Page 83 of Unexpected

“She’s beautiful, and I bet she’s kind and generous and everything I’m not. But does she know about you, Bear? About how broken and sad you are.” I seethed at her condescending tone but couldn’t find the words to shut her the hell up. “I’m sure she doesn’t know, and I’m sure she doesn’t give you what I did. I challenged you in ways you know only I can. No one will ever compare to me. I made the sadness go away, didn’t I?”

It was my worst nightmare—Valerie knowing about Hazel. I knew I could handle Valerie—I’d had years of practice—but I never wanted Hazel to know the violence and terror of my ex-wife. The way our relationship changed from something that pulled me from my darkness to a darkness I didn’t know was possible was something I didn’t want to relive. She was dangerous from the beginning, but I didn’t see it until after we were married when I finally opened my eyes. And Hazel, by being associated with me, was in her direct path.

And comparing the two was absolutely ridiculous. Hazel was everything Valerie wasn’t in all the best ways.

“Last time I’ll say this, Valerie,” I spat her name out like I’d spit the remnants of vomit in my mouth. “Leave me the fuck alone and leave her out of this.”

“With that tone, I’d say she’s pretty important to you, isn’t she?”

“My tone is because I fucking hate you,” I seethed. She had a way of getting under my skin like no one else.

She sighed deeply, and goose bumps erupted over my skin. I knew what that sigh meant. “Oh, Bear. You’ll regret that. But I’ll get you to listen to me and hear me out. I’ll be back in your life soon enough. Tell your brother hello from me.”

And she ended the call. There was no relief because Valerie didn’t make threats lightly. She’d find a way to contact me again, so I’d need to be ready. I needed to protect Hazel, too. Every time Valerie threatened me before, she’d made good on her devious promise in spades. Knowing her only helped slightly, but I knew she’d hit me where it hurt. No one was safe from her wrath.

I couldn’t begin to guess what she’d do.

First, I needed to know how she found my number, how she knew about Hazel, and why she mentioned Josh. Her mentioning Josh really stumped me—she always hated Josh and vice versa. That should have been the first sign that she was not who I thought she was—Josh liked everyone. So, with their rocky past, it seemed like he would be the last person she’d mention.

It wasn’t a coincidence because nothing with Valerie was a coincidence.

Letting out an unsteady breath and scrubbing a hand over my jaw, trying to relieve some of the tension, I hit Josh’s name with a shaky hand.

It only rang a few times before his chipper voice answered. “Hey, bro. What’s up?”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. What the fuck was I supposed to say? The call had completely destroyed the impenetrable walls I thought I’d built around the time Valerie and I’d spent together. The walls were fucking reinforced with the hardest material you could imagine, but just hearing her voice blew them right up. Obviously, I wasn’t as past it as I had assumed I was.

“Luke?”

For the moment, with Josh waiting on the other end of the line, I did what I could to shove the worst of the memories back on the other side of the wall and rebuild it to whatever extent I could. It was a sad attempt and didn’t help much, but it made me feel somewhat better. Luckily,I had decent experience compartmentalizing.

“Valerie,” was all I was able to croak out.

“What about her?” Josh asked suspiciously.

“She called.”

“The actual fuck? When? Just now?”

“Yeah, about a minute ago.” I dropped my voice to a whisper when I thought I saw movement by the door. It was still cracked, but I could have sworn I saw a shadow or something out of the corner of my eye. Maybe I was just paranoid.Hearing a ghost made me feel like I was seeing them, too.

“What did she want?”

It wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have over the phone, especially with the possibility that Hazel could come in at any moment when I was barely holding it together as it was. “Are you home?”

“Yeah, I was just getting ready for work, but I can let them know I’ll be a little late. Where are you?”

“Hazel’s.”

He chuckled. “That’s shitty timing to get that call. Wait—” he said and then cursed under his breath. The telling sound of a door slamming came after it, followed by more curses. “Shit, man, this is my fucking fault.”

“What the fuck do you mean?” I was pacing the length of her office now, stepping around the white rug since I still had my boots on. Most of the room was packed away in boxes stacked in the corner save for her desk, desk chair, a standing lamp and the few pictures of her and fuckface hanging on the wall. It looked like they were pictures from over the many years they’d been together.

The most recent one was from when they got engaged—him on one knee in front of her holding out a box with that extra sparkly fucking ring. She was bent over, her hands covering her mouth in surprise. I’m sure she was probably crying, or was about to, and thought it was the second-best day of her life only to the wedding day.

Both of our previous relationships had ended in such an extraordinarily bad fashion. And my past was coming to haunt her. Over my dead body would I let anything happen to her. She’d survived Michael; I wouldn’t let her have to survive Valerie, too.

I’m sure if I shattered a few of the photos, she wouldn’t care, and God, did I fucking want to rip them off the wall and throw them across the room.

---