Page 11 of Family Bonds- Jarrett & Andi

Funny how her cousin didn’t know that information.

“No,” she said. “No more. Don’t worry. You won’t have a sneezing fit tonight when I get out of here. I’m assuming you’re staying with me.”

“Yep,” Jack said. The two men were staring each other down.

If he felt some jealousy over that, he wouldn’t let it show. No way the two of them were related, but there was some kind of bond between them he couldn’t place.

“Hope you get out of here soon,” Jarrett said. “And feel better. Remember what I said. Both of you.”

“Thank you,” Andi said nicely.

Jack was still staring at him, but he smirked and nodded his head, knowing he had the upper hand on his island.

4

LIKE TO PRETEND

“Will you relax?” Andi said to Jack an hour later as they sat in her kitchen. It was just after eight p.m. Thankfully she didn’t live that far from the hospital and it’s not like she had to get her car either because she’d been on a walk when she tripped and rolled down a hill causing more drama in her life.

“It’s hard for me to relax when I get a call that you’re in the hospital and unconscious. How the hell was I supposed to know what happened?”

“You didn’t have to jump on the first flight here,” she said. “And then you got to the island fast too. How did that happen?”

“The flight was the easy part. I was able to get on the first one and you know why.”

She did know. Because she was in Witness Protection and Jack was the one who set her up, he was always able to get to her fast.

“If you were that concerned over my safety you would have had someone from the Boston office come over and keep an eye on me,” she said.

Jack sighed and reached into the bag of food they’d picked up. He’d called the order in when she was getting discharged and they stopped for the sub and soup on the way.

No way she was eating a sub right yet without checking out her teeth. She got more soup and had yogurt in the fridge. She’d test other foods tomorrow.

“I should have done it,” Jack said. “But I didn’t want to alert anyone without knowing. Once they said you didn’t have a lot of injuries other than your head, I was concerned about when you woke up and wanted it to be a familiar face you saw.”

“Also, you would have known if anyone from my father’s past was in the area,” she said. “But we know that isn’t the real reason for everything.”

“Don’t go there,” Jack said. “It was a threat and everyone agreed. The timing of it worked out well. It was that or I’d kill Leo and then where would you be if I was in prison?”

She laughed. “You wouldn’t have gotten caught,” she said. “I know it and you know it and let’s not talk about it because you’d never be able to live with yourself if you did that.”

“I’ve killed people before,” Jack said.

“I don’t want to talk about it with you any more than I wanted to talk about it with my father. I like to pretend you color and paint when you’re at work if you’re not sitting on the phone and chipping a nail typing some silly report.”

“You’re too soft and trusting,” Jack said. “All the more reason you shouldn’t be here without me.”

She’d heard this before. Not just from Jack but her father too.

Andi wasn’t hard like her mother. She didn’t do whatever she wanted when she wanted.

She played by the rules and gave people more chances than she should.

She trusted the wrong people and her father had always feared for her safety.

Not that she’d ever given him reason to feel that way.

Until Leo.

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