“How are you feeling?”
“Tired, and a little sore.”
“You’ve not got any pain meds?” I ask, as I second guess my decision to turn up here. “How come you aren’t sleeping?”
Maybe she just wants to be alone.
Her lip trembles. “I don’t want to feel fuzzy again,” she replies, ignoring the other question.
“How are you really feeling?”
Her big doe eyes stare up at me, almost pleadingly. “I’m so scared I can’t get to sleep.”
I move away from the chest of drawers and take a seat on the bed next to her. I tuck her into my side, rubbing my hand down her arm. “Do you want to talk about it?”
She shivers, yet doesn’t pull away and instead, moves closer. “A lot happened before the crash so I hadn’t been paying attention. So much of it was running through my head. But Emily had been paying attention. She noticed before any of us realised there was an issue.” She shudders, her fingers curling into my hoodie. “It happened so fast.”
Hearing the tremble in her voice, I pull her closer. “I’m sorry this has happened to you.”
“It kept ramming into the back of us and then the van up ahead was getting closer. I knew we were going to crash but I wasn’t prepared. I don’t even remember much of the pain, or of what happened. I only remember feeling terrified.” Her fingers tighten around the fabric of my hoodie. “I keep hearing the sounds. The metal, the screams, the horn and even the sound of the rain. It keeps replaying in my mind and I don’t know how to shut it off.”
“It’s going to be okay,” I assure her, hoping those words are true. “Do they know who was in the car?”
She shakes her head a little. “No. They took our statements at the hospital, and the guy driving the van.”
“You said a lot happened before. What was it?” She quickly runs over everything that happened and the more she tells me, the tenser I get. “Charlotte, why did you never say anything?”
“I wasn’t sure anything was connected. Not until tonight.” She pulls back, tilting her head to look up at me. “I think someone is trying to kill me.”
I kiss the top of her head. “We’ll find the fucker. I swear. You just need to be careful in the meantime. Once you’re better, we can talk about adding more classes to your schedule. I want you to be prepared if anything does happen.”
“Do you think it’s him? Scott?”
“I don’t know, but if I were to guess, I’d say yes.”
She yawns, snuggling into me. “I just want to feel safe again. I took so much for granted before. And people have been hurt because of me.”
She sniffles and my heart clenches. “Not because of you. You had no hand in it. All you’re guilty of is being a good person.”
“Please don’t tell the others I’m scared. They’ll hover,” she tells me, her voice breaking out with sleep. “I don’t want them getting hurt because of me.”
I rise a little, lifting the throw blanket up at the end. I chuckle when I see it has a ragdoll printed on it. I throw it over us and just as we get comfy, her cat dives from somewhere onto my chest.
“Hey,” I rumble, chuckling when it immediately crawls up to my neck, snuggling into my hair.
“She likes you,” she mutters, another yawning escaping.
“Go to sleep,” I whisper.
Her hold on me tightens. “No. I want you to stay.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I promise her, content when her eyes flutter closed.
As soon as Landon comes in tomorrow, I’m giving him no choice but to let me help find this wanker. My dad has connections, knows people who can find the impossible.
And once I find him, I’m not handing him over to the police.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
DREW
Dad is due to arrive at any moment. As promised the night of Charlotte’s accident, I’m going to find this fucker who is messing with her. The conversation didn’t go down well with Landon. I have no ties or hold on Charlotte and he was worried I was doing it for the wrong reasons. If he thinks for a moment I’m going to use this to get into her knickers, he’s wrong on so many levels.
He also tried once again to point out we have nothing in common and want different things. Landon doesn’t know me well enough if he thinks I’m shallow enough to only want a woman for a quick fuck. And yes, we might not have anything in common, and we might be two different people, but I think that’s what makes me so drawn to her. She isn’t some chick from the gym who’s into fitness or some chick I picked up from the bar. Charlotte has an air about her that draws people in.
After spending the night with her at her house a few weeks ago, I had found myself missing her, wondering what she was up to or if she was okay.
I’m not searching for this guy because I want her; I’m doing this because a woman was hurt, a woman who, for all intents and purposes, means something to me. I might not be able to categorize those feelings or give it a label, but none of it fucking matters. What matters is helping Charlotte. And I’m going to do that with or without Landon. It just happened to be easier with his assistance as I don’t want us looking in the same places he and his family already have.
“I don’t get it. We have been looking high and low for this fucker and all of a sudden, your dad has a lead.”
I shrug. “Yes. It’s that simple. He gets shit done. He didn’t say whether or not the lead will be useful, so don’t get your hopes up.”
“Anything at this point would be great. Even my uncle Liam is struggling because there isn’t much to go by. He always used cash at the strip clubs. He never bought Charlotte anything for us to even retrace those steps. The only places we had to go on were strip clubs and none of the women who worked there wanted to talk to us.”
That surprises me. “Why?”
“Because they have dickheads in there all the time. They didn’t want to give us false information,” he explains, rubbing his jaw. “Although this new chick, the one that’s in the hospital, she doesn’t strip anymore. She’s a barmaid at the strip club. We went there and she never said anything. It all seems fishy to me.”
“A girl who has been hurt and burnt by a male isn’t going to want to talk to one. Let alone bring up bad memories that are better left in the past,” I remind him. “I think hearing it was a friend asking about the information is what compelled her to come forward.”
“And look where that got her,” he bites out.
Dad pushes through the door, Nora beside him. He takes in Landon, sizing him up. “I’m taking it you’re the cousin?” Dad greets.
Landon steps forward, reaching for his hand. “I am.”
He nods before turning to me, handing me a piece of paper. “Like I said to Drew on the phone, I don’t know if this information is worth anything yet.”
“What is it?” I ask, running my gaze over a list of names and addresses. There are five in total.
“From what you’ve told me, it seems this isn’t the first time or second time he’s hurt a woman. I had my guy look into similar cases. He narrowed the search down with key words and the brief description of this guy from the police report.”