15. Luke
Luke
“Does it look like anything has been touched?” I asked Scarlett.
My heart was still beating out of my chest. Ever since I got her phone call, I hadn’t been able to breathe properly.
I was standing at the entry to her hallway, watching her.
She was putting on a good show, pretending to be unaffected, but I knew better.
Her soft skin was paler than usual, her fingers danced and tapped along every surface, and she fidgeted with her hair, her shirt, her earrings.
“No. I don’t think so. Everything looks normal.”
I walked up to her and rubbed my hands down her arms. Her eyes found mine, and the depth of fear swirling within them made me want to break something.
When she sucked in a stuttered breath, the only thing that broke was me.
I hauled her to my chest, wrapping my arms around her.
Scarlett’s soft body molded to mine. She squeezed me tightly, pulling me as close to her as humanly possible.
I placed a kiss to the top of her head, inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo.
“Who do you think left me that note?” she asked quietly.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” My voice sounded like gravel. I had my suspicions, but until I investigated it, I didn’t want to worry her.
There were only a few people who knew that Scarlett was looking into the Karrigan case for me.
The note didn’t come from me or Wes. My brothers knew some of the details, but they certainly wouldn’t try to scare her away.
Seb would have thought it was a funny prank when we were kids, but we were in our thirties now.
He wouldn’t have done something like this.
The only other person that I knew was aware of Scarlett’s involvement in the case was Monroe. Scarlett told me that he had caught her in the evidence lockers. He was suspicious enough to ask questions and clearly didn’t believe Scarlett’s terrible lie.
If that fucker wanted to come at Scarlett though, he would need to come through me.
I needed to track down the neighborhood cameras’ feeds immediately.
But I couldn’t get a warrant. That would involve escalating this through the chain, and at this point, I had no idea who was in on what.
Or why. Regardless, I wasn’t going to put Scarlett at risk.
I needed to handle this myself. I would need to ask nicely and hope everyone cooperated.
Scarlett dropped her arms and stepped back.
“Thanks, Luke.” Her small smile barely tugged her lips.
“Tell me everything you did today. Beginning to end. Leave nothing out,” I told her, walking her to the couch.
I sat beside her, ready to imprint her every word into memory.
My radio squealed on my shoulder. Brimley’s scratchy drawl directed units to a disturbance on Little Leaf Road.
I turned it down, ignoring the various call-ins with their ETAs.
There were other officers on duty. One of them could handle it .
I turned to face Scarlett, folding one leg under me on the couch. She turned to face me too, and her hand fell to my knee, using it as leverage to get in position. Every cell in my body was solely focused on the feel of her hand on my leg.
“I had breakfast at Downtown Diner with Claire, Maeve, and Veda,” she said, bringing my focus back to her.
“What time did you leave the house?” I asked.
“9:20 a.m. We were meeting at 9:30 a.m. I was the first to arrive, but Claire and Maeve got there just a few minutes later. We ate and chatted. Sheila was there. Like I said, Maeve had Veda, so we only had so long before she was going to need to feed her.”
“Where did you sit?”
“At one of the booths by the window. I was facing the door.”
“Good.” I nodded. I liked that Scarlett knew enough to position herself to the best vantage point. “Did you see anything suspicious while you were there? Anyone suspicious?”
“No. It was pretty slow inside. No one was looking at us odd or made me feel uncomfortable.”
“I forgot to ask, but where did you park?”
“On the side of the building. It was closest to the entryway, but I couldn’t see my car from where I sat.”
“Okay. So, you have breakfast with the ladies, nothing specific of note happens, then what do you do?”
“When I left the diner…”
“What time was that?”
“Maybe 10:30 a.m.”
I nodded at her to continue.
“That’s when I found the note on my car, but I didn’t open it at that time. I, um, got distracted, and I put it down without looking at it.”
“You’ve had the note since breakfast?” I asked on a growl. My vision darkened as blood pumped through my veins. My head hurt instantly just thinking about all the ways today could have ended up so differently. “What happened to distract you? A noise? Movement?”
Scarlett’s gaze drifted from mine, not looking me in the eye.
“A text. Your text,” she said. Her eyes bounced back to me, but all that blood that was just pumping through my body seemed to drain from me, leaving me feeling hollow and empty. “I chatted with you for a few minutes and had put the paper down in my car. I didn’t even think of it again.”
“Scarlett. I’m so sorry.”
“Luke, don’t do that. You have nothing to be sorry about. You texted me in the middle of the day like normal. It was just serendipitous timing that I was literally reaching for the note at the same time.”
I did though. What if someone had been watching her? Waiting for her? They could have followed her. Waited for an opportunity where she was more secluded, distracted. If they didn’t before, they could know where she lives.
She was distracted because of me. I didn’t know what I would do if something happened to her.
I swallowed hard, trying to control my racing heart at the thought of her in danger. “Okay, let’s keep going. So, you get in your car with the note unread. What do you do next?”
“Oh no! My flowers,” Scarlett said. She went to get up like she thought she was going somewhere.
“There is absolutely no fucking chance I’m letting you out of this apartment on your own. Sit. ”
Her defeated face only lasted for a second before she nodded.
“Fine. But it’s a really pretty bouquet.”
“Did you make it yourself?” I asked.
She liked to spend time at the local flower shop with Daisy. I hoped that when she stopped by today, she took the time to do something she enjoyed. At least it would be one bright spot in her day.
“Yeah. Daisy let me in the back room to go through her whole stock of supplies. We had a great time together. I was there for maybe an hour.”
“Good. Keep taking me through your day, Letty. What was next?”
“Well, when I got back to my car with my flowers, that’s when I noticed the little piece of paper again and read it.”
“When you got back here from the flower shop, you mean?”
She shook her head, her eyes already pleading with me. “No. I read it when I was still there.”
“ And you didn’t call me immediately ?” I yelled.
“What the hell, Scarlett? How did I not hear about it until you got back here? Why would you leave the flower shop at all? What if someone had been watching you?” I scrubbed my hands up and down my face, pushing them into my short hair.
I didn’t think I had ever felt this level of frustration and fear.
“I know. I know,” she pleaded. Scarlett reached out and pulled my hands away from my head, holding them in her hands.
“I wasn’t thinking. I think I was just on autopilot.
Plus, I didn’t want to give the note any power over me.
It’s just a piece of paper. It can’t hurt me…
It was a good pep talk while I was driving, but as soon as I got home, all I saw were the dangers of someone lurking behind a car or a barrel or ju mping out at me as I walked to the front door. That’s when I called you.”
“Scarlett… Letty.” I pulled my hands from hers and sandwiched her face in my hands with a light pat. “If anything like this ever happens again, I need you to call me. Immediately.”
She tried to nod her head, but I was holding her too tight to allow much movement.
“How are you feeling right now?” I asked. My thumb gently swiped at her cheek. The feel of her soft skin under me helped to calm my racing heart, but just barely.
“Better. A little wound up still. My heart rate is still all over the place, but I don’t feel like someone is going to pop out and murder me, so yeah… better.”
I stood from the couch and pulled her up with me. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Tugging her along, I led her to the bathroom and started filling her tub with water. I rummaged through her vanity for any bath salts, fizzy bath bombs, or bubble baths that I could find. Scarlett just watched me. The smile on her face as I took out every product imaginable was worth the effort.
“Pick any one of these you want or any combination of them. I want you to rest and relax for a minimum of thirty minutes.”
“Oh.” Her brows rose. “Is that an order?”
“It is. I need to look into some things. I don’t want too much time to pass before I start asking questions. Keep the door locked. Hell, keep the windows locked. Don’t let anyone in until I get back, understood?”
“I’m on the second floor, Luke. I don’t think anyone is going to be climbing up the drain pipes,” she said. I shot her an unimpressed glare, my brows furrowing. “But I’ll lock them now while the tub fills.”
“Thank you. I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”
“You don’t have to, you know.”
If she thought I was going to leave her alone here overnight, she was out of her mind.
I didn’t even like the idea of leaving her alone right now, in the middle of the day, with the doors and windows locked.
If it wasn’t up to me to find out who the fuck left that note, I wouldn’t leave her side at all.
“I’ll be back,” I told her again.