The Secrets That We Keep (6 page)

“
Y
ou stupid fuck! What were you thinking? She could have seen you!” Gage, yelled.

“What the fuck ever, you
should have let me continue to drive then you could have been in charge of the camera,” Cyrus retorted.

Gage,
let out a sigh and took his hat off and ran his hand over his buzzed hair. “You clearly don’t know how to follow somebody. You were riding her ass like she was a goddamn horse. I needed to take over so we wouldn’t be seen. Now what did Michael say we needed to find out?” Gage asked

Cyrus
was eating some chips when he answered with his mouth full. “He just said he needed more information than what we provided for him. He wants us to be sure of this, which is bullshit because of course we’re fucking sure! We’ve known for a long time now. We just lost track of her. If it wasn’t for that shady ass bitch, we wouldn’t have found her now. He’s working for us; it shouldn’t fuckin’ matter how much information we have. He needs to do his job and that’s it!”

“I know that,
” Gage said while gazing out his window. “But this is his job and he’s probably good at it. You don’t want to be caught up in this shit. I sure as shit don’t either, so let’s just see what else we can find out.”

Cyrus
slammed his hand against the dashboard. “Fine! What was that one bitch’s name? The one who told us all the information?” he asked.

“Ah hell, I don’t
fuckin’ remember her name. Plus, even if we find her, we’re gonna have to get her drunk again. That’s the only reason she started talking,” he answered.

“Do you remember the names
we went by then?” Cyrus asked.

“Of course I do,
” Gage responded.

“Oh!”
Cyrus yelled out. “I think she might have put her number in my phone. I didn’t think I’d need it, but now it may come in handy.”

I
’m sitting in the coffee shop with Jade, telling her about the SUV, the two guys and how I was pretty sure they had been trying to take a picture of me.

“What the hell
, Anna? Shouldn’t you be more concerned? These dudes sound seriously creepy,” she says, sounding worried. “Tell Julian. He’s big bad, investigator guy, I’m sure he could find out who they are and what they want. Maybe you can see the license plate in the picture you took,” she says before taking a sip of her coffee.

I nod in agreement and say I’ll
mention it to him. I’m just not sure if I really will, at least not yet. Maybe I can do my own investigating first. I can’t tell Jade and I can’t tell Julian that I am afraid maybe my past is finally catching up to me. I have always been afraid of that happening, and I sincerely hope this has nothing to do with what happened all those years ago. If Julian ever found out, it would ruin us, I know it would. I wouldn’t have a chance of staying with him. I just couldn’t let that happen. Julian means too much to me. I just hope my secret can stay hidden.

I push away my problems for now and start bombarding Jade with all kinds of questions about her lunch with Jackson.
“So, how was your date?” I ask, waggling my eyebrows and grinning.

“Oh
my gosh, Anna. Amazing!” Jade exclaims. “Jackson is perfect. He is twenty seven, has the bluest eyes you’ve ever seen and the most adorable smile! He’s a cop, and has his own apartment, thank God,” she says with a roll of her eyes.

I remember the last guy she thought she wanted to be serious with. He lived with his mom and Jade didn’t find out for a few weeks until he took her home and his mom was waiting in the kitchen. Jade couldn’t handle that and dumped him that night.

“Anna, I really like him, he is so sweet, I think he may even be too good for me but I hope he never finds that out,” she says with a laugh.

“Jade, please. You are a catch! He would be dumb to n
ot want to be with you,” I say truthfully. “I’m so happy for you! I really hope this works out for you two. Let’s plan on a double date sometime.”

Jade squeals and claps
her hands. “Yes!! That sounds awesome. But let me get a few more dates in with him first. I gotta make sure he isn’t a creeper or anything.” We both laugh. “I’m actually seeing him again tomorrow for dinner” she says excitedly.

“Awesome!” I reply, g
enuinely happy for her. I know she has wanted to find somebody serious to settle down with. “Well,” I say, putting some money on the table for my coffee. “I need to get going, gotta make that trek back home. Julian said he’d be home for dinner tonight.”

“Alright, you drive sa
fely, and be careful,” Jade says with her hands on my shoulders, looking me dead in the eye. I know she’s worried about me and my weirdo stalkers. Hell, I am too. “Text me when you get home, okay?” she says as she pulls me into a hug.

“I definitely will. Thanks for meetin
g me. I’ll be talking to ya soon.”

I step outside the café and start
walking towards my car, scanning all the vehicles that are lining the streets, making sure I don’t see a dark blue SUV anywhere. Luckily, I don’t. I could hope that it was nothing and that I was making a big deal out of something I shouldn’t, but something in the back of my mind told me I should be worried.

I hurry into my car, lock it and drive off towards my home. I have a good half hour drive so I find a good Pandora station and si
ng along to my favorites on the way back. I make sure to check my rearview often because I don’t want whoever might have been following me, to follow me home and know where I live.

When I pull into my driveway
, I am surprised to see Julian’s car there. He rarely comes home early. I grab my camera off the passenger seat so I can start editing the pictures tonight and make my way to the front door. I’m grateful that Ms. Anderson isn’t outside to stare me down again.

I walk into the house and drop
my keys and purse on the little table by the door and gently lay my camera down. Don’t want to be dropping that. As I take a few steps further into the house, I hear Julian upstairs talking to somebody. I hear the floor creaking as well so I figure he is on the phone and pacing. I decide to leave him alone for now and go to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.

I love
my kitchen. It has hardwood floors, as does the rest of the main floor, and my nice, big French door refrigerator is one of my favorite things in the kitchen. Well, that and the little mini bar that’s built into the side of the island in the middle of the kitchen. All of the appliances are stainless steel, the dark grey, gorgeous, granite tabletops go perfectly with the white cabinets we have.

I grab my phone and sit at the island in the kitchen and start browsing Facebook. I don’t really know why I do this so often, there’s never really anything too interesting to read about on there. Usually I get my entertainment from people posting vague
updates about their “friends” or people talking about some sort of drama in their lives, and there’s even a few people who post their personal, marriage problems on there. I’m not sure why people do this, but it sure does keep me entertained. Facebook is my own personal soap opera. I scroll past several food pictures, some funny grumpy cat pictures, political pictures, and then I see a status by my friend Michelle. Her status reads,
I’m tired of being the only who seems to give a shit, if you take me for granted, you’ll soon regret it.
Hmm…another vague update but I’m guessing this is about her husband. Michelle has been married to Dylan for five years and they’ve been going through a rough patch lately. She doesn’t say a whole lot about what exactly is going on, but she has mentioned a few times how he gets on her nerves and doesn’t appreciate her and everything she does. I’ll make sure to give her a call later and see if she’s alright. As I’m continuing to scroll through and read about people’s lives, my phone dings and vibrates in my hand. It’s a text from Jade.

Jade:
You see Michelle’s status?

Me:
Yep, I just read it actually. I’m thinking husband problems again. Gonna call her soon.

Jade:
Yeah, figured. They seem to be getting worse. Remember, the last time we went out and you left early? She got all wasted and was flirting with those guys all night.

Me:
What?! You never told me this!! I’m calling you now!!!

I quickly dial Jade’s number and she answers on the first ring.

“Sorry! I thought I told you!” she starts out.

“
Uhh, no you didn’t. So what the hell? She was flirting with guys, as in plural?”

“Yes! There were two guys that stayed near the bar and they looked
kinda shady but she was over there with them, talking and trying to dance on them and stuff. It was weird.”

“Yeah, that is weird. She probably got in a fight with Dylan that day or something.”

“Oh she definitely did, that’s why I agreed to go out with her. She called me and was goin’ on and on about how she needed to get out of the house.”

“I don’t remember seeing her talk to anybody when I was there.” I try to think back to that night
, but I wasn’t there long. I know I had one drink with the girls then we danced for a few songs and I ended up leaving to go meet up with Julian.

“Yeah, she didn’t not
ice them till you left I guess. Plus she kept drinking so I’m sure that’s what made her go over there. I was on the dance floor still when I saw her with them,” Jade says with disgust in her voice.

“Damn
.”

“I know. I ended up
having to drag her out of there and away from them. They kept asking where our other friend went and how we could all have a good time. Creepy!”

I laugh
ed at Jade and how she said creepy, it was more like cuh-reepy.

“I agree, they sound like creepers for sure, I’m glad I got out of there early.”

“For real, you should be,” Jade agrees. “They were asking if you were coming back and trying to find out our names and whether we lived in the city or not. It was weird Anna, I don’t know how Michelle hung around them as long as she did.”

With
Jade telling me that the guys were asking about me, I couldn’t help the uneasy feeling that came over me. I know it may seem self-absorbed, and maybe a little ridiculous, but with the two weird-o stalker guys following me, and now hearing about two more creepy guys asking about me, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that these guys were actually there looking for me. And then when I left, tried to get information out of my friends. My heart starts beating erratically, I begin feeling shaky and I stop listening to whatever it is Jade continues to talk about.

Could my worst fe
ars be coming true? Has the one deep, dark secret from my past, the one thing I’ve wanted and needed desperately to keep hidden, come to find me? I already suffer enough with guilt and regret; do I really need to start watching my back? Who could these people be? And if they found me, what would they do?

“Anna
! What the hell? Helloooo?” Jade is practically yelling in my ear. I wonder how long I had zoned out.

“Oh,
uhh sorry, I… I’m here,” I stammer out.

“What happened? I was talking to you for a while.
You alright? You sound weird.”

“I just started feeling dizzy, I’m sorry. I’m
gonna go, but I’ll call you later okay?” I say, needing to just sit down and think for a while. I love Jade, but this isn’t something I can talk to her about. Not now, at least. I need to find out for sure if I have people looking for me and decide what I’m going to do first.

“
Okaaay,” she drags out like she doesn’t believe me, but she’s not going to question me right now. That’s one of the good things about Jade; she seems to know when to leave things alone. “I hope you feel better soon, I’ll check on ya later.”

“Okay, thanks Jade,” I reply before hanging up.

I walk into the living room and flop down onto the couch and just stare out the window. I know I need to start looking into things, but I have no idea where to begin. I took that picture of those guys in the SUV but the picture isn’t very clear, you can’t make out anybody inside the vehicle. I could try to talk to Michelle and see if she remembers anything the guys from the club had asked or said, but even that was a long shot because I already knew she was wasted. I’d be lucky if she remembered even being there that night. I guess I could still give it a shot; I planned on calling her anyway to see if she was okay..

I could always go to Julian, after all,
he does work with the FBI, his job is to investigate people and do surveillance. Ironic that I married a man who would have the best chance at finding out my secret if he really wanted to. Good thing he doesn’t know I have a secret.

I never
doubt Julian and his work ethic He puts his all into what he does and it infuriates him when they are unable to gather enough evidence to put the criminals in jail. He has come home before, going on and on about how there shouldn’t be people like that on the streets. I don’t know what “like that” means, I imagine it’s people responsible for violent crimes and stuff like that.

If I did bring my problem to Julian though, he would just question why I
thought people would be following me and trying to track me down. What would I say to him? Could I tell him why I thought people might be looking for me?

“
Annabella? Are you okay?” Julian asks from behind me. I didn’t even hear him make his way downstairs. He’s leaning over the back of the couch, looking at me with his brows furrowed.

“Oh, hey baby
,” I answer, slightly startled. “I’m alright, just feeling a little out of it.”

Julian walks around the couch and comes and sits next to me.
“Are you sure? You don’t look alright. Do you wanna talk about it?” His voice is full of concern and he brushes my hair away from my face, looking deeply into my eyes. At this moment I want to spill my guts to him. I want to come clean and tell him everything, and hope that he’ll understand and still want to protect me.

“I think som
ebody was following and watching me,” I say to him quietly.

Julian’s face instantly changes, he no longer has the look of concern and love but instead his face is hardened and he looks pissed. “What do you mean, somebody was following you? How do you know? Did they approach you at all?” The more he asks, the more I can tell he’s having a harder time controlling himself.

“No, nobody approached me, but there was this car that was tailing me when I was driving to meet my clients. I’m pretty sure I saw them hanging around at the park where I was taking pictures, too. They might actually be in some of my pictures!” I practically yell the last part because I had forgotten about those pictures; maybe we’ll be able to see who they are. “Oh and when I met with Jade in the city I saw the same car outside the coffee shop we met at, a little down the block, but it was two guys again and they were wearing baseball caps.”

Julian looks agitated and his legs are bouncing up and down, he’s chewing on his bottom lip as if he’s in deep thought. “What did the car look like?” he asks.