Chapter 42
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
To Do:
- Apologize to Luke
- Call Dr. Goulding
“I’m confused. Do you want to die? Is that why you keep doing this?” Luke paced across the living room.
Claire sighed. Her clothes still smelled like river water, and she had spent hours in the police station. This had undoubtedly been the worst week of her life—fired, arrested, abducted. Even worse than the time Barney had tried to kill her, or when Jason cheated on her with Wendy. She was at rock bottom. And now her one true love was shouting at her.
“No, I just?—”
“I’m not done,” he interrupted. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to come out of a meeting expecting to celebrate with your girlfriend and then instead find out that she took advantage of my absence by sneaking away?—”
“To work—” she clarified.
He jabbed a finger at her. “Brad fired you. This wasn’t work.”
Ouch. It would have hurt less if he had slapped her in the face. But he wasn’t done.
“You went to spy on him to see how badly he was messing things up. And you snuck away when you know full well there’s an entire team of homicidal maniacs trying to kill you. And when I specifically told you not to leave the house alone.”
She waved her hands. “I’m sorry that I’m unemployed and don’t feel like waiting around all day for you to get out of your meeting.”
“It went great, by the way. Thanks for asking.” His beat-up high tops screeched against the hardwood. She would never get used to the business casual dress code in LA.
She bit her lip. She hadn’t even asked about the meeting. Not okay. “Tell me mo?—”
“I’m not done.” He whirled on her again. His normally styled hair was sticking up like he had driven home in a convertible. “It’s disrespectful to me, to Mindy, to your mom?—”
“Oh god. My mom. You didn’t tell her, did you?”
“Of course I told her. She’s furious.”
Claire swore. It was a good thing her waterlogged phone was dead because Alice would surely be blowing it up. If she hadn’t already called the National Guard and arranged for Claire to join the Witness Protection Program.
“This isn’t just about you.” Shadows hung beneath his eyes. He had aged a decade since that morning. “It’s about me. And Nicole and Mindy and the dogs.” He pointed to the corner, where Winston was lying upside down in yet another new dog bed. Rosie rested next to him, snoot on his belly.
“We need you. And we need you to start taking this seriously. You’re being selfish. I know you want to pretend like everything’s normal and you can just run off and do whatever you want, but that’s not our reality. A stranger incapacitated you and threw you in a fucking trunk today. You could have died. You’re in danger, Claire. All the time.”
“ I know .” She jumped to her feet, hands balled into tight fists. The bubbles of rage had grown the longer Luke talked. “I know I’m in danger. Trust me, no one ever lets me forget it. ‘Don’t go to the grocery store, Claire, someone might jump out of the green bean pyramid and chloroform you,’” she mimicked in a near-perfect impression of Alice.
Luke’s eyes smoldered. She frowned.
“I’m sorry, okay?” She folded her arms across her chest. As much as she hated to admit it, she could really use a hug right now.
“Sorry’s not good enough.” His voice was quiet now. There was so much in his sea green eyes—hurt, exhaustion, worry. “You know, even when you’re here, you’re not here.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Was this Air All Your Grievances with Claire Day?
“You’re so obsessed with work that?—”
She laughed. “Me? Obsessed with work? Coming from the guy who locks his office down and refuses to talk to anyone while working on a project?”
“You have no boundaries with your clients. It’s killing you right now, isn’t it? Wondering if Brad is trying to call, begging you to work for him again. So he can call you every four minutes trying to change the color of a horse or the shape of a firework or?—”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about that anymore, since as you so kindly pointed out, he fired me.” This wasn’t the tearful reunion with her boyfriend that she had imagined. She had known he would be mad, but this was another level—a hurtful one.
They both stared at each other.
Luke rolled his shoulders back and cracked his neck. “I’ve hired a private security team,” he said quietly. “They should be here any minute.”
This shit again. “Luke, I don’t need private security. Remember I had a PI and police detail the first time I got abducted.”
“You do need them. Because I won’t be here.”
A ball of lead dropped into her stomach. “What do you mean?”
“I’m going to stay at a hotel. I can’t keep watching you do this. I can’t be in love with someone who doesn’t care if she lives or dies.”
The weight of his words hit her like a Mack truck. What was he saying?
“Luke, please?—”
“It’s done, Claire. I’ll talk to you in a few days.” He turned and left the room without looking back.
The room echoed with his absence.
She collapsed onto the couch. This couldn’t be happening. Her entire world was crumbling beneath her. She was losing count of the number of times douchey frat boys had tried to kill her. Her biggest client had fired her. And Luke had just effectively dumped her. Where could she go from here?
Dog tags jingled. Rosie jumped onto the couch next to her and shoved her head under Claire’s arm. She sighed like she had been the one with the long day.
Her throat still burned from the pepper spray. Claire reached for her glass of water, but her fingers were trembling too hard.
Smash . Water splashed her feet. Glass shards glistened on the floor.
Perfect. Just perfect. She dropped to her knees and picked up the shards, cradling them in her palm. A creeping sense of doom was setting in.
“Stay,” she said to Rosie and Winston. She’d run the vacuum cleaner over the hardwood floors to suck up the tiny fragments.
The edges of her vision blurred as she tossed the glass into the garbage can. One of the shards sliced across her finger.
“Ouch.”
A well of crimson rose, dribbling down her finger onto the floor. She gripped the sink and breathed forcefully through her nose, willing her galloping heart to settle. Her hands shook.
There was a clatter behind her. Something wheeled across the tiles in the entryway. So he really was leaving. The wheels paused for a moment, and she lifted her head. A sliver of moon peered back at her through the kitchen window.
Would he change his mind? The front door opened, then slammed shut. The silence in the house was palpable.
She was alone.
The weight of the day hit her all at once. Tears she had been holding back for weeks dribbled messily down her cheeks. Her chest heaved, and she bit her tongue to fight back the sobs that threatened to erupt. Blood dripped into the sink, swirling with water and disappearing down the drain.
How much more was she expected to take? Her knees gave out, and she slid down the cabinet until she sprawled on the floor.
The pitter-patter of paws announced Rosie and Winston’s entrance. Rosie laid her snoot on Claire’s trembling thigh and whined. Winston plowed into the kitchen island before curling up at Claire’s side.
She had almost died today. And it was partially her fault. Why didn’t she just wait? What had she even gained from today? Sure, Brad’s proposal was falling apart. It was what she had hoped for. But that didn’t give her the satisfaction she thought it would.
The only “win” was unmasking another member of ESA. Her eyes closed. In fact, she would never forget that face. The cold eyes, the humorless smile. Contempt oozing from every pore. Hooked nose. Greasy, matted hair. Eyes blacker than coal.
Her heartbeat sped up to a full gallop, and pain flared across her chest. Was she having a heart attack on top of everything?
“Count to ten,” she instructed herself sternly. She counted, taking deep breaths. “I am not dying.” The chest pain begged to differ. Maybe she should call Dr. Goulding.
Oh, wait, that was right. She couldn’t call Dr. Goulding. She couldn’t call anyone, actually. Her waterlogged phone was sitting in a bowl of rice on the counter.
Forcing breaths in and out, she climbed to her feet. Her laptop sat on the island. She connected to the Wi-Fi and made a video call.
Dr. Goulding answered, bags under her eyes. “Claire? Everything all right?”
Claire took a deep breath and pressed a hand to her chest. “Do you have a minute? I need your help.”