“Uh, oh. Must be important if you’re choosing to talk to me instead of doing what you do best… flirt.”
“I’ll admit, the blonde was very cute, but we can revisit that another time. I really did need to talk to you, and it’s important.” He puts his hand on my back to guide me, “Let’s have a seat on one of the benches in the park.”
“Okay look. You’re starting to freak me out.” He doesn’t respond to my statement. Lucas simply keeps walking and takes my hand. Now I know something is wrong. “Here we go.” He slips my backpack from my shoulder, setting it on the ground at my feet. “Nora, we need to talk about him.”
Him. That word could only mean one person, and it makes me simmer with anger and fear.
“Why the hell would we need to do that? I don’t want to think about it. It’s over. I’m here, he’s far away. I don’t want him to touch what I have now. I’m in a good place, for the most part. Just leave it alone.” I try to get up and leave this conversation completely because I can’t believe he’d try to bring him up right now, but he takes hold of my hand and stops me.
“I’d love to. Don’t you think I want to? I saw you those first few days after. I know what happened. We both do. Look, we didn’t tell you at the time because we didn’t know how you’d take it.”
“Who is we, Lucas?”
“Mom, Dad, and myself.” He turns so he’s partially facing me and takes a deep breath. “Okay so…Mom and Dad hired someone to have him watched in London. They’ve had the same guy on the case since we brought you back to the States.”
“What?!” Realizing my shrill voice echoed a hundred feet away by the looks we got, I try to dial it in with little success. “What? Tell me I’m not hearing this. Lucas, I just wanted our connection to him to be over in every way. I have a restraining order that stands everywhere.”
“There was no way in hell until or unless he was locked up that we were going to leave it to the cops. No fucking way.”
“Why are you telling me this now? I would never have known.”
Luke starts to look away from me and to the ground. His hands slide back and forth in a slow rhythm. I stop the motion to get him to look at me. When I do, there is an unexplainable emotion in his eyes. “So he had another lawsuit brought against him after you left England. Part of the agreement was he had to stay in the vicinity of the case. A few weeks ago, that case got kicked on a technicality. He immediately went off grid. He slipped by our guy. He’s been MIA for about two months. He could be anywhere Nora. I’m sorry.”
“I knew about….about the lawsuit. I….I knew…it was supposed to keep him there.” My hands begin to shake about as hard as my heart is pounding. “What the fuck? What. The…” I’m suddenly finding it really hard to breathe. My eyes shoot from left to right around us, looking for anyone who could look like him or actually be him.
I’m focusing so hard on all the thoughts running through my head that I don’t feel Lucas putting his arm around me. I jump so high that my feet tangle with my bag and I nearly fall off the bench.
“Whoa. It’s okay. It’s okay. Just breathe.” He settles me close to his side as his hand runs rhythmically up and down my spine. “He’s not here. I promise you. He’s not.”
“You don’t know that.” I lay my hands across my stomach. “I feel sick. Just so sick.”
“I’m going to start driving you to and from campus. I don’t want you alone, ever. Do you understand?”
Those words. I know they’re coming from a good place in Lucas, but all it does is take me back there. Back to feeling like I’m in chains. Back with the feel of his fingers literally around my neck. I’m finding it harder and harder to swallow. “You can’t be with me every minute. Tristan….I’ll start spending more time in his office. I’ll be safe there. Yes. Safe.”
“I don’t trust him any more than I trust HIM.”
I push Luke hard and fast away from me. “Don’t say that about him. You don’t even know him. You’re all alike. Trying to control everything I do, where I am, who I’m with. Stop it. Just stop it.”
“You know we are just trying to protect you, Nora. I can’t stomach the thought of you being hurt again. You’re my best friend, sister.”
I reach my hand out for him and when he takes it, I let him pull me into a hug, relaxing when his arms go around me.
He’s been my best friend for so long, and I hate that he has to be involved in and deal with these things all because of me.
“I love you, Lucas. Thank you for telling me.”
He kisses the top of my head. “I love you too, and I promise… we won’t let him near you. Never again.”
***
Then
I rummage through my bag, checking every pocket and every zippered compartment, but my phone is nowhere to be found.
I check my bathroom, my coat, and every counter that I can think of, but there is still no sign of it.
“Evan?” I call out, clipping an earring into my ear as I walk down the hall to his office, “have you seen my phone?” I pause in his doorway and I can feel my heart sink to my feet.
“This one?” He holds up the phone he’s currently scrolling through.
“Yes, that one.” I step inside and hold my hand out. “Can I have it, please?”
“Why?”
“Because it’s mine, and I’d like to have it back, please.” Nervous energy is pulsing off of me in waves. He’s going through my phone, and even though I know I’m not cheating on him or hiding anything bad, he’ll twist the smallest thing into something outlandish… and then I’ll pay for it.
“I thought I told you that you weren’t allowed to talk to Lucas anymore.”
I swallow the knot in my throat and drop my hand by my waist. Tonight, I was supposed to accompany him to some party, smile like the trophy on his arm, then come home and close my eyes and pretend to be somewhere else while he rutted on top of me like an animal… then I’d cry myself to sleep.
But that all changed in this moment with the mention of my best friend’s name.
“He’s my friend. My best friend. You can’t ask me to never speak to him again.”
“I can!” he shouts, rising to his feet so quickly that it feels otherworldly. “And I WILL!”
I stumble backward but my ankle rolls in my tall high heels, sending pain shooting up into my side. “Evan, don’t… we should go to the party. We can talk about this later.”
“Are you fucking him?”
“What?! No! What are you talking about, Evan? Why are you asking me this?”
“He’s been calling you, texting you, sending you pictures, and you’ve been doing the same. I told you that was to end months ago!” He throws my phone toward me with full force and it shatters on the wall just beside my head.
My scream is cut short by his hand over my mouth. I didn’t even see him rush toward me… he was just there like he always is.
“You told him that you want to leave me,” he growls against my cheek, sliding his nose against my skin.