Dark Entity

Chapter 3.4

Reminder: This is a book preview and only contains the first five chapters. My chapters are pretty long, so I've broken them down into sections. I hope you enjoy! Feel free to comment but no hate, please. Be mindful of trigger warnings in the Authors Note.

Jackie called in the order, and it took about an hour for the food to get there. They ate and joked around for a while before Jackie's phone rang. "Hello?"

'Hello, milaya moya.'

"Hey."

Jackie's smile told Ginger who was calling. "Umm, I'm going to go for a walk, so you can talk privately." Ginger got up and left the room.

'I am not disturbing you, no?'

Jackie got up from the chair and sat down cross-legged on the bed. "No, Ginger and I were just eating."

'I am sorry. I will call back later.'

"No, it's okay. I was done, and Ginger just left to go for a walk."

'Does she know about us?'

"Yes. Actually... I need to talk to you about that. Collin gave me the third degree this morning after you left."

'What did he say?'

"He accused me of toying with you. He threatened to fire me and send you back to Russia."

'I am so sorry, milaya moya. Maybe, I should not have been so forward with you.'

"Don't say that, Peter! You haven't done anything wrong. Collin did, and after I told him off, he apologized."

'I have caused problems for you.'

"No, you haven't. This is Collin being a control freak. You know how he can be. Don't worry about it, okay?"

'I do not know, milaya moya. I want what is best for you, and if I...'

"Don't, Peter, please! You are what's best for me, and I won't let anyone jeopardize that. I know a good thing when I see it. Of course, I want to be sure so answer me this: do you love me?"

'You know that I do.'

"Then, fight for me. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!"

'I wish that I was there so that I could kiss you, milaya moya. You have no idea what it means to me for you to say that. I love you, Jacquelyn Townsend.'

Jackie giggled and replied, "I know. You seem kind of down. Do you miss me that much?"

'It has always been difficult for me when you are away but since you kissed me, it has been nearly unbearable.'

"Do you want to come down tomorrow? I can think up an excuse and have Collin bring you guys in early."

'No, milaya moya. This is work, and we do not need to give Collin any excuse to say that we are not doing our jobs properly.'

"You're right. I just really miss you, too. It took me twice as long to get my new program running on the way down here because I was still pissed off at Collin, and I kept wanting to text you. Usually, I lose myself in my work, but I kept looking at my phone, wondering what you were doing. I felt so foolish."

Peter laughed and admitted, 'I did the same thing. Of course, I was battling the urge to either chase after you or text you. I finally called Hawk to come over. He looked at me as if I were insane when I handed him my car keys and told him to hide them from me until it was time to leave.'

"You didn't!"

'I did.' They laughed. 'He did not look so good, either. He said something about his mistakes always seemed to repeat themselves, but he could not bring himself to say no. Now, he is left hurting again, like all of the times before.'

"Oh, no."

'I take it you know what is bothering him.'

"Yes. I wish I could explain but I swore I wouldn't tell a soul. I'll tell you this, though. He feels worse than I didwhen I was seeing Han, and he was running off with all those other girls. Imagine, if I told you I loved you and then spent the night with someone else."

'Please, do not put that in my head, milaya moya.'

"I'm sorry, Peter, but that's the only way I can explain without breaking my promise."

'It has to do with Ginger, yes?'

"Yes. I think we all know how he feels about her, except Ginger. Actually, I don't think that's even true. I think she knows but chooses not to see it."

'I am not so sure about that, milaya moya. They have been friends for a very long time, and I do not think she realizes how he looks at her. He has never let her see how much it hurts him when she goes off with someone else.'

"That's true, and she thinks he won't go out with anyone because of what happened with his last girlfriend. Oh, sorry. Can't explain that one either."

'It is alright. You have helped me, without betraying your friend. I think I can help him through it, now, without prying or making him feel worse.'

"You should go hang out with him and get his mind off it."

'I am. I told him I would stop by after I talked to you and made sure you made it there alright.'

"I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

'Alright, milaya moya. Ya lyublyu tyebya.'

"Bye." Jackie hung up the phone and went to let Ginger know she was done talking. She opened the door, and Ginger came toppling onto Jackie's feet. They both burst out laughing, and Jackie reached down to help her up. "Have you been here the whole time?"

Ginger grabbed Jackie's outstretched hand, letting her pull her up. "Well, it's not like I had anywhere else to go." They crossed the room and flounced down onto their beds. "Don't worry, I couldn't hear a thing through that damned door."

Jackie smiled, holding in the sigh of relief. "Gave up, after the first few minutes, huh?"

"Unfortunately. So, what did you two talk about?"

She gave Ginger a quick recap of their conversation, leaving out the part about Hawk being upset. "He's going to hang out with Hawk tonight, so he won't be tempted to drive down here."

"Let's just hope Hawk hides those keys better than he hides his journal."

"You read his journal?"

"No!" She paused, with a look of mock horror on her face, then smiled. "I tried to, but he writes it in Cherokee." They both laughed.

"Maybe that's why he doesn't bother hiding it very well."

"Probably. He knows I'm too lazy to learn it just to read his private thoughts."

"We should probably get some sleep. We have to do research on that café in the morning."

"Yeah, the last thing we need is me falling asleep while trying to dig through all those dusty, old records."

"Yeah, I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate your drool all over their documents." Ginger smacked her with a pillow, and they both laughed. They put on their pajamas, turned out the lights, and crawled into bed.