“No.” Noel sighed. “Not yet. But Officer Wayne here knows a guy and had him bring over a car for us.”
“Us?” Yasmine narrowed her eyes at him.
Noel cleared his throat and clutched the keys as they dropped once more into his hand. “Yes, us. I’m taking you to my parents’ place. You’ll be safe there. You can’t go back to your apartment tonight, and I’m sure my mom would love to see you.”
Yasmine almost laughed. “I’ve seen your mom more than you probably have, Noel. I own a bakery here in town, and she’s come in a few times.”
He raised an eyebrow at her, and she was flooded with the memory of Noel and Daniel as they joked together while playing board games. What was that old one, Mastermind? They loved to play that, though they always seemed to make up their own rules. “I guess she wouldn’t have mentioned I went to Quantico, since I didn’t even tell her at first. I wanted to make sure I could hack it, since the drop-out and dismissal rate is fairly high.”
“She did mention once that you’d gone through police training a few years ago or something like that.”
Noel grimaced at her words but didn’t elaborate. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“FBI and Police Academy,” Officer Wayne muttered. “That explains it.”
“Anyway, I can stay with my aunt.” She didn’t want to, really didn’t want to. “There’s no point in me putting your mom out, especially not when I have family here in town. Officer, are you sure I can’t go back to my apartment and pick up a few things?”
Officer Wayne frowned. “No.”
“Maybe by tomorrow?” Noel glanced at Officer Wayne, who only shrugged. Was that remorse she saw on Wayne’s face? Had he finally realized that Yasmine hadn’t been overreacting all this time? “I wouldn’t recommend going back by yourself,” Noel said.
“Not until we’ve got a better handle on what’s happening here.” Officer Wayne looked at the floor for a moment before training his steely gaze on her. “We’re going to find out who did this to you and why.”
She swallowed down a sarcastic retort about the police’s refusal to take her earlier suspicions seriously. “So you’ve been reexamining the reports I’ve given to date?” When Officer Wayne grunted in the affirmative, she stood and pulled out her cell phone. “Good. You know how to reach me if there are any further questions. I’ll have my aunt come and get me.”
Noel shook his head and backed toward the exit. “No way. It’s been ten years, Browder. I’m not letting you get away that easily, not when we have a whole fifteen minutes to catch up on the way to your aunt’s place. Plus, this way I can keep an eye on you. We don’t know if the shooter was acting alone or if the person who sent him is anywhere nearby. The shooting at your apartment may or may not be related, and whether the guys who shot up your apartment were gang members or not, I’ll feel better personally seeing you safely to your aunt’s place. Did you want to call and let her know you’re coming?”
“I’m not getting out of this, am I?”
“Nope.” Noel jingled the keys and waved one hand to the retreating Officer Wayne. “Come on. We have some catching up to do. It’ll take your mind off the events of the day.”
Not likely. She followed him to the car and made a quick phone call to Auntie Zee, who was ecstatic to hear that she was coming over—less so to hear that she’d been involved in the shootings reported on the news that day. Yasmine left out most of the details, just giving her aunt enough to understand why Yasmine would be coming over for the night.
She climbed into the car as Noel got himself oriented to the new vehicle. The concentration on his face reminded her of the times they’d spent trying to figure out the newspaper crossword puzzles together, or the look on his face during a particularly trying round of Scrabble. A sudden pang of longing struck her—a longing for the past, for how close they’d been, for how Noel had treated her like she was a precious jewel. She’d been too young and hadn’t appreciated it until it was too late.
“So—” They both spoke at the same time, bringing an extra layer of awkwardness to the moment. Noel laughed nervously and started the car.
“You first,” Yasmine said. “And sorry again about getting your car shot to bits.”
“You’ll have to remind me how to get to your aunt’s place. And it’s not your fault my car got shot up,” Noel said with a shrug. The vehicle reversed out of the parking lot, and he turned onto the main street. “I’m blaming the guys who did it, and when the police catch them, you’d better believe that they’ll be paying.”
“The police? You’re not helping?”
He shook his head. “There’s nothing in the shootings that places this within federal jurisdiction. So far a building and a restaurant have been shot up while you were inside, but I can’t take over because of that. I realize that sounds ridiculous, but the FBI works differently in reality than in movies.”
“We caught the restaurant shooter. And he killed himself. Can’t you step in and look for the guys at my apartment now?”
“Doesn’t matter. Until there’s a cause of death determined for sure, and only if that gets passed up the chain, there’s nothing I can do. The FBI isn’t exactly called in for suicides, Mina.”
Yasmine stared at the man beside her. She hadn’t heard anyone call her that in...well, ten years. “Mina. You remembered.”
He glanced sideways at her with a half smile. “Of course I remember. It’s been a while, but we’re not strangers.”
Warmth and regret flooded Yasmine’s heart, but she shoved it aside just as quickly. So what if he’d grown up to be a handsome man? She had no place thinking of him as anything other than a childhood friend. And besides, he’d only be in her life for a day or two at most. She didn’t know much about how the FBI worked, but she did know that they tended to send people all over the country. There was no way Noel had been assigned to their little town in western New York.
“Turn left at the next stoplight,” she said. “And you’re right, but ten years is a long time not to speak to someone, Noel. We’re strangers in almost every way at this point.”
She’d meant it to be a lighthearted comment, but it came out sounding cold.
“You’re right. It is a long time.” His voice had gone flat, emotionless.
“That’s not what I meant. It’s more like, what have you been up to? Are you married, have kids? Do you still like to watch Saturday morning cartoons? I’m curious. It’s like having a big brother who goes away to school whom you don’t get to see until after graduation.”
“Big brother, huh?” He remained rigid, not looking at her. “But I’m not the one who went away, Yasmine. I’m not the one who disappeared for ten years without so much as a goodbye.”
Yasmine’s heart sank toward her shoes. This wasn’t how she’d imagined their reunion would be, not that she ever truly entertained the notion that they’d see each other again.
And she’d meant to look him up once she returned to the United States. She really had, but getting the bakery up and running took first priority, and helping Daniel manage the apartment, plus volunteering on her church’s outreach committee...well, connecting with old friends had taken a backseat.
It wasn’t like Noel had reached out to her, either. Surely his mother had mentioned running into her at the bakery. And he was FBI now, so it was hard to believe that he couldn’t have found her if he’d really searched.
So, why did she feel so guilty?