Page 61 of All I Feel

I extended my hand to him and introduced myself. “Ace Townsend.”

He shook my hand. “Officer Kelley. You need any help with finding a place for this?”

“No. Tessa’s brother and I own a body shop, so we’ll get this taken care of for her,” I replied. “What are the chances of finding out who did this to her?”

“Basedon what Miss Stone said, it’s going to be extremely difficult. Except for the color of the truck, she didn’t know the make or model. And she claimed she managed to swerve before hitting him, so we can’t even try to find a truck in the town with damage to the rear bumper.”

I felt so uneasy about this whole situation. Not that I wanted her to experience anything like this ever, I truly hoped it was just a random road rage incident. “Okay. Thank you, Officer Kelley.”

He pulled a piece of paper off his notepad and held it out to me. “If she needs anything else, this is the police report number she’ll be able to use.”

I took the slip of paper and shoved it into my pocket. “Thanks. Am I good to get the car loaded up?”

Officer Kelley gave me a nod. “Yeah. I’ll stay here with my lights on until you’ve got it on the flatbed.”

“Appreciate it.”

For the next few minutes, I focused my attention on getting Tessa’s car loaded onto the flatbed so I could get it to the shop and take her home. But even as I simply tried to keep my thoughts only on what needed to be done, something else was lingering there.

Something was nagging at me. What if this hadn’t been just a random road rage incident? I didn’t know him well enough to make any definitive statements about him, but I wondered if Tessa’s ex had this in him. All the attempts he’d made recently to connect with her hadn’t gone his way. Was it possible he’d try to harm her as a result?

I finally got the car loaded and strapped down. With a wave at Officer Kelley, I climbed into the truck and looked at Tessa. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes met mine. “I mean it when I say that I’ve neverbeen so scared in my life. I get that I cut the guy off, but I truly didn’t see him. His reaction feels over the top.”

“I don’t disagree with you. And I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you weren’t hurt. The car has a fair bit of damage, but you don’t need to worry about that. We’ll get it fixed up for you.”

She shot me a small, appreciative smile. “Thank you.”

“No thanks needed.” Reaching over, I gave her forearm a squeeze. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

A moment later, we were on our way back to the body shop. Tessa had been quiet for most of the drive, but when we were just minutes away, she asked, “Does Phoenix know?”

“I told him before I left that you’d called and had been in an accident, but I shared that you said you weren’t hurt. He asked me to call if things were worse than you let on.”

“Well, at least there’s that. I’m glad you didn’t find it to be worse than whatever you’d imagined.”

My eyes narrowed slightly, my gaze still focused on the road. “I don’t know if I’d say that.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, I didn’t expect to learn that someone had run you off the road,” I explained. “That’s a bit unsettling. Are you sure you didn’t recognize the truck?”

Tessa didn’t immediately respond, so when I pulled up to a red light, I glanced over and saw her looking at me. Her features were pinched, like she was trying to figure something out. “Do you think I should’ve recognized it?”

I shook my head. “No. I just want to be sure.”

“Why? If I recognized the truck, that’d mean thatsomeone I know did this to me. Why would someone do this to me intentionally?”

Her voice was growing more panicked, and I immediately regretted saying anything at all. My job was to make Tessa feel safe and reassured. I’d just done the opposite. The light turned green, so I reached for her hand, took it in mine, and started driving the remaining distance to the shop. “I’m not saying that’s what happened, Tessa. I just thought, since you had some time to sit in the truck and calm down while I loaded your car, that perhaps a new detail popped into your head. I didn’t mean to insinuate anything.”

I couldn’t miss the hesitance and uncertainty in her tone when she replied, “Oh, okay. Well, I don’t remember anything other than the blue truck, the sound of the engine every time he sped, and the terror I felt.”

Unwilling to say another thing that might create more doubt, I simply gave her hand another squeeze and continued to hold it until we made it back to the shop. No sooner did we pull up, Phoenix walked outside and took in Tessa’s car.

I got out, and by the time I’d rounded the front of the truck, he had already opened his sister’s door. “Are you okay?” he asked her.