Safe in Clua

THIRTY-THREE

Laia

I’m still all floaty and Felix-drunk when I step through the front door and lock it behind me. He’ll be back in an hour. That gives me time to put fresh sheets on the bed and hide my overflowing laundry basket. I kick my flip flops off and drop my bag on the console table by the door.

Only one thing better than climbing into a freshly laundered bed … climbing into a freshly laundered bed with Felix.

I’m not sure how I got to this place, but it doesn’t suck at all.

I touch my fingers to my pendant. I hope mom and dad can see this, that I didn’t let Damon win. Feel that I’m happy again wherever they are.

Not bothering with the hall light, I pad through to my bedroom, my feet silent on cool tiles.

Hand on the light switch, I glance out the window. A shadow in the back yard catches my eye and the air in my lungs evaporates. Just gets up and departs, all traces of my smug happiness disintegrated. Someone’s out there.

The humidity of the night is suddenly thick and cloying. I cover my mouth and force myself not to blink, still staring out of the window into the darkness.

Stay calm. Maybe I’m just imagining things. I try to get my whirring mind to focus. My lungs to start working again.

Phone, I need my phone.

It’s in my purse. My cell is in my purse by the door. Heart pounding, I force myself to focus on the darkness beyond the window.

This time I’m positive. It’s not my imagination. Swallowing down the panic trying to climb up my throat, I make myself move silently back through the hall to the front door.

My hands are shaking so hard I almost drop my cell when I finally manage to find it in my purse. I pull up Felix’s number, trying to listen over the roar of my pulse in my ears. Back pressed against the wall, I edge towards the kitchen in the dark, torn between being sure this is nothing more than paranoia and sheer terror that it’s not.

Nothing, this has to be nothing. I pause under the arch that separates the kitchen from the hall and peer through the French doors. Something moves past them and it’s definitely man-shaped.

My breath chokes me, my eyes stinging with the need to squeeze shut and pretend that this isn’t happening.

Stay calm. I press call and hold my cell to my ear with both hands.

It rings and rings.

Panic builds with each unanswered second that passes, clawing from my chest, threatening to rip right out of me.

He’s not going to answer.

“Laia?” Felix picks up just as I’m about to cut the call and phone the police.

“Felix,” I whisper, dropping to my ass on the floor, my back against the wall, my fingers shaking so badly I can barely keep the speaker to my ear. “Felix—I think someone’s outside the house.”

“You what?” His voice, loud in the eerie quiet skitters across my already frayed nerves.

“Shh—please—someone’s in the backyard.” My breath leaves me, a sharp sob finding its way through my shaky grip on staying calm. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Don’t do anything, Laia. I’m two minutes away.”

I close my eyes and focus on his voice, focus on the image of his face in my mind.

It works—kind of. For a brief second, I almost tell him to turn back around.

Then the handles to the French doors are rattled.

What little grip I have on stopping myself from losing my shit evaporates. This is it. He’s found me. He’s really found me.

I give in to the panic, hot tears rolling down my cheeks. I press my lips together in an attempt to stay quiet.

“Laia?” Felix’s tinny voice calls to me from my phone. “Baby, talk to me. Stay on the line.”

“Someone’s trying to get in the kitchen door.” Fear snakes down my spine, I can barely breathe past the knot in my throat.

“Fuck. Okay, Laia. I need you to stay calm. Can they see you?”

My tongue scrapes like sandpaper across the roof of my mouth, terror prickling over my skin. I shake my head. “It’s dark. I don’t think so.” This cannot be real. This isn’t happening. Please don’t let this be happening.

The front door handle rattles as if in answer to my delusional praying.

“Felix! He’s at the front door. Please. Hurry.”

“I’m right around the corner. Sit tight.” His voice cracks on the last word. “I won’t let him hurt you. Just stay put.”

I move my head in a jerky nod, unable to get my mouth to form words.

“Laia? Laia! Talk to me.” The panic in his deep voice only adds to the hysterics building in my throat.

“Laia, fuck. Say something.”

The rumble of the truck’s engine and the screech of its breaks loosens the twisting in my chest, and I give up trying to hold the phone to my ear and just hold it to my mouth instead. “I’m here. I’m okay.”

“Laia, I’m outside.”

I hear his car door, footsteps, the hard banging on my front door.

“Open the door. It’s me.”

Relief so acute it almost winds me, brings on a fresh wave of tears as I stumble through the darkness to open the door.

Felix

I’ve only been this scared once in my life. It burns up my spine and twists my insides in a grip so tight I can barely breathe past it.

I turn my back to Laia’s front door and squint into the shadows, a fury I’m pretty sure I’ve never felt curling my fists so tight my fingers are numb.

If that worthless piece of shit is here looking for her, he’d better pray I don’t get my hands on him.

After what seems like an eternity, Laia opens the door.

Her eyes are wide—glassy with fear, her bottom lip trembling like she’s only just keeping it together.

I drag her to me before she gets a word out, crushing her to my chest. She shakes, almost violently, but doesn’t pull back or resist my touch. She sinks into me, wrapping her arms around my waist, her fingers gripping the back of my T-shirt.

She’s barefoot and still wearing my shirt. I rub my hand across her back. Partly to comfort her, partly to assure myself she’s really there.

“It’s gonna be okay.” I tug her back to look into her face. Fuck, she’s pale. I swallow hard, taking in the pinch to her lips, her wide eyes, the tears wetting her cheeks.

My fingers flex on her biceps. Breathe. Losing my shit won’t help anything.

I pull in an exaggerated breath, my nostrils flaring, then release it slowly. “You okay?”

“He was here. He tried to get in.” Her head shakes, the muscles in her throat contracting and releasing. “It’s him. I know it’s him. He’s here.”

“I’m going to look around out back.” I try to pull away, twisting to look over my shoulder into the garden, the feeling of being watched prickling down the back of my neck.

“Don’t … please don’t leave me alone.”

Her broken whisper locks into place something in my chest.

I cup her cheeks and walk her backwards through the door. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I move in a weird sort of daze, calm, like I’m not ready to shred a man to bits, like a fury isn’t bubbling just beneath my skin.

Laia’s quiet. Nervous. Flinching every time I so much as look at her.

It’s like going back in fucking time—like any progress we’ve made has been blown out of the goddamn water.

I place a hot cup of sweetened tea on the counter beside where she’s perched. She’s changed into leggings and a shapeless gray tank. “Jackson will be here any minute.”

A muscle in my jaw ticks at the almost violent tremor of her hands when she picks up the mug, nodding and blinking and not meeting my stare.

I’ll kill him. I will fucking kill the son-of-a-bitch.

“We need to check that whoever it was isn’t still out there.” I turn and lean against the worktop beside her, ignoring her flinch as I wrap my arm around her shoulders and tug her into my side.

She doesn’t pull away, she just carefully puts her tea down and leans into me, reaching up to link her fingers through mine on her shoulder.

The tension buzzing at the base of my skull eases a little. Maybe not back to square one.

Her sigh is long and weary. “I’m going to have to tell them about Damon.” She lifts her gaze to mine, fresh tears wetting her cheeks.

“Laia, what that?” —I grind my teeth and force my anger down— “what he did to you wasn’t your fault. You’ve nothing to be ashamed of.”

Her eyes shine with a fear that tears at me, but she nods.

If anything had happened to her…

I hold her gaze and move so I’m standing in front of her. “I don’t know what I would have done if something had happened to you. Us—this.” I press my palm to her chest over her heart. “I want this for real. I want your long stories and your short stories. The good and the bad. All of it.”

She blinks slowly, sucks her bottom lip into her mouth and for once I’ve not a clue what she’s thinking even though she’s staring me straight in the face.

I rub up the back of my neck and prepare for that wall to slam down—for her to shut herself down from me again.

It doesn’t. She doesn’t.

Color slowly creeps up her face for the first time since I walked through the door. “Me too. I mean yes, I mean, what you said.” She rolls her eyes and presses her lips together, her nose wrinkling like it always does when she gets flustered.

I guide her knees apart to get closer. She doesn’t flinch, she just leans into me and buries her face in my neck.

Banging on the door puts a halt, for better or worse, to any more admissions.

I kiss her forehead and smooth my hands down her arms. “That’ll be him.”

Laia

Istand behind Felix and grip the waist of his shorts as he opens the door. I know it’s Jackson, but that does nothing to stop my heart from pounding in my eyeballs.

He nods at me over Felix’s shoulder in his black Clua police uniform, his shield glinting in the hallway light where its hanging around his neck. Calm and controlled. This is the first time I’ve laid eyes on the man, but after our girl’s night and Rae’s stories I feel like I already sort of know him.

“I’m sorry for the trouble.” I stare out into the blackness behind him, my heartbeat picking right back up again.

“No worries, Laia.” He lifts his chin. “Jackson, by the way.” His dark eyes are, steady, kind. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take a look around out here, see if we can’t figure out what’s going on.

He turns and the handgun holstered on his hip catches my attention.

Maybe I should get one too. I swallow thickly. Stupid idea, with my luck I’d probably end up shooting myself by accident.

Felix’s big body practically vibrates with tension as he closes the door then turns to face me, linking his fingers through mine. “I think it’s time you tell me exactly what this guy wants.”

I nod and let him tug me through to the living room. Sit numbly on the sofa, my fingers twisting in my lap.

“Me, Felix. He wants me.” Tears and fear and shame prick behind my eyes and I tighten my jaw to stop myself from crying. It doesn’t help anything. “He warned me he’d come for me if I ever left…” I blow out a breath then swallow thickly, lick my lips and lift my stare to meet his. “He won’t stop.”

Felix’s eyebrows are tipped up, his lips pressed into a severe line.

“I don’t know what I’d do if he did something to you, or Kenzi or—”

“He won’t get near enough to hurt us.” Felix’s hands cup the sides of my neck, and he rests his forehead against mine. “I will keep you safe, Laia. I promise you, I will keep you safe.”

A long ten minutes passes before Jackson makes it back from checking out the backyard.

Knees pulled up to my chest, hand clasped tightly in Felix’s, I watch him sit on the sofa opposite.

He looks between us, not a trace of a smile on his face, and the lingering hope that it was just kids messing around or a thief trying his luck vanishes.

“Someone’s been watching the place,” Jackson starts, a deep furrow between his eyebrows. “There are footprints in the sand outside your bedroom window, and smudges on the glass.” He flicks his gaze to Felix, then back to me as he leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Is there anybody that would have reason to be watching you? I’ll send someone over to pull some prints from the door handles, but if you’ve got an idea of who it is…”

I press both hands to my mouth and nod, the need to run from this whole messed up situation strong. I could just pack my bags and be gone on the first ferry off the island.

Disappear again. Start over new.

“Her ex,” Felix grinds out, winding his arm around my shoulders when seconds pass and I’ve still not said a word.

I square my shoulders.

Leaving isn’t an option. This is my home now.

Both men are staring now, waiting for me to explain.

“My ex, Damon was … is…” I swallow again trying to dislodge the lump in my throat. “He’s … he told me that if I ever left him, he would find me, and when he did, he’d…” I shake my head and look at the floor, my cheeks cold and clammy. “He found me in the place I moved to in Arizona and now he’s found me here.”

My voice sounds defeated, even to me.

Felix’s grip on me tightens, but I can’t seem to make myself react.

“I can’t say whether it was him, Laia.” Jackson steeples his fingers, his elbows resting on his knees, his voice still so calm I could believe that he’s never lost his temper in his life. “But there’s definitely been someone out there. I’m gonna need a photo and his details. If he’s here, we’ll find him.”

“It’s him. He’s here. I can feel it.”