywhere near each other.

Two and a half hours later, I had several piles of papers, and nothing that included the numbers we were looking for. I sat up straight to stretch my aching back.

“Let’s take a break,” Jared said. He pulled the highlighter from my fingers and handed me the plastic container with my lunch sealed inside.

I stretched my legs over Jared’s lap and chewed happily on his amazing stir fry, marveling at what an exceptional cook he was. Jared pulled off my boot and began rubbing my foot, and I leaned my head back.

“This is taking forever,” I groaned.

“We could call it a day. I could take you out to dinner,” he offered.

I frowned. “You’re not taking this very seriously.”