Off Limits

by Vos, Alexandra

  “I just don’t like her that much. I definitely can’t ever love her. She’d have found out about this in the end, anyway. I can’t stay away from you no matter how hard I try,” Luke kissed the top of my head and my lips quirked.

  “I think you’re doing the right thing.” I’d thought it all along, but there was no point in reminding him of that. “You can still be there for a child without being with the parent. You’re a good guy, it’s not like your dad at all.”

  “I know. If I could bring myself to stay with her I would, but it’s not going to work. I’ll tell her as soon as we’re back in Sheffield.”

  I paused, wanting desperately to ask him the question, but not daring to hear the answer.

  “I want to give us a shot at working,” Luke confirmed, finally allowing me to turn around so that he could press a kiss to my cheek. “I’ll tell Phoebe everything now and then by the time the baby is born, she’ll have forgiven me enough to let me see it. At least, that’s what I’m hoping. She can’t legally block me out of its life anyway.”

  I captured his lips in mine properly, a short kiss that conveyed just how pleased I was by his response. “I really want this to work,” I admitted. At some point I was going to have to decide how much I could really deal with being with someone who had a child, but Luke was would be worth. Luke was worth everything. “Really bad.”

  Luke tightened me back in his arms and grinned, nuzzling his face into my wild, wavy hair. “Me too. Also I think my mum is starting to miss you, so she’ll definitely be behind my decision.”

  “Did you tell her about Phoebe yet?” I couldn’t imagine she’d react well to that at all.

  Luke practically flinched. “Not yet. I’m hoping to put that off for as long as possible. She’s going to be devastated, I know it.”

  “She’ll come around. We’ll all come around eventually.”

  Luke nodded once and prodded me in the side. “We should get going. We’re going to be insanely tired tomorrow if we don’t sleep soon.”

  “I think it might be past that point,” I yawned right on time. “But sure. I’m getting pretty tired and, even wrapped up this tightly, a bit chilly too.”

  Luke offered me a hand and we started the walk back together. We did hold hands this time, our fingers laced tightly together and big grins on both our faces. There was nothing more that could spring itself on us. We’d had the worst and we’d dealt with it.

  We were going to be okay.

  I hoped Phoebe could get over it one day. Being pregnant would send her hormones all over the place, but her parents could help her out when she told them and her other friends would be there for her. She’d be okay.

  She’d be better than if she and Luke stayed together and it came out he’d been sleeping with me later down the line, that was for sure.

  At my room, Luke checked in both directions and gave me a peck on the lips.

  I fell into a contended sleep almost straight away.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Phoebe’s show had been very good. The production value was superb and her actual dancing was great. Luke and I had sat in the front row during it and stood by her side afterwards as though everything was hunky-dory.

  The guilt had been eating away at us, but the knowledge it wouldn’t last much longer was enough to keep us going. Phoebe was beaming all the way through the weekend and it made me feel better about things. At least she’d got to be happy in her moment.

  The ride back was what I’d been looking forward to. Just Luke and I in the car, relaxing and chatting and building ourselves up to crushing Phoebe.

  As it stood, Phoebe had taken my seat in the front and I was trapped in the back being forced to endure conversation that sent my guilt nearly toppling over the edge. This evening Luke was going to tell Phoebe that he couldn’t be with her anymore.

  The next day, I was going to go and explain that I’d slept with her boyfriend. We’d debated the best way to do this and ruled out telling her together. It might have been one blow, but it would have been too harsh. It would have looked like we were plotting together. At least, that was our rationale.

  Now I came to think of it, though, she’d ring me up the moment Luke dumped her and that wouldn’t work well. I groaned mentally. Luke needed to tell her first, privately, because of the pregnancy thing. That was too intimate for me to be there for, but I had to tell her almost straight away that she couldn’t expect to be leaning on me because I was a bitch of a friend.

  Luke would let me know as soon as he’d done it and I’d swoop in and break her heart again.

  My head rested against the window despite it making me feel queasy and watched the scenery turn familiar.

  When my phone buzzed, I pulled it out and hoped it wasn’t my father. I wanted to talk to my mum before I spoke with him again. I needed to know everything before I agreed to meet him.

  It was a private number and I knew what that meant.

  I tried to meet Luke’s eyes in the mirror, but he wasn’t paying any attention to me. Swallowing, I opened the message.

  Pull over in front of the next garage. It’s just on your left in a few minutes.

  All colour drained from my skin and as much as I needed time to recover before springing this on Luke, I didn’t have time. “Luke,” my voice was hoarse and Phoebe turned round to stare at me in confusion. Luke’s green eyes met mine in the mirror. “You need to pull up at the next garage. It’s on the left in a few minutes.”

  His hands tightened on the wheel and he was forced to pay attention to the road. “I have to?”

  “Yes.”

  Phoebe’s gaze dashed between our pallid faces. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s nothing important,” I dismissed, my queasiness growing rapidly. “Just stay in the car, we’ll only be a moment.”

  “No. You can’t both lie to me like that. I need to know what’s going on,” she stared harder at Luke than me, assuming she had more sway over him.

  “Phoebe,” Luke took a deep breath. “I’ll explain absolutely everything to you afterwards if you promise to stay in the car whilst we deal with this. This man we’re going to meet is dangerous and I can’t let you get hurt. Okay?”

  Phoebe didn’t have time to argue because Luke had pulled the car into the garage our stalker had specified. It was Sunday, so everything was closed. It was just a large piece of tarmac in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by fields on every side.

  A blue Ford driven by a masked man joined us a few moments later and Phoebe looked ready to panic. “Stay here,” I urged her once more as Luke and I left the car.

  We stood with our sides so mushed together that it was almost uncomfortable. Luke’s warm presence made me feel better, though. Our stalker got out of the car too, and we were left in a standoff. “I am so glad you decided to follow my instructions,” the computerised voice from his phone told us.

  “What do you want?” Luke demanded, keeping his voice surprisingly controlled. I prayed he was just trying to make it awkward my forcing us to explain to Phoebe what was going on. Maybe he wasn’t going to do anything.

  “To finally have my moment, of course,” he was forced to type rapidly into his phone to keep the conversation going. I hoped he made a typo. “This is everything I wished for and more. You played right into my hands.”

  Our car door opened and Phoebe stepped out. Both Luke and I shot her a glare. “Get back in the car,” Luke snapped, diverting his attention from the stalker for only a moment.

  “No, no,” the computer stopped her. “I needed her out of the car anyway. Come and stand beside them. You finally get to be involved in all this. Well, in person, anyway. Yes, yes, closer.”

  Phoebe chose to stand next to Luke, not that I blamed her. He was definitely more able to protect her in this situation. When our stalker pulled a gun, Luke shoved me behind him and then followed suit with Phoebe. We were crushed together behind his back as Luke leant forwards aggressively. “What do you think you’re d
oing?”

  “Playing a game, of course,” the man didn’t approach us. Just stood still, his gun in one hand whilst he typed out his next sentence. “It’s got some very simple rules.”

  I didn’t care about Phoebe noticing anymore and grabbed the back of Luke’s shirt, praying it gave me some comfort. If one of us was going to die, I just prayed it wasn’t him. When I made a move to put myself in front of him, he fired me a warning look and kept his arm held out behind him so that I couldn’t move.

  “This one is all on you, Luke my boy. Quite simple, as I said. Pick one. Pick one to get shot. Pick one to save.”

  My heart dropped in my chest and Phoebe was staring at me with remorse. Luke may love me, but Phoebe was carrying his child. He had to save her. “No, shoot me instead,” he responded immediately.

  “No, no, that’s not the way it works. You have to pick.”

  He put the phone back into his pocket and stared us down with beady eyes from behind his balaclava. When I heard him take the safety off the gun, I swallowed. It was taking everything in me not to just run away from the situation. If I did that, he’d probably just fire the gun anyway.

  “Carmen,” Luke’s thick voice broke the silence and my eyes filled with tears.

  “It’s okay,” I could only smile. “I understand.” Phoebe had to live over me. She was the good one.

  “Get in the car,” he continued, his entire body trembling.

  “Luke-”

  “Get in the car.”

  When I met Phoebe’s gaze, she was already sobbing. She knew. That put all the pieces into perspective for her and it was going to be the last thing she found out before she died.

  I backed away and to the side of the car with tears flowing freely down my cheek. Even now I was being a selfish, pathetic coward. I couldn’t even make my mouth say the words “take me instead.” I didn’t want to die.

  The man laughed. It was a real laugh that told us it was exactly what he’d planned on happening. I recognised it, vaguely, but it wasn’t enough to place the bastard who’d caused us so much trouble. “Perfect,” the phone said. “Now, move out of the way.”

  Luke stood his ground in front of Phoebe and I rubbed my clammy hands against my jeans. The stalker sighed and continued forwards. He wasn’t tall, but he outmanoeuvred Luke easily and hit him across the side of the head with the butt of his gun. Luke staggered out of the way and I called his name, still not daring to move away from the side of the car.

  The stalker went straight for Phoebe and a sob left both our throats simultaneously.

  He hit her straight in the stomach. She collapsed, howling as the stalker stood back with a mad glint in his eyes. “It’s a fake,” the phone told us as he fired the gun. It clicked, but otherwise nothing happened.

  Luke lunched for the man, but he was still off balance and our stalker had expected it. I was already on the phone for an ambulance, praying I’d remembered the street we were on correctly. Phoebe was shrieking, collapsed onto her knees and clutching her stomach.

  The stalker drove off before Luke could get to him and he was left standing, watching the car speed away.

  “My friend is pregnant and she’s just been punched in the stomach. I need an ambulance.”

  Luke stared at Phoebe, at her stomach, and attempted to approach her. She screeched louder, backing away so quickly she fell onto her side. “Don’t you dare come near me. Either of you.”

  She recovered her position and Luke and I couldn’t bring ourselves to stand next to each other. We stayed on opposite sides of her and just stood, gazes on the ground.

  The ambulance didn’t take long and I knew how the scene must have looked. Phoebe, crying on the floor and holding her stomach and Luke and I, just watching like ghosts. The paramedics rushed out. “What happened?”

  Luke and I looked at each other once more, deciding who would explain. I bit the bullet and did the talking. My voice didn’t sound like my own. “We’ve… we’ve been being stalked and he was blackmailing us and he told us to pull over and then he punched her in the stomach. She’s pregnant.” The paramedic no doubt didn’t need the build-up. “She also… just got some bad news, so she’s a bit… unstable.” My voice cracked and Luke took one step towards me before stopping.

  The paramedic talked to Phoebe in a soothing voice, but she was completely unresponsive. Eventually she was coaxed into the back of the ambulance. “Only one of you can travel with us-”

  “No,” Phoebe’s voice was dead. “I don’t want either of them anywhere near me.”

  So the ambulance sped off with its sirens blaring.

  That was when I let myself break. I wrapped my arms around myself and sobbed so hard my chest hurt. Luke was next to me in a few strides, his grip tight around me as he somehow managed to stay quiet. I couldn’t even bring myself to hug him back.

  I’d caused my best friend’s miscarriage.

  “It’s not your fault,” Luke murmured the mantra against my hair as if it would ever be true. “No one could have predicted this. It’s his fault, not yours.”

  I shook my head. “There are so many things I could have done to stop it. To stop all of this. It’s all my fault.”

  “Look,” Luke pulled back and held my face between his hands. “We need to go to the police. We need to ring Phoebe’s parents. They should be there for her, not us. Seeing us again isn’t what she’ll want.”

  “I just-”

  “Carmen,” he held my gaze until my sobs subsided. “It wasn’t your fault. We need to go to the police and tell them everything that happened.”

  I nodded, swiping at my eyes. “Okay.”

  He pressed a kiss to my forehead and we both shut our eyes for a moment. “Let’s go.”

  “Is your head okay?” I realised suddenly, looking up at the side of his head and not seeing any blood. “Maybe you should go to the hospital or something.”

  “It’s fine, really. He didn’t actually hit me that hard. I don’t think he was intending to hurt me.”

  I was beyond relieved Luke had an automatic, it meant he could hold my hand the entire way to the police station. I brought up all the texts he’d sent me and hovered on the one about my dad. “Do I tell them about my dad?”

  “It’s up to you,” Luke was probably leaning on the side of telling them.

  “I’ll tell them. If I hold something back it’ll be found anyway and he’s not living there now. It’s not my problem. I just want this guy behind bars.”

  “I think that’s the best idea,” he admitted. “But you don’t have to.”

  “No, it’s for the best.”

  We pulled into the police station a few minutes later and walked in hand in hand. There was no point in hiding it anymore and I just needed the comfort Luke provided.

  We awkwardly got to the point that we needed to report a crime at the front desk and were assigned a uniformed officer to tell all the details to. We got through it together and somehow I managed to hold back the majority of the tears. That was probably because I never got to the part that had just happened. Someone interrupted us.

  “I’m sorry to interfere, but I’ve been assigned your case,” the middle-aged woman stuck out her hand for us to shake. “I’ve just got back from the hospital. I think we need to talk somewhere a bit more comfortable than this.” The interview room was a metal cell that really hadn’t made me feel very safe.

  Luke and I followed her to her office, our hands linked together until we sat down. We exchanged a look and waited for the officer to speak. “I think I should tell you what I’ve been told before we get into your side of things. The first thing you should know is about Phoebe,” she paused awkwardly. “I’m telling you this because of your involvement, though she begged me not to. This is a delicate situation.”

  My eyebrows knitted together and I waited impatiently for the detective to just say it.

  “Phoebe was never pregnant. She was lying to you both.”

  I blinked, but Luke ran a h
and through his hair and swore. “That bitch.”

  “I know it sounds bad,” the detective looked uncomfortable talking about the entire situation. “But the hospital has assigned her a therapist and she’s on the road to recovery. It was just important for you to know that she didn’t miscarry. She’s requested that you don’t contact her.”

  I nodded, numb. Could I be mad at Phoebe? She’d obviously been suffering some kind of mental health concern that I’d never noticed. I’d been a bad friend once again in not noticing.

  Luke frowned. “It’s not your fault,” he assured me for the thousandth time today. “Nobody else realised either.”