by Lexy Timms
Gibs didn’t seem to notice Luke’s mood. Probably too happy to be out of the slammer. “Hey!” Gibs pointed down at Luke. “What’s with the crutches?”
Luke just shook his head and started for the parking lot. “I’ll tell you later. I’m in no mood to discuss it right now. I’ll drop you home so you can deal with your wife, and figure out where you are going to get the five thousand dollars I had to give to the bail bondsman.” Not to mention everything else I just put up to cover your ass. “I’m going to want an explanation for this horseshit going on, but not today. Not bloody today.”
“Yeah, that was one hell of a bail, eh? Don’t worry. I’ve got some money put away.”
Luke stopped walking and turned to stare at his employee. “I can’t believe you’re this calm, Gibs.”
“I’m not. It’s hidden under the beard.”
Luke grunted as he climbed into the SUV. Gibs took Luke’s crutches and put them in the center between him and Luke.
“Man, what did you do to yourself?” Gibs said as he strapped himself into his seat and watched Luke try to sit with his leg half propped on the towel that had once covered the now melted ice bag on the floor.
“Worry about your own problems, Gibs. You got enough on your plate.” Luke started the SUV and glared at Gibs.
“Hey, throw me a bone here! You probably told Helen you’ve been with me all day, and I have to give her a story.”
“You deal with your wife your own way, but I suggest, seeing the amount of money this is costing, you tell her the truth.”
“Yeah,” said Gibs glumly, slumping in his seat. “You’re probably right.”
Both men fell into silence after that and until they reached Gibs’ house in a tidy suburban area of Westfield. The houses here were modest, but nicely kept. It was a working man’s neighborhood, where small fishing boats took up residence in the driveways of their owners.
“I’ll get you the money,” said Gibs as he got out of the SUV. “I promise.”
“I know you will,” said Luke, trying to smile. “I know where you work.”
Gibs gave him a grin and shut the door. “See you tomorrow, bright and early.”
Luke nodded and drove away. He didn’t know what to think or even how to respond to Gibs’ situation. He was tired from the lack of sleep and the long day. He needed some food, a couple of cold drinks and his bed.
He groaned when he pulled into his parking lot and saw Sheila Harmon leaning against a car. The last thing he needed was this. He had stopped to pick up the full prescription of his painkillers and first aid supplies. He had planned to pick up pizza but had been too tired and figured he’d order delivery. Now fending off Sheila was not on his to-do list tonight.
“Hi, Luke!” She smiled.
He lurched forward on the crutches. His bag from the pharmacy with bandages, tape and pain meds rustled against the crutches. “How’d you find my place?”
“I checked at your shop, but Tony told me you were home. I came by to see if you needed anything. He told me you’re supposed to keep the leg up.” She tutted and shook her head, purposely trying to get her hair to sway with it.
Saks gave her his address? Traitor. Luke would talk to him later. “I had to pick up a few things from the pharmacy.”
“Now, see.” She smiled slyly. “That’s where I can be useful.”
“I'm all right, Sheila. I’m only supposed to be on crutches for a couple days.”
“Yeah, and that big dark spot of blood on the back of your jeans tells me that ain’t happening. Let’s get you upstairs and I’ll take a look at it.”
Luke gave her a disparaging look.
“I’m a registered nurse, for Pete’s sake, Luke! And I can tell by looking at you that you haven’t followed doctor’s orders. If you don’t want to be in the emergency room again tonight, you’ll let me help you.”
Sobered by Sheila’s warning, Luke allowed her to help him up the stairs.
“Get in the bedroom and drop those pants,” she ordered in a no-nonsense tone. “Where's your towels?”
Luke pointed at a closet by the bathroom door. He went into his bedroom and after fishing out his phone from his front pocket, he undid his belt. His jeans dropped but stuck to the bandage at the back of his thigh. Luke stood in his boxers with his back to the door. Behind him, he heard Sheila sigh.
“Men! You think you don’t have to listen to anyone.”
Luke turned his head to look at her. “Believe me, I had important business. Otherwise, I would have been resting today.”
“There’s nothing more important than your health.” She knelt behind him and carefully peeled back his jeans off the bandage.
“Yup. It’s oozing pretty good. You need that bandage changed.”
He turned to face forward again, embarrassed. “I’ll take care of it.”
“And how’ll you do that? You enjoyed playing Twister in high school, but no amount of pretzel movements will allow you to get to that wound.”
“The only reason I played Twister was to get close to the girls.”
She yanked on the bandage and pulled down.
“Yow!” Burning pain shot through his leg and burned deep in his gut. He lost his breath for a split second.
“Of course you did. Why do you think I let you play Twister with me?” She teasingly swatted the back of his head and then pointed at his bed. “Lay down on your front.”
He lowered himself onto his unmade bed. Face down in his pillows he caught a faint whiff of Emily’s scent. He hadn’t changed the sheets for that very reason, though he supposed he should eventually change them.
She tutted again. “I’m going to wash it with some soap and water, and check the bleeding. You need to stay off the leg just as the doctor said. Stab wounds aren’t sutured shut, so you have to reduce movement and let the wound scab over.” She did sound like a nurse. A smart one.
“Okay, okay,” groused Luke.
“It’s going to be uncomfortable while I do this. From your muscles and build, I’m sure you can handle it.”
“Yeah. That’s how the day has gone.” He ignored her last comment.
Sheila cleaned the wound, being very gentle. Still as she hit sore spots, he winced. She put a fresh, large square bandage over the wound and taped it down with perfect precision. He couldn’t see it, but he could tell from the comfortable pressure on the back of his leg.
“You can turn over now,” Sheila said and left the room.
Luke turned and grunted, kicking his jeans off of his good leg. He needed new pants that were clean. He’d rather just stay in his boxers.
Sheila returned with a glass of water.
“I’d prefer a beer,” he said.
She shrugged. “Your choice. A beer or the painkillers. You can’t have both.”
He rolled his eyes as he sat up. “Spoken like a member of the medical profession. Fine, I’ll take the painkillers.”
She fished out the bottle from the bag from the pharmacy and handed him a pill.
“Just one?” he said.
“One every six to eight hours. The other pills are the antibiotics you need to take with food. Trust me, these pain pills are strong enough. They aren’t anything to fool with. Wait till the funky dreams start.” She laughed.
“I’ll take your word on it. Do you mind grabbing me the pair of pants on top of the dresser you are standing beside?”
She sat on the edge of the bed close to him. “Are you sure you want me to do that?”
“Yes.” He swallowed, aware of her closeness and his inability to shift smoothly away.
“Hmm. I think you’re lightheaded from pushing yourself too much.”
“I need food. I was going to order a pizza.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course. The go-to food for guys everywhere.”
Luke swiped his phone off the nightstand. With a push of a button he was connected to Jimmi’s Pizza. “Are you making deliveries tonight? Good. I’ll take a large pepperoni and
sausage. Yep.” He pointed to his pants on the floor and Sheila, eyebrows raised, handed them to him. He fished out his wallet and gave his card number to the guy on the phone. “One last thing, can you throw in a bottle of Coke? Great.” He clicked off the phone and looked up at Sheila sitting on the edge of his bed. “It’ll be here in thirty minutes.”
“Perfect timing for delivery.” She leaned over and pressed her lips to his.
Her lips were sweet and sexy, but she was not what he wanted. He gently pushed her away. “I’m seeing someone.”
She put her hand on his good thigh, scrapping her nails with perfect pressure against his bare skin. “I don’t see her here now.”
“She’s working.” He swallowed, annoyed his body was responding to her closeness when his head wasn’t.
“Well, she’s not here, and I’m only in town for a few days. You know, Luke, I always had a thing for you.”
He tried to lean back more, but she quickly filled the space. “Sheila, you helped me, and I appreciate that, but I’m really into this woman.”
Sheila huffed and then sat up straight and looked away. “You know, there are people you don’t, can’t forget. And for me, Luke, that was you. But I guess you can’t go backwards.” She sighed. “Do you mind if I hang around for pizza?”
“Not if you let me put my pants on.” He grinned.
She smiled back at him. “I guess we have a deal then.” She glanced down at his hard-on still pressing against his boxers. “Too bad.” She put her index finger in her mouth and slowly brought her eyes to his as she sucked on her finger. “Really too bad,” she whispered.
Chapter Five
The Arrest
Emily tried her best to get her work done, but the warning she received in the morning totally wrecked her day. As soon as it came time to leave work she was beyond ready for it to be the end of the day. She couldn’t stop feeling tired and wrung out. When she stepped out the door, the security guard from the morning strode over to her.
“Let me walk you to your car,” he said.
“I should be okay.”
“It wasn’t a question.” His stern face softened. “Listen, Miss; I saw how that guy was hassling you this morning. You shouldn’t take it lightly. Guys like that don’t quit.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I want to make sure you are safe in your car.”
Emily nodded, grateful this stranger took the time to make sure she was safe in the short term. She only wished she could be assured of the long-term. She had a feeling he was right about Evan. The guy wasn’t going to quit. The only problem was that she couldn’t do anything about it. The police believed she was the one harassing him like a crazy ex.
“Thanks so much,” she said to the guard as she unlocked the car door and slipped inside. As she waited for him to walk back to the building, she plugged in her phone to the car jack and put on the headset. Her sister usually called after she woke up from her third shift job at the local hospital. Angela was consistent and Emily appreciated it.
Almost as soon as she pulled into the heavy afternoon traffic of I-91 her phone chimed.
“Hey,” said Angela.
“Hi. You sound tired. You sleep all right?” Emily felt sorry for her sister. The girl worked nonstop.
“I’m fine. How was your day?”
“Awful. Just horrible.” Emily inhaled, needing the air to explain the shit that had hit the fan that day. “Evan showed up outside work and wouldn’t leave. The dickhead made me late to work.”
“What an idiot.”
“I tried to tell him to get lost, he wouldn’t leave. The guard for the building came and then Evan finally left. The guard walked me inside. It was so embarrassing.”
“That sucks, but it’s not the end of the world.”
The eternal optimist. “Wait, it gets better. Since he made me late, Mr. Hobson gave me a written warning, and had me read it out loud in his office. It was brutal.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. That really does suck.” Angela hesitated on the phone before adding, “Did you call Justin?”
“No. That was the last thing on my mind after I got the warning.”
“You’d better call him. If Evan’s messing things up for you at work, then you have to report him stalking you.”
“I know.” Emily sighed. “It’s just not going to work. Evan’s going to turn it around and make it look like I’m the one stalking him.”
“At your workplace? I don’t think so. You also have the guard to back your story up.”
“I guess.” Emily wasn’t convinced.
“We’ll come over tonight. You can tell Justin what happened. We’ll do dinner or something.”
“To be honest, Angela, I’m all worn out. I wouldn’t be good company.”
“Is that the truth?”
“Pardon?” Emily raised her eyebrows and checked her blind spot to see if she could switch lanes. “What do you mean by that?” Her sister probably figured she was going to go and stalk Evan at his house instead. With the way her day was going, she might as well.
“You’re not planning on going to see Luke, are you?”
So that was the reason. “No. I told him we needed to cool it for a while.” She hesitated to tell her sister why. It didn’t seem like a bad idea. She pictured his handsome smile and going for a ride on his bike. It felt a lot more promising than the evening she had planned.
“I’m glad. He’s trouble, Em.”
“That’s what Mom and Dad keep saying.”
“No, I saw him.”
That caught her attention.
“Where?”
“At the hospital.”
“Was he visiting someone?”
“No. He got into a knife fight last night.”
“What! How do you know?”
“Professionally, I shouldn’t say anything. And don’t you dare tell anyone I told you. It would mean my job if anyone found out that I gave out information on a patient.”
“I wouldn’t ever say anything, Angela. You know that.” She had images of poor Luke bludgeoned near to death. Evan probably had paid some guy to do it. “What happened?” Her heart raced and she swore every goosebump on her arms had just risen.
“I don’t know the exact details. But cops were questioning him and waiting around to ask him more stuff. He wasn’t alone, Em. I’m sorry.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sheila Harmon was there at the hospital with him.”
“Sheila? From high school Sheila?” She pulled out into the passing lane and then quickly tried to edge back into the middle lane before the car in front blocked her.
“Yeah.”
“I thought she moved away.” The horn behind her honked so she waved and mouthed Sorry! in the rearview mirror.
“Apparently not. It was her all right.”
It was too much. The incidents with Evan and the warning letter were bad enough. Had the phone even had time to get cold after their last phone conversation before Luke hooked up with another woman? Maybe he was already seeing her. She had no idea. Luke could be dating ten women and screwing another fifty. She had no clue. Nor had she bothered to ask or pay attention. Her heart sunk deep into her stomach. She opened the window, suddenly finding it hard to breathe. “I’ve got to go.”
“I’m so sorry, Em. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she lied. “I just have to concentrate on the traffic. The last thing I need is an accident.”
“You sure?”
The car behind honked again. This time trying to tell her to start rolling forward before losing the space in front of her to another idiot driver. “It’s busy today. Crazier than usual.”
“Sounds like it. Okay, I’ll talk to you later. Drive safe.”
The phone clicked off and Emily was left with her thoughts as she traveled the highway. Here she was, in the middle lane of the three-lane highway with a car ahead of her, loads behind and cars on either side, but she was utterly alone. She felt as if she was hanging b
y a thread, as if the earth was opening at her feet, threatening to drag her into the darkness below. It was a shitty, shitty day.
Her hands began to shake. She gripped the wheel of the car so tight her knuckles turned white. She fought back her tears because she couldn’t drive if she cried and she wanted to get home so very badly. She planned to crawl into her bed and forget this day had ever happened. Maybe she’d never come out of her room again.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, she made it to her exit and got off the highway. Rush hour traffic clogged the secondary roads, and she inched forward in stop and go traffic. She drove in a daze, images of Luke with other women popping into her head and making everything so complicated. Sheila Harmon? Really?
Emily made it to her street and breathed a sigh of relief.
It was premature.
Her friggin’ car was sitting in front her house! Parked perfectly in her spot and looking shined and polished.
“Shit Evan!” she muttered. “What’re you up to now?” She knew better than to face him alone after this morning. She pulled over to the curb at a house three houses away from hers and called Justin. “Come on, come on,” she whispered.
“Hello?” said Justin.
“Thank goodness! It’s me, Justin!” In her panic she rushed her words. “Evan won’t leave me alone! He was waiting for me outside my work this morning, and now my car’s sitting in front of my house! What if he’s inside? What if he’s going through my stuff?” Her voice rose in near hysteria at the thought.
“Where are you?”
“Parked at the curb three houses away from mine.”
“Do you see him?”
“No.”
“Stay there. Don’t move. I’m coming over now. Lock your car doors and whatever happens do not open them for Evan.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Hurry, please! she added silently.
She swallowed hard as Justin clicked off the call. What was she supposed to do while she waited? She shrugged down in her seat and reached for her phone, checking her messages absently, not focusing on any one message. Maybe Luke sent a text to explain things. Maybe it was a misunderstanding and he wanted to tell her why Sheila Harmon was there taking care of him at the hospital.
