The Waitress

13 - The Blame

"He won't even know she exists," Jared replied tightly. He was trying to convince himself, rathe than the others, and he knew this. "If he's seen the news, he may already know her name; he won't connect the dots if he hasn't already."

"How can you be sure?" Eliot pressed. "This is too dangerous; she could get killed if he finds out."

"I don't know what to do about it, Eliot," Jared growled. "All he knows is that we mean something to Kaely, because he's using us as leverage. So she's co-operating."

"That's ridiculous; she wouldn't," Eliot retorted, but even he sounded unsure. "Right?"

"She's not telling me where she's going," Jared repeated. "She's not telling me anything. I'm sorry; if I'd have known–"

"You can't seriously be apologising right now," Leo hissed. "You and Lexus; God, I cannot believe it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jared demanded, glaring at Leo. But Eliot picked up for him.

"Can't you see what's going on?" he asked quietly, and when Jared caught his gaze, Eliot held it as he spoke his next few words. "Lexus pretends she's sticking to the rule of 'no attachments' because she wanted Kaely to leave and never come back. You know why? Because every time she's around, you are at risk of forgetting Lexus and falling in love without her." This time, it was Jared's turn to stare at Eliot, but he wasn't finished. "So, instead of trying too hard to get you to see the truth you've been hiding from yourself, I'm going to help my friend because that's what friends do. I love her; we love her. She helped us when we gave her a life of hell, and all we've been doing is lying to her. I am not turning my back on her now that she needs me."

"Eliot–" Jared tried, but Dex shook his head.

"I think you need to go," he admitted. "Try and think about what we've told you instead of lying to yourself. Come back when you have something useful to say."

So Jared listened to them and turned around, leaving the tension behind as he left the room.

He didn't know what to think anymore. He had tried to call Kaely numerous times as he wandered the corridors of the Sydney Hospital, switching floors and dodging nurses. The calls never connected, which left Jared to the assumption that she had broken her phone to stop being contacted. First, by some American guy claiming to be the one who'd framed him and his friends in the first place, and then by Jared, who was the reason she wasn't going to live to her twenty first birthday. Unless that was tomorrow, which Jared doubted.

He let out a frustrated shout and shoved his phone in his pocket, along with his hands. He didn't know how to get Kaely out of the situation she'd found herself in; he would suggest giving himself up in her place, but that wouldn't work because this guy didn't want Jared; he wanted Kaely. If there was any sign that anyone else was involved in her visit, they'd all be gunned down where they stood. Would the life of one woman be worth the lives of everyone else?

Jared didn't know what Eliot planned to do by helping Kaely, with him being hospital-bound and all. He couldn't fly over to her because he had just been shot, and the guys couldn't fly over either because they needed to be with Eliot and the Feds refused to let them leave Sydney. Even though McMillan and O'Cooper believed them and were helping them, they knew they were in more danger than were before because Monroe Hemmings hadn't actually been killed. They had a witness, and so Hemmings had been sent away with his family for the time being. He would be safe, and hopefully the attackers would forget about him and relocate. Hemmings wasn't the real problem, after all.

Jared was.

And what had Eliot meant about him and Lexus? And Kaely? Did Lexus really want Kaely out of the picture because she was afraid he would fall in love with the other girl? That would explain why she had kissed him and never brought it up afterwards; if she thought that she was the only girl in his life – the one who helped him through everything – then she thought that he would start loving her. But it would never work like that. He knew the things she had done for him were to show she cared, but the way she intended it couldn't be possible. Lexus and Jared had been best friends since they were little; Jared didn't think it was possible for them to ever be more than that. He'd never seen himself with anyone like that, which made Eliot's statement that much more confusing.

Don't lie to yourself, a voice in the back of his head told him, but he shook it away. No. They were in the middle of a war that didn't have room for pettiness like 'love'. And besides, Kaely hated him; what he was doing was probably for the best, anyway. It was best that everyone just kept their distance from him. All he knew how to do was hurt people he cared about.

He wandered the corridors aimlessly for a few hours, which morphed into a few days, leaving Jared feeling lifeless and glum. It was the 17th of March; if he was right in assuming, it was two days until Kaely was gone. Two days until she was murdered, in cold blood, because of Jared and his foolishness. How could he ever make that right? He may as well have been the one to send a bullet through her head; he was the reason she wasn't going to make it. He had been foolish to listen to Lexus, whether she was sticking to the rule or not. He should never have let her go; he didn't want to, but he thought it was right.

It was stupid, that's what it was, the voice in the back of his head told him, but he didn't bother denying it. He knew it was right. He knew that Kaely was never going to forgive him; perhaps she would haunt him after she left. Jared shook his head. He was being ridiculous. He just had to do something; anything. Maybe he could avoid it, the sick feeling he knew would come. And then he narrowed his eyes.

No, he told himself. No. I'm going to stop it.