Olivia took the phone out of my hands, rereading the text for herself. She then hit speakerphone, playing his voicemail out loud.
“Hi, Lex, it’s me. Look, I know you don’t want to hear from me right now. I’m still trying to figure out what went wrong. I really have no idea what happened between us, but uh, well, this isn’t about that I guess. Something’s wrong. I stopped by your apartment, to uh, bring you something – some kind of last-ditch effort to fix things I suppose – honestly, I’m so confused about all of this and I don’t know what went so wrong, but anyway, I stopped by and, uh, it looks bad, Lex. Please, call me. I have to know you’re okay. And, uh, if you haven’t been here yet, please call me. It’s important.”
He barely took a breath as he laid all of that out. “That was a lot of rambling without actually saying what happened,” Olivia commented as she handed me back my phone.
“Why does he sound like he has no clue why I broke up with him? He hasn’t put any of that together yet? Is that weird? It has to at least be a guess of his, right? Is this all an act?”
“I don’t know. He did sound kind of freaked out. Do you want to head back to your apartment to see what’s going on? I’ll go with you. Do you think he’ll still be there, just waiting around for you to show up?”
“With the way this is going, yes.” I rolled my eyes. “The universe hates me. It wants me to look into his eyes one more time so I can be weak and change my mind. Why does the universe want me to love a handsome bank robber? This sucks so bad. Didn’t he say he stopped by to bring me something? Oh no, it’s probably pie. Low blow. He’s going straight for my weak points.”
“Is he an alarmist? He said it looks bad. Like the utter chaos of your disheveled closet on any given Tuesday – that kind of bad? It always looks like it’s been ransacked. How you ever find two matching shoes in there is beyond me,” she teased.
“Stop,” I replied, playfully slapping her arm. “I know, it’s not always clean like your fancy condo, but it’s not exactly a danger zone. I’d like to think someone could tell the difference if they’re looking in my windows.” We both giggled. “Wait, do you think he’s looking in my windows? That just feels creepy.”
“Well, what do you want to do? Do you want me to call him back for you so you aren’t sucked back in by his charm? I have a thing or two I’d like to say to him anyway.”
“No, I need to do this myself. I need to be more direct. I can handle this. I’ll see what’s going on.”
I hit Luke’s missed call, and it started ringing right away.
“Thank God, Lex, tell me you’re okay,” he answered instead of simply saying hello.
“I’m fine,” I said skeptically, trying to judge the tone of his voice. “I’m with Olivia. I haven’t been home yet since…since…” Walking away from you. I couldn’t say it.
He let out a sigh of relief. “I’m so happy to hear that. Something…happened.”
“Yeah, I heard your message. What do you mean?” I furrowed my eyebrows and Olivia was gesturing her arms around wildly, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Did you lock your apartment this morning?”
“Yeah, of course I did. I always do. Why are you asking? You’re scaring me.”
“I’m going to call the cops. Someone broke in to your apartment, Lex. I can only see so much from the window, but it looks rough. I’m not sure what you had of value in there, but…”
A pit formed in my stomach. My brother’s money. I had nothing else of value in my entire house. I was sure that was it. I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting anything else inside.
“Dammit,” I muttered, standing up from the rock, motioning to Olivia that we needed to head out. “I can be there in less than ten minutes.”
“Do you want me to call the cops now? That way it will expedite…”
“No!” I quickly cut him off. “Please don’t call the cops. No cops.”
“Uh, okay. But I don’t think you understand, Lex. It’s bad. The entire place looks like it’s been ransacked. Your apartment was literally robbed. We need to call.”
“We can’t.” I felt so defeated.
“Why not?”
“Because I know who did it.” As if my day needed to get any worse, here I was, defending another guy who didn’t deserve my love. “We can’t call the cops, Luke – because it was my brother.”
Chapter 19
Olivia and I raced over to my apartment in our separate cars, though we stayed on the phone with each other the whole time.
“Remember that money, Olivia? I texted my brother about it earlier. I told him he needed to get rid of it. I needed it out of my life.”
“But why wouldn’t he just, I don’t know, ask for a key!” Her dry sarcasm was thick. “Why trash your house after you were the one doing him a favor? That’s a real jerk move.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve met him, so…”
“Let’s just figure it out when we get there,” she said with gritted teeth, angry just like I was that yet another person close to me hurt me like this. Within a few minutes, we were pulling into my apartment lot. It was completely dark out now, but I could see Luke’s tall, muscular frame standing by the door, even though my porch light was, in fact, burnt out. Or – was it broken?
“Thank God you’re okay. I felt sick as soon as I saw it. I knew something was wrong,” he started rambling as soon as I started up the walkway.
“How did you…what are you…” I was struggling to form a sentence, still trying to figure out why he was at my apartment anyway, given I just lied through my teeth and told him I felt nothing for him earlier. I panicked and ran to a friend, while he ran – back to me.
“I’m sorry, I…I just…” He motioned to a pile of things lying next to the front door. “I didn’t know what else to do. This was probably stupid of me, I know. You said your piece, and I heard you. But I didn’t get to say mine. I have so much more to say to you, Lex.”
There it was. There was the quicksand.
“And you have to say it with pie?” I pointed down to the white box sitting by one of his sweatshirts. “And – is that a stuffed penguin?” I think I cracked a smile, though I didn’t want to. I wanted to stay firm in my decision to break things off with him. I had to. He wasn’t good for me – despite being so good to me. I hated all of this.
“Yeah, the penguin, it’s a long story. When they pick a partner, they keep that same penguin…agh, never mind, it sounds so dumb saying it out loud,” he replied with a smirk. “Anyway, I stopped by, and I had so much to say, but when I got to the door, I could see the hinge here was kind of broken.” He pointed to a piece of metal on the door. “As I knocked, the door slid open an inch or two, but it was completely dark inside, which weirded me out. I looked inside the front window, and…and that’s when I saw it.”
“Did you go in?” Olivia asked from behind my shoulder. I’d forgotten she was even there the second he started talking about penguins.
“No. I panicked. My heart sank, because I thought maybe you were home when it happened, so I called you immediately. I was so worried about you, Lex. Your brother? He would do this to you? It looks like all of your furniture is tipped over in there.”
“Well, he’s not one for heavy lifting, or hard work in general, but yeah, I can’t say I’m surprised. Tipping things over sounds easier than just moving them out of the way,” I said in a snarky tone, stepping around Luke to walk inside. I flicked on the living room light. Sure enough, my coffee table was flipped over, my couch was moved at least a foot away from the wall, and there were bins dumped out everywhere. I could see the kitchen was a mess as well, with opened cupboards and drawers everywhere.
“What did he want?” I watched Luke look around the room, no doubt noting that my TV and sound bar were still intact, proving it wasn’t just a random petty robbery like he probably first thought.
“Money. Of course. Isn’t that what everyone wants?” I narrowed my eyes at him, no doubt insinuating
that it was a rhetorical question, but he didn’t seem to pick up on it – or didn’t show it anyway.
“He would rob you for it? His own sister? That’s messed up.” Luke pushed back the couch and turned the coffee table right side up.
“Just because we’re family, it doesn’t mean we have the same morals when it comes to robbing someone,” I said in a snide tone, feeling more direct with my commentary. Again, he seemed to miss my real point.
“I am so sorry, Lexi. I know how much you care about him. I know how much you’ve tried to help him. I hate that’s he’s done this to you.” His words were so sincere as he reached out to touch my arm.
“Yeah, well, I had it coming. I can’t save everyone. People are who they are, and they’ll make whatever bad choices that suit them best regardless of how it affects those around them. Just because I want to make him a better version of himself – one that I know is entirely possible - that doesn’t make it come true. It’s not a wish on a stupid star. He’s selfish. He doesn’t care how his actions affect other people.” I hated the parallels between my brother and Luke. It burned through me like a fire. Maybe they were broken - fine. But the way I cared for them in spite of their brokenness – I wanted that to matter. Their actions, however, proved to me it didn’t matter at all. They would still follow their own paths, independent of whether or not it I was at the end of that road. “I can’t change people. I know that. So I’m giving up entirely. It’s exhausting. I can’t do it anymore.”
Luke was quiet for a minute, studying my face. He finally spoke. “Is that what this is about?” It looked like his mind was moving a million miles a minute. “Your brother, the way he crashes into your life like this, what he’s done to you – is that what’s changed you? He’s coming between us?”
“Um, Lexi, I really need to talk to you,” Olivia called out from the kitchen, her voice full of concern.
“Just a second,” I called out. I focused back on Luke. “Yes, all of this has to do with my brother. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that I need to stop being so naïve and trusting. Look at this place.” I threw my arms up, gesturing at the remaining overturned furniture. “All of this for a few thousand dollars. Can you believe that? Imagine what someone would do to me for more?”
“I understand that he’s betrayed you, Lex, I get that. I see it all over this room, and I hear it in your voice every time we’ve spoken about him. But why is that affecting us? Have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?”
It was such a loaded question. I stared back at him in disbelief, unsure how to properly answer that with anything other than a big, fat, resounding YES.
“Lexi, you really need to come in here,” Olivia called out again, interrupting our conversation.
Luke continued to gaze back at me with such compassionate eyes, as if he truly believed my answer was no – as if I had no reason in the world not to trust him.
“Look, it’s been a long, grueling day. I can’t do this right now. My heart is broken a thousand times over and I’m a mess. This room’s a mess. My life is a mess. I think it would be better if you left. Olivia and I can handle all of this.” I softened my tone, hoping he would give in.
“You want me to leave you alone? Here? Without calling the cops? We haven’t even been upstairs yet, what if he’s still in the house?” He now looked at me as if I was crazy.
“He’s not upstairs, Luke.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’m sure my bed is flipped over and all the money is gone, and I won’t see him again until he runs out. That’s how this works.”
“What? You hide money under your mattress?”
I realized as he said it that putting Cade’s bag of money under my bed was probably a pretty stupid cliché place to hide it, but I wasn’t thinking at the time. I never thought it would get to this point.
“No. I typically don’t hide large sums of cash under my mattress,” I said, feeling frustrated. “I work at a bank, remember? Which is where I put all of my money, because that’s what sane, rational humans do. My brother, on the other hand, doesn’t believe in letting “the man” control his drug cash, so he put it all in a bag and he left me with it. He told me not to tell anyone about it, and I didn’t, so no one else knew it was there. Now, lo and behold, he wanted it back, and instead of simply asking for a key, he treated my apartment like shit, the same way he treats me. The same way every man in this world treats me. There. Are you happy now? That’s why this place is a mess, and why I’m a mess, and I would really like you to leave now.” A tear slid down my face and I hated the way I couldn’t keep it together in front of him. It was all boiling over.
Olivia slid around the corner. “Lex,” she said softly.
“Yeah, I’m coming. Luke was just leaving.” I said it with a firm voice, hoping it would stick this time.
“I’m not him, Lex. I’m not your brother. I’m nothing like him.”
I wondered if that was true. I also wondered, if perhaps, Luke was worse. After all, this was just the surface – I hardly knew all his secrets.
“I can handle this,” Olivia said assuredly as Luke glanced back and forth between us, as if he was looking for some direction on what to do. “We’ll be fine. Cade is an idiot, but he would never hurt her. Physically, anyway. She can stay at my place again tonight until we get this sorted out.”
He nodded, looking completely defeated. He walked over to the front door, pausing before he crossed over the threshold. He turned back around. “Life is messy. I get that. Especially when family is involved. I understand that better than anyone, Lex. I promise you I do. So don’t shut me out just because you think your life is any messier than mine. When you’re ready to talk, I’ll be here.” He offered me one last, sincere smile, and then headed out, closing the door behind him.
“Ugh, you see what I mean? He makes walking away so impossibly hard. Do you see how he looks at me? He always looks at me like that, as if his heart is going to explode all over me. I feel like he would move the entire world to fix this. And it seems genuine. That’s the worst part! It’s like he’s done nothing wrong and I’m punishing him anyway. It’s like I’m the bad guy. But how can that be? The bank robber is always the bad guy, Olivia. Why do I feel so terrible? Why am I turning into a crazy person? How can one guy, just because of his stupid, perfect dimples and great hair, how can he still make me feel something for him knowing what I know?”
“I’m sorry for interrupting you guys, I felt like you were in a ‘moment’ or whatever, but you really need to see this.” She held up a piece of paper.
“Oh, you were serious? I thought you were just trying to save me from the quicksand. What is that?”
“Read it. It’s from your brother.”
I took the paper from Olivia’s hands.
Sorry about the mess, but it had to happen. Don’t even think about telling Luke about any of this. He doesn’t know a thing. If you tell him, things will get so much worse for you. ~ C
I read it three times, the knot in my stomach growing larger and larger with each pass. It was clear. Direct. Threatening.
But the worst part? The handwriting wasn’t my brother’s.
Chapter 20
“Your brother doesn’t want Luke to know? Why?” She read the note one more time.
“That note isn’t from my brother. That’s why.”
“What? But your brother ransacked the place, right? And he signed the note, look.”
“It’s not his handwriting. Not even close. Which means it’s not his C at the end either.”
“So who else…”
“If I had a guess, I would say Casey Beckett.”
“What?” She gasped, cupping a hand over her mouth. “We need to call the police.”
“Not yet. I need to figure this out first.”
“Figure what out? You’re telling me the guy who robbed your bank is the same guy who robbed your apartment? That seems police-worthy to me, Lex. Call me crazy, but t
hat’s exactly the kind of thing police handle…”
“Nothing else is missing from here. How would he have known about my brother’s money?” I picked up the note, reading it again one more time. “Luke didn’t know about the bag of money until now. My brother was the only one who knew about it. So for Casey to know about it…”
“He has to be connected to your brother,” she finished my sentence. “So what then, we call Cade? What all does he know?”
“I have no idea,” I replied, completely flustered. “He still hasn’t responded to my message earlier when I told him to come get the money.”
“Wait – you texted that to him today – and then shortly after, it’s stolen? Or ‘retrieved’ or whatever, depending on which one of them actually has it?”
“It appears so.”
“You put that in a text message?” She raised her voice.
“Yes, Livi. Clearly I don’t know criminal protocol. I should’ve called him from a burner phone, because that’s something non-criminals do, right? Forgive me, I’m out of touch with the dos and don’ts when it comes to dirty money.”
“Sorry, I’m not trying to make you feel bad,” she said apologetically. “I’m just wondering if maybe someone else saw that message.”
“I don’t know.” I put my face in my hands, wanting this entire day to be over. “I think my next play is to talk to Cade – that way I’ll know whether he has his money back or not. If it truly wasn’t him who took it tonight, you know he’ll flip. That will at least give us one answer.”
“I don’t like any of this,” Olivia replied, shaking her head.
“Neither do I, but what other choice do I have? I can’t call the cops. My brother has had so many offenses. If he gets in trouble for this, he’ll be gone a long time – because of me. I can’t do that to him.”
The Weight of Perfection: Grand Harbor - Book Three Page 15
