If I didn’t get some concrete answers soon, I would have to force them from her, and neither of us was going to like that outcome.
Chapter 12
Emily
I lounged in bed for much longer than I was asleep, but that was primarily to avoid acknowledging the fact that I’d gravitated toward Tamir in the night. When he got out of bed, I woke up, realized I was on the wrong side of the bed, and promptly pretended to keep sleeping for the next hour. It gave me plenty of time to overthink my nonexistent plan until my stomach was a bundle of nerves.
I had wanted to take breakfast back to the motel room and continue to hunker down until it was time. Tamir had other plans. He insisted I was safe for the moment and coerced me into going to a local café to eat. The food was delicious, and it was good to get out and do something normal. However, the minute we got back in the car, my nerves rallied for a second attack.
“Where are you going? The motel is back that way.” I pointed behind us, but Tamir never altered his course. After he had proved he wasn’t going to take me back to New York, I’d given in to his insistence to drive. It was his car, after all.
“If you keep rolling that necklace around in your fingers for the next three hours, there won’t be any etching left. I thought we could go somewhere to take your mind off everything.” He raised his hand when I started to argue. “No one followed us. This is Columbus, Ohio. No one here is after you, I promise. Now, please, try to trust me.”
He wasn’t wrong. The chances that anyone knew I was there were slim to none. Of course, I was rightfully paranoid since I’d already been found once, but logically speaking, the odds of being caught again so quickly were right there next to winning the lottery.
“Fine,” I muttered. “But if I die out there, it’s your fault.”
He smirked. “Even if you’re hit by a train or fall into a well?”
“Absolutely. Those scenarios would never have happened if I was tucked away at the motel, so yes.”
“I’ll just have to make sure to keep you safe then.” He peered over at me, just as I snuck a glance at him. Our gazes locked, and through that connection, the tiniest tendrils of trust passed between us. It was brief, and the threads precariously delicate, but it was a start.
A few minutes later, we pulled up at the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. The entry sign boasted eighty-eight acres of landscaped grounds and breathtaking floral displays.
“How on earth did you think of this?”
“Google.” His wry response drew my eyes from the landscape to see he could barely contain a sarcastic smile.
“Well, thank you, Google. This is absolutely perfect. It’s just too bad it’s fall. I’d love to see the place in the spring.”
“I wasn’t sure if you’d be one of those women who enjoys nature or runs from it.”
“I’ve never been camping or anything like that, but I’ve always loved being outside. Something about seeing the trees wave in the breeze and the birds floating in air reminds me the world will keep spinning and everything will be okay. It’s reassuring, especially when life feels overwhelming. My dad used to have a swing hanging from a tree out in the front of his house. I would sit in it for hours, just watching the world go by.”
Tamir parked the car without responding. We both exited and rounded the car, walking silently toward the building entrance. I wasn’t sure why I suddenly felt so uncomfortable. As though I’d presented a tiny piece of myself, only to have it rejected with Tamir’s silence.
“Maybe that’s just me,” I muttered.
“I know exactly what you’re talking about.” He pulled ahead of me in three easy strides, his words drifting back to me like a warm summer breeze.
We explored the different ecosystems and their vast array of plants in the greenhouse buildings. The sunlight poured inside, and I basked in its warm rays. My body and soul had desperately missed the heavy doses of vitamin D that I was used to receiving before I moved to the city. Concentrated stints in the sun were far less common in the concrete jungle, where towering skyscrapers cast the world below into shadow.
I was so caught up in enjoying my surroundings that I was stunned when Tamir pointed out it was time for us to leave. Three hours flew by as if it was nothing, and for the first time in what felt like months, I wasn’t looking over my shoulder every ten minutes.
Stephanie had set up our meet at a McDonald’s in downtown Columbus. We ordered food and selected a table by a window. Tamir began to eat, seemingly oblivious to the world around him, while I barely got down a french fry as I scrutinized every person who walked through the doors.
“Do you have any way to identify this guy, aside from his name?” he asked between bites.
“No, and I’m wishing I had. How the hell am I supposed to meet up with someone without knowing anything about them?”
Within minutes of our exchange, a lanky white guy with dreadlocks gave me a chin lift from across the dining area. He was holding a plastic grocery sack full of stuff and chewing on a fingernail.
I mouthed his name with a questioning look, but instead of coming over, he just glared at Tamir.
“Um, I’ll be right back.”
Tamir watched me warily but didn’t stop me.
I approached the man as if he were a lost child looking for his mother. “Are you Reggie?” I asked with a smile.
“Steph gave me your description; she didn’t say anything about a dude. He looks way too serious for my taste.” He looked and sounded like a southern California surfer who’d taken one too many hits off the bong, hopped on the wrong bus, and ended up thousands of miles from home without a way to get back.
“She didn’t know I’d be traveling with anyone. He’s fine, I promise. You want to come sit with us?”
“No, brah. That’s how dudes like me get locked up.” He glanced around nervously. “I know what I’ll do. I’m gonna hit the little boys’ room. You get me?” He flashed a smile, then spun around and disappeared into the bathroom hallway.
Was he expecting me to follow him? I glanced at Tamir, who admittedly, looked ready to interrogate Reggie, and shrugged. When I turned back, my paranoid contact exited the bathroom less than a minute after entering, the bag no longer in hand.
It hit me that the Bob Marley wannabe was worried it was a setup. He didn’t want to be caught handing over anything incriminating, so he’d left it for me out of sight.
I hurried back to the men’s restroom and retrieved the sack that was waiting for me on the counter. Without chancing a peek at its contents in public, I went directly back to Tamir.
“Did you open it yet?” he asked.
“No.”
“Good. Finish eating and we’ll have a look in the car.”
Once we were safe from prying eyes, I sorted through the bag’s contents, one item at a time. A woman’s sweater and a pair of joggers. One disposable phone. A visa debit card with one hundred dollars on it. A sudoku puzzle book and a hardback book—The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose by Oprah Winfrey.
“That’s it?” he asked, brow furrowed.
“You can see it just as well as I can. There’s nothing else in there.”