Page 141 of Unexpected

I let them go with the promise that we’d see how the next month went.

After they left, I’d spent the day cleaning and finally unpacking the rest of my boxes. With Luke at work and my paranoia at an all-time high, I didn’t want to leave my apartment for anything unnecessary.

Luke had received several text messages from Valerie, but none of them amounted to much other than promises to see him soon or random shared memories that appeared to not mean anything to him.

After our run-in with her only two days prior, I could tell a change in him. He’d done his best with my mom and sister, and neither of them could tell since they hadn’t met him before. But I could. He didn’t relax for a second, and even in the apartment, his head was on a swivel. The few times one of us left the apartment—to get something out of the car or tour the complex on Mom’s request—he made it a point to go with us and watch intently.

Each time his phone vibrated, he visibly tensed and at one point, his eye began twitching, which was something I hadn’t seen before but figured was due to stress.

I desperately wanted to do something to relieve the tension, but there wasn’t much I could do. He refused to block the number she was contacting him from because that would be the end of gathering evidence.

It was evidence we ended up personally taking with us to the precinct handling Valerie’s case.

Luke picked me up during his lunch break and drove us both there. It was a silent ride, and I longed for anything to talk about to break the tension in the air. He was brooding like it was an Olympic sport, and it was driving me nuts.

We were taking all the steps either of us could think of to deal with the Valerie situation the right way. He contacted the police every time there was a new development, and he provided them as much information as he could. The rest of it was clearly out of our control, and he was going to let the stress of it eat him alive.

And I knew the turning point of it all had been when I got hurt. There was a blue bruise running the width of my ribs where I’d slammed into the granite counter of the bathroom sinks. When Luke had taken my shirt off, he’d paid extra close attention to the forming bruise. He ran his fingers over it and kissed along it softly. It would have been sweet had I not known that he was busy blaming himself while he did it. It didn’t matter how many times I told him that I was okay. It wasn’t okay to him, and I felt helpless against his fear and self-pity.

“So, these are all the messages you’ve received?” Detective Bell asked from across his disheveled desk.

Luke nodded at the man who was finishing off his coffee as he sighed and leaned back in his shitty old office chair.

Detective Bell wasn’t necessarily what I expected. He was tall and looked only a few years older than us, but with quite a lot of gray hair around his temples. I’m sure the job was stressful and caused the gray hair in spades.

And I wasn’t overly impressed with his laid-back attitude toward everything we’d told him.

We’d both explained what had happened at the restaurant in detail. We also showed him the missed calls and texts on Luke’s phone. Whether he meant to or not, he seemed unimpressed.

Luke’s self-control was thinning, and I was watching it happen right in front of my eyes. Detective Bell was discussing the issue with the text messages as Luke shook his head and clenched his fists in his lap.

“So, what do you plan to do?” I piped up, interrupting Detective Bell’s meaningless explanation of the issue with text messages.

“Excuse me?” he asked like he wasn’t prepared for me to speak.

“Are you going to ask the restaurant for their cameras? Or maybe talk to our waiter from that evening? There had to be witnesses that watched Luke and Valerie’s interaction, so you could also talk to them.”

Detective Bell nodded along like he had been thinking of all those things in the first place, but I doubted him.

“Yes, of course, ma’am. We will do all of those things and more. I’m also going to go over to Valerie’s house and speak with her once I have a chance to review the footage from the restaurant and speak to…” He leaned forward and picked up his flimsy notepad from the desk. “Ronnie, your waiter. I have it all covered.”

I eyed him and tried to give him my best “you better”look. His face dropped slightly so he must have gotten my message loud and clear.

“Great, we look forward to hearing what you’ve uncovered by tomorrow morning.” With newfound confidence, I stood from my metal chair on the opposite side of his desk and stuck out my hand.

Detective Bell was five steps behind me and scrambled to stand and take my hand. When he did, his palm was clammy, and I quickly pulled my hand away after the required second had passed.

Luke followed my lead. He stood, shook the detective’s hand and then grabbed mine to lead us out of the station.

“Oh, before you go,” Detective Bell called out before we were a few steps away. “I was able to get a hold of your friend Blakely, and she has agreed to come in for an interview on Monday.”

As the words left Bell’s mouth, Luke visibly relaxed. We both thanked him for his time and headed out of the station.

We’d spent a few hours in the boring, cement building, so by the time we walked back outside, the midday sun had warmed the still slightly chilly November air.

Luke opened the passenger side door and waited for me to hop in before closing it behind me. He rounded the front of the truck and rolled his head back and forth, dissipating some of the tension I knew was probably accumulating there.

As he climbed in and took a seat on the black leather, it gave me an opportunity to appreciate him in his dark-blue scrubs. I’d seen him in them a lot since he’d often go straight from work to pick up Sadie, and he’d only change once he returned to my apartment. I never tired of it, though—the way the material hugged his arms and his legs and showed off the sculpted muscles of his chest. If he turned a certain way, I could even see a line or two of his defined stomach.

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