Killing Me Softly: A Thriller Romance Novel

Chapter 19

I bumped into Janice on the way back into the community center event space. She was rushing out with giant tears streaming down her face when I collided with her.

"Hey? What's wrong?" I caught her by the shoulders, and her startled eyes met mine.

"I can't be here. I...I need to go home. Now," she said, sobbing and holding a hand balled at her lips.

She was visibly shaking, and I had to know what had her so upset—no, terrified. She was absolutely terrified.

"Did something happen?" I asked and glanced inside the crowded room to our table.

Janice nodded and sobbed more, not saying a word.

"Oh, god. It wasn't Jamie, was it?" I asked her.

She cried more and nodded.

"Shit." I craned my neck to see if I could spot him.

Then I saw the bastard, slithering in and out of crowds of people from table to table, still in his police uniform without his cowboy hat this time. He was leaning down to an elderly woman with a smile and nodding with her as she spoke up at him from a table of people. He placed a hand at the back of her chair and glanced at the others at the table until his eyes jumped over to me. He clenched his jaw briefly and exchanged a couple of other pleasantries until he patted her back and started toward us.

"What did he do? Did he say something to you?" I asked Janice.

She turned and looked, seeing him nearing us. "Oh, hell no. I can't deal with him right now," Janice darted away from me with an angry look on her face and turned toward the front doors, wiping her eyes and nose with a tissue.

As badly as I wanted to tell Janice about finally talking with Theo, I felt suddenly volatile as Jamie approached me with that same wide, smooth grin he always gave me, the one that looked like he had stolen it from the Joker. And I was feeling more and more like Batman as he approached me.

"Heyyy, there you are, beautiful." Jamie cooed and leaned in, attempting to put a hand around my waist and pull me in for a hug and a kiss to the cheek.

I instantly evaded him and shot him the angriest look that screamed, How could you?

"Don't touch me." I flatly responded.

"What?" His smile faded, and he blinked at me with a false innocence to his lucid eyes. "Why?"

I stepped back from him and did my best to remain calm when I really wanted to chop his head off. "Because."

"Because...?" He asked and darted his eyes to Janice and then back to me. "Did I do something wrong? I don't understand," he said and crossed his arms and tapped his lips with his forefinger.

"You know what you did," I said to him with clenched teeth and daggers in my eyes.

Acting genuinely confused, his facial expressions shifted several times as he studied me. "I don't understand. Are you pissed at me?"

I didn't want to put Janice in danger by shouting the things I wanted to say to him, telling him I knew everything he did to her. So instead, I kept it vague to protect her.

"Let's just say I've heard some things about you today that I never in a million years thought someone like you would ever do," I said, balling my fists.

Jamie scoffed, then laughed. He shook his head. "Alright. Like what exactly?" He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Let's just say you're not the guy I thought you were, Jamie. Shame on you. You're a real piece of work," I said and rolled my eyes at him before turning to walk out with Janice who stood by the doors with her arms crossed and her mouth tight with anger.