Apparently satisfied that she’d behave, Caroline disappeared into the bedroom. Water ran a beat later and it took every ounce of willpower April had not to jump up and start scrubbing. Instead, she went for the remote and tried channel surfing. Five minutes of that and she quit, remembering exactly why she’d given up the habit.
Caroline’s phone buzzed from the dining table and April’s boredom and curiosity got the better of her. She checked over her shoulder, then rushed to the device to get a peek before it went silent. After all, she had said to make herself at home.
The result was woefully anticlimactic. She’d hoped to see a name, something that would tell her a little about the mystery that was Caroline Crawford. Instead it was an unknown number. One of April’s greatest pet peeves. The act of calling someone’s personal cell to hound them to spend their money was downright offensive.
She turned to go back to the living room, but the phone rang again. The same number. Water was still running in the back bedroom and April wondered how angry Caroline would get if she answered and gave her Federal Trade Commission speech. If the girl didn’t want her cleaning, no doubt she wouldn’t want her answering her phone.
April opened and closed her hands, but once again let the phone go silent.
She strolled over to the bookshelves she’d noticed the last time she came. Several quotes were framed, many that looked like Bible scriptures. Her gaze lingered on the words:
Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be a treasured possession.
An ache formed in her chest, that same unfilled desire she’d had since she was a child bubbling up. What would it feel like to truly be treasured?
April shook off the introspection and moved on, not liking the way those words seemed to brand her mind. Focusing on Caroline was far easier than self-analysis. She took in the rest of the frames—pictures of Caroline when she was younger and all with her family.
“What are you running from?” April mused out loud.
The shower turned off the same time the phone began buzzing again. This time her self-control didn’t win. She slid her finger across the screen to answer and held the phone to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Caroline?”
To her surprise the voice was male and seemed equally shocked that someone had answered. “No. It’s a friend of hers. Is there a reason you’ve been calling incessantly for the past three minutes?”
The line remained silent, and April’s irritation rose with each second that ticked by on the clock. “Listen buddy. Soliciting a personal cell phone is a violation of the Feder—”
“I’m not a solicitor. I’m a friend.” His voice turned eager. “Is Caro nearby? I’d really like to speak with her.”
A nickname. One said with a little too much intimacy to be an acquaintance. And yet Caroline hadn’t added him to her contact list. Why?
“She’s out, but I’ll be happy to give her a message.”
Another long pause, and April kept her eyes peeled on the closed bedroom door. Adrenaline and something resembling concern ran through her veins.
“Tell her I miss her.” The sourness in his tone made April’s hair stand on end.
“And who can I say is calling?”
“She’ll know.”
Not a friend. An ex-boyfriend who called three times from an unknown number. A guy Caroline had never once mentioned.
“I’ll give her the message.”
“Wait. One more thing.”
The lock on Caroline’s bedroom clicked, and April’s pulse jumped with the sound. “What is it?”
“Tell her I said Austin is beautiful in the summer. If we keep missing each other, I may need to come for a visit.” He hung up immediately afterward, the screen going to its locked position a few seconds later.
April set the phone back on the table just as Caroline emerged from the bedroom. She had on a similar pair of running shorts and a t-shirt that said, Don’t Mess with Texas. Her hair was brushed and wet past her shoulders and for a moment she seemed as young as she was in her photos.
“Wow. I needed that.” She eyed April’s rigid stance and tight lips, her smile faltering. “What’s wrong?”
“You got a phone call.”
Caroline’s face paled. “Okay. I’m sure if it was important they would’ve left a message.” She moved toward her phone on the table and pressed her thumb to the device. Her head popped up. “Why are only two of them shown as missed calls?”
“Because I answered it the third time. I thought it was a telemarketer.”
“You thought?” There was a tremor in her voice that April didn’t miss. “So it wasn’t.”
“No. It was a guy. He said to tell you he missed you.”
She closed her eyes and took three deep breaths before opening them again. “Did you engage with him?” Her voice was too calm. As calm as one of April’s colleagues when trying to bluff a negotiation.
“I just offered to pass along a message,” she said, now even more sure that the phone call she’d intercepted was unwanted.
“What else did he say?” The fact Caroline knew there was more spoke volumes. This apparently wasn’t the first phone call the mystery guy had made.
“He said Austin is pretty this time of year and if you two keep missing each other, he may need to come for a visit.”
She pressed both hands against her face and rubbed and rubbed until she finally brought them over the back of her head, clutched her neck and then let them drop to her side. “Is that all?”
“Yeah, that’s all.” April stepped forward, anger growing inside. Caroline’s apathetic demeanor reeked of experience. “I know I invaded your privacy and crossed the line, and you are totally justified in kicking me out. But before my inevitable exile, I need to know if this man is a threat to you.”
Caroline hung her head, defeated, and all the mysteries surrounding her began to click in April’s mind. The unprecedented job offer by her father’s old friend, the obsession with security at the condo, why Ty was so overprotective of her. He must have known.
“The pursued has to become the pursuer,” April said absently. Those were the words Caroline had used last month when she’d helped them trap Ty’s con artist brother. Caroline had known how the criminal’s brain worked because she’d lived through it. In a rare move of affection, April pressed her palm to the back of her friend’s shirt. “You were talking about him back then, weren’t you? Is he stalking you? Because there are laws. Protections we can put in place.”
Caroline eased away and shook her head. “You’d think that, right? But trust me, they don’t always work.” She pointed to the phone. “You engaged with him; now I can’t count that phone call as harassment.”
“Ex-boyfriends fall under family violence laws. There are protective orders. Stalking laws.”
She let out a resigned chuckle. “Yes, there are. And he knows them well. So well that he knows exactly where the line is and takes steps to protect himself.”
“There has to be—”
“April. I appreciate your concern, and I have no doubt you have the best intentions. But what I need you to do is to trust that in this case, I know more about the laws and their loopholes than you do.” She picked up her phone and powered it off. “Don’t worry. Tomorrow I’ll have a new number and we’ll forget tonight ever happened.”
April respected Caroline’s request to stop discussing the call and instead spent the next twenty minutes on Caroline’s couch, researching family violence laws and case files, all while pretending to watch TV. Unfortunately, nothing she found was helpful.
They could pursue a restraining order, but it would be a civil action, not criminal so Caroline would have to go to court to get it enforced and even then, the guy would only be slapped with a fine. Plus, they were rarely used outside of divorce hearings, so getting one would be tricky. A protective order had a lot more punch, but Caroline would have to be willing to seek one from the
court, and since it was a criminal action, she would have to show some reasonable grounds of proof. Harassing phone calls would work, but there needed to be ten or more in a day, and proof of an intent to harm.
April tossed her phone on the couch, irritated by the abundance of information that really didn’t solve any of the problems.
“Satisfied?” Caroline asked without taking her eyes from the TV.
“What do you mean?”
She turned her head and raised her brows like April was a toddler with her hand in the cookies. “I know you don’t think I’m stupid, so let’s not pretend you haven’t spent the last twenty minutes checking facts.”
“We could get you a protective order for stalking. We’d just have to prove reasonable grounds.”
“I’ve tried that. Intent is a very hard thing to prove, especially when the other person is an upstanding member of the community and has a lawyer on retainer.”
“How can you be so complacent about this?” Friendship was a strange phenomenon. It sort of came without warning, even when highly resisted. But somehow in the midst of April’s personal crisis, Caroline had proven to be someone worth knowing. Someone who now mattered a great deal to her.
“Because unlike you, I’ve been dealing with his antics for years now.”
April tucked her feet under her. “Did Mr. Kinder know the circumstances when he hired you?”
“Yes. And Ty has a very mild understanding of my past. But neither of them know he’s contacted me again, and I’d like to keep it that way. There’s no reason to alarm my family when there’s nothing they can do to help.”
“When did the phone calls start?”
“Last month.”
“He won’t go away. You realize that. The statistics on ignoring stalkers are never in the victim’s favor.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
April leaned forward and asked the question she’d been dreading. “Has he hurt you?”
Caroline paused, looked down at her feet and shook her head. “No. He’s an annoyance, not a threat.”
She could always sense when someone was lying, and if Caroline were on the stand she’d be committing perjury. All the same, trust took time, and until her new friend was ready to be open and honest with her, there was little else she could do.
“I’ll follow up with Chester about the security, just in case.” The offer was far less than what she wanted to give.
“Thank you, and April, could you do one more thing…” She paused and there was a heaviness in it that physically hurt April to hear. “Could you please not say or try and do anything about my situation?”
“Caroline.” That question was totally unfair. How could she not do something after what she’d learned?
“You once told me that you resented being treated like a broken doll and that you didn’t need emotional babysitting.”
“Our situations are completely different.”
“But their response to it won’t be.” She rose to her knees, her voice a heartbreaking plea. “They’ll pity me and carefully choose their words, and all of a sudden, I’ll be right back to that weak, wounded person. And that isn’t who I am anymore. I came here to start over. Please don’t take that away from me.”
The struggle tore at her heart. Caroline was asking for loyalty, something April absolutely valued. But she was also asking her to turn away when the girl was hanging from a cliff.
Had Sean felt this helpless? Did he also listen to Uncle Bradley’s claims that he could handle the situation when his gut screamed otherwise?
For the first time since her uncle’s arrest, April was beginning to understand Sean’s dilemma. But she’d also been on the other side—the side that had been wounded by someone else’s unwanted action—and found herself caving.
“Yes, okay, I won’t say or do anything.”
Her relief came out in a huge exhale. “Thank you. And I promise, I’ll be fine.” Caroline clicked off the screen. “It’s late. I’m going to go to bed. Do you want the couch?”
April shook her head. “No. I’ll head home. Thanks for letting me hide.”
“No problem. As you can see, I’m a pro at it.” She smirked. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.”
April’s retreat was far different than her entry. In just an hour, her perspective had completely changed.
Chapter 23
Waiting—not his greatest virtue. In fact, it wasn’t even on the list.
Their condo used to be a place of respite. A place he’d come to after a long, stressful day, a place where he’d kick off his shoes and escape from the pressure cooker of the secret he carried around for three long months. Now the living room felt collapsible, suffocating, lonely, but he wasn’t leaving. Not until she came home.
Sean tossed and turned on the sofa, unable to find a comfortable position. He’d never liked this piece of furniture. His feet hung off the end, and the cushions separated under his body weight. In fact, this cursed block of microfiber was the sole reason he’d bought his oversized, cup-holding, soft leather recliner two years ago. The same recliner he’d destroyed in a fit of desperate grief when it mocked him from his new apartment. Not his brightest moment.
He sat up slightly, grabbed his phone and checked the time—she’d been gone almost an hour. Where? He’d checked the parking lot; her car was there. The gym, the elevators; he’d even checked with security. Not a trace of her. The traitorous side of his mind had explanations—the guy she was supposedly dating lived in their building. She was there now, with him.
He’d kill that side of his brain later, when he had more energy.
Right now, his body ached, and the same nausea he’d felt after she left hadn’t subsided. He needed something… any kind of answer that would ease the pain.
His fingers slipped over his contacts, ringing her brother before he could change his mind. It wasn’t fair to Andrew, he knew that. The man had already put himself in the middle, taking the brunt of April’s anger.
The ringing halted and Andrew’s voice echoed through the receiver. “Hey, I’ve been wondering when I was going to get an update.”
“Actually, I was calling you for one.” Sean couldn’t hide the exhaustion in his voice or the defeat. “She threw me a curve ball tonight.”
“What happened?” Andrew’s cheeriness faded and his voice switched immediately to that same Duncan fighter mentality that had laid Sean out earlier.
“She said she’s seeing someone.”
“Not a chance. April doesn’t waste her time with trivial relationships.”
“What if it’s not trivial?” Sean ran a hand over his forehead, felt a warmth that wasn’t normal. “What if it’s really too late?”
“Sean, she has not been with anyone since you two broke up. So unless this guy emerged from the clouds on a chariot of fire, he’s either fabricated or unimportant.”
“I hope you’re right.” Sean lay back down and attempted to breathe through the agony in his chest.
“I know my sister and all this tells me is you’re getting to her.” Andrew paused and waited for Sean to answer, but he had no more energy to engage. “You sound terrible, by the way.”
“I haven’t been sleeping well.” In truth, he stopped sleeping through the night the first time he found the fake invoices. Since the breakup, the middle of night wake ups lasted longer, felt more debilitating. “Alright man, I’m gonna go. If you hear anything, let me know.”
“I will. Get some sleep.”
“Thanks.” Eyes closed, Sean laid the phone onto the table and forced memories into the panicked voids. The good ones this time. The ones that drove him forward when his entire being wanted to give up.
The stadium lights were off. The field, dark, cast only in filtered light from the adjacent tunnel. Sean sat on the cold, empty players’ bench, eyes locked on the twenty-yard line where he’d dropped the winning pass. A final nail in the coffin on a hideous season. His last one, too. He’d graduate in May, his footbal
l career ending on failure.
“Regret is a dead end highway. It has no capacity to move you forward.” April’s voice was as recognizable to him as the high-heeled boots sinking into the turf by his feet.
“Yeah? Tell that to my teammates.”
“One play does not lose a football game. It was four quarters of mistakes, missed passes, and dropped balls that put you here. When their bruised egos clear, they’ll see that too.” She sat down, clad in jeans, a thick coat and ear warmers. He would have chuckled if his heart hadn’t been breaking. It was only forty degrees outside.
“How did you even get in here?” The only people left in the stadium were security and the clean up crew, neither of which were very accommodating.
“I’m not the easiest person to say ‘no’ to.”
This time he did chuckle, but it didn’t last long. Silence took over the two of them and thankfully she didn’t feel the need to fill it. Instead, he felt a slim arm wrap around his waist while she laid her head on his hunched shoulder.
Seconds ticked by, yet the air felt a little lighter with her by his side. Somehow her being there allowed him to accept the death of a dream and let go of the sport that had defined his life up to that point.
He squeezed her gloved fingers. “It’s over.”
“Only this part of it. The rest… it’s still wide open.”
He leaned on her, desperate for that iron strength she possessed, and finally let the tears he’d been holding back fall. She didn’t ridicule his weakness or his love for a game she’d never really appreciated. Instead she held him until he found the fortitude to let it all go.
That was the moment he knew he was in love with her. The moment his focus shifted from winning games to winning the hand of his best friend. Six months later, he’d given her the ultimatum that changed their future. He’d known then as strongly as he knew now that he could overcome any obstacle, any twist or disappointment if he just fought hard enough.
It had taken him ten months to remember, to get back up, wipe off the blood and sweat, and resume the fight. A third party wasn’t going to change anything and he certainly had no intention of backing off.
The Truth Between Us (Bentwood Book 2) Page 17