Page 92 of Unexpected

“You’re starting to worry me,” I said quietly.

“I’m sorry. I…” He cleared his throat, and it was easy enough to see how difficult it was for him. I was dying to know what was happening but seeing him struggle made me want to comfort him.

“I told you I was married before.”

My brow furrowed, wondering where he was going with that, but I nodded. I didn’t know much about the woman—Valerie—but still knew that she was bad news.

“We started dating right after I finished vet school. She’d been part of our friend group for a while, and I knew she’d always had a crush on me. But I never did anything about it until after I’d finished school. Those details aren’t important, though.” He waved his hand around like it wasn’t, but I had a feeling every detail of their relationship was insanely important. “Almost as soon as we started dating, she became very possessive and attached to me, but I didn't realize it at the time. I was going through a tough time, and she was there.”

He readjusted me on his lap. “Josh never liked her, even when she was just our friend, but he really didn’t like her when we started dating. No one liked how she treated me, but I didn’t listen. It was eight months to the day after we started dating that we got married. We were both twenty-five and thought we were in love.”

He chuckled, but it was a hollow sound. “We lasted a full year, but I knew it wasn’t going to work the first month in. I realized she would do things just to rile me up and make my temper flare. She was just nasty and hateful a lot of the time, but then she’d switch like someone had flipped something. There were other things, too, but let’s just say it was not a healthy relationship. After that first month, the other eleven months we were together, I spent trying to convince myself that it wasn’t that bad.”

For the first time since he had begun talking, he raised his eyes to meet mine. The green of them was potent, but behind them was sadness like I’d never seen. I contemplated what I could do to take away even a small amount of that sadness, but I wasn’t sure there was anything.

“She pretended to have cheated on me, even came home with hickeys and marks on her body as‘proof.’ She did it because she liked it when I got pissed, and if she couldn’t get to me, she’d turn me against other people. She liked it, and…” He blew out a breath, and I almost told him to stop. That I didn’t need to know if it was that hard to say. “She liked it because then we’d argue and I’d take it out on her… body. She got off on making me angry, actually angry. She told me afterward that she lied about cheating. I left within the week, stayed with a friend and then moved into that apartment as soon as I could.

“She was not happy when I filed for divorce. The day I filed the papers, she sent me hundreds of messages, called me over a hundred times, trying to get me to come back. She did some fucked-up shit to almost everyone in my life, including all our mutual friends, because they took my side according to her. But when she realized I was going to divorce her no matter what, she broke into my apartment. She was screaming incoherently and trashed the entire place.”

Luke was shaking underneath me. His face was red, and he was deep in horrific memories. I cupped his face in both of my hands, brushing my thumbs over his black facial hair and urging him to look at me. “Luke, look at me,” I said softly. He did immediately and I could see his pupils dilate and his eyes refocus.

He covered my hand with one of his still pressed to his cheek. “If I told you all the shit that she did, we’d be here all night. But she…” His voice broke over the words. But he cleared his throat and continued, “She almost hurt Sadie, tried to stab me. She was out of her mind.”

I gasped, and the pain in my chest felt like my heart had broken into two or maybe several sharp pieces.

“I finally got her to leave and was able to get a protective order a few days later. That kept her away for a while.”

He took a deep breath, and I tried to contain the tears pooling at the corners of my eyes.When one ran down my face, he wiped it away immediately. “Please don’t cry, Angel. I’m okay, I promise.”

But that didn’t help. My heart still ached for him, and my gut churned at the thought of her hurting him.Or the thought of her hurting Sadie.

“Long story short, the divorce was finalized, and for a while, she was MIA. I thought she’d actually just decided to leave me the fuck alone until I started sleeping with one of our mutual friends. When Valerie found out I was sleeping with Blakely, she came after us both. It was casual and only happened a couple of times. But it was several months before Valerie finally believed that Blakely and I were never sleeping together again and weren’t interested in each other like that.”

He paused, rolling his neck along his shoulders and peering up at the ceiling. “That was more than two years ago and was the last time I heard from her until yesterday.”

She called.My jaw dropped, but I quickly schooled my features.

“She stole Josh’s phone Halloween night—the same night you were also at Murphy’s. She found my number. When she called while I was at your house yesterday, it really freaked me out. Just hearing her fucking voice makes my skin crawl.”

He shivered and closed his eyes. I gave him a moment to continue talking, but when he didn’t say anything, I asked, “Why’d she call?” Seemed like the chick must have had a reason to contact him again after all that time.

I had an idea why she had, but I was sincerely hoping I was wrong.

His eyes darkened. “Mostly because of you.”

My breath caught in my throat. In that moment, I didn’t know what I was feeling. I was heartbroken and angry for Luke, but I was also worried and panicked and overwhelmed for us both.

“Angel, please listen,” Luke pleaded. He gripped both sides of my face, forcing me to look at him and straightened. “I never meant to put you in the middle of this. The last thing I ever want to do is fucking hurt you. I know life’s given you a shit hand recently, and I never meant to add to it just by being near you.”

“I know,” I said.

He nodded but didn’t relax or release his grip on me. “Since that phone call yesterday, I’ve been going back and forth with what to do. You’re in her sights now, and it’s only a matter of time before she begins terrorizing you.”

Much to my surprise, I wasn’t as scared as I imagined I would be when faced with the impending wrath of Luke’s psychotic ex. Maybe it was because I had survived Michael, so in my mind, I could survive anything. I thought he’d be the worst I’d have to face.

“You said she eventually left Blakely alone, right? So, don’t you think she’d do the same thing to me? If she thinks we’re just casually hooking up?” I was careful with my word choice because all signs led to us not being a casual hookup. But I didn’t want to lay it all out there right that second.

He shook his head adamantly. His green eyes bore into mine. “She knows I care about you. She knows how important you are to me, and I don’t think this is going to be anything like the last time.”

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