The Freelancer – Chapter 92

“Where are we going, Chad?  What’s going on?” Jenna asked once she cleared the sleep from her head.

“You’ll see.  How was the coffee?”

“Fine, I guess.  Where did you get it?  It tasted like it had lemon in it.”

“You’re imagining things.  I love you, Jenna.”

She put up her hand to stop him.  “We’ve been through this already.  I value your friendship, but…I’m with Jackson.”

Chad retrieved something from the floorboard and handed it to her.

“You need to rethink that.  Take a look at this.”

Jenna looked at the tiny monitor and saw Jackson on the phone.  This was happening in her condo.  After she heard his conversation, she watched herself come onto the screen.  This happened last Friday night.  She didn’t understand any of it.

Especially the conversation.

Why was he talking to his sister about Chad? Why would his sister care about him?

“What is this, Chad?”

“You’ve been used, Jenna.  You’re boyfriend is with the FBI.  He’s only been hanging around you to get to me.”

Jenna stared at him, but didn’t say anything.  No way that was true.  Jackson told her he loved her.  He wouldn’t make that up.  Would he?  To get to Chad?  That was insane.

“I don’t understand…he wouldn’t use me.”

Chad smirked.  “Really?  He spent the last week investigating you.”

Jenna was shocked.  “Why would he do that?”

“Because I made him think you were my accomplice.”

“Your accomplice in what?”  Jenna had a sinking feeling in the pit of stomach that she already knew the answer to that.

“It’s all over the news by now.  My plan was flawless…Why can’t you just tell me that you love me?”

“Because I don’t.”

Jenna watched as darkness swept across his face, transforming it to something wholly evil.  He pulled the car onto the shoulder and stopped.  They were at the end of construction on 190 and there wasn’t another car around for miles.  She knew she should be afraid.

“How can you keep saying that to me?  We’re supposed to be engaged.”

Jenna shook her head in confusion.  “What are you talking about?”

“You promised at graduation that we would get married in ten years.  It’s been ten years and I’m here for you now.”

Chad’s voice was cold when he spoke and Jenna detected a note of hostility in his voice she never noticed before.  She never believed he would take that seriously.  Was it possible held onto his crush for the last decade?

“Chad,” Jenna began softly, hoping to calm him, “I didn’t think you were serious about that.  We were always friends, but that was as far as it went.  I’ve never been in love with you.”

“Mouthy bitch!”  He backhanded her across the face.  “I don’t remember you being such a fucking slut!  What the hell happened to you in Boston? I shouldn’t have let you go away to college.”

Jenna opened the door and fled the car.  She was on an overpass and didn’t think she would be able to outrun him in her heels or barefoot.  He laughed from behind her, a sickening, evil laugh.

“How do you think it felt to watch you try to fuck the guy right after you rejected me?”

Jenna turned slowly.  “You’ve been watching me?”

Of course he had. How else did he get the recording of Jackson from last Friday?

“I saw it all, Jenna.  I heard everything you said to each other.  I saw you with him in bed, the shower, the floor, the couch…everywhere!”  He cleared his throat.  “It’s a good thing the last guy got himself killed before I found out you were engaged.  I would have killed you both before I let you marry another man.”

Jenna scanned the roadway, looking for means of escape.

“Go ahead, run, it doesn’t matter.  The lemon you tasted in your coffee was the Cardenolide Glycosides I added.”

Jenna’s heart skipped.  “The what?”

“You’ll be dead soon enough, so I’ll put it in easy words for your slut mind.  It’s a substance found in the sap of the Oleander plant, but I’ve altered its chemical structure to make it more potent.  Your heart should stop soon, but don’t worry, sweetness, you’ll lose consciousness before that happens anyway. Probably.”

Nonsensical fragments began merging in her head. What she saw on the news at the airport was Chad’s handiwork. Jackson didn’t freak out when she told him because he already knew. Everything. If he was FBI, so was Collin.

Now Trista’s strange behavior at the reunion made sense. He must have told her they were FBI when she gave him the letter about the threats to Lana.  How could Trista know about Jackson and make it through the evening without telling her?

Jackson’s odd behavior made sense when all the missing pieces snapped into place. His cold treatment of her didn’t start until after she delivered Daniel’s security badge. This whole time he was sleeping with her while he thought…She didn’t know what he thought.

Had he only gone to bed with her to get information about a case?

Or was that just a perk?

Jenna watched as Chad retrieved a vile containing a bluish liquid from his pocket before he continued, “I took the liberty of bringing the antidote, but I don’t think you’ll need it.  I bet you wish you said you loved me now.”

Before Jenna could respond, she saw the gleam of approaching headlights.  She waved her arms like a wild woman in an attempt to stop the SUV, but it was moving too fast and sped past her.  Her one hope was gone now.  Chad, one of her closest friends from her teenage years, was going to kill her.

“I’m going to die,” Jenna thought to herself.  “I’m going to die and he’s going to get away with it.”

Jenna mustered all her resolve and turned back to Chad.  Hatred burned in his eyes and she knew she couldn’t let him win.  She chose her words with caution and took a careful step towards him.

“You sent me the pictures of my niece, didn’t you, Chad?”

He smiled a mirthless smile.  “I thought your Harvard education would have figured it out sooner, love.  I suppose you were busy being used by a man who doesn’t love you.”

His words hit Jenna with the force of an avalanche.  She was used like a pawn between the two of them, but Jenna knew by the sudden pain in her chest she would never get the chance to find out why Jackson did that to her.  Instead, she rallied all of her remaining strength and took another step forward.

“Would I be so much better off with you, Chad?  At least Jackson never tried to kill me.”

Chad snickered.  “Really, Jenna?  Really?  I know his partner wasn’t dead when I left him.  I’m sure he was able to tell Jackson I was coming for you before he died.  If he loves you so much, where is he?”

“Collin’s dead,” Jenna whispered as she took another step towards him.  Her chest felt like it was ready to explode but her mind was clear.  It hadn’t been so long ago that she studied the law and she knew what she had to do.

Jackson may have used her, but she was in love with him in spite of it.  Jenna clung onto her love, hoping it would give her enough strength to reach the monster a few steps away.  If I’m going to die on this overpass tonight, she thought, I will give Jackson all of the evidence he needs to convict Chad for my murder.

She just had to get close enough to get his skin embedded under her fingernails and forensics could do the rest.

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