Split Love

CHAPTER 45

MONDAY, July 8, 2019

- It's done. - Jasmine muttered to herself seeing Logan's text message.

6:13 am - Logan West: He'll talk to Richard Keller.

She couldn't give up now. No, it wasn't an option. She made a deal with the FBI and now Uncle Richard would know. A shiver ran down her spine as she realized what she had just done. How would she do that? Sign a deal with a nightmare? A killer? An underboss of the Russian mafia? How would she get information from him? His family killed hers and now she needed to protect her and her grandmother. She focused on the latter.

6:17 am - Jasmine: I will be waiting for news from you.

Leaving her phone on her bed, Jamie slipped on her sneakers and tied up her hair. The holiday was over but along with it, all her peace was gone. Her life hadn't been normal for a few weeks, and it was about to get worse.

That morning the sky was painted in a mixture of gray and light blue. Gray has become Jasmine Davenport's favorite color lately. But no more. She stared at those dark clouds for a minute and then started to run. Ignoring any omen the sky brought.

The events of Friday night rewinded in her mind like a broken record. But Vanessa and her friend Margot's conversation in the bathroom was what she struggled most to remember. If she had known they were talking about Micah, she would have paid much more attention. She tried to remember the exact words Vanessa had used but to no avail. In short: the woman wanted Micah to love her, she wanted to have him. Well, from Jamie's point of view, she already had. And about the sex, every time she remembered it, her stomach twisted.

The guy Irina assigned to help her, Damien, was almost as quiet as Micah. He took her to the hotel, paid the bill while she picked up her backpack, and then took her to the bus station. He put her on a bus to Hartford. She hated him for that. Hartford was on the other side of the state, for God's sake.

Jamie barely had time to change her clothes. The wig had to be removed in the bus bathroom, where she puked three times and spent more time trying to clean the small room than sitting in her seat. Damn alcohol. The bus was almost empty as it was dawn, at least.

Micah had sent a few text messages over the weekend. The first few were completely ignored, but when Logan showed up at Willow Creek on Saturday afternoon to pick up her decision, she had to stop. If she was going to help catch Mikhail Romanov, she needed to secure their relationship.

Relationship, she scoffed.

Upon arriving at the bridge, Jamie saw a rabbit running quickly, leaving the trail. She slowed down, seeing him run in the opposite direction of her. She stopped at the trailhead and looked around. There were no visible predators. The rabbit was already gone when she looked for it again.

She started running again, thinking about Logan's instruction 'You don't need to do anything different. I don't want you to try to enter his world. Just get him to open up to you. Trust you more.'

How the hell would she make him trust her to the point of revealing that he was part of the mafia and who his father was. 'Live your life, Jasmine. It will happen.'

- Live your life, he said. - She muttered to herself. - Easy to say, Logan.

Her feet thudded heavily against the gravel. Jamie began to feel sweat running down the back of her neck, and dampening her hair.

A small form in the middle of the path made her stop. Her feet moved cautiously, slowly. Her hands were over her heart, and not because of the running but because of the pain she anticipated feeling. Jamie crouched down in front of the little furball. Her hands reached for the rabbit as she made a mental prayer for it to be alive.

The snapping of a branch made her look back. She tried to steady herself but heard - more than felt - the loud crack of something hitting the back of her skull. And her vision went out like a candle flame.