Earlier, I’d had an answerphone message from the estate agent selling my flat. He’d found a cash buyer who’d jumped at the bargain and was able to move fast. Though the transfer of funds could still take a month, it gave me some breathing space.
Not that I’d yet returned the call that had me scrabbling for money in the first place.
Fuck it. I was no coward, even if no part of me wanted to dial that number.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, swallowing down regret that Lovelyn hadn’t messaged me. How the fuck was I so desperate that I needed her name on my screen?
I thumbed through to my call log. Hovered over Blair’s number.
My heart thundered. I couldn’t do it. It wasn’t the fact that it was nine-thirty in the evening and too late for regular people to be taking phone calls. No, it was a bone-deep ache that killed another piece of me every time I had to handle my past.
I switched to a text message instead, writing a five-word note that the money would be there in a few weeks. The message fired off into the ether, and my breathing came hard like I’d run a marathon.
I was about to stow my phone again when an alert landed on my screen. It was from the cameras at Lovelyn’s house. My pained heart skipped a beat, and I opened the live feed, going to the front door first.
It was her. Home and alone. Lovelyn took two attempts at getting the key into the lock, her fingers shaking and her face astrange mask of emotion I’d never seen on her. She dropped her bag and stumbled into the hall, a slam telling me that she’d shut herself in.
I called her number.
She didn’t pick up.
I called again, leaving it to ring until her answerphone kicked in.
“Lovelyn? Answer me. Why are ye in the house by yourself? It isn’t safe. Stay in the warehouse. Go back to my room.”
With my back to the sea, I flicked through the camera views. All the ones set up outside showed a clear exterior, but the two internal ones, she hadn’t turned on. She hadn’t been there overnight so hadn’t had the need. But what if the person threatening her knew she was there? I couldn’t protect her. I was hours away.
Losing my mind, I called my sister.
“Kane! Have I got things to tell you.”
“Listen. Lovelyn has gone back to her house. She’s been threatened. Someone needs to be outside to watch the place.”
A pause followed. “I was with her, but there was all this fuss and she vanished. She’s home?”
“What happened? Did someone upset her?”
“Oh my God. You’re so sweet on her. I never thought I’d see this day.”
“Mila!”
“Okay, okay. This ex of yours came in looking for a job. She was mean to Lovelyn. She said her name was Karla.”
The fuck? “And Lovelyn left because of that?”
“I’m not sure. Wallace was here, and I got distracted. When I next checked, she’d gone. Should I go over and check on her?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to hold my shit together. “Please.”
“Leave it with us.”
We hung up, and I fired off Lovelyn’s address to Mila in case she didn’t have it, then wrote my flower girl a message.
Kane: I called because you’re home alone. It scared the fuck out of me to see you on the cameras. I’ve sent Mila over. If you don’t want that, tell me now and I’ll call her off.
She didn’t answer. It didn’t even update as read.
I stomped up and down my patch of beach, the fog swirling around my knees and rising, already thicker over the ocean and turning the horizon into a smudge. I itched to jog back to my car and fucking drive, but I’d never walked out on a job in my life.
