Knowing You (The Jade Series #2) (31 page)

“We’re not going to—”
 

He puts his hand up. “What did we say about any discussion of the future?”

“Fine. But I’m still paying you back.”

26

“Did you ask your dad if I can stay at your house?”

“I don’t need to ask him. You’ve already stayed there before and he didn’t care. And it’s not like we don’t have the room.”

“What about Katherine?”

“She’s at her parents’ house in New York with Lilly.”

“I still think you should ask—”
 

“Jade, you’re staying at the house no matter what anyone says, so stop worrying about it.” He stands up. “Let’s go see Frank before he falls asleep again.”

By the time we get there, he’s already sleeping. Ryan’s waiting out in the hall. “Dad said you’re going back to Connecticut for the rest of break.”
 

As soon as he says it I realize I don’t have a story to tell Ryan. How am I going to explain this to him?
 

“Yeah. I’m sorry, Ryan. It’s just that—”
 

“Dad said it was his suggestion.”

“Um, yeah. It was,” I say, wishing Frank had told me the story he apparently gave Ryan.
 

“He said something about how Garret’s family does all this stuff for Christmas and how you’d have a better time there than here. But is that what you really want to do?”

“Yeah, it is.” I can’t look at him when I say it. I don’t like lying to him and I really don’t like making him feel bad.

“My family
does
make a big deal over Christmas,” Garret says. “I guarantee Jade will have a nice holiday.”

Ryan ignores him, keeping his focus on me. “He said you’re leaving tomorrow, but can’t you stay a couple more days? You just got here. We barely had any time together.”

“I can’t, Ryan. We already got the plane tickets.”

“We won’t see you again until school’s out. I can’t get out there to pick you up until May.”

“I know.” I wish I could tell him the real reason I’m leaving because now he thinks I don’t want to spend time with him. And that’s not true at all. I had all these things planned for Ryan and me to do over break.

 
Ryan gets quiet and I know he’s mad at me for leaving but he’ll get over it. He never stays mad for long.
 

The three of us sit in the waiting area for the next hour waiting for Frank to wake up. Ryan’s girlfriend, Chloe, shows up and we wait some more. Frank’s still sleeping so we decide to go out for dinner.
 

Chloe’s in med school and she’s all about eating healthy, so we go to a restaurant where you make your own stir-fry. You don’t actually make the stir-fry. You just pick the ingredients and give it to the guy to cook.
 

“Look, Jade. Vegetables. Your favorite,” Garret jokes as we’re lined up at the stir-fry station. Luckily they have egg rolls and fried wontons, so I load up on those and go back to the table. As I’m eating, Garret comes back with some stir-fried green beans and sets them in front of me, moving aside my plate of egg rolls.

“Why are you putting something green in front of me? I can’t eat that.”

“Just try it,” he says, digging into his own heaping plate of vegetables.

I cautiously try a green bean, preparing to spit it in my napkin. But it’s really good. It doesn’t even taste like a green bean.
 

“What did you put on those?”

“It’s a secret. I made my own concoction at the sauce bar.” The cocky smile appears. I haven’t seen it for a while and I’ve missed it. “You like it, don’t you?”

“Maybe.” I eat another green bean.

“I could make you something else. Like chicken? Or some other type of protein? Actual food instead of that fried crap you’re eating.”

“If you could make it taste like this, I’ll have some chicken.”

He gets up and heads to the stir-fry station.

Ryan comes back to the table, pretending to be startled when he sees my plate. “You’re eating a green vegetable? Are you feeling okay?”

“Funny, Ryan. Garret made me. And now he’s making me eat chicken.”

“Huh. I’ll give him a few points for that.” Ryan leans over to Chloe. “Jade lives on junk food. Potato chips. Fries. Desserts. That’s about it.”

“And chocolate milk,” I add. “Technically, that’s not junk food.”

Garret comes back with the chicken. It’s just as good as the green beans. I might have to break down and give him a compliment for this. But not now. I’ll save it for later.

After dinner, we go back to the hospital and see Frank, who is finally awake. We stay there until the end of visiting hours. The nurse keeps coming in telling us we need to leave, but I’m not ready to. I don’t want to leave Frank. I haven’t had enough time with him.
 

I sit next to Frank on the bed and take his hand. “I’ll miss you like crazy, but I’m going to keep calling you every day, just like I’ve been doing. Once a week isn’t enough.”

“Okay, honey. Sounds good.” He glances at the clock on the wall. “You should get going. They’re very strict about visiting hours. Call me tomorrow when you get to Connecticut so I know you made it.”

“I will.” I stand up but I’m unable to go. Frank still looks so frail. What if he doesn’t get better? What if his brain starts bleeding again and they can’t make it stop? What if this is the last time I see him? Just thinking about it has my eyes getting watery. Stupid Garret making me feel shit! Damn, it pisses me off!

I give Frank a hug. My eyes can’t hold the tears anymore and they run down my cheek. “I don’t want to go,” I whisper to him.

“You need to go,” he whispers back. “You’ll be safer there.”

I pull away, trying to quickly wipe the tears. But Frank sees them. He’s never seen me cry. Not even when my mom died.
 

He motions me to get close again. “That boy’s been good for you, Jade. I’m glad you found each other.”

The nurse is standing at the door staring at us, signaling us to get out.
 

“I guess we have to leave,” I say, letting go of Frank’s hand.

Garret comes over to Frank. “It was nice meeting you. I hope you feel better soon.” He puts his arm around me as I stand up. “I’ll take good care of her.”

I lean down and hug Frank one more time.
 

Then I hug Ryan. “I feel like I did that day you dropped me off at Moorhurst. Saying goodbye when I didn’t want to. I felt so alone when you left. I ran for like three hours that day.”

“Jade, you should’ve called me.”

“Oh, yeah. Like you would’ve talked to me with your no-cell-phones-while-driving-on-the-interstate rule.”

“I would’ve pulled over.”
 

“It doesn’t matter. I survived.” I take a deep breath and let it out. “This goodbye stuff sucks. I’ll just say see ya later.”

Ryan smiles. “Okay. See ya later, Jade. See ya, Garret.”

On the way to the hotel, I try not to cry but a few tears sneak out. Garret reaches over and holds my hand. “Jade, you can come home before May. I’ll get you a ticket for spring break. Or some weekend. Whenever you want to go.”

“No. You’ve already spent enough.”

“The money doesn’t matter. What matters is that you see your family.”
 

“I’ll think about it.”
 

We get a few hours sleep before having to get up to catch our early morning flight. When we board the plane, our seats are in the second row. “First class again, Garret? It’s gonna take me years to pay this off.” I turn to look behind us. “We could’ve sat back there. It’s not a full plane.”

“I told you I don’t fit in those seats.” He takes a newspaper from the flight attendant and turns to the sports section. “Just get used to it. When you’re Mrs. Kensington you’ll only fly first class.” He’s trying not to laugh.
 

“Stop it. You’re just saying that because you know it freaks me out. And you know I can’t protest because of that rule you made.”

“Katherine ruined the family name, Jade. We need a new Mrs. Kensington. And you’re it.”

I jab his side. “Okay, you’re done now.”

He goes back to reading his sports section. I squeeze his hand as we take off, then rest my head on his shoulder and fall asleep.
 

We get into Hartford just before noon. It’s dark and gloomy. It almost looks like it could snow.
 

I get in the car and call Ryan quick to let him know we made it while Garret puts the luggage in the trunk. I hang up with Ryan just as Garret gets in the car.
 

“Do you want to eat somewhere?” he asks as we’re leaving the airport. “It’s more than an hour drive to my house.”

“No, I’m not hungry.”

Garret gets on the interstate. As he speeds up, I notice him glancing down at his feet.”

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“I was just checking something.”

His eyes move from the road to the dashboard and back again, repeatedly. A car pulls into our lane. We come up close to its bumper but Garret doesn’t even slow down. He just darts into the other lane.

“Garret, you almost hit that car. Why didn’t you slow down?”

He checks the dashboard again. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“I can’t slow down.” He sounds panicked. “I keep pressing on the brakes and nothing happens. Watch.” He hits the brakes and the speed doesn’t change. “The fucking brakes are out!”

Now
I’m
panicking. “This car is only a few months old. How could the brakes not work?”
 

“We have to get off the interstate. I’m gonna take one of these exits.”

“And do what?”

“I don’t know yet. The next town is really small. I’m hoping we’ll have the road to ourselves. Then I’ll figure something out.”
 

He signals and moves to the far right lane, then gets off at the next exit going 75 miles per hour. Luckily there aren’t any other cars on the offramp or the stoplight at the end of it. We plow right through the red light and down a two-lane road.
 

I’m convinced this is the end of both of our lives. We came back here to be safe and now we’re going to die.
 

Garret’s being very calm about this, probably for my sake. I keep quiet so he can concentrate.

“Jade, hold on to something. This is going to be a rough stop.”

Before I can ask what he’s doing, he puts the car in neutral, veers off the road, and steers up a large snowy hill. The car slows down, unable to make the hill, the tires struggling in the snow. It rolls back and finally stops. Garret turns the car off, then reaches over and unfastens my seat belt.

“Get out of the car! Now!” He yells it at me as he gets out of the driver’s side.

He comes around and grabs my hand, then starts running away from the car.

“What’s going on?”

“Someone fucked with my brakes. And if they did that, they might have done something else to the car. Set something to go off. I don’t know. We just need to get away.”

We stop when we reach the ditch by the road. “Jade, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
 

“No. I’m fine. Just freaked out. And cold.”
 

“Come here.” He holds me close to him with one arm and calls his dad with the other.

“What did your dad say?” I ask him after he hangs up.

“He’s coming to pick us up. I told him we’d wait at that gas station we passed, so we need to get walking.”
 

“But does he think someone did this?”

“He
knows
someone did this. Brakes don’t go out on a car that’s four months old. I had that car serviced a month ago. Everything was fine. And the brakes worked on the way to the airport. Someone did this while it was sitting in the parking garage.”

“So they’re trying to kill us. They want us dead.” I don’t say it like a question because it’s clear that’s what they wanted.

“Let’s not talk about it right now. Let’s just get to the gas station where it’s warm and wait for my dad.”

Mr. Kensington picks us up an hour later in his black Mercedes. Garret and I don’t say much on the ride back to the house. I think we’re both still in shock.

When we get to the house, Mr. Kensington takes us into his office. It’s huge and looks like an actual office in an office building. He sits down at his oversized desk and Garret and I sit across from him.
 

“I never thought it would come to this,” he says. “I’ve known Royce for years and although he’s ruthless when it comes to politics, I never thought he’d do something like this.”

“Why wouldn’t he?” I ask. “He’s a rapist. He almost killed my mom. He left her for dead on the side of the road.”

Mr. Kensington’s brows raise. “A rapist? No, he didn’t rape her. Royce and your mother had an affair. And he certainly didn’t try to kill her.”