The Sudden Love (Hudson Brothers #3)

by Emma Vikes

  I turned away, trying to read the results, but my brain wasn’t cooperating. I was reading the same word over and over again. Finally, I sighed and shoved it out of view and glared at Wang. “Yes, I’m upset. I’m upset that she went behind my back and did all of it alone. She was meant to wait for me. What if she messes something up?”

  Wang scoffed and shook his head; he crossed his arms as he looked at me. “Just accept the fact that you’re no longer working alone. And stop treating her as if she’s an intern in this department, Everett. Jeez, I thought you would be okay with working her after the first time”

  Wang left after that comment, but his statement echoed in my mind. I did mind having to work with someone because I wasn’t used to it. Although, there was something about working side by side with Alexa that made me feel differently. It felt…almost right and I wasn’t even sure how I could begin to explain that. It was as if she just knew what I needed, and knew when to assist me when we needed to scan the evidence we gathered. The rapport between us was surprising, and we didn’t even know anything about each other. Hell, we still didn’t know anything about each other, and we’d been seeing each other every single day except on weekends.

  The office door swung open and Alexa walked in, carrying the kit in one hand and a paper bag in the other. I stood up from my seat, hands on my waist as I looked at her. “Why didn’t you wait for me?”

  I hated how upset my voice sounded, hated how demanding I seemed. Alexa looked at me and shook her head. “I didn’t know that I had to run everything through you and get your approval. Last I checked, we’re colleagues.”

  I pursed my lips and then answered. “I’m your senior, Alexa.”

  She scoffed and shook her head. “Yes, you’ve worked here for three years and I have only worked here for what, almost a month? Yes, technically, you are my senior but that doesn’t make you my boss. Jeez, Everett, is it that hard to accept the fact that there’s someone else doing the same job as you?”

  In the past few weeks, although I hadn’t been talking to her and getting to know her as some co-workers might have, I had come to observe Alexa’s attitude. She was slightly short-tempered but easily amused. She was confident and smart and her brain worked really fast, and she was quick to come up with witty remarks. Everyone in the building had really warmed up to her, but there were moments like this, when there was a different side to her.

  I knew that Alexa wasn’t trying to pull me down. She was surprisingly patient with me. She didn’t force me to brief her about the case that I was working on. She didn’t comment on the fact that I was incessantly working on my research, and used most of the equipment in our shared lab. She didn’t seem to tease me about the fact that sometimes, she’d come in and see me still in my seat fast asleep and realize that I’d spent the night in office.

  “What did you just say?”

  Alexa sighed and took a step closer to me. “I respect you, Everett. You’re good at this job, better than me even. But I wasn’t hired to act as a display here in our office. I’m meant to work too and if there’s a case that needs a forensic expert’s assistance and you’re not here to take it, know that I will, because I’m paid to do the same thing as you.”

  Before she turned her back on me, she pushed the paper bag into my hands. It was a Subway takeout.

  “What…?”

  She had turned her back on me by that time, but I could still hear her, “I brought you lunch. You usually tend to skip it, rather than going out and getting one with Wang. Sometimes we have to take care of ourselves too and not just our careers, Everett.”

  I wasn’t sure what I was meant to say now because I suddenly felt really bad. Alexa was concerned about my well-being, while I was just being an asshole. Neither of us said anything as I went back to my desk, unpacked the lunch that she brought for me and began eating quietly across from her as she did the same thing on her own desk. We avoided eye-contact all throughout lunch and worked quietly on the cases we had.

  Around three, Wang knocked on the door and asked if either of us wanted to have coffee. “Sorry, David. Have a lot of things to finish for the case I am working on. Someone finally let me.”

  Wang turned to me. “I have the feeling that you’re going to say no.”

  Sometimes we have to take care of ourselves too and not just our careers, Everett.

  “Actually, I would really love to have a cup now. I think I’ll come with you but I do need to head back right away.”

  I caught Wang and Alexa looking at each other for a moment as I grabbed my jacket. He looked at me oddly and then stopped in front of me, rooting me to my spot. “What the heck happened?”

  Glancing back at the door, I shrugged. “I wanted to have another cup of coffee.”

  Wang looked at me weirdly but didn’t press me further, thankfully. We went to the coffee shop- the same one that Alexa and I had gone to that night- and I ordered my coffee and another one for her. Wang looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “I know you practically run on caffeine but tell me that cup isn’t for you.”

  I bit my lower lip, trying to keep my cool and shrugged. “She got me lunch. I thought I’d repay her by getting her coffee.”

  Fortunately, Wang didn’t accompany me back to my office. Before I went inside, I pulled out a pen and scribbled a note against the hot cup and then pushed the door open. Alexa was focused on the board, writing down some notes, and I tried my best not to read them. Instead, I placed the coffee on her table and went back to my desk, resuming the report I was working on. From the corner of my eye, I saw her turn around, approach her table and pick up her coffee cup.

  When I looked at her, she had a small smile on her face. She looked at me, shaking her head in amusement at the note I had written and mouthed, “Thank you.”

  Sometimes we have to take care of ourselves too and not just our careers, Alexa.

  4

  Alexa

  My alarm clock went off, and the sound was so shrill that I almost fell out of my bed with the sudden, jolting noise. Groaning, my hand tried to find where it was, and when I found it, I wrapped my fingers around it and threw it against the wall on the other side of the apartment. I was not a morning person and I probably would never be. But who the hell loves to wake up at 7 AM in the morning?

  Beside me, my phone began to incessantly ping over and over again. With another groan, I searched around on the bed for my phone. When I switched it on, I squinted as the bright light hit my eyes. I usually woke up every day at around 7:30, and I hated it every time someone messed that up for me.

  All of the texts were from Olivia, asking me if I was available after work. Apparently, the guy that she was seeing, when I was looking for an apartment, broke it off with her and she was in ‘horrendous pain’.

  Suddenly it began to ring, and I almost dropped my phone on my face. It was Olivia.

  “Lexi! Oh, I didn’t wake you, did I? God, you haven’t been responding to my messages and I … and I feel like I’m drowning in my sorrows, Lex. I thought he was the one. I thought that we were going to get married in a little chapel and live together and everything.”

  Cringing, I pulled the phone away from my ear, as Olivia began to sob. Olivia and I had been best friends since high school. And no matter how much she annoyed me I was willing to fight for this girl. But she had the tendency to build fairy tales, too fast and too soon, with whomever she was dating at the moment. In the years that we’d spent apart, I thought that she would’ve changed and become mature.

  “But he kept sending me these notes that kept on telling me that he still wants to be with me, that he’s in love with me, but we needed time apart.” Olivia continued.

  My eyebrows furrowed and I sat up. “Wait, what did you just say? You’ve been getting notes?”

  “I confronted him about it after the break up, but he told me that he never sent me any notes. But I know it’s him, Lexi! Who else could it be?”

  I tugged at my ear, something that I did
when the gears in my head were turning. The pathologist that I used to work with always teased me about being a hardcore Nancy Drew fan. She always used to remind me that not every homicide case involved a serial killer or a psychopath. Sometimes certain events just escalate too quickly and someone involved dies. But I remembered finding love notes at the house of the victim that I had examined, the first murder case that I had taken up at the CSI. The one that had pissed Everett off.

  Technically, the case was deemed to be a suicide, and the love notes were not considered to have anything to do with it. But something was making me wonder if there was a killer behind the incident, that maybe the killer had wanted to make it look like an accident or a suicide. Maybe…maybe…maybe…

  Maybe I was reading too much into the case because I wanted it to be something more, to be something that would occupy my time and attention. Irving happened to be a very quiet town with minimal crimes that left me with almost nothing to work on. The only good point was that the pay was fixed and good.

  “Lexi?” Olivia’s voice coming from far away. “I know you have work and I do too, but can we please meet up tonight? I just…I know it sounds silly and you’ve heard me say it a thousand times since high school but I thought he’d be different. I would really like to drown this sadness in booze and you’re the only real friend I have here in Irving.”

  For a second time, I tugged at my ear and ran a hand through my wiry red hair. “Okay, Liv. I’ll see you tonight. And can you bring those notes? I want to see them. Text me the place at which you want to meet up.”

  When we ended the call, I showered and got dressed, applied some makeup, grabbed my purse and locked my apartment. I couldn’t help but think about what Olivia had told me, about the notes she was receiving. Maybe I was reading too much into it and the notes were completely harmless. Maybe Olivia had an ex that really liked her but broke it off because he was a coward and couldn’t stay in the relationship. Or maybe she had a crazy stalker that was obsessed with her. The possibilities were endless.

  And the Nancy Drew wannabe inside of me couldn’t help but want it to be a mystery that I could solve. I mean, Everett had a murder case on his hands; although he had been giving me some details about it and allowing me to help after our ‘argument’. But I wanted one of my own. It was a twisted thing to want but I was certain that I wasn’t the only person who had a mild fascination with murder mysteries.

  The studio apartment I lived in was only a couple of blocks away from the department, which meant that the coffee shop that Everett had taken me to that night was also only at a walking distance. I had also found out a couple of days ago that the penthouse Everett lived in with his brother was on the other side of the coffee shop. Because of this, we always saw each other in the morning and for some reason, it had become a routine for the both of us to come in to work together.

  My work relationship with Everett had gotten better. Not that it wasn’t good the first time. He had always been nice and approachable, and he was willing to teach me when I couldn’t really understand certain things. But the thing was, he treated me as if I was an intern in the department and not as a colleague. He had refused to share the case that he was working on with me, and didn’t seem to have any plan of letting me work with him.

  When the police had called for CSI backup at a crime scene, I hadn’t hesitated to step on the field, especially since Everett wasn’t available. It was an opportunity that had presented itself and I took it. I had intended to text Everett and inform him about it, but Detective Scarlett Weller had stopped me from doing so. I think she had observed me just lounging around the department most of the time, and she knew Everett well enough to figure out that he mustn’t have been letting me work with him. She was the one who told me to have an intern inform Everett about where I was and what had happened.

  “Alexa!” Everett was calling me, waving a hand. He was already in line and there was only one person ordering in front of him. “Flat white? Tall?”

  I nodded, although I knew that even if I wasn’t there or I was a little late, he’d have gotten my order. Everett seemed to take note of all the little things and sometimes, if he went down to the coffee shop after lunch and I was out on the field, I’d have a coffee waiting for me on my desk when I returned. He was thoughtful- a workaholic who ran on a short fuse – but still very thoughtful. Sometimes I had the tendency of taking his thoughtfulness too seriously and that was a very dangerous line to walk.

  “You look lost. Still thinking about that first case?” Everett asked as he handed me my coffee. We simultaneously checked the time. We had thirty minutes before we needed to sign in at the department, so we took a seat at the coffee shop to kill some time.

  Even if it meant hurting my ego, I had to tell Everett about the conspiracy theory I had. I mean, if there was anyone in the department that could understand my fascination with conspiracy theories, it was the person who worked the same job as me. “Well, not exactly. It’s just that my friend called me earlier. Do you remember the girl I was with at the club?”

  He nodded his head. “How could I forget? She left you with a complete stranger and went with her boyfriend.”

  I chuckled. “He wasn’t her boyfriend at that time. They were just meeting up after talking to each other on Tinder. He had seemed like a nice guy, but she called me this morning and told me that they ended things. She wasn’t too specific as to why, but she mentioned something about receiving love notes.”

  Everett’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked at me, his eyes focusing behind his thick rimmed glasses. His hair was still a mess, as if he had not bothered to run a comb through his hair. It was long and messy and definitely needed to be cut, but with his glasses and his neatly pressed outfit, he actually looked very cute.

  Stop it, Alexa.

  “And you feel like she might be a lead to the love notes you found at the murder case?” Everett asked before he took a sip of his coffee, regarding me carefully. I could hear he was sceptical about the idea. Earlier, when I had told Everett about my theory, how it was possible that there was an actual suspect and it wasn’t a suicide, he wasn’t on the same boat as I was. It was in that moment that I’d learnt that Everett Hudson was practical and functioned on logic. He wasn’t the type to entertain conspiracies.

  I pouted at the tone he was using. He sounded so amused and sceptical at the same time that it made me feel small. “You’re making it sound like I’m a 12-year old detective.”

  Everett chuckled and pushed his cup of steaming coffee aside and brought his hands together and in that moment, he suddenly looked ten years older than me, worn by experience. “Alexa, it was a suicide. She had depression, and you figured that out yourself. If you keep on treating every case that you handle like this, then it’s not going to work in your favour.”

  I pursed my lips and recoiled. “Is it a crime to be suspicious?”

  Everett’s hand paused mid-sip and he looked at me through the thick lenses of his glasses, then slowly lowered his hand and sighed. “You’re a lot like Wang, you know? You can’t seem to brush off the conspiracies you make up in your brain.”

  “Doesn’t hurt to be curious,” I replied stubbornly, drinking my coffee and flinching at how hot it was.

  He looked at me with amusement dancing in his eyes. “So, what are you going to do with the love notes your friend has been receiving?”

  I smirked. “I told her that we’d get dinner and some drinks tonight. I also asked her to bring the notes with her, just to make sure that the guy sending her notes is just an asshole playing with her heart.”

  “I’ll come with.”

  Processing.

  Loading.

  Error.

  “What?”

  Everett laughed. “I said, I’ll come with you and check on the notes too, just so I can say ‘I told you so’. What time?”

  All I could do was stare at Everett because my mind refused to process his words. I wasn’t the party-goer kind of girl bec
ause I wasn’t a fan of clubs, and I hated how small those places could feel because of the sheer number of people inside. But unlike me, Everett absolutely detested it. I mean, I wasn’t even sure if we would end up in a bar but knowing Olivia, she liked to get absolutely wasted every time someone broke her heart.

  “I’m not sure yet, but probably right after I get out of work. Wait, are you sure? We might end up in a club after dinner. I’m not a fan of it but Liv’s sad, and only booze will cheer her up.”

  I waited for Everett to make a face and decline, but instead he just casually finished his coffee and then rested his face on the palm of his hand, and tilted his head as he looked at me.

  Jesus Christ.

  Could he not do that?

  The sight of him sent the butterflies in my stomach into a flurry. “I’m coming, Alexa. I want to come. Take it as me wanting to debunk conspiracy theories, since you know…”

  “They’re just theories,” I finished, shaking my head and trying to stop myself from smiling. We made our way to work and spent the rest of the day working on the case that Everett was handling. We still didn’t have a suspect and it was seriously mind-boggling. But it was a relief that Everett had loosened up and allowed me to work on the case.

  An hour before work ended, Everett had to go out in the field to do a last-minute check on a crime scene that he and Wang had visited after lunch. It wasn’t technically a crime scene. It was a vehicular accident and he was just there to help recreate the incident. He promised that he would come back on time so that we could head to the restaurant to meet Olivia.

  “Alexa.”

  I looked up and spotted Wang. I was already downstairs, talking to Detective Weller, when he strolled into her office, grinning like a fool. “Where’s Everett?”

  Wang’s grin grew wider- if that was possible- and wiggled his eyebrows. “You should’ve told me you two were going on a date. I wouldn’t have asked him to come back to the crime scene with me.”