“Fucking hell,” Drew hisses, picking me up and taking me outside. I’m still screaming, clinging to his hoodie, the sound shrill, piercing. Only this time, my eyes have the will to shut.
But I still see him behind my lids.
Drew sits us down and begins to rock.
“Police please. We found a dead body,” Drew announces, his body tense. I don’t hear the rest; I can’t, but I can feel the rumble of his chest.
It stops and suddenly, the back of his hand cups the back of my head. I flinch, my screams turning to whimpers. “Charlotte,” he whispers.
I can’t.
That was Scott.
He’s dead.
And that imploding doom I sensed earlier, intensifies. If it wasn’t him sending me those flowers, then who was?
And are they the reason Scott has been murdered?
“Charlotte,” Drew whispers, pressing a kiss to the side of my face.
My body bucks as sobs tear through my chest. “I watch crime shows. I love horrors.”
Drew tenses. “Um—”
I lift up, getting his face. “They were my favourite,” I screech, my pulse racing. “But t-that was different. It, i-it wasn’t on the screen. It was real life. And they lied.” My breath hitches. “He… He…” I struggle to catch my breath and my eyes begin to bulge.
“Charlotte, breathe,” Drew orders, his face paling.
My eyes roll, and the last thing I remember is the world around me falling away.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
DREW
Charlotte stays cuddled into my arms as we walk through the house. It has been a long twenty-eight hours since she walked into the library and found her ex’s gruesome corpse.
After being released late last night from the hospital after she went into shock, we brought her home. None of her family argued when I told them I was staying. Her parents didn’t leave either, camping out downstairs, and her brother took the spare bedroom. Landon would have stayed too if there had been room. At one point it seemed like he was ready to camp outside her bedroom door.
When the police knocked this morning, wanting to bring Charlotte in for questioning, all of them rallied to support her. Only, the police wouldn’t let us in the room whilst they questioned her. It caused a bit of stir and whatever they said to her, had made her curl into herself. She hasn’t spoken a word since she came into the waiting room and the officer who was dealing with her case explained they will have to speak to her again at some point.
With Landon and I putting one of our team in charge at the gym, neither of us have to be back in work for a few days. Which is a good thing since I don’t think it’s wise to leave Charlotte alone right now. She has endured a lot since I met her, yet she has pulled through, her strength shining for us all to see. However, the light she carries, the care and love she shares with others… it dimmed yesterday at seeing the corpse.
I still have moments where it’s all I can see. The dirt caking his clothes that looked like someone had rushed to put on him. None of the buttons had matched and his trousers had been undone. His injuries were out of anger. Someone had kept hitting him long after his death, and I don’t need an autopsy to confirm that.
What kept me up most of the night was Charlotte’s screams. I had been in the car, rolling down my windows when I heard it. Filled with torture, and anguish, I had slammed my breaks on, not even bothering to shut it off before racing up the steps. I didn’t even think twice after I saw the body, the reason for the soul shattering cries coming from her. I lifted her and got out of there. Over an hour it took me to get away from the scene to head to the hospital where they had taken her. An hour of not knowing if she was okay or how she was doing. An hour of her thinking I had abandoned her. I needn’t have worried. By the time I arrived, she still hadn’t woken up.
She seemed better this morning, but that cloud still hung over her and everyone could sense it. And then the police turned up.
Helping her to the sofa, I take a seat next to her. She curls into me, her head resting on my shoulder.
Kayla sits on the coffee table in front of her, reaching out to brush her red locks off her face. “Honey, do you want to talk about it?”
“I think they think I killed him,” she whispers, sounding so broken.
I tense, sitting up, and lift her upright. “What the fuck? Why on earth would they think you had anything to do with it? He’s the one who hurt you.”
Kayla pales, her grip on Charlotte’s hands tightening. “We will sort this, honey.”
“Why did they think you did this?” Myles asks, placing a hand on his wife’s shoulder.
“My statement to the police that night,” she whispers.
Landon sits down next to Kayla, his forearms resting over his thighs. “Charlotte, I need you calm for a moment. You need to tell us exactly what was said so we can help you.”
“In my statement, I told them I hit him over the head. It was with my Kama Sutra book. I swear.” She hiccups and I wrap my arm around her. “I didn’t use anything else. It was that book. But they kept saying maybe I mistook what I held and it was a crow bar or something. Mum, I didn’t. I swear.”
“Hey, honey, I believe you,” she soothes, rubbing her thumbs over the top of her daughter’s hand.
“Then they said there was excessive damage to his groin area. I kicked him once and squeezed his balls. It was to get away, but he got up. I swear, he got up.”
Landon’s stoned-faced expression has me tensing. I’m guessing this is the first he’s heard of the inner details of that night. And knowing she had to go to these lengths to fight him off, it’s just now hitting him.
Just like it is me.
She came to me that night and unbeknownst to me, I’d get to know her, care for her and maybe even more than that. I hurt for her that night. Now, it cuts deep, wishing I had done more after I dropped her off. Maybe if I had known where she lived that night, I could have gone back to see if he was there, to teach him a lesson. All this continued pain could have been avoided.
“You did what you needed to, to get away.”
“I also told them I scratched him and that I drew blood. He had those markings on his face. They have no evidence, but they said once the reports come back, they’ll need me to go in for questioning again.”
“But that Megan officer said they didn’t arrest you,” Kayla murmurs.
Charlotte wipes her eyes. “Because there isn’t enough evidence. I didn’t kill him. I swear.”
“We know,” Landon assures her.
Hayden snorts. “Someone fucking did. I don’t get why people are getting testy about it. The world is a better place.”
“He had children.”
“Who he may have hurt,” Hayden argues.
Charlotte’s lips quiver. “I won’t make it in prison. Do they let animals stay with you? Can you read romance books or do they only give you stuff like dictionaries? What if I have to eat meat because it’s all they have? What if someone makes me her bitch?” she cries.
I pull her tighter at her outburst. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”
She glances up at me. “I’m going to prison and you won’t see me again.”