His grip tightened on my hand as he nodded dejectedly. “Yeah I guess.”
“There’s just three more weeks left of school now, let’s just get those out of the way and then we’ll think about it, alright?” I bargained, wanting to take the sad expression from his face. We hadn’t made any plans for the summer, and travelling for a month or so would certainly be fun.
He sighed and nodded, bringing my hand up to his mouth, planting a soft kiss against my palm. “Okay.”
I smiled and settled down into my seat, watching the road stretch out ahead of us. Everything seemed chilled and relaxed when I was with Luke; nothing seemed to faze me because I knew that whatever happened he would look after me, just like he always promised he would. I looked over at him from the corner of my eye, feeling a little smile tug at the corners of my mouth. I couldn’t wait for those three weeks to be over with so that we could live out his plans. He was right, it would be perfect and I couldn’t wait. He caught me looking and smiled over at me. His brown eyes were soft and tender as they caught mine. “I love you, Maisie.”
My heart stuttered as I nodded in confirmation, I didn’t need him to say the words, I already knew it, I always had done. “I love you too.” He grinned that dazzling smile and turned back to the road, turning up the radio a little more so the soft tones of The Script filled the car.
After a while I remembered that I needed to charge my cell phone. “You have your phone charger in the car?” I asked, digging my cell out of my purse.
He nodded, reaching out and pulling his in-car charger from the dashboard, plugging it in for me and holding out the end. I smiled gratefully and plugged it in, waiting a few seconds before attempting to turn it on and then fitting it into the little drinks holder in his car. A couple of minutes later my cell beeped. I picked it up, looking down at the screen to see that I had a new text message from Charlotte that had been received when my phone was off. I smiled and opened it, still singing along to the music. The words died on my lips as I read the message.
‘I know you said not to, but... I just got the phone number from the cell phone company database. Here it is. Seriously, let one of the boys call it and frighten the crap out of the guy!’
Then there was a cell phone number after it. I gulped, reading the message again with wide eyes. Seeing it there, glowing in the fading daylight, made everything come to a head. It seemed to make everything more real somehow. Now that I had the number I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I shouldn’t do anything with it; the police had the number but couldn’t trace it because it was a pay as you go with no contract or fixed address. I shouldn’t get involved. Just like I told Charlotte in the first place, I should just let the police do their jobs and wait for them to contact me again so that they could trace the call like they wanted to.
But seeing it there was just too tempting. Maybe I could call it. Maybe the guy would answer and then… what? What would I do then? I frowned down at it, confused and a little afraid of it. I wanted to call the number. Curiosity was getting the better of me. I started thinking that maybe I’d recognise the voice of the person and then I could tell the police who to look into. Maybe it would be that easy and then it would be over. My mind was whirling, dreaming up and dismissing scenarios so quickly that it made my head spin.
Without thinking anymore about it, I clicked on the number, bringing it up on my screen. My thumb hovered over the green call button as I fought with myself, trying to debate if I was going to do any damage by actually calling the person. The chances are it would be switched off, like it always was when the police tried to call it. But what if they actually answered? What would I say then?
“Everything okay?” Luke asked, looking over at me with one eyebrow raised. I cleared my throat and nodded, still undecided. “Who was that from? Not that Zach guy again.” His voice was practically a growl as he said Zach’s name.
I shook my head slowly, unsure how I was going to tell him that Charlotte had illegally hacked the phone company and found the number of the guy that was calling me. I gulped, knowing he would be mad at me for getting involved. “No. Charlotte found the phone number of the person that’s been calling me. She’s just text it to me,” I mumbled, my words all mashing together as I spoke. He obviously understood though.
He straightened in his seat, his hands gripping the wheel so tightly that his knuckles went white. “She what? How? What the fuck, Maisie?” he ranted, reaching to grab my phone from my hand.
I shook my head and quickly moved it out of his reach. “I could call it. Maybe then I’ll recognise the voice and everything will be over, I can tell the police, and they can investigate and arrest them. It’ll be over,” I countered, looking at him for his opinion.
His opinion was clear across his face though, I could see it clearly enough. He was horrified, totally against the idea by the look of it. Again my finger hovered over the call button. “Don’t, Maisie, for Christ sake don’t,” he cried, reaching for the phone again.
I pushed his hand away quickly as he slammed on the brakes of the car, screeching us to a halt just as we were about to cross a bridge over the river. I was thrown forward against my seatbelt from the force of the stop, my ribs and chest instantly burning and aching from the pressure. “Damn it, Luke! What the hell are you doing?” I shouted, pulling at my seatbelt to try and get it to loosen but it was no good; the quick stopping motion had made it too tight across my chest and lap.
“Give me the phone!” he barked, holding out his hand for it.
Car horns blasted behind us where we were blocking our side of the road. “Luke, people can’t get past,” I observed, nodding my head at the traffic that was queuing up behind us pretty quickly.
He shook his hand in front of me again. “Give me the phone,” he repeated.
I gulped and pressed the call button, knowing that as soon as he took my phone off of me he would delete the number so I couldn’t call it. His eyes went wide as I put the phone to my ear, hearing the little tinkle where the phone connected to the line. Almost immediately a bell like sound came from behind me. I frowned, looking over the back of the seat to the footwell behind me. The sound seemed to be coming from there. I flicked my gaze up to Luke only to see he had his eyes closed, his head hung dejectedly as the bell sound continued in the background, muffled by the song on the radio.
I frowned, confused. “What’s that?” I asked, looking around for the source of the noise. I twisted awkwardly in my seat, reaching behind me and batting the other junk out of the way. My hand touched cool, vibrating plastic, so I gripped it and pulled it into the front. It was the cell phone that had fallen out of Luke’s pocket last night when we were making out in the back of the car. But looking at it again now in the daylight, I realised that it wasn’t actually Luke’s cell phone. It was one that I had never seen before, a cheap Nokia one and not something like Luke would buy at all.
What puzzled me the most is that my number was flashing on the screen as it continued to vibrate in my hand. “Who’s is this?” I muttered, shaking my head in confusion. Luke’s gaze lifted to mine. An apologetic, pained expression covered his face as realisation hit me like a bucket of cold water. The number that Charlotte had found for me, was calling Luke? My heart sank as my blood seemed to turn to ice in my veins. “Oh God, no,” I mumbled as everything seemed to hit me at once.
Luke.
It was Luke.
He gulped, his mouth opening as he seemed to struggle with his words as the phone rang and rang in the background. “Maisie…” he croaked, shaking his head slowly, his eyes not leaving mine.
No. No. No. No!
It felt as if a knife pierced into my heart, twisting, killing me slowly.
“It was you? But why?” I whispered, horrified, mortified, hurt, and crushed because not for one second had I ever suspected that the person I loved would do this to me.
Chapter 28
“Why?” I repeated, pulling at my seatbelt as my heart dropped down into my s
tomach. I’d never felt so let down or disappointed in all my life. But I just couldn’t understand it, I couldn’t take it in. Why would Luke want to do that to me? Did he not love me at all? Why would he be trying to hurt me?
He groaned, closing his eyes as he raised his elbow and pressed down his door lock, locking us both into the car. Before he did that I hadn’t even thought about exiting the car, but now that I knew I was locked in my mind was instantly wondering why he would want to keep me in the car. Would he actually want to hurt me, like the notes had suggested?
“I love you so much,” he croaked, turning in his seat to look at me as he unclipped his seatbelt and scooted closer to me.
My eyes filled with tears as everything flashed up in my mind, the notes, how scared I’d been, how he’d held me and told me that he would never let anyone hurt me. When my thoughts turned to Chester I felt my heart break even more. He couldn’t have done that, surely. He knew how much I loved my dog; he wouldn’t have hurt him, would he?
A strangled noise came out of my mouth as I struggled to comprehend everything. All of it, everything that had happened in the last few weeks, it had all been the love of my life? “No,” I groaned, shaking my head, begging him with my eyes for some other explanation, that he’d found the phone somewhere, that he was holding it for someone else, anything.
He nodded sadly, resting his head back against the seat. “I did it because I love you. I never meant for it to go this far. I just meant to show you that you needed me, I didn’t mean to take it this far,” he whispered, fisting his hands in his hair.
I whimpered, my mouth agape, just staring at him, waiting for him to tell me this was some sick joke. I paid no attention to the cars that were struggling to drive around us, blasting their horns and shouting abuse out of their windows.
Luke turned to me then, his eyes so sorrowful that it made my stomach ache. “I was desperate. I could see I’d lost you after what I did with Sandy at the party, and I just needed to get you back. I need you, Maisie; I need you in my life. I have nothing without you. You’re the only one that ever really saw me for me, and I couldn’t lose you over a stupid mistake.” He gulped, running a hand through his hair. I noticed with some level of gratitude that he hadn’t moved to touch me at all; he was just begging me with his eyes to understand and listen.
“So you decided the best way to win me back was to send me death threats? Poison my dog?” A sob rose in my throat as he winced when I said about Chester. “Please tell me you didn’t do that, that someone else did that, please tell me that,” I begged.
He shook his head slowly. “I didn’t mean to make him that sick,” he croaked. “I gave him the meat, and I thought he’d be sick a few times. I know you can’t deal well with sick, so I figured you’d call me up to help you. I didn’t realise it’d be that bad, I never meant for that to happen.”
Anger took over then. Looking at him as he apologised just drove me to the edge. I twisted in my seat and slapped his shoulder and chest as hard as I could, over and over. “You sick, sick bastard! How could you do that? He didn’t deserve to go through that! You’re demented, Luke. What kind of sicko does that to a dog just to get some attention from his girlfriend?” I screamed, slapping him again for emphasis.
He grabbed my wrists, clenching his jaw tightly as he restrained me, pinning my hands down into my lap effortlessly. “Maisie, please. I did it all because I love you.”
I glared at him, struggling against his hold. “You can’t love me! That’s not love, that’s obsession!” I scoffed.
He scowled at me and let go of my hands, moving back into his chair again. “Don’t ever think that I don’t love you,” he snapped. I opened my mouth to make another angry retort, but he carried on speaking, cutting me off. “I got the idea that day at school when you saw that frog and you jumped on me. I knew then that you needed me, you just didn’t realise it.”
The frog. When I’d screamed and jumped on him. He somehow connected me being scared with me needing him? That’s where he came up with this twisted idea? I pressed back into the door, wanting to get as far away from him as possible. “So you just decided that frightening me would be okay, did you?” I spat angrily.
He shrugged and nodded. “I didn’t mean to take it this far. I just meant to send you a few notes, the flowers and stuff. But the more frightened you got, the more you came to me. The further I pushed it, the closer I got to getting you back,” he explained casually, as if this was the most normal conversation in the world.
“And that makes it okay? The fact that you didn’t mean any harm by it makes it okay in your head does it?” How could he be so casual? How could he think his actions were justified just because it showed me that I needed him by frightening the life out of me and poisoning my dog.
He shook his head quickly, his eyes meeting mine as his shoulders slumped. “No, it’s not okay, I know that. I didn’t mean to hurt you; I just meant to frighten you a little.”
“So you could swoop in like a knight in shining armour?” I snapped, glaring at him.
He nodded. “Kinda, yeah.” He gulped, nodded down at the cell phone in my hand that had finally stopped ringing because it had been trying to connect for so long. “I bought that and just meant to call you a couple of times, but things got out of hand, I lost the plot a little, I know that.”
Lost the plot a little? Try a lot! Suddenly Sandy crossed my mind and my eyes widened as another thought occurred to me. The police said that there was a possibility that whoever was harassing me was the same person that had killed her. Oh God. “Sandy,” I croaked. He wouldn’t have gone that far, surely.
His teeth snapped together with an audible click as he wrinkled his nose distastefully. “She fucking deserved it. All of this was her fault in the first place. The little dirty whore was going to ruin everything!” he growled. His hands clenched into fists as he ground his teeth.
Horror settled in the pit of my stomach. He’d killed someone. Luke was a murderer. I was sitting in the car with a murderer. The guy I was hopelessly in love with was a cold blooded killer.
He shook his head as if thinking about something that made him angry. “The little tramp was blackmailing me, trying to get me to date her. She saw me buying the meat and put two and two together. She guessed that it was me that poisoned Chester. She threatened to tell you if I didn’t do as she said.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and swiped at the tears that now spilled over and fell down my face. “So you killed her?” I squeaked, praying he would say no. I almost wanted him to be angry with me for even suggesting something so absurd.
“Yeah.” He nodded, closing his eyes in obvious remorse. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t plan it or anything, it just happened. I called her to meet up and just went to talk to her, to tell her to back off and that I wasn’t going to go along with her plans. I only had the knife to threaten her, nothing else. But she just kept going on and on about you. The things she was saying,” he gulped, “she’s nasty piece of work. I just lost it, I grabbed the knife and… and…” He looked down at his hands as if expecting the knife to still be there or something.
My heart was slamming in my chest. I didn’t know what to say.
He looked up at me then with wide eyes, his chin trembled. “Please don’t hate me,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I just wanted you back, and then things got out of control. I’m so sorry. I never would have hurt you; I just wanted you to think that someone wanted you hurt so that I could protect you.”
I looked at him, completely and utterly shell shocked. I didn’t know what to do or say. In the deep recesses of my mind I could actually understand why he had done it. Luke had never really had anyone else in his life, his family all but abandoned him all the time, and his friends were more like leeches just after his popularity or talent. No one really understood Luke like I did, we had a special connection, I knew that. I knew that he loved me. I’d just never realised how distorted his id
ea of love was, or how far he would take things to hold on to me. But I could kind of understand it all because I loved him probably just as much - though I would never resort to drastic measures like he had.
“There’s something really wrong with you, Luke,” I muttered, shaking my head, pulling again at my seatbelt. I needed to get out of the car. The air seemed to be getting thicker, making it harder to breathe. I needed to get away from him so that I could think clearly.
His hand reached out, stroking the side of my face with one finger. I cringed away from his hand, instantly thinking of him holding a knife and plunging it into Sandy’s body. He was a killer. Even though I still loved him, I now viewed him differently. He wasn’t the person that I thought he was, he wasn’t sweet, loving Luke that would do anything for me. He was sick, twisted Luke that would do anything to keep me. He scared me as he looked at me so pleadingly.
“Don’t touch me,” I hissed, pushing his hand away from my face.
He groaned. Tears glistened in his eyes as his shoulders slumped in defeat. “Please forgive me, Maisie. I’m nothing without you,” he rasped.
“Forgive you? What… how… Luke, I can’t even look at you right now!” I gasped, shaking my head as I fumbled with my seatbelt again, but my hands were shaking too badly so I couldn’t depress the button properly.
He made a strangled gargle and shook his head. “Don’t say that. I love you; I did all of this because I love you! Everything was for you. All of it.”
I gulped as my mind raced and whirled with thoughts. He’s going to be in so much trouble. The police will arrest him and he’ll be charged with murder, he’ll go to jail for years. I hated the fact that the thought of him being punished for his crimes actually made my heart ache. He was sick in the head, but I still loved him, even after all he’d done to me this last couple of weeks.
Free Falling Page 34
