Chapter Two
Shy
“Come on, let’s go to my place,” I say, wrapping an arm around Carrie. “I’m calling the cops.”
On the way back to my apartment, I call the police and explain what little I know. Carrie doesn’t say anything, and when I help her sit on my couch, she’s shaking.
“Let me make you some tea.” I try to keep my words soft so I don’t scare her, but inside I want to rage. Who the fuck did that to her apartment?
“Okay.” She looks up at me with her big green eyes, and I decide the tea can wait.
“Come here.” Sitting down beside her, I pull her onto my lap and wrap my arms around her.
I remember once when I was a kid, my aunt and I were staying with one of her boyfriends, and he’d come home drunk and torn the place apart. I was shaking just like Carrie is now, and I remember thinking I just wanted someone to hold me.
She’s small in my arms, and I lean back, fitting her under my chin as she curls into a ball. Grabbing the blanket beside me, I drape it over both of us and try to make soothing sounds.
“It’s going to be okay.” My hand rubs up and down her back as I hum low, and although she’s still shivering, I feel her melt against me.
“What am I going to do? I can’t stay there.”
“You’re going to stay with me.” She looks up, and I stare down at her. “You can have my bed.”
“Shy, I can’t—”
“You’ll stay here, and that’s the end of it,” I say, and when a tear slips from her eyes, I want to murder whoever it is that made her so upset.
“Thank you.” She curls against me once more, and I take out my phone.
While I hold her, I text Apollo and Rory what happened and that we need the security camera footage. They both text back immediately and are on their way. As soon as that’s done, there’s a knock on my door, and Carrie flinches.
“It’s okay, it’s just the police.”
Just then Celeste comes bursting through the door, and I see the uniformed police officers behind her, surprised that she ran right in front of them.
“Carrie!” She beelines straight for where we are on the couch, and reluctantly I let her go.
“Stay here with Celeste. I’m going to show the cops to your place.” She nods silently as I tuck the blankets around her, and Celeste moves in close to her side.
“This way,” I tell the two police officers as I show them to Carrie's door.
They both take notes about what time she entered the building, and I tell them I’ve requested security footage. Then they ask a bunch of questions I don’t have answers to. Does she have any enemies? Is there someone you think might have done this? Does she have anything of value missing?
I’m irritated that I don’t know the exact answers, but I go through the motions knowing they can speak to her after this.
“I don’t suggest she stays here tonight,” one of the officers says, and I nod.
“Already taken care of.”
“Shy.” I turn around to see Apollo and his dad Rory coming through the door.
“Holy shit,” Apollo hisses, and I see the flash of anger in his eyes. No doubt he’s thinking of his fiancée Celeste and how this could have happened to her. She was alone in her apartment all afternoon.
Rory goes straight to the officers and speaks to them as I walk over to where Apollo is standing.
“I don’t understand.” Apollo shakes his head. “Nothing looks like it’s been taken. She didn’t even have expensive stuff here. Her television was probably the most valuable thing in the whole place, and it’s smashed.”
“I know,” I agree, clenching my teeth. “It looks like someone did this for the fun of it, or to send a message.”
“Or both,” Apollo says, and his grave look meets mine.
“Security cameras?”
He shakes his head. “We’re having trouble accessing the drive. I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but the last recording was at ten o’clock this morning.”
“That’s her first class,” I say absentmindedly.
“Do you think she was the sole target?” He looks around the room like it has the answers.
“Just based on the fact that no one else's apartment was broken into, I’d have to say yes. I saw Jamie just before Carrie got home. She was coming out of her apartment and seemed fine.”
“I saw Sam on the first floor when I was running in here. He was good too.”
“So it was just Carrie?” I don’t even want to know the answer to that question.
“Just Carrie,” Apollo agrees.
“I think there’s some shit going on here we don’t know about.” My fists clench at my sides with the thought that she’s in danger.
When I first met Carrie, I knew there was something sweet and innocent about her. I also knew she came from old money and a family name that rivals the Crews. Rory and Apollo are known not just on the island of Craven Cove but in most social circles. It’s something that intimated me at first, but now I just keep my distance.
We’ve gotten closer over the past couple of years, but I don’t think I’ll ever be comfortable in the spotlight. Knowing Carrie came from that same kind of life, I couldn’t help but remember my past and how the smell of being poor won’t ever truly wash off of me. It is what it is, but I grew up in a very different world than the rest of my family. One where you might go to bed hungry, have to sleep in the car to stay safe, or pretend the bruises are from sports and not your aunt's latest meal ticket. Celeste might be the closest to understanding my life, but even she had a mom who protected her. Unlike me.
Just then the officers come over and ask if they can come back to my place to interview Carrie. I nod as all of us make our way back to my apartment, because I have more than a few questions of my own.
Chapter Three
Carrie
“No ex-boyfriends?” the detective asks me again for the fourth time.
I shake my head no as my eyes move over to where Shy is sitting. He’s finally stopped pacing and taken a seat across from me. He watches me the whole time as I answer the officer’s questions. I wish I had the courage to ask if I can sit in his lap, but I chicken out.
“Girlfriend?” Detective Adams pushes. “Even someone a few years ago? People can hold grudges.”
“No one.” I tuck my hair behind my ear. Could I look more pathetic? I wonder what Shy thinks about my lack of dating life. “I don’t really date unless you count over the summer when my mom tricked Justin Moore and me into sitting next to each other at a dinner party.” I honestly don’t think it even counts as a date honesty.
I should have known my mom was up to something. Why else would she have pushed so hard for me to go to some stupid dinner party with her and Dad? They never really take me to any of their events; not that I cared to go. I’m getting closer to graduating college, and now she’s been setting her sights on who I’m going to marry.
Shy pops up out of his seat and starts pacing again. “How did the date go?” Shy asks before Adams can fire another question at me.