Page 53 of The Spy Ring

EIGHTEEN

Jagger

“He’s killed her,”I said as I stared at the image on the screen.

The past few days hadn’t been good. No, actually, they had been some of the worst days of my life. I’d rather be tied to a chair in an abandoned warehouse in the desert with ten large men taking turns using me for boxing practice, than dealing with Tiffany acting like our kiss never happened.

And then I saw the picture. That’s when I imagined every worst possible outcome. In each of them, I’m too late and she’s dead.

“You shouldn’t be calling me, Jagger,” Tenn said over the phone.

I called him this morning in desperation. There had to be some way Tenn could look up this guy Tiffany was standing next to. He seemed seedy, suspicious, and must have been a criminal.

“What could I do? He’s probably going to hurt her. She’s not safe. I need your help.”

I heard Tenn groan in the background. “Fine, what’s his name?”

“I don’t know.”

There was silence for several moments.

“You don’t know? Then how am I going to help you?”

“Don’t you have access to the ITA’s face recognition software?”

“Yes, but—”

“Tenn, please. If this were reversed and you were the one desperate for my help, I wouldn’t think twice about it. I would be there for you no matter what.”

When I saw that picture on Aria’s site, it felt like my heart was being fed into a shredder. I wanted to reach through my phone and pull her out of there. Away from his arms and into mine.

It’s not like I had been stalking her or her friends on social media, or anywhere on the Internet. Maybe a little. But I had to make sure Tiffany was safe. That nothing out of the ordinary was happening to her. Specifically, any risk that she experienced from getting to know me, and of course, marrying me.

I knew how to deduce where she was based on what was in the photograph. The furniture and, even better, the view from the window behind them, gave me everything I needed. Tiffany was downtown, in the Eternity room at The Lemington.

I tried calling her, several times, but she didn’t answer. What could I do? I grabbed my keys, intending to head down to the hotel and make up a story about being a federal agent and needing access to the twelfth-floor rooms. But when I was about to open the door to my tiny apartment that backed up to the red line, I stopped.

That was why I didn’t deserve Tiffany. I would lie to everyone just to get near her. Something was very wrong with that. My career went into the gutter because of what I would do to be near her.

That’s why I needed Tenn. He could do all that for me.

“Fine. But just this once. Send me the image and I’ll get back to you. But don’t call me anymore. I can’t be talking to you,” Tenn said, his voice hushed and I assumed Katlin was probably nearby.

He hung up and I pushed send on the image I already had waiting for him.

Then I waited. My foot bounced up and down. Glancing at my phone, I swiped the screen back on. He hadn’t responded yet. I put the phone down and started to bounce my foot again.

Standing, I went to the kitchen to see if there was anything to eat in the refrigerator. Glancing at the clock on the microwave, it stated it was eleven thirty. Only one minute had passed since I had gotten off the phone with Tenn.

“Fuck,” I said slamming the refrigerator door. I could hear something fall inside but I didn’t care.

I needed to get out. Take a walk. The fresh, late summer air might help clear my mind. Maybe I’ll take a walk to the lake.

Doing just that, within minutes I was out the door and walking the three blocks to the park. Once I went through the tunnel under Lake Shore Drive, I was there. Among the dog walkers, baby strollers, rollerbladers, and the evil squirrels. There was something about the squirrels in Chicago. I think they were tougher than the mobsters.

Without thinking, I headed south. Did I do that on purpose, I don’t know, but I ended up not far from Tiffany’s building. I like to think it was subconscious but I know it wasn’t.

A refreshing walk turned into a twenty-minute dash to Tiffany’s place.

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