“What the hell is that?” Right as I sit the cup down, my phone stops ringing. I don’t even check to see who called. I go straight to my settings after swiping my screen, holding my thumb down to access entrance.
“Crazy Bitch by Buckcherry?” I ask to no one. My hearts begins to skip, beat after beat, and I can’t take a breath. Someone has access to my phone now? How the hell can this be? I drop the electronic to my lap, as if it’s burning my skin. I’m being violated in every way.
It rings again and I jump. Lola’s name flashes across the screen. Oh god, Lola.
“I’m in Chicago, god damn it, and you better fucking be alive, so I can kill you myself,” she belts into the phone.
“What? You’re here?” I pull my legs up to my chest, grabbing my coffee to take a sip.
“I’ve been going out of my damned mind, Luca. No answer at the office most of the day yesterday and when there was an answer, you weren’t there. Then, you never returned any of my messages I so politely left on your cell phone. I mean, what the fuck?”
“Calm your ass down. I’ll explain everything. But first, let me say how happy I am that you’re here. God I need you more than you know.” I settle back into bed, telling her everything that happened while she walks through the corridors of O’Hare airport.
With my coffee gone and my friend on the way, I hang up just in time to see a freshly showered Camden enter the bedroom. With his jeans slung low on his hips, a ball cap backward on his head, and a tight V-neck black sweater straining against his chest and arms, his appearance screams dangerous. He looks even more vicious when his eyes catch mine.
“What happened?” we simultaneously ask each other.
He gestures with his hand for me to go first, so I do. I show him the newly added ringtone on my phone.
“You have to turn that in to the police,” he says, taking the phone out of my hand.
“I need my phone, Camden.”
“And I need you.” He bends down to brush his lips gently across mine.
“This is all starting to piss me off more than it’s scaring me.” I cross my arms over my chest, the sheet slipping down to expose my nudity.
“Fuck. If the police weren’t on their way I would fuck those tits and smear my come all over them.”
Completely ignoring his sexual innuendo, I head straight for the comment about the police. “Why are they coming here? Did they catch whoever did this?” My entire body perks up. “Please tell me yes.”
“No,” he says dryly. “I., shit, I found something in my briefcase. Something so horrible. I don’t think I will ever get that image out of my head.”
“Wh… what is it?” Suddenly, I feel like recoiling back into bed, becoming a permanent fixture. God no. What did he find? Please say it wasn’t more pictures of me?
“Son of a bitch.” Camden pounds his fist on top of the dresser, his entire body shakes, a shudder ripping wide through him just as there is a knock on the door.
“That’s the police. Stay here.” He points his finger at me.
Fuck that shit, I’m not staying in this bed. Whatever he found in his briefcase has him so distraught he’s not thinking straight. This is about me and not him. And now… Oh no. What if it is about him? What if it’s not about me at all? What is someone is coming after him to get to me?
I slump to the floor, frantically searching for my clothes. “Where are they?” I holler out, as if someone is there to help me. “Damn it. They have to still be in the living room. Shit.” I tug the sheet off the bed and wrap it securely around my shaking body. Taking two steps, see my clothes are folded neatly on the chair in the corner. There he goes again, doing something so sweet for me when our lives are so fucking tangled in a web of deceit and danger.
In two minutes, I’m dressed, dashing down one side of the double staircase, trying to throw my silk robe over the ripped shirt from the night before. Deep voices echo from one of the two bedrooms down the hall. Taking a deep breath, I slow my run right outside the door. I recognize Detective Watts’s voice as one of the two officers firing question after question to Camden, not giving him ample time to answer one before they shoot off another. Idiots.
“Baby, please go. You don’t need to see this,” Camden says the moment he notices me standing in the doorway. The officers turn my way. Compassion, futile vulnerability, and an uneasiness I cannot explain is etched on all of their faces.
“What did you find?” Somewhere from deep within me, I manage to skate my way across the floor, before my knees begin to buckle. My body convulses and I scream at the sight.
“Who would do this? Oh dear god.” I cover my hands over my face. The sight of his suitcase will be forever ingrained in my memory. Blood, so much blood, all over all of his clothes, and there in the middle of it all, sits the diamond anklet I received from Heath.
***
I wake in the middle of the bed, remembering nothing of how I got there. I try and think back, but my mind goes to the bloody suitcase and I decide I must have passed out from the sight. I look around and see Lola, her big brown eyes are staring down at me, tears raining down her stunning face.
“Oh, honey.” She cradles me in her arms and I cry. I cry for a long time. It’s hitting me hard and I don’t know what to do, what to feel, or what to even think. She rubs my back, holding me and soothing me like only a best friend can. I’ve never been afraid for my life before. Not once, but now the fear is real. All types of circumstances set up in my head, playing out my potential murder. Waking used to be so fun and adventurous, now all I want to do is succumb to sleep and dream of anything, but what I saw today. The reality of it is too much. Someone wants me dead!
“The police are gone, honey,” Lola whispers into my hair.
“And Camden?” I squeak out through a fit of tears.
“He was in here a few minutes ago. I think he’s still trying to find Heath.”
I bolt up in bed, shaking my head violently. “It’s him. I know it is. It’s Heath. Camden wants me to trust him, but I know it’s him. He wants me dead, Lola. He hates me for some reason and he’s going to drive me crazy before he kills me. I know it. You… you have to help me! Get me out of here.” I start to hyperventilate, my chest squeezing tightly.
“Luca, stop this right the fuck now.”
I swallow from her harsh sound. My head continuing to shake. I can’t stop. It’s true. He wants me dead.
“The man you claim to be falling in love with is down there freaking out just as much as you are. He’s worried sick over you. He’s put out an APB on his friend, whom he’s also worried about. They are running the blood to see if it matches anyone in the system. Pull your shit together and fight, god damn it. Whoever is doing this to you will not win unless you let them. I cannot begin to imagine what it feels like to be you right now, but what I do know is YOU.”
She taps my chest with her bony little finger. “You are one of the strongest women I know. Whoever is doing this is a weak fucker. Their head has been dislodged from their inhuman body. The Luca I know has every right to be scared and freaked out, but sweetheart, if you don’t get a damn grip, then I’m walking down to the drugstore and buying you a pair of those big girl panties and putting those fuckers on you.” Lola Anderson’s face is blotched red, raw from her tears. I’ve never heard nor seen her say anything short of funny in all the years I’ve known her, yet here she is, trying to keep me afloat. Granted, she did add on the panties bit to the end of her big girl speech, which lowers her level of seriousness. If my life wasn’t so fucking whacked out, I would most likely be rolling on the floor laughing my ass off right now at her comment.
“You’re right,” I concede.
“Oh, I know I’m right. The two of you need each other. I need you. Mitch and Leo need you. Colin needs you and even though you feel like shit about Annie right now, she needs you too. Which reminds me, you haven’t told your mom and dad about this, have you?” Her face screwing into a fretted gape.