AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He nods, hands me a fresh water, and we stay silent on the short drive to his house. Luke lives in the same South Side neighborhood he grew up in. A block deemed as the wrong side of town. Even though he has the means to move somewhere safer, he chooses not to.
* * *
Luke softly knockson the guest room door. “Ready to head to the station? Detective Lewis is working on the case.”
Andy is in good hands. Cory Lewis is the best homicide detective in the state and my friend of three years. I have faith he’ll help me in every way he can.
“Don’t think I’ll ever be ready for this,” I mutter.
I go to the kitchen and pour a shot of Jack when the doorbell rings.
Luke comes walking into the kitchen. “Someone is at the door for you.”
Fuck!
The shot burns down my throat when I take it, and I march into the living room. “Swear to God, if it’s the fucking mayor, I’ll flip.”
“Not the mayor, just the woman in love with you,” Lauren says.
Thirty-Four
Lauren
Kyle had pulledthrough with helpful information by the time I landed. There was no certainty of Gage being at the home of his best friend and coworker in Chicago, but it was all I had to run with on short notice. No one has been able to reach him.
He looks tortured when I step to him. His dark eyes are glassy, his face drained of all color, and his chin is trembling. I wrap my arms around him as a shield of comfort. He shoves his face into my shoulder and pours every emotion onto my skin. I rub his back, using my hand to make small circles while sniffling away my tears.
Even though I never had the fortune to meet Andy, he’s in my heart because Gage is in my heart. And, just like that little boy I couldn’t save at the hospital, my heart aches that another innocent child was selfishly hurt by someone who was supposed to care for him.
Why?
How?
How could anyone hurt a child, kill a child?
Andy along with so many others were innocent souls taken too soon.
Gage’s eyes are bloodshot when he finally pulls away, and silence envelops us while we make eye contact.
Please see the apology in my eyes.
He needs to know that I have his back as he prepares himself to endure days of hell. I have so many questions that I’m scared to ask.
Was it Andy they found? How? Where?
“So, you must be the infamous Lauren?”
My hand flies to my chest when the man steps away from the wall at the corner of the room. I forgot we were in someone else’s home. He’s tall and tan-skinned with a sleeve of tattoos.
I hug myself into Gage’s side and nod. A soothing comfort wraps around me as he pulls me closer to him.
“I’ve heard so much about you.” He holds out his hand. “Luke.”
I shake it. “Lauren. Those are all good things you’ve heard, right?”
He uses the back of his arm to dust away the sweat on his forehead. “I’d be a liar if I said yes. They’ve all been bad.”
No shocker there. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Gage convinced the entire city to hate my ass.
