Sam smiled at her. “I understand.” He patted her shoulder. After that, he tapped his chest. “This old ticker isn’t what it used to be. That’s not your fault. I have a sneaky suspicion that some criminal has malicious intent directed at the sanctuary. I’m glad to see that you’re beefing up the security, though. Let’s hope that scares off whoever’s behind it.” He climbed in the truck. “Be careful, ya hear?”
“I will, sir.”
He shut the door, cutting off whatever Jax was muttering.
She saw Sam respond to him.
Jax didn’t reply, only stared straight ahead while they did a three-point turn and waited for her to get to the SUV. Her shoulders relaxed a fraction once she understood their intention was to follow her out.
Seyla yanked open her door to get in. Something flashed on the road by her feet, catching the sunlight. More metal pieces to damage the tires? She bent to pluck it from amongst the gravel on the service road and then slid into her vehicle before opening her hand to examine it. A black carabiner clip with a two-inch-long, rectangular card attached to it.
Someone had been there. The confirmation both unsettled and relieved her. She wasn’t going crazy. However, the idea that a person did exist out there, making plans to hurt or kill her, was no less terrifying.
The card had a bar code on it. The memory of the black carabiner clip attached to Ethan’s keys popped to the forefront of her mind. It had the same card on it. Could he be the one doing all this?
A horn beeped, sending her muscles into a sharp spasm.
The clip dropped onto the passenger seat. Seyla stared at it for a few seconds, then started the SUV and drove down the dirt road.
There was no way around it. She had to have a talk with Ethan.
A glance at her watch showed she’d be ten minutes late for the meeting with the director.
Was there anything she hadn’t failed at today?
Defeated, she drove toward the sanctuary, dreading the prospect of another person’s disgust with her and the possibility of losing a job she loved.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jax eyed the number that popped up on the cell phone in his hand. He hesitated, then set it on the shelf.
Hooking his hands together behind him, he stretched his shoulders, his body and mind exhausted. He’d driven himself way beyond the normal workout to push Seyla and the past from his mind.
Perhaps he should have answered Beth’s call. Her sophisticated, polished, aloof, and most of all uncomplicated, personality had made dating her easy.
As well as empty.
No. Image mattered too much within her circle of friends at their church. Indignation and anger at their chilly reception of Logan based solely on his battle scars, along with Beth’s cutting remark regarding his friend during the tense discussion that followed, still bubbled up when he remembered that day. Swift as a paper cut, he’d ended the relationship. He reminded himself to choose forgiveness again. Not one of his strong points.
After a swig of water, Jax wiped his mouth and set the bottle next to his phone, his overworked muscles shaking in response. Rolling his shoulders, he closed his eyes and exhaled.
Seyla’s face swam across the back of his lids. Why?
Popping them open again, he scrutinized the workout space he’d created for himself and Uncle Sam in the basement. Orderly and clean, like his life until now.
He didn’t appreciate the change.
While he loved helping his uncle, a person only a fraction less obsessed with order than him, he itched to return to hisown place. Away from the memories. Away from his uncle’s reconciliation attempts. Away from Seyla. Not that anyone would know it with the way he almost tossed out his friendship with Matt and his plans in order to kiss her.
Jax closed his eyes, pressed his thumb and index finger against them, and slid them together to pinch the bridge of his nose.
He’d come close to losing everything with that near-kiss. Too close. He felt drawn to her; he always had. Whether Matt’s friendship was at stake or not, though, he couldn’t pursue her. He lived by order, not chaos. Everything else ranked secondary.
A shiver ran through him at the memory of the numerous cats he had glimpsed through the window behind her head. They offered a stark reminder of how different he and Seyla were and why they weren’t right for each other.
It didn’t matter that the staff building appeared clean. It didn’t matter that it looked organized. Jax’s mind had flooded with the memories of heaping trash and papers, cats everywhere, and in an instant he was back there. And he had to get out. In the face of Seyla’s hurt and confusion, he’d still been powerless to stop the emotions roiling through him, driving him from the building.
Too many obstacles lay between them. Like her lie. Something had happened in the woods yesterday and, for some reason, she’d hidden the truth. He’d seen footprints next to her vehicle. Boot prints, much larger than Seyla’s tiny feet, had come from the tree line and circled it. They tracked from there to the shelter and finally the staff building, where Seyla had locked herself inside. Stark terror had stamped her features when she’d spotted him in the window. So why lie? Unless she had to in order to hide something.