Page 77 of Peep

“Jahmar, are you almost done with lunch? You’re needed inside,” Stacy, a nurse, asks, looking slightly flustered.

“Yeah, sure, everything alright?”

“Erm, I don’t know. There’s a detective here that wants to speak to you. I’m not sure what it’s about.”

Anders’ fingers squeeze into my thigh painfully tight. I place my hand over his to ease his grip.

“Sure, ok. Give me two minutes.”

Stacy gives me a sympathetic smile as if she already knows that all my hopes and dreams are about to be shattered.

I turn to face Anders to find him paler than ever.

“Shit, what am I going to do?”

Anders gnaws at his bottom lip while reaching to clutch both of my hands in his. “Right, listen…tell them you were with me.”

“I can’t do that, I’m not implicating you.”

“Jay, you don’t have a choice. You need an alibi.”

“I can’t. If this backfired and you got arrested, I’d never forgive myself.”

“Please, you have to trust me on this. Tell them you were with me, but don’t be too specific, I’ll figure something out.”

Dread whirlpools in my stomach. Could I really lie to the police and risk Anders’ freedom, too?

“I’m making no promises. Let’s see what they know first. It might not come to that.”

Anders huffs, then drags me in for a deep hug before pulling back with a weak smile. “You better go.”

We stand up and share a tender kiss, then I reluctantly walk off.

“Wait, your note,” Anders calls, lightly jogging after me. He slips the paper into my hand with a squeeze. “Whatever happens in there, just know I’ve got your back, and I mean every word in that note.”

I kiss him once more, pouring every ounce of love I have into that kiss, because for all we know, it could be the last one we’ll ever share.

Watching him walk away goes against every one of my natural instincts. My senses tell me I’m heading straight into danger and away from the safety that’s Anders’ arms.

When we started this slightly toxic thing, I had no idea our connection would run so deep. No idea that I’d be planning forever with this man. Although I’m terrified of the lies I’m about to tell these detectives, I have no choice if I want a future with him.

I can’t put off the inevitable, so I suck in a deep breath of crisp air and mentally prepare myself for what is probably my demise.

Spotting the detective right away, he stands at the front desk with Stacy, looking increasingly pissed off that I kept him waiting. He’s at least six-foot-three, white and has the whole silver fox thing going on. Here goes nothing.

As I approach, Stacy spots me, nodding her head in my direction to announce my arrival to the detective before wandering off. She sends me a nervous smile, confirming this must be bad.

“Hi, I’m Jahmar Walker. You wanted to speak to me.” I put my hand out to greet him, praying he can’t feel the tremor fluttering through it.

“Ah yes, Mr Walker. My name’s Mike Dixon. I’m a detective from the West Yorkshire Police.”

“Nice to meet you. How can I help?”

“Is there anywhere we can go that’s more private?”

Two uniformed officers come through the sliding doors, and the detective nods at them. This is it. They’re here to arrest me. I thought I’d covered my tracks, but evidently not good enough. I’m silent for too long.

“So, can we go somewhere to talk? I have a few questions for you.”

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