Seyla picked at an imaginary hangnail. “I didn’t tell him.”
“Why not? You should. This is serious.” Jessa elbowed Seyla in the ribs. The enthusiastic glow of excitement spread across her face. “Jax could be your bodyguard,” she stressed with a hand over her heart, her voice dropping to an exaggerated, low, sultry pitch.
Seyla frowned. “Jax has zero interest in me. Trust me.” She dropped her gaze to the desktop, her fingers tearing at the edge of a piece of paper.
“And you?” Jessa questioned in a softer voice.
Seyla ripped the corner off the paper and met her friend’s gaze. “I have a sanctuary to protect, and he’s the greatest threat to that if he hopes to buy out this place. That’s the only interest I can afford to have in him right now.”
Was that hard edge to her voice bitterness or resolve?
Jessa’s brows snapped down and together. She squirmed in her chair. “Huh.”
Seyla’s eyes narrowed on her. “What?”
Jessa sighed and sucked her lips between her front teeth. “First, I want to remind you that you promised you’d go to this fair with me. Nate is spending the day with a friend’s family there. We have to go.”
“I don’t know how you talked me into this. You know I don’t like crowds.” More like hated them.
“You need to get out more, Seyla. Besides, you’ll have me and Matt there with you. You’ll be fine. But…”
“But what?” Seyla prodded, her suspicions aroused.
Jessa tugged at an earlobe. Played with the earring stud. Avoided Seyla’s stare.
Oh no. Seyla cringed, waiting for the words she didn’t want to hear to slap her.
“Matt is bringing Jax with him.” Jessa’s face melted into an unspoken apology.
Seyla shut her eyes, groaning. The confirmation sunk to the pit of her stomach with the weight of a lead anchor. How would she get through a whole afternoon spent with a guy who made it obvious he wanted nothing to do with her?
“Please, please, please don’t bail on me,” Jessa begged. “This is the first date I’ve been on in a long time. I like Matt, which is why I’m nervous. I need you there.”
Seyla wilted a bit. She had to do this for Jessa’s sake. The woman had been through a lot. It would be wrong and selfish to ruin this for her. But spend the whole day with Jax? “Okay. If things get awkward, I reserve the right to leave, though.”
Jessa hugged her and giggled. “I accept those terms.” She leaned away a fraction. “Seriously, Seyla. Thank you. This means a lot to me.”
“I know. Matt is a great guy. I hope it works out between you two.”
Their attention flicked to the monitor again, the frozen picture of the hooded clown stalker pasted across the screen.
Seyla stood up, intent on getting away from the image in front of her. “We better get going.”
Jessa tugged her back into the chair. “Wait. Sorry I didn’t have a chance to call you the other day. There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.” Her eyes darted between Seyla and the computer screen.
Seyla adopted a theatrical mask of fear. “This gets worse?”
Jessa flashed a half-grin, then turned serious. “It’s regarding Hannah.”
“The last Operations Manager?”
Jessa shut her eyes and rubbed her fingers across her forehead. “Yeah. I-I thought she was being paranoid. But after this…” She trailed off, gesturing toward the image on the screen.
The blood stilled in Seyla’s veins. “What?”
Jessa rubbed a thumb over her other palm, entirely too focused on the act. “Hannah rushed into the surgery room late one morning, which was completely out of character for her. Her clothes were wrinkled and it didn’t look like she’d brushed her hair before bunching it into a ponytail. Again, not like her at all. She shut the door, said she had an urgent concern to discuss with me. Alone. She thought a person was stalking her. That…that they were…” She paused and bit her lip, then stared into Seyla’s eyes. “She said they were trying to kill her.”
Seyla gasped.