Chapter 25
DASH
“Do you need my car at the evidence garage until this is settled?” I ask Jimmy as he puts away his fingerprint kit.
“Not yet, but I wouldn’t drive it until this is over. I took pictures and I’ll get the prints processed, but don’t get your hopes up there. This guy might have slipped up, but I’m sure it wasn’t by leaving his prints behind.”
I nod and cross my arms over my chest.
“You gonna explain her remembering who she is to me or are you just going to let me wonder?” he asks.
I hesitate at first, but I know he needs to know what I know to understand the entire chaos-filled nightmare of this situation.
“She’s Lennon.”
His brows furrow. “I knew you didn’t believe she was London, but I thought there was proof that she was?”
I shake my head and stare at the concrete floor for a minute.
“I still don’t know how she ended up wearing the shirt London was wearing, but she’s Lennon, Jimmy.
She remembered it herself. She remembered who she is, and she remembered the accident.
Otherwise, I’m not sure what else she remembers because she won’t talk to me.
I’ve got London’s boyfriend, Hendrix, keeping an eye on her,” I tell him.
His eyes widen in surprise. “Wow, Dash. I don’t know whether I should say ‘congratulations’ because she really is your girl or if I should say ‘I’m sorry’ since she thinks you might secretly be the stalker responsible for her sister’s death.”
“Tell me about it.”
“And you’ve got the sister’s boyfriend watching her? What do you know about him? Is that a good idea?” he asks.
“Hendrix was about to propose to London. He’s a doctor and he was at the hospital on shift when everything happened. He’d never hurt her,” I tell him, sure about that.
“That may be true, but what if lines blur and get crossed between them while you’re trying to be the hero? What if they already have?”
It’s not like the thought hasn’t crossed my mind, but there’s so much more to consider. Complex seems too simple of a word to describe the cards we’ve all been dealt.
“It’s complicated. Before she knew, there was already some blurring of lines between them.”
His nostrils flare like he’s mad for me.
“I can’t be upset. She was confused about who she was. I wasn’t happy about it, but I know they didn’t have sex.”
“And what about now?” he asks with a skeptical raise of his brow.
A wretched thought I’ve yet to say aloud crosses my mind, but I’m going to say it to him anyway.
“Maybe he’s the better man for her, Jimmy.” It pains me to say.
He punches my shoulder. “Snap out of it, Dash. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and fight for your girl. Even if you can’t win her back, you can at least say you gave it everything you had.
If you give her up now, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.
For someone who was so sure she was Lennon, now that you know she is, you’re making it seem like it’s no biggie to throw it all away. ”
“I don’t want to lose her. There’s nothing easy about imagining living my life without her in it.
And I won’t walk away until I’m sure there’s no future for us, but I can’t make her see something she doesn’t want to see.
I can’t make her trust me again. She has to feel like she can on her own.
And no matter how much we love each other, without trust from both sides, the love will eventually die. ”
“Do you not trust her?”
“I always have, and I do. But if she does choose to cross the line now, knowing who she is, I’m not sure we can survive. She has all the power right now and I hope she knows it. The woman I’ve always known her to be would keep my heart safe no matter the cost. The same as I would for hers.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Jimmy tells me.
“Me either. Just…help me get this guy before the fragile pieces we might still have a chance to save are lost forever to the hellish aftermath of destruction he’s left in our paths.”
Jimmy and I spent the rest of the night dissecting the traffic cam footage in his office and every piece of evidence. And like he said it would, the only prints he could pull from my car were mine and a female not on file who would, no doubt, be Lennon.
Speaking of cameras and evidence, he’s also checking the cameras at my house for any signs of tampering, but unfortunately, I don’t have any in my garage.
Anything he might find would be from outside around the house or inside of it.
Nevertheless, he’s having a computer forensic investigator check my system.
He’s going to let me know what they find—if anything—as soon as he can.
He’s taking me back to my house when I spot familiar dark hair shining in the morning sun.
I’m drawn to her like a man dying of thirst, desperate for a drink of water.
She’s sitting at a table outside of a local coffee shop even though there’s a chill in the air.
Jimmy spots her too and pulls over to the curb.
I’m not sure if he’s doing it for me or to make some kind of mental note for himself.
I’m about to get out but I stop short when I see Hendrix come out of the coffee shop holding two steaming cups of coffee.
He places one in front of her and one on his side of the table.
But before he sits down, he tips her chin up and kisses her.
It’s a quick kiss, almost friendly even, but it severs the tiny thread I was hanging on by.
Jimmy reaches for me but I’m out of the car before he can stop me. I make my way toward them with long strides. I stop in front of their table, and I can’t even get words to form. Her startled gaze finds mine and her lips part as she shields her eyes from the sun.
“Dash—” Hendrix begins, but I cut him off with a raised hand.
“I asked you to keep an eye on her. Not to plant your lips where they don’t belong. But what do I know? Maybe they do. Maybe everything I thought I knew is a lie and the joke is on me.”
I turn my attention to Lennon who hasn’t even attempted to move from her seat to explain this situation. So, I crouch down in front of her as Hendrix stands but keeps his distance.
“I fought for you. I’m the only one who refused to believe you were gone, despite what the evidence was saying.
But maybe I was wrong all along. Maybe you’re not who I thought you were at all.
Because the girl I fell in love with would fight just as hard as I am to save us.
I dealt with this twisted pain before you knew what I’ve known all along, but now that you know, I won’t sit by and say ‘it’s okay’ that another man is touching your lips,” I say as I pull her chin down toward me and run my thumb over her bottom one.
“Dash…” She trails off as a lone tear falls down her face, but this time, I don’t catch it or wipe it away. Her tears devastate me, but my faith in her—in us—just might be devastated too.
“This isn’t just your nightmare. I believed in you despite what the evidence said, and you can’t say the same. But your silence and your actions are all I need to hear, Valkyrie.”
I stand and turn to leave before I hear her call out my name again, but I keep walking.