Girl Gone Viral (Modern Love #2)(24)

He linked his arms around his knees like he had all the time in the world. “What do you want, Katrina?”

Wow, what a question. Where to start?

I want to not have been under my father’s thumb until I was twenty-four.

I want him to have not used my condition against me.

I want to not have been kidnapped all those years ago.

She bit back the bitter answers and answered him honestly. “I want to run away.”

Jas nodded. “Where can you go where you will feel safe?”

The words didn’t have a single ounce of mockery in them. It was a simple, soft query.

Still, she inhaled. Where could she go? This was the only property she owned, the only one she’d bothered to buy. Hardeep had left her with substantial cash, but he’d deeded all his other properties to his extended family and charity and she hadn’t quibbled with that. He’d been more than generous to a girl he’d married out of kindness.

Ten places.

Her goal for a while now. She thought of the ten places she felt comfortable going to, all eating or working establishments in the city. She couldn’t very well go sleep at the pho place. A hotel would mean strangers all around her, and that wouldn’t help.

She accessed her mental fear ladder, her hierarchy of things that scared her. Getting on a plane? Ugh. No, that was outside of her abilities.

She looked to the east, where her house hid her driveway. She could get in her car, though.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m wondering what remote cabin I can go hide in until this all blows over.” Her smile was wobbly.

He stared at her for a minute. “Is that really what you want?”

“Yes . . . I—”

Before she could finish, Jas rose to his feet and walked away to a corner of the garden, pulling his phone out of his pocket. She watched him for a moment, but turned her attention to Jia when the younger woman gently took her water out of her hand and set it on the ground. “Do you want me to call Rhiannon?”

“No. She’s still in the air.” Rhiannon would rush back, and Katrina didn’t want that. She’d put on a convincing show when Rhiannon had left that morning, even if most of her brain had been on the likes racking up on that post.

What Rhiannon was working on was an important next step for Crush. What kind of partner would Katrina be if she distracted the CEO from their business plan? How was that looking out for the good of the company?

Jia nodded. “What about your therapist?”

“It’s a little late for her.” Besides, Andy wouldn’t tell Katrina what to do, but she’d make her think, and Katrina was so tired of thinking.

Jas ended his call, walked back, and crouched in front of her again. “How do you feel about going up north? It would be about a seven-hour car ride, with no stops.”

Perhaps she may have to think a little more tonight. “Wait, are you serious? Where would we go?”

“To my family’s place.”

“The Bay Area?” Katrina had never met his parents or his younger brother, but she knew his parents were teachers who lived in a suburb.

“No, my grandpa’s farm, north of Sacramento. I have a small house on the land.”

“You grew up on a farm?” Jia’s tone was incredulous, and it matched what Katrina’s reaction had been the first time Jas had told her about his family farm in Yuba City years ago. With his pressed clothes and buffed nails and groomed beard, Jas didn’t look like a farmer at all, yet he still went there at least once a month.

As tight-lipped as he was, some information inevitably leaked through.

Jas didn’t take his gaze off Katrina’s face but answered Jia. “Yes. It’s remote. Quiet. The house is nice, isolated, even from the rest of the farm. My grandpa’s out of the country right now, so no one would question us being there.” He held up his fingers, counting each point off. “If the internet figures out who you are, and if they somehow trace you to your house, you wouldn’t be here. You’d be in a place no one would connect to you. No need to worry about bogeymen.”

Huh.

She’d grown up in a suburb, and then had lived purely in large cities. She thought now of what a farm meant. Trees, maybe a barn. A small kitchen with a gas stove, hopefully. Cute woodland creatures.

Solitude. Solitude and total anonymity.

The words buried in her soul, the exact thing she needed right now.

Plus you’d get to see where Jas grew up.

Personal information about the man would always be tantalizing, even if she was preoccupied with a crisis. “We’d be alone?”

“Yes. We can stay as long as you’d like.”

We. That we was extraordinarily comforting to hear.

She wrapped her arms around herself. Was she actually considering this?

She checked in on herself. Yeah, she was. The thought of leaving the house felt right, the same way not leaving the house often felt right. If it didn’t work out, she could always come back. It could be a good exercise.

For you. Not for Jas. “It’s a long ride.”

“We’ve driven at least that long round-trip. I’ll be there with you. We can turn around if you find it unbearable.”

“I’m not talking about me, I’m concerned about you.” She could always knock herself out. What she couldn’t do was drive. The thought of having an attack behind the wheel had terrified her so much, she’d never learned how. “If we were to, perhaps, leave in the morning—”