"You're a burden none of us need," Lexus announced, but Kaely must've sensed the amusement in her tone as well because she up-and-left almost immediately. Jared stood to follow, but Eliot raised an eyebrow at him.
"I think you've done enough," he stated calmly and followed Kaely out himself, leaving Jared to slump back down on the bed with a grimace. He was exhausted, but he couldn't sleep. Not when Lexus was around, anyway; not even she knew of his nightmares, despite her being his oldest friend. He remembered when they was in grade twelve, on graduation day. He was with Lexus, and after the ceremony, she had kissed him. And Jared being Jared, was never one for love or affection, so he dealt with it badly by pushing her way. That was why she wasn't on "the big screen" yet; she had backed away from him as he'd backed away from her, and it had actually saved her life. She wasn't even a suspect; if only Kaely could have been the same.
"Lex, that was uncalled for," Jared groaned, leaning forward on the bed, but Lexus rolled her eyes.
"You think I was being rude?" she snapped. "They were hounding me."
"We're not in primary school anymore, Lexus," Dex muttered, rising from the floor to sit at the table where Kaely had left her food. "You can stop acting like everyone is trying to attack you. If you hadn't noticed, we're in a pretty serious situation that's beyond your childish attitude."
"This is reality," Leo agreed solemnly. "And Kaely is a big part of that now. You can't expect to hurt her and get away with it."
Lexus narrowed her eyes. "What about the rule?" she demanded, looking at Jared. "What happened to 'no attachments', like we agreed? This was supposed to be clean and simple, and now you've taken her under your wing. She's going to be distraught when she finds out why; it's best to get her out of the way before anyone else gets hurt."
"I don't care what we agreed on," Leo glowered. "She's been through enough; she deserves to be safe, and we are the best people to give that to her."
Lexus scowled. "What, does it take me being shot for you to like me?" Dex rolled his eyes.
"As tempting as that is," he admitted amusedly, "that's not an option. Jared wouldn't allow it; he likes you too much."
"Look, do you want my help or not?" Lexus interrupted, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly.
"Yes," Jared shot back, glaring at the guys. "What's your suggestion?"
"If you want the girl to live," she went on bitterly, "you'll have to take her with you tomorrow. Attempt at saving Hemmings will have to be put on hold. It was stupid of you to get caught by the feds in the first place, but it's even stupider if you stay here. I know a place, six hours from Adelaide. Small mining town; you are to stay there and you are not to drift off to another major city no matter what."
"Hemmings is going to die, Lexus," Leo told her, his gaze cold and steady. "We can't let him die because we want to be kept safe."
"But you can't save him if you want to save her," Lexus snapped. "This girl is important; if she dies, we lose our only bargaining chip. We can't let that happen; we can't let them win."
"We could save Kaely and Hemmings," Jared suggested finally, and everyone in the room went quiet. "I mean, if we go and confront Hemmings, we might be able to save him. But we can't take Kaely with us because Bryson will recognise her. So what if Kaely isn't even with us? We can send her to this town you were talking about. She'll be gone before they can get her, and we'll still be able to save Hemmings."
Lexus smiled. "See?" she said. "This is why we're friends. We'll send the girl away, then everyone will be happy."
"You can't be serious," Dex snapped.
"You promised you wouldn't," Leo said at the same time.
"If we want her to live, the best thing for her is to not be around us," Jared replied firmly. "We'll get her on a flight; Lex, organise the details."
"With pleasure," Lexus murmured and swiftly began working while Dex and Leo had a heated conversation with Jared about what he was doing wrong.
"You can't leave her behind!" Leo snapped. "We can't! We all promised we wouldn't! You're just contradicting yourself!"
"We're not going to abandon her," Jared sighed. "We're just putting her out of harm's way. We'll be doing her a favour, and we'll meet up with her eventually."
"Do you mean 'as soon as we finish with Monroe Hemmings' or do you mean 'as soon as we aren't wanted by Australia'?" Dex demanded. "Because the former sounds bad enough."
"Guys, I don't know what you're getting all worked up about," Jared laughed humourlessly. "I trust Lex's judgement, and this is the best option we have. Do you want her to live or not?"
Leo and Dex exchanged helpless glances, but they gave in guiltily. Jared knew exactly what Kaely's reaction would be, however, and that was one thing he wasn't looking forward to.
Kaely and Eliot came back late that night after Lexus had booked Kaely a flight from Sydney to Adelaide, and then from Adelaide to Olympic Dam. As soon as she walked through the door, Lexus trudged forward and waved her phone in front of her.
"Booked your flights," she chirped. "You're all set to go; seven in the morning okay with you? I did what I could with what I had."
Kaely stared at her, then averted her gaze to Jared.
"What did you do?" she asked quietly, and Leo scowled.
"They're sending you away," he muttered, and Dex nodded at Lexus and Jared.
"Their fault," he said. "It's 'for the best', apparently." He this bitterly, so Kaely looked back to Lexus and Jared, her expression blank. Eliot, however, was furious.
"What is wrong with you?" he demanded, approaching Jared. "Are you insane?"
"We gave him the whole talk," Dex muttered, leaning back against the wall. "Lexus has him around a freaking leash, I swear."
Jared rolled his eyes.
"Kaely, we're sending you somewhere quiet for the time being, okay?" he told Kaely. "You're going alone; it will get McMillan and O'Connor off your trail; they'll keep their eyes on us. You're being threatened, but so is Hemmings. If we can prove we aren't behind the killings, the feds will stop hunting us and maybe start helping us. We can't risk throwing that away."
Despite the situation, Kaely nodded. "That's fair enough," she replied softly, then shook her head. "I told you I wasn't being superstitious for nothing; it's because I've been shot, isn't it? I'm only going to slow you down. At least this way, you'll be able to make a clean run."
"It's not like that," Jared tried, but Kaely held her hand up.
"You don't have to justify yourself to me," she replied coolly, turning her head away. "I know where you stand, and I know where I stand. I guess I shouldn't have helped you out in the first place."
"Ugh, can we just get over ourselves already?" Lexus snapped. "We've got a serious situation here and we can't be arguing over something this stupid."
Kaely gave Lexus a glare that was so cold Lexus seemed surprised.
"You have no right to talk to me," she snapped. "I don't know you, you don't know me. You stay out of my way and I might just stay out of yours. Are we clear?"
"It doesn't seem like we'll be crossing paths any time soon, love," Lexus told Kaely. "I think you'd better watch your tone or you'll be the last one to cross my path."
Kaely smiled, but it wasn't a nice one. "That's interesting," she said, "considering I could end your secrecy in this situation altogether."
Lexus raised an eyebrow. "What, are you gonna turn me in? For saving your life? There are things I could tell you that would make you want to turn yourself in. I would back off if I were you." Jared shot Lexus a warning look, but Kaely was too enraged to notice.
"Like hell," she snapped, but Eliot grabbed her arm as soon as she moved, holding her to his side.
"Don't, she's not worth it," Jared could hear Eliot murmur into Kaely's ear, and she calmed down almost immediately. It hurt Jared to know that he didn't have that impact on her, but what choice did he have? Lexus was right; the closer they got to her, the harder it was going to be to tell her the truth.
Jared woke the next morning with a pounding headache. Lexus had left late that night and Kaely hadn't slept at all. Jared could hear her tapping her heels together quietly throughout the night. It soothed his headaches slightly, made him relax. Her presence was calming.
When he slipped out of bed, it was six in the morning. He looked around and saw that Kaely's stuff was all packed into a bag by the door. Then he heard a shout; he straightened quickly, but stopped when he saw Leo and Eliot standing in the doorway of the bathroom. Eliot looked sick.
"What's going on?" Jared asked, and Eliot ignored him, which left Leo to sigh.
"Dex is taking Kaely's stitches out," he explained, and Jared frowned, moving into the space that Eliot left vacant after moving away from Jared. As Jared stood there, he saw Kaely sitting on the edge off the bath while Dex was kneeling in front of her. The bandage around her arm was lying on the sink and Kaely's arm was tensed up as she had her eyes closed tightly. Dex, being gentle, was using scissors to cut at the black string. He pulled another one out and Kaely smothered another shout with a strangled whimper. She was stronger than she looked.
When the last one came out, Kaely was as pale as Death's horse and had a fresh bandage around her arm. She was still wearing Eliot's jumper, with those same black jeans she'd been wearing the day they met. And now she was going away.
Kaely didn't spare Jared a sideways glance as she slipped out of the bathroom, shaking slightly as she grabbed her bag and opened the door, glancing behind her once.
"You guys coming or will I see myself out?" she asked, and Eliot grinned before he joined her at the door, ruffling her hair.
"Nah, we wouldn't miss it," he replied and followed her out the door. As Dex and Leo did the same, Jared had no choice but to follow in pursuit. Was he doing the right thing, he wondered? Everyone seemed against his suggestion apart from Lexus, whose opinion about Kaely was clear, but it made sense at the time. At the time. So was this the right thing to do, even if it was saving the girl's life? He didn't know, and he was afraid that he would come to regret it one day.
What he didn't know was that that day would be coming sooner than he expected.